Connecting to a Mac over the Internet - how with a PC?

What Mac software to use?

[nutsandbolts]

I am a PC person that needs to connect to a Apple Mac running OS X via the Internet. I want to access a folder on the Mac users hard drive to move files across, create files etc by FTP.

What is the easiest way to set-up the Mac to allow this? On the PC I can create a basic home server with its own FTP username and password.

How is this done on the Mac and what programs do I need?

Thanks to anyone who can help me!

[timster]

It's pretty simple. This should get you started:

[kb.iu.edu ]

[nutsandbolts]

Thank you! I will try that :)

[whoisgregg]

Apple Menu > System Preferences... > Sharing > [__] FTP Access

Next, you'll need to setup your router to forward port 21 requests to that machine and you'll need to know your router's IP address. Are you familiar with port forwarding? :)

Added: timster beat me to it. :)

[nutsandbolts]

Thanks anyway whoisgregg...

As I cannot access the Mac from here and need to talk it through the user on the Mac - I presume they can set the username/password easily... what about the IP address I need to FTP to? Is that easily found?

[whoisgregg]

Ahh, I was confused. That checkbox is how you make your files available to you from a different machine, not how you share files to others. When FTP Access is turned on it takes the users name and password and mounts the users Home folder as the share point.

That username and password should not be given to others and they probably don't want to give you access to their pictures, music, and whatever else they have in their Home folder.

Thankfully, there's a project that should help in the situation of a user wanting to run their own FTP server for others: [jeanmatthieu.free.fr...]

The other person can run that program and setup users/passwords/share points. Next, we have two issues left: public IP and router port forwarding.

The person running the FTP server can get their public IP by visiting a site like this one: [whatismyip.org...]

I'll post about port forwarding shortly. :)

[whoisgregg]

No time to post about port forwarding, but this Google search of WebmasterWorld [google.com] should do the trick.