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I want to continuously write small media files (150-200 kb) from a windows 7 desktop machine behind a home LAN to a Debian Linux server in a data center over the internet. The system will remain in operation for many months at a stretch. How can I do this?

Kevin Panko
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ashishlal
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3 Answers3

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Opinions aside, let's look at the options you gave:

1) SMB

This may work with desired results, but SMB is not a good option for WAN-based destinations because of security risks (exposing your destination server to the Internet, for example). Otherwise, it is a good option with proper security precautions (firewall rules, etc).

2) VPN

A VPN alone won't do the trick. You'd need to use some other technology on top of it, such as SMB, NFS, or any other method. Also, depending on connection quality interruptions could affect your application.

3) SCP

SCP is a file transfer protocol using SSH and is similar (but as comments pointed out, not the same as) SFTP. This is a very secure protocol and will work well for your needs, with the side effect of overhead since you'd be transferring files in batches rather than continuously (or running scp x times a minute, for example).

Between the 3, SMB is the easiest to just get working providing you do it properly and if you're familar with how to configure samba properly.

Nathan C
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Another option which may be simpler might be using win-sshfs or equivalent. This allows you to use ssh to mount a remote filesystem like SMB, so its easy to read/write in real-time, provides security as per a VPN, and immediacy and simplicity not available on SCP

davidgo
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You have several options, as you realize.

Things based on SSH will be easiest - SSH takes care of security provided your passwords are strong enough or you use keyfiles - and SSH can "automatically" do file transfers via scp or sftp. So you have security and a file transfer method rolled up into one. You can also use WinSCP to manually log into the Debian server and manage files if needed for any reason.

  • Dokan lets you mount an SSH server as a Windows drive.

  • You could install Cygwin on your Windows system and use Cygwin's scp to copy files via SSH to your Debian Linux box. I'm sure with enough searchng you could find a standalone command-line scp that doesn't need Cygwin installed.

VPN solutions, such as OpenVPN, will give you a secure connection between your server and your Windows system. But you will still need to do something about actually transporting the data. You could, once you have OpenVPN set up on both ends, install and configure samba on the Linux side and then map the Linux box over the VPN as a drive on Windows. It will be slow and a bit unstable depending on your Internet connection. And a lot more work than just doing something with SSH.

If the Windows box will only ever need to "upload" to the Debian box, you could set up a web server on the Debian box, secure it with SSL, and use an HTTP(S) uploading tool to transfer the files. Unless you have a webserver on this system already it's easier just to leverage SSH.

There's also many more esoteric methods which are all are still more work than SSH + Dokan or scp above and not more secure or easier to use.

LawrenceC
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