Idea #2155: Home partition via internet

Written by qense the 1 Mar 08 at 12:53. Category: System.
Related to: Nothing/Others. Status: New

Description

In these days more and more is done via the internet. More people are becoming mobile and people want to have access to their data from anywhere.
The prediction is that people will do all things at the internet in the future.
I suggest to make a system that offers the /home/user map via the internet. Providers can offer an account(or companies) which can be accessed at any computer supporting the protocol.
The idea is to modify gdm(and/or kdm) in such a way that when you start the computer you'll get a login screen which not only asks for your username and password, but also for the host and maybe another security thing to improve that.
The directory will be mounted over the internet.

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wmplaza wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 12:58

So your desktop is a kind of server for your /home/user directory?

How do you access your files? Through your browser? Would be very usefull!

qense wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 13:00

You'd use the computer just like you do with a normal one. The only difference is that the home partition isn't inside the computer you're typing on, but somewhere else.
This requires a server and client software.

Auzy wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 13:01

I had this idea too, but was voted against

Its just mounting a remote filesystem, no special way of accessing your files (so mount smb://myip/home/auzy as /home/auzy for instance).

Not hard to do, only requires changes to GDM and KDM really. Just need to ensure that permissions are set properly on mount.

qense wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 13:05

There is already something for the local network, but what I meant is something that can be offered by companies to their employees or ISPs to their customers or hosting companies to people who want to have access to their files all the time.

cheesehead wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 14:25

Auzy's right - it's already implemented.

You just need to set it up.

qense wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 16:19

Does samba work via internet?

mdallaire wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 17:41

Maybe you should look at sshfs. It allows you to mount a remote directory via ssh.

If you set it up in fstab to mount /home/ and use a private key for ssh you can mount your remote home automatically from anywhere.

I already did this for a data folder but never tried it for /home...

qense wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 18:59

I think theoretically it should be possible, but it would be great for a certain type of user if Ubuntu would make it easier to apply.

solid_liq wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 23:36

This has been possible for almost as long as Linux has existed. Just use an NFS share for your /home partition. People were doing this in the 70's and 80's on Unix, and have been doing this on Linux since the 90's. You can specify the NFS share in your /etc/fstab.

A better way of saying this, might be: A GUI tool to make this easy. ;)

You could use OpenAFS instead of NFS if you don't mind working hard to get it setup, too, though I don't know if it'd be worth the effort. ;)

And samba for this? NOOOOO! Samba doesn't support *nix file permissions correctly, so throw that idea in the trash. It'll cause more problems than its worth in the long run.

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