bioneural.net

You'll need to register a free domain name at DynDNS.org and providing you keep this account updated with your current IP address, other folk don't need to worry about typing in a variable IP address in order to reach your AFP share: the domain name is always resolved to the correct IP address.

Register a domain name for free

Go to the Dynamic Network Services Web site at http://www.dyndns.org/ and create an account.

Once you've had the account activation e-mail, log on to your account and in "Your Hosts & Zones", click "Add Host" next to "Dynamic DNS".

Enter a hostname and click "Add Host"; your IP address should already be displayed.

Turn on Personal File Sharing on the Mac

Personal File Sharing allows other Mac users to access just the Public folder on your computer (if they sign on as a Guest) at afp://192.168.1.10/ or afp://myplace.net (for example), or to browse for the name of your computer by choosing Network from the Go menu in the Finder. It uses the Apple File Protocol on ports 548 and 427.

PFS can be activated/ deactivated from the System Preferences Sharing preference pane.

Turn on AFP port-redirection if you have a NAT router

Read how here.

Create an AFP location file

Type the URL of your new domain name into the address bar in Safari:

You could add this as a Bookmark and Safari will pass the request to mount the share to the Finder when you select it.

Alternatively, click-and-hold on the blue globe (see above picture) and drag it to the desktop. This should create a file with "@ AFP" on it:

Save this file somewhere convenient, perhaps rename it (e.g. "Go to Bruce's Drop-box").

When you double-click it a "Connect to..." box should open, enabling you to choose Guest access:

You can then choose an AFP share to mount:

Which should allow you access to the Drop-box in that user's Public folder:

Do I have to go through all these windows each time I connect?

Not quite, if you want to allow Guest access only. You can cut out the "Select the volumes you wish to mount" box using this syntax:

afp://server/volume

For example:

afp://bioneural.homeip.net/guestuser

Not at all if you're willing to allow full access, although you 'll need a more complicated URL/ AFP location file, created in the same way as above. The following example will give full access to a user's home directory:

afp://guestuser:guest@bioneural.homeip.net/guestuser

Here, the first "guestuser" is the username, "guest" is that user's password, "bioneural.homeip.net" is the server domain name, and the second "guestuser" is the name of the volume to be shared.

Can I get an alert when someone connects to my AFP share?

Yes. Install intrusion detection software like IPNetSentryX which allows you to receive an alert when someone mounts your share:

Update 13.01.04: You may which to download and install the DNSUpdate client for Mac OS X from DynDNS.org to ensure that your hostname always points to your current IP address whenever your ISP changes it.

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