Automated+Encrypt replication with file sharring ?


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Ok I have a bit of a challenge here, and I was wondering if you guys could help me, please....

First, to get to the heart of the matter, here is what I am looking for.....

*A program that Automatically -by schedule- replicates data to another PC, and is able to store my username/password, and encrypt the authentication processes, and if possible the data too when it is sent over the network *

I am trying to securley replicate two types of data from my personal machine to other servers on my home network. These two servers are Public and Private, and will contain my Public and Private folders from my personal machine... where the Public server hosts all the files I want to share from my computer with friends, such as TV shows and music. They will then access these files using a program called EFTP that -unlike ftp- secures the authentication by not broadcasting username/password in cleartext. The private server will host all my confidential files, such as taxes and software I purchased that I don't want to share. I will then access this data if I ever need it, say at work, using PC Anywhere, as this is pretty secure.

Now what would be ideal for me is at 12am, every evening, my personal computer automatically uploads all the new folders and files that were created in my Public folder to the Public server, and the Private folder to the Private server.

Now here is the catchy part... I have a program that will do this, and it has two options... SMB file sharing, where I just provide the UNC of the server, such as \\192.x.x.1\public My concern with this is that since these servers are not part of an active directory with authentication, it is insecure and anyone could access these files on the network. TRUE, I know that Windows can ask for a username and password, but this is the problem, because what I would like is for this process to be automated... rather than me typing my username and password each time. And unfortunatley this backup program - and all the others I have downloaded- do not have a Username/Password storage box under options so that it won't be prompted in the future.

The other option available on this backup program is FTP, which provides a username and password box in the options, which it will then remember for future use. But what I don't like about this is that it is totally unsecure, as the username and password are cleartext. So FTP is pretty much ruled out as a solution, even though I like how it has a username/password.

One final note, if possible, I would also like this data to travel encrypted - not just the password and user name-.

Now I have thought about a couple of my other options, but I don't like where either of them go....

1) OpenSSH & tunneling .... I tried this, but it was too difficult for me to setup, and the dirrections just wern't clear enough

2) VPN. While this is pretty easy to setup, I cannot have my automated daily backup go through this.... or can i? I guess if I did a route switch in dos I could change the path of all port 135/137 data to go through the VPN ports, but that too sounds like a pain to configure.

3) Create an AD domain, and then you can have certificate services..... while this sounds nice, I do not like it simply because the private and public servers are better connected. This looks like a security breach waiting to happen, so I'd rather keep them seperated.

So is there any conceivable way to do this?

Thank you for your help!

Edited by dan87
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FYI, regular FTP session can be encrypted using SSL. so both control connection and data connection are encrypted.

instead of using SSH+tunneling, why not just use SSH and SCP/SFTP?

why are you so paranoid about encrypting data tranfer on your HOME NETWORK?

you don't control who's using your network? :)

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thanks for the reply!

....

I have a firewall locked down very tight, so the risk of someone breaking in is pretty small. However, I'd really like to just have it, just for that extra layer of protection. I know that in a work environment, this problem would be solved with an AD domain, but I was just wondering if there was a program that could automatically log me in, and then replicate data, all in encrypted form.

FYI, regular FTP session can be encrypted using SSL. so both control connection and data connection are encrypted.

do you have any tutorials to go about doing this? I know that in add/remove software under Windows 2000 server you can add services, but how do you force FTP to go over SSL? That is what always gets me lost.

Thanks again for the help!

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