The short answer here is that OS X is an excellent platform for running services, but really lousy for graphical user interfaces for said services. This ought to be regarded for the failure that it is by some Mac users, but seemingly isn't, for some reason ...
Depending on your needs, and if network conditions are favourable, in your situation I would set up PureFTPD with virtual users to implement the solution that you're looking for. There was a cocoa app called "PureFTPD manager", but it hasn't been touched in quite a while, by the looks of it. Still, this cannot be a trivial operation; you need to understand the command line and the wandering ways of Unix in order to get, compile, install and configure the server program. I do not believe the included FTP daemon, tnftpd, can help you; it doesn't support virtual users. I recently came across a nice app in the MAS called "Simple HTTP Server Pro". Perhaps, if you don't mind being logged in all the time and binding to unprivileged ports above 1024, you could do it using HTTP and WebDAV, which is easier to pass through NAT. But this app only supports one set of authentication credentials, by the looks of it, so it isn't a complete solution. So in short, I'm afraid this will be an in-depth challenge for you. Nothing can substitute for the vertical graphical servers found on Windows. Still, if you fancy a challenge, go for it. As to OS X Server, I believe there are good reasons to use it irrespective of the file sharing services, such as the Caching service, but as far as I can see the file sharing support in there would not be of any help to you unless you particularly enjoyed exposing AFP or SMB over the Internet. It could be done, I suppose, if you had the gall, but you'd have to be very careful, and I'm just not sure it's worth the risk. Many networks in fact block at least SMB, so you'd be losing your Windows sharers, without a VPN. And NAS products on the market (including, ironically, Apple's own Time Capsule) might be a better choice for doing that anyway. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
