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Seriously, give WinSCP a try. https://winscp.net/eng/downloa...

That's is just it it isn't trivial to setup. for most it costs tens of thousands of dollars.

Perhaps if you buy from Apple. Let's use a popular site like Newegg (I'm not affiliated, just providing a familiar link) and browse to the NAS section. There are many listings under $1000. Just how much data are you backing up? For large volumes you may want to consider tape.

Take drop box. Show me two apps one server and one client that uses the same client app across multiple platforms that allows for easy, secure syncing to not just one server, but any server I choose?

The functionality found in Rsync will handle this task across multiple platforms. Yes, there are GUIs written for it as well.

Show me an FTP client that works as seemlessly, or as securely as drop box.

Since you're comparing apples to oranges (FTP to Dropbox) look at WinSCP. Connection requirements, your credentials. Do your transactions over SSH instead of involving yet another 3rd party which can be subpoenaed.

The problem is techies don't want to, and can't think of how to make their software easy and safe for non techies to use

Secure systems by their vary nature are not convenient. As far as your claim about techies not wanting to, and can't think of how to make their software easy and safe, who do you think does that exactly? Management? Marketing? Do you consider the engineers who created Dropbox as non techies? If you want secure software, you need to pay for it. To many people "good enough" is sufficient, look at the popularity of the 'made in China' brand of goods as an analog.

Because I run a multi OS house there isn't a decent NAS for me. One that makes things like backup seemless.

You must be referring to client side software, client side software and NAS are two different things. Network Attached Storage by its very nature should be platform agnostic, as its providing access to a file system. There are a number of different solutions, perhaps you've heard of Samba?

I hate to support apple but Time Machine is how backups should have been done 20 years ago. Why wasn't it? why all the hassle?

HD docks exist and external storage has existed for quite some time, and are cheaper than ever. Backups aren't exactly a hassle, they're arguably time consuming. Remote storage has always been expensive, and remains so. If you're that concerned about sensitive information why not make backups locally and then store them at your safe deposit box? Some of the most precious things people lose in house fires aren't files off of their computers, but items like family pictures.

FTP would be dead if Microsoft would adopt the SSH suite, since SSH has the exact same capabilities as FTP. SSH is the swiss army knife of encrypted networking. Port tunneling is very useful. Less known, but also very nice is the ability to use pipes like this:

echo "hello" | ssh remote_host "cat > hello.txt"

You could use it to make a large backup without consuming disk space on the local machine.

tar -zc directory_to_backup | ssh remote_host "cat > backup.tar.gz"

It also works very well with rsync. Combine with hard links for a great backup strategy.

I like to see the surprise from Microsoft centric developers when they discover what SSH can do. They seem to all have this false assumption that it's just for getting a shell on a remote UNIX system.

Though I haven't kept up with SSH development on Windows, two applications I've used on Windows are: WinSCP and PUTTY sshwindows also looks interesting as I use cygwin + SSH

No mention of WinSCP? That's criminal!

I truly pity anyone who really thinks FileZilla is the best FTP client out there. Why don't more people worship The Perfection That Is WinSCP? :(

Given the fact that most websites will be hosted on a Linux box I would say that using either scp or sftp (both of which use the server's ssh server) is the most secure way to go. It's what I use and there is a GUI tool for those using Windows on the desktop (WinSCP). As for how you would get around this if using a Windows/IIS server I wouldn't have the first clue and my advice would probably be along the lines of "get a man's operating system and stop using asp"!

You mean people pay for an SSH client? I have only used free clients, namely PuTTY and WinSCP for SSH/SFTP access on Windows and they seem to work just fine and I've never had a reason to seek out an alternate version.

• Perform an inventory of the hardware in the machine. Note especially the vendor and model number of the major components. You'll need this later.
• Establish partitions on the boot drive (only if I'm dual-booting Linux or BeOS or something).
• Yank network cable.
• Install Windows from installation media. This takes a ridiculous amount of time, considering that most of the work is (should be) simply copying files. Reboot.
• Install Service Pack 2, which I conveniently have on a separate CD I burned. Reboot.
• Crank up Windows firewall to highest setting, or moral equivalent thereof (I'm behind a NAT router, so that works).
• Visit Windows Update, and download all security and bug fixes. Duration depends on connection speed, but it can easily consume an hour. Reboot.
• Using the hardware inventory you prepared earlier: for $item in $inventory ; do
  • Visit hardware vendor's site.
  • Locate, download, and install latest device driver(s) for $item.
  • Reboot.
• done

At this point, you have a usable machine. If it's my machine (and even if it isn't my machine), I usually install the following software:

• Firefox
• Vim
• VirtuaWin
• TreeSize
• PuTTY
• WinSCP
• TweakUI

Schwab

Don't forget WinSCP.

Why shut down your home system? Why not have it available as a server to make your life easier? I agree with other posters about using "offline" mode of Thunderbird and like clients.

In case you're thinking that you have a particularly repressive ISP...

My ISP blocks ports 80 and 25 - particularly irritating, if you ask me. My ISPs TOS, if read to the letter, would mean that multiple browser windows or tabbed browsing are inappropriate because it's more than one session over the broadband pipe.
 
I agree that it would be ideal if I could use every port I want, block the ones I want to firewall - but I'm too cheap to pay for that kind of access.
 
So I work around it. I use dyndns [dyndns.com] to create a pointer to my dynamic IP address. My ISP does not block https or ssh ports, so I leverage those to get what I want.
 
I use cron, fetchmail [berlios.de],
  procmail [procmail.org],
  spamassassin [apache.org], and
  postfix [postfix.org] to bring mail from my ISP to my local system.
 
I use uw-imapd [washington.edu] to share my mail with other computers on my home network
 
I use ssh and pine, or apache+php+MySQL+https (self-signed cert) with roundcube [roundcube.net] to get remote access to my IMAP server.
 
I use WinSCP [winscp.net] to get access to my files at home when I'm at work. My data is *MINE* and I easily back it up (nightly and offsite qurterly - snapshot backups coming soon thanks to rsnapshot [rsnapshot.org], perl and rsync)
 
Every tool that I use is free of charge and as free as the GPL and apache licenses are free (zealots can feel free to argue with someone else about the relative freedom of the GPL, thanks.)
 
I certainly could pay for more open TOS with an ISP - I could even host my applications at an ISP. I'm cheap, and this solution works well enough for me.
Hope you find a solution that works for you!
 
Respectfully,
Anomaly

My ISP blocks ports 80 and 25 - particularly irritating, if you ask me. My ISPs TOS, if read to the letter, would mean that multiple browser windows or tabbed browsing are inappropriate because it's more than one session over the broadband pipe.

I agree that it would be ideal if I could use every port I want, block the ones I want to firewall - but I'm too cheap to pay for that kind of access.

So I work around it. I use dyndns to create a pointer to my dynamic IP address. My ISP does not block https or ssh ports, so I leverage those to get what I want.

I use cron, fetchmail,
procmail,
spamassassin, and
postfix to bring mail from my ISP to my local system.

I use uw-imapd to share my mail with other computers on my home network

I use ssh and pine, or apache+php+MySQL+https (self-signed cert) with roundcube to get remote access to my IMAP server.

I use WinSCP to get access to my files at home when I'm at work. My data is *MINE* and I easily back it up (nightly and offsite qurterly - snapshot backups coming soon thanks to rsnapshot, perl and rsync)

Every tool that I use is free of charge and as free as the GPL and apache licenses are free (zealots can feel free to argue with someone else about the relative freedom of the GPL, thanks.)

I certainly could pay for more open TOS with an ISP - I could even host my applications at an ISP. I'm cheap, and this solution works well enough for me.

Respectfully,
Anomaly

Previous posts have mentioned Perl and PHP; seconding those for high-intensity search-and-destroy missions. As for software, you can't go wrong with TextPad, WinSCP, and PuTTY.

For best practices (separation of content from structure from behavior, mostly) keep an eye on are listed in and around A List Apart and the Web Standards Project. And if you're looking for several sets of outstanding presentation and behavior tools, check out the YUIBlog and the Yahoo! Developer Network. (Hint: their page grid layout, font normalization, and CSS reset libraries are an excellent place to start.)

If you plan to use it for development, you can't go too far wrong with TextPad and WinSCP.

You might also find Tunebite useful, if you subscribe to any online music services.

Most small company sysadmins need to at least occasionally deal with Windows. I prefer to do so without leaving my desk. I also ensure cygwin and sshd are on Windows boxes, so that I don't always need rdesktop or vnc. ...

My windows list would look something like

• uptime.exe
• cygwin with sshd, exim, and cron installed as services
• PuTTYcyg, which is PuTTY with the ability to run bash shells locally (i.e. xterm)
• SysInternals Junction, directory symlinks in NTFS
• StartupCPL, monitor everything that starts up when Windows does
• 7-zip
• WinSCP
• KNOPPIX for when shit hits the fan
• Debian for when it won't come off the fan
• One antivirus (any, I prefer PC-Cillin) and two anti-spyware agents (any two with different engines)

First of all, I think you should just look at keeping the existing system, just improve it. Changeover cost in hardware/software is going to be high, even if it's free software. Here's what I'd do to try to stay with Windows 2k or XP (throw this all out if you're on 98/ME and get a real OS!):

1. Antivirus
First of all, why no antivirus? Any reasonable Win2k/XP system should be able to run one. If you want something with very low cpu impact, try Eset's Nod32. Also exclude the directory that the DVR uses to write the videos from virus checks. The videos are unlikely to get infected, and virus checking on those directories will just muck things up. (I'm assuming that this is why you aren't using antivirus.) But everything else then can be protected.

If you have licenses for *any* antivirus product, try it again with excluding the videos directories. Any antivirus product worth more than a warm bucket of spit should be able to do that.

2. Disable services.
Disable every unneeded service on these machines. A *lot* of them shouldn't be on. These systems should be doing practically nothing but writing video files (ok maybe some backups, or transferring files to another server for backups). A decent guide to this is here: http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm.

3. Consider turning off Windows networking.
Disabling SMB/Netbios calls should stop most viruses/worms/etc. If you need to transfer data for backups and such, use SSH and SFTP instead. SFTP is what you'd use on a Linux/Unix system, and is *much* more secure.

Free Win32 SFTP client:
http://winscp.net/eng/index.php

Free Win32 SFTP server:
http://itefix.no/copssh

Nice, and not too expensive pay SFTP client (Tunnelier) and server (WinSSHD):
http://www.bitvise.com/

(And you shouldn't be getting email-borne viruses -- these systems shouldn't be used for email.)

You can also use SSH on this to restrict all kinds of other access as well, while providing VPN-style access. Very, very nice. (e.g. you can only Remote Desktop or VNC through SSH)

4. Block ports and such, and firewall it.
Setup a firewall between these systems and the outside world. Restrict ports to *only* those needed (e.g. SSH on port 22). If possible, restrict outgoing data to *only* those IP addresses that need access. Yeah, IPs can be falsified, but it's an extra layer of defense.

You could do this through a software firewall, or even just some cheap $20 hardware firewall boxes.

The XP firewall is better than nothing, but it's only incoming. Much better incoming/outgoing freebie firewalls are available from these companies:
http://www.wyvernworks.com/firewall.html
http://www.jetico.com/

(I'd probably do the hardware firewall, but if you're cash is tight, or the time/cost of installing all these extra hardware boxes is high, at least deploy a software firewall.)

5. Other Windows hardening options
You can also try these two freebie Windows hardening programs. They probably aren't perfect, but they help:
Harden-it: http://www.sniff-em.com/hardenit.shtml
Secure-it: http://www.sniff-em.com/secureit.shtml

And decent googling should turn up lots of different hardening guides to Windows as well.

After these you should have antivirus, you're blocking ports, you've disabled almost all virus vectors, and should have systems that are reasonably secure and stable.

Yeah, you have Windows and not sexy or politically correct OSS. But it's what you have. If you can make it work, use it. Fixing up your Windows boxes is probably a lot less time and money than swapping over

http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc959.html File Transfer Protocol

http://www.ccp14.ac.uk/ccp14admin/security/secure_ tunnelling_ftp.htm
Secure FTP transfers via Secure Shell Tunnelling

http://winscp.net/eng/docs/introduction
WinSCP is an open source freeware SFTP client for Windows using SSH. Legacy SCP protocol is also supported. Its main function is safe copying of files between a local and a remote computer.

etc. etc.

We were wrestling with a similar question recently, and came up with WinSCP as a solution for Windows clients accessing "file shares" on Unix boxen. Our end users are very pleased.

I have been TA'ing a first year intro to computers class for the past few semesters, and we teach FTP as part of the labs (because we make them do it old style - CLI interface...yeah, we're mean). The first semester was a DISASTER. Combining FTP with some standard unix commands and permissions structures was definately NOT the way to go. They had a really difficult time particularily with the idea of two seperate file systems.

The next semester didn't go so well either, even though we added in a huge section talking about FTP as a virtual line between two computers. Still no good. The next semester: now it's a line between to LOCATIONS on a computer system. Still no good. So last semester we eliminated any discussion of relative directories (that was the major stumbling point - they had a hard time figuring out where they were in 2 different file systems at the same time, especially because we had them duplicate the file structure on the local computer to create their files). We also broke it down into a 3 step process (after startup):
1. Tell the computer where the file is coming from
2. Tell the computer where you want it to put the file
3. Transfer the file

Even after this semester, the students were SO impressed when we showed them winSCP.

My long winded answer is this then: How about winSCP? or a slight variation? You can set up an FTP server (or SCP even if you're getting fancy) and tell people to use that client to access it. If you're ambitious, you could probably even write something to program in the server name. It already accepts saved sessions etc.

Our school used to give res kids who wanted internet access a cd with some stuff on it. It didn't do much - reconfigured the settings to access the netowrk, nothing that couldn't be done by hand. If you bundeled it with something like that, then all the res kids would have access at least. Then just pop up some instructions on a site and you're good to go.

winSCP can be downloaded here: http://winscp.net/eng/index.php

WinSCP is your friend. And even open source. I agree, though, that it would be nicer to have such functionality integrated in the file browser itself.

It works in at least KDE 3.3. Far superior to using ftp.

I also use WinSCP from my laptop quite a bit, and although it's not directly integrated (feels more like using an ftp browser), you can open files in any program and just hit save, and it will save it remotely (I think it just watches to see if the local temp file it creates is modified).