Fake Your Own .Mac Server

c13v3rm0nk3y writes "A clever fellow named Otto Moerbeek has publish a short article on getting an OpenBSD box to emulate a .Mac server. Using Apache/DAV/SSL and a roll a duct-tape, he describes how you can get most .Mac functionality without paying Apple for it." This is useful because then you can use apple's backup tools to backup to a local server, and not have to backup over your piddly internet connection.

Comments

Re:Irresponsible?

[budGibson]

Actually, I agree with the post just above this. Apple is giving away software, basically because it is *not* the value-added portion of the service. The value-added portion of their service is the provision of a back-up location and other niceties. This article is not how to steal those. Rather it is about how to use their value-less software to your own ends, while *still using their hardware*.

Another trick: Using iSync without .Mac

[Ford Fulkerson]

Jeremy Beker has more informations about using iSync to syncronize calenders, addresses, etc. without using .Mac

Re:We need more fake servers

[JasonAsbahr]

It's getting there: http://www.twistedmatrix.com

Just in case...

[RudeDude]

A mirror of it.

Provided by Mr HOSTBOT

Re:Too bad...

[Znonymous Coward]

You don't need one, just use dyndns.org

.Mac's security is bad

[slamb]

I saw this in the article:

A self signed certificate will do, since Backup does not check the certificate.

That's really bad. It means that anyone can launch a man-in-the-middle attack against someone using .Mac for backup purposes. I'm sure people are using .Mac to backup their Quicken financial data and other things they'd consider sensitive.

I hope Apple fixes that...I'd be pretty pissed if I were a .mac user.

Re:.Mac's security is bad

[spicyjeff]

Ironically, if you try to backup a Quicken 2003 data file via Backup 1.2 (latest version) the application will lock-up.

Apple has known about this bug for awhile and apparently are "working on a fix" with Intuit but nothing in the past few months.

Big Whoop

[maggard]

1. This backup trick has been well known/well documented amongst Mac-folks for awhile now. It hasn't been earth-shaking news even though it has finally hit Slashdot. Doubtless Apple's folks have read the same reports and to date haven't changed anything.

2. However there likely will indeed be a change to the authentication in the future. As the hack's author writes Apple's current method really is pretty lame and better ones should have been used from the start. At that point it'll be stick with the old backup client or go with the current and more secure/featureful.

3. For all the sheep bleating on about Apple cease-&-desisting this etc. Apple has litigated to protect their trade dress, not this sort of material. After awhile repeating that same sort of foolishness just becomes trolling and unworthy of "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters"

4. While this is indeed a clever hack to make the backup function work to other servers it doesn't replicate .Mac, there's a whole lot more to it then that. Among other things it does offer WebDAV, software distribution, good website templates, virus-scanning, an excellent webmail client, superlative integration with their Mail client, IMAP, and of course ties throughout their OS. Whether or not it's worth what Apple is charging is worth suffering the limitations Apple has imposed (unannounced/uncontrollable email filtering, undefined bandwidth quotas, less-then-impressive availability, poorly implemented "family accounts") is open to question.

5. Also note that this whole thing is a bit of a pain to enable for a somewhat useful utility. It prevents the Mac(s) from connecting to Apple's .Mac and frankly there are equally good or better backup methods. Again, clever hack but hardly useful as a serious long-term solution.

Re:ok, what about the rest?

[bedouin]

I can't speak for the iPhoto stuff, but PHP iCalendar handles iCal quite nicely. You can find it here:

http://phpicalendar.sourceforge.net/nuke/

For instructions on setting up WebDAV to play well with iCal see this:

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=200 20 912065811863

In many respects it's actually better doing this from your own server, letting you customize a lot more than .Mac does.

Re:Neat but...

[tres]

Apple can't "crush" this workaround. Once you have the software, you can use it. And you can use any WebDAV capable client to access your "iDisk" server.

Yep, it would be pretty easy to do this on a Windows/Mac network, if Windows actually handled WebDAV folders as well as, say OS X, or Mandrake Linux. But since Microsoft has decided that WebDAV filesystems are neither web-pages or mountable filesystems, you can't really automate backups to WebDAV servers with your Windows machines. In WindowsXP you can do something like this, so long as you have a server that understands Microsoft's perversion of WebDAV.

Someday Microsoft might "innovate" real WebDAV mounts into the filesystem (think flying pigs now), but until then, they are only good for point-and-click uses.

It would be extremely easy to write a batch file to do this if you could mount the remote WebDAV server (like you can with a mac). After you write your batch file, you could just set up a scheduled task to copy the files over to the WebDAV server (basically what the Backup utility makes so easy).

If you can use OS X or Mandrake Linux (probably other distros to--but I can't say for sure) you can have this functionality right now.

Re:Irresponsible?

[Samosmatiker]

From the author's main page:

Is this illegal? As far as I know, it is not. I am not changing Backup, I am only changing the environment in which it runs. I am not trying to hack the iDisk or .Mac servers. The license does not even mention a .Mac subscription. While technically easy, I am not offering this as a service to the public. I've written these pages only to educate, showing that Apple has taken a short cut to proper server authentication.

Let's not cloud the issue with facts...

[Anonymous Coward]

From the Apple iCal website:

"Publishing calendars on the Internet requires a .Mac membership or a WebDAV server. "

So Apple expects, condones, and appreciates what Morebeer has done.

Re:Free imap email accounts?

[Gatton]

FastMail is a great email service that's gaining quite a large following. There's multiple membership levels including a free service. Definitely worth checking out.

If this isn't your cup of tea I strongly suggest you check out EmailAddresses.com for a fairly comprehensive list of email services.

And for MacOS 9 users...

[Gorthaur]

Neat. Under MacOS 9 you'll have to use a real WebDAV client (!= Network Browser) such as Goliath

In case someone is interested, I created a quick and dirty how-to here

Re:Getting an OpenBSD box to emulate a .Mac serv

[dipipanone]

You don't actually have to sign up for the .mac scam to get a copy. It's a free download from Apple's website. There aren't any restrictions on the download that I can see, but it has had it's functionality restricted to interoperate solely with .mac.

This is just a nice little hack to provide additional functionality without taking anything away from either Apple or the .mac service -- and anyone who says otherwise is a wanker!