Setting up file sharing for use of Beyond Compare to copy files

[peterr]

Version 4.1.9 (build 21719)
Kubuntu 16.04.1

I need to setup file sharing between 2 Kubuntu computers, and figured that as I prefer Beyond Compare for copying. then why not simply setup SSH access on both computers and then use Beyond Compare to connect.

Does anyone have any simple "how to's" to set this up and use it please ?

[Aaron]

Hello,

You'll want to generally connect the two machines over the network. Once connected, BC4 can also browse the network using smb://. Or, if you setup an SFTP server, the other machine can access this as an SFTP client using BC4.

Ubuntu's scheme for connecting is documented here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/16.04/ubuntu...s-connect.html

If you open the File Explorer in Ubuntu, and select Network, are you able to browse to your other machine? Are they on the same network?

[peterr]

Ubuntu's scheme for connecting is documented here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/16.04/ubuntu...s-connect.html

Thanks for that link. It is written for Nautilus; I use Dolphin, which as no equivalent features.

If you open the File Explorer in Ubuntu, and select Network, are you able to browse to your other machine? Are they on the same network?

No, I can't browse the other computer. yes, they are on the same network. Here is what Beyond Compare reports when I try to use a SFTP profile to connect to the other computer (IP 192.168.1.103 )

28/01/17 03:52:24 PM Connecting to 192.168.1.103
28/01/17 03:52:24 PM Connection failed: Connection lost (error code is 111)
28/01/17 03:52:24 PM Unable to load sftp://192.168.1.103/: Connection lost (error code is 111)
28/01/17 03:52:24 PM Load comparison: <->

[Dave_L]

I think that rather than using BC's sftp feature, it's easier to use sshfs to map remote directories to local mount points. That only requires that sshfs be installed on the local system (on which BC is run) and an ssh server (e.g. openssh-server) be installed on the remote system.

Then in BC, you're merely accessing the local file system.

The only tricky part (for me) was setting up the ssh server configuration and the firewall(s) to permit the connection (while blocking access to the ssh server from outside my local network).

[peterr]

I think that rather than using BC's sftp feature, it's easier to use sshfs to map remote directories to local mount points. That only requires that sshfs be installed on the local system (on which BC is run) and an ssh server (e.g. openssh-server) be installed on the remote system.

I found that sshfs was installed by default, so just installed openssh-server on the client and the server computers. The computers are a few metres apart, connected on the lan.

Then in BC, you're merely accessing the local file system.

The only tricky part (for me) was setting up the ssh server configuration and the firewall(s) to permit the connection (while blocking access to the ssh server from outside my local network).

I'm now able to use BC successfully, connected to the client and server.

The only firewall rule I had to add was to open up port 22 on the server side. Did you add any rules to block access to the ssh server from outside your local network ?

[Dave_L]

Actually, I think the firewall, by default, denies access that is not specifically allowed. Here's my firewall configuration:

$ sudo ufw allow in log-all proto tcp from 192.168.0.0/24 to 192.168.0.0/24
$ sudo ufw status
Status: active
To                         Action      From
--                         ------      ----
192.168.0.0/24/tcp         ALLOW       192.168.0.0/24/tcp (log-all)

But my router also has a firewall that blocks incoming requests by default, so that's another layer of security.

I also used the tips here to tighten the security settings for my ssh server (/etc/ssh/sshd_config):
http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2011/05/openssh-options/

[Aaron]

Being on the same network, you may want to use Samba (Network sharing) instead, but I don't have specific instructions for how to configure this. There is one KB article for SMBFS here: https://debian-administration.org/ar...ems_with_smbfs

The idea is to get the computers to talk to each other independent of BC4, which allows you to access the folder contents in the File Explorer (Samba items can show in the Network section). Once available to your user on the client machine as a folder or network location, BC4 should then be able to access this location as well.

SFTP is useful if you want to access the location remotely outside of your network/LAN.

[Dave_L]

Aaron, for file sharing within a Linux-only network, sshfs (SSH File System) provides the same functionality as Samba, and my personal experience has shown it to be more dependable. It also works as an alternative for SFTP, provided that the remote node supports it.

[Aaron]

Hello,

If you mount the sshfs, then BC4 should be able to access those locations as folders. If using smb, then you could use the smb:// syntax to connect directly.