Just a quick scan, and I see a problem for remote access; I don't have a fixed IP address... I know there are methods for getting around this, but my limited understanding of networking doesn't allow this to sink into my addled head.
Remote access to non-static IP addresses is another topic, but is very simple.
Most IP's don't really change that often; either on cable modem restart (mine doesn't) or every few weeks, however there are always exceptions. The easiest solution is to use a service for a few bucks a year. I use
NoIP because it's cheaper than
Dyn, but either way, there are lots of affordable and even free options for services. Once you have an account, install their daemon that runs in the background and updates the DNS servers with your IP changes. I own my own domain name for this so I pay a bit more, but there are free options, like weather-geek.noip.com as an example. Once the dynamic updater and daemon are installed on your mac and the remote mac and they are both signed into your account, setup is finished.
Now, your home router address is the domain you chose, for screen sharing, viewing your IP cameras remotely, web hosting (careful!), logging into your DVR, access to your smart sprinkler controller, SFTP'ing into your WXCat web files with
Transmit, hosting your own "cloud" file sharing, and using a home server, is all now a piece of cake. Now that I think about it, because I travel so much, I'd be lost if I couldn't connect to my home computer while away. I view my toddlers with
LiveCamsPro with our
IP Cameras while I travel and couldn't think of ever being without remote access again. Here's the thing: many of these services are available at a cost, like "gotomypc" or web cams that can be viewed remotely. However, if you add up all the costs of all those services, it will be way more than the costs of getting a static IP name and having access to
all your various services.
Port forwarding is necessary too, but that's probably something you all are familiar with. Just one word of caution/advice: don't use the standard ports. There isn't much security though obscurity, but every little bit helps. To remote login, the port is 22. I don't remote into my computers via port 22 because all sorts of evil is trolling the internet looking for open port 22's to try an hack into. (Everyone is using
Diceware |
1Password style passwords for all your accounts, right?) Forward a random port to port 22 via Port Forwarding to limit the amount of external login attempts. Ex: mydomain.com:2552 forwards to port 22. I don't use 5900 for screen sharing, I forward a higher port like 5999 down to 5900 so my screensharing would look like: vnc.mydomain.com:5999 and my router points that to 5900. You can easily tell CCC to use a different port than 22 if you have forwarded a higher port like I have.
Finally, with your computer and a remote computer, they need different addresses. For example, when my dad died, I setup screen sharing with my mom's computer. With her computer using the same NoIP account, it can't also be accessed via:
www.mydomain.com:5999 because that's my computer's address. So for the remote, you add an A Record in your updating service, like NoIP. I called mine: mom. I screen share with her computer with: mom.mydomain.com:5999 because the www is my house. So, to sum all this up, to send my backups to her remote computer where I have a backup drive connected, CCC uses: mom.mydomain.com:2555 with her router set to forward port 2555 to port 22 on her network. Just make sure every device on the network has a static LAN IP, done via the router, so that each device has its own, unchanging internal IP address, otherwise your port forwarding won't work. I'm so pedantic, even our iPhones receive static IP's when on our home network!
Again, this all sounds so complex, but it doesn't take long to get setup and if you mess up, you can usually figure out your mistake pretty quickly. DNS changes do take a while though. WeatherCat is moving up the list, fast, but the apps I just can't I just can't live without while traveling are: LiveCamsPro, Transmit, Transmit iOS, and OS X Screen Sharing.
P.S. Back on the backup topic, I have an amateur tip: I keep all my custom web files on my Dropbox folder and point WXCat there. That way, I have a very robust backup of those files, plus Time Machine and CCC, plus Dropbox's 30 day file retrieval, plus even easier remote access to them anywhere in the world.
All the best,
dfw