Best way of accessing files securely on winsvr2003?

I am wondering the best way to access files on a win 2003 server, securely of course, while away from the server local network. I really don't want to just use RDP connection but rather something like FTP. I have been doing quite the google search and see that the best way appears to be setting up an SSH connection. Anyone got or know the location of some good guides or have another suggestion?

Thanks all the help would be much appreciated. I am basically looking to host backups of friends computers or files to reduce the amount of time I help them out with reinstalls, file recovery and whatnot. I am moving away from most of them and want to make sure I can stay that friend/IT guy they have relied on for the past years.

I love questions like this! Many different programs/methods of accessing files while away from the network exist, but one really stands out for me as the simplest. Enter Hamachi, a Zero Configuration VPN client. Hamachi should do exactly what you need, but in the event it doesn't I can also help you set up RRAS (Routing and Remote Access Services) on WS03 itself as well as an SSH tunnel if needed. Best of luck!

//Josh (Wa)

Godders - Hmmmm nice idea I will give it a look. How would people upload files using that program?

TheContempt - Hamachi appears to be nice, but really I don't like the idea of passing over there servers or needing their server to find files on my network. I guess the same idea goes for the Windows Folder Share.

I really just need to set up something like SFTP so I guess use SSH in that case but I will look into RRAS also thank for the input.

You can secure FTP through SSL certificates on top of windows user authentication (which I can advise because you don't want your password sent over the wire in plain text).

Downloading through IIS as a webserver would work just the way you download any file through your browser. I'm not sure how this works in FF for example but IE doesn't have a download manager to resume downloads, but you can ofcourse install a small (free) program called Free Download Manager which can resume file transfers from any source (HTTP, FTP, etc).

But are you sure you want to transfer 13 GB image files over the internet? That's going to take a while to transfer on a regular DSL or cable connection?