connect to my arch box from my android phone

yabasta · 2010-12-07 17:26:48

hi, i'm not entirely sure what i'm looking for, maybe someone here can point me in the right direction. i want to be able to access files on my arch box at home from my android phone when i'm at work. i have a client on my android phone that uses ftp/sftp with which to connect, would setting up pure-ftpd on my arch machine allow me to do this?

apologies in advance if the question doesn't make sense or is stupid

markbabc · 2010-12-07 17:31:37

yabasta wrote:

hi, i'm not entirely sure what i'm looking for, maybe someone here can point me in the right direction. i want to be able to access files on my arch box at home from my android phone when i'm at work. i have a client on my android phone that uses ftp/sftp with which to connect, would setting up pure-ftpd on my arch machine allow me to do this?
apologies in advance if the question doesn't make sense or is stupid

Not sure if this is what you want but i just set up ssh on my arch box and installed an app called ConnectBot from the android market and i can get access to all my files whenever i want. (assuming my arch box is online)

yabasta · 2010-12-07 17:39:50

i was going to use Andftp, its got a gui. i think i need to do some rerading on the basics of ftp/sftp. i set up sshd as per the wiki article here, just not sure how to set up usernames and passwords etc. thanks for the reply though

jasonwryan · 2010-12-07 17:43:15

yabasta wrote:

i set up sshd as per the wiki article here, just not sure how to set up usernames and passwords etc.

Use public key authentication - it is simple to set up, and a lot more secure https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Using_SSH_Keys

#edit And I use a combination of SSH and Dropbox for accessing files on my phone...

yabasta · 2010-12-07 17:57:27

so my android phone would be the remote server?

yabasta · 2010-12-07 18:08:52

forgive me, i think there are some basic concepts i need to learn here.

markbabc · 2010-12-07 18:10:27

yabasta wrote:

forgive me, i think there are some basic concepts i need to learn here.

Its ok we all start somewhere, so what do you mean by remote server?

Alm · 2010-12-07 18:19:10

If you're going to retrieve files from your arch machine to your phone, the remote server is your arch machine.

yabasta · 2010-12-07 18:21:10

on the page that jasonwryan linked - https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Using_SSH_Keys - it mentions after generating the ssh keys to copy the keys to the remote server. since i'd have generated the keys on my linux box, the only other machine is my android phone isnt it, so i was guessing that that is the remote machine?

when i mentioned passwords etc, i was thinking more of the client, Andftp. it asks for a hostname (ip address of my arch box?), protocol, username and password. not really sure what any of those would be, unless the username and password are my linux login and passwords.

sorry again for the stupidity,
and thanks for your time

Last edited by yabasta (2010-12-07 18:22:20)

markbabc · 2010-12-07 18:27:57

yabasta wrote:

on the page that jasonwryan linked - https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Using_SSH_Keys - it mentions after generating the ssh keys to copy the keys to the remote server. since i'd have generated the keys on my linux box, the only other machine is my android phone isnt it, so i was guessing that that is the remote machine?
when i mentioned passwords etc, i was thinking more of the client, Andftp. it asks for a hostname (ip address of my arch box?), protocol, username and password. not really sure what any of those would be, unless the username and password are my linux login and passwords.
sorry again for the stupidity,
and thanks for your time

If your going to be using ftp, i would suggest you use dropbox instead but if you insist on ftp, forward port 21 in your router so you can access your ftp server and then your host name will be your ip and your username and pass will be your ftp user and pass, they could be your login for your box, i really dont use ftp so idk

EDIT: Your client would be your phone and your linux box would be the remote server because thats what your connecting to

Last edited by markbabc (2010-12-07 18:28:38)

yabasta · 2010-12-07 18:46:17

no dropbox isnt what i want. i want to be able to access any file on my pc at any time. thanks for clearing up the client/remote server thing.

markbabc · 2010-12-07 18:54:35

yabasta wrote:

no dropbox isnt what i want. i want to be able to access any file on my pc at any time. thanks for clearing up the client/remote server thing.

Ok so you want every file? or just a specific few? Like i said setting up a basic ssh server is super easy and i cant believe that setting up a ftp server would be any harder.

EDIT: i did a quick google search on ftp on arch linux and i found these links https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=73365 https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=2233

Last edited by markbabc (2010-12-07 18:58:38)

yabasta · 2010-12-07 19:18:16

well, basically i'd be wanting to access a lot of my media files, be they mp3's, ebooks, cbr/cbz's etc. to download them on the fly, maybe get rid of them after use.

markbabc · 2010-12-07 19:28:12

yabasta wrote:

well, basically i'd be wanting to access a lot of my media files, be they mp3's, ebooks, cbr/cbz's etc. to download them on the fly, maybe get rid of them after use.

An FTP server can do that, i believe all you have to do i download a client for your arch box and forward port 21

yabasta · 2010-12-07 19:36:05

a client for the arch box? don't i need the server there?

thestinger · 2010-12-07 19:41:02

Setup the ssh server on the arch box and use a client on the phone to connect to it. You can transfer files through ssh. ftp is insecure and BAD with the exception of vsftpd, so that's an option too.

By default, ssh will let you login via your normal username on the arch box and your password and give you a remote shell. However, as jasonwryan said, this is insecure and you can easily be hacked via bruteforcing so use ssh keys instead.

everything you need:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SSH
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ve … FTP_Daemon

Last edited by thestinger (2010-12-07 19:43:24)

jowilkin · 2010-12-08 01:09:29

thestinger wrote:

you can easily be hacked via bruteforcing so use ssh keys instead.

Only if your passwords are not strong. Strong passwords are not going to be brute forced.

cobra2 · 2010-12-09 02:46:44

I have a Moto Droid running Android 2.2.1 and Arch x86_64 on my laptop and desktop. I just use ssh's SFTP, which is installed with openssh on the desktop and laptop. I use DroidFtp on the droid as the client to connect to the ssh servers. DroidFtp does not support keys to I have to make sure that my passwords are strong.

I also have a seperate user set up to use SFTP and only give it permission to access the files that I am going to need to grab or place from my phone.

Simplet · 2010-12-09 15:37:13

I'm using ConnectBot to connect to my archbox (ssh with key auth). It works pretty well.

@yabasta
install ssh with public key authentification on your computer.
install connectbot (you'll find it on the android market) on your phone.

yabasta · 2010-12-14 18:16:19

thanks for all your replies folks i went down the ftp over ssl with vsftpd route in the end. still needs a little tweaking but i think i'm getting there. it's been the usual learning curve for me : google, sweat and cursing!

Arch Linux

#1 2010-12-07 17:26:48

connect to my arch box from my android phone

#2 2010-12-07 17:31:37

Re: connect to my arch box from my android phone

#3 2010-12-07 17:39:50

Re: connect to my arch box from my android phone

#4 2010-12-07 17:43:15

Re: connect to my arch box from my android phone

#5 2010-12-07 17:57:27

Re: connect to my arch box from my android phone

#6 2010-12-07 18:08:52

Re: connect to my arch box from my android phone

#7 2010-12-07 18:10:27

Re: connect to my arch box from my android phone

#8 2010-12-07 18:19:10

Re: connect to my arch box from my android phone

#9 2010-12-07 18:21:10

Re: connect to my arch box from my android phone

#10 2010-12-07 18:27:57

Re: connect to my arch box from my android phone

#11 2010-12-07 18:46:17

Re: connect to my arch box from my android phone

#12 2010-12-07 18:54:35

Re: connect to my arch box from my android phone

#13 2010-12-07 19:18:16

Re: connect to my arch box from my android phone

#14 2010-12-07 19:28:12

Re: connect to my arch box from my android phone

#15 2010-12-07 19:36:05

Re: connect to my arch box from my android phone

#16 2010-12-07 19:41:02

Re: connect to my arch box from my android phone

#17 2010-12-08 01:09:29

Re: connect to my arch box from my android phone

#18 2010-12-09 02:46:44

Re: connect to my arch box from my android phone

#19 2010-12-09 15:37:13

Re: connect to my arch box from my android phone

#20 2010-12-14 18:16:19

Re: connect to my arch box from my android phone

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