Make a PC Look Like a Firewire or USB Drive?

buckinm asks: "Here's the problem: I have a Windows laptop that I use for work. When I'm at home though, I much rather use my Mac. Since we use Cisco's VPN client at work, I can't mount the drives on the PC from the Mac. What I'd like to know, is there any software out there that would make the PC act like a Firewire or USB drive? I'd want to be able to mount it read/write. I know I could do some sort of rsync of thing when not connected to the VPN, but that seems like too much trouble. I wouldn't be against writing something like that, if I could get some idea of what is required to listen / respond to traffic on the Firewire or USB ports."

Re:Simplest way:

[wowbagger]

This probably WON'T work, for the same reason he cannot use Samba over normal Ethernet.

Most VPN clients, in order to protect the network you are VPN'ing into, will shut down all other connections - they set the VPN interface to be the default route, and then they remove any other routes.

So doing IP over Firewire will work, right up to the time the VPN client kills it.

I'd suggest finding a small Linksys/Dlink (but NOT BELKIN) router that has Cisco VPN client support - the router will handle the VPN, and you can plug both your Mac and your PC into it.

What problem are you trying to solve?

[kwerle]

Since we use Cisco's VPN client at work, I can't mount the drives on the PC from the Mac

OK, you have a PC laptop. You have a Cisco VPN. You have files. What files do you need to share?

If the files are on the laptop, just network the 2 boxes at home and share the files, right?

If the files are at work, get a Cisco VPN solution for the Mac (I used one for years).

If IT won't help (surprise, right?), and you're determined to break the law/policy/whatever, there are a lot of options:

Add an interface on the laptop and set it up as a router.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/openvpn/, maybe over http://www.nocrew.org/software/httptunnel.html (either from the laptop or a machine in the office).

Maybe run the VPN in an emulator layer (http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/), give it access to the local filesystem, let the "outter layer" windows export the same filesystem, keep updating using rsync (just brainstorming, here).

Or just keep it simple, stupid. Get an external firewire drive, dump the files you need, and swap it to/from the mac/laptop.

Networking via USB or Firewire probably won't help

[Curmudgeonlyoldbloke]

I looked into this a while back.
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8 &c2coff=1&threadm=79240318.0302052128.2ac4b7de%40p osting.google.com&rnum=8&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Dcisco% 2B%2522default%2Bgateway%2522%2Bvpn%2Bclient%26hl% 3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26c2coff%3D1%26sa%3DN%26 tab%3Dwg [google.com]
is a summary of what I found then.

There is an option "allow local LAN access" on the "transport" tab of the VPN client setup. However, according to the Usenet post above:

"... the administrator has the final say whether or not clients can do local LAN, both by enabling/or/ not enable "split tunnelling"
in the concentrator GROUP/CLIENT CONFIG. Without split tunnelling your stuck sending everything through the tunnel. You are only allowed to speak to your DEFAULT gateway, I.E the ISP ROUTER. Nothing you can do with the client will override this."

Re:What problem are you trying to solve?

[BridgeBum]

I think, perhaps, the person asking the question would like to be able to access the files on the PC and VPN simultaneously. He said he could do an rsync type thing prior to initiating the VPN, but that's too much work.

Given that many VPN solutions are configured to not allow split tunneling, you cannot access your local LAN IP addresses while connected via VPN. I believe the Cisco client by default disallows split tunnelling, but that may be a server side setting that is negotiated, I'm not 100% sure.

So, let's rephrase: How can I access the information on my PC without using IP?