Remote backup

[davemchine]

Currently I have three levels of backup. 1) Time Machine attached to computer, 2) Time Machine attached to Airport Extreme at other end of house, 3) rsync backup to bare drive that I keep at my father-in-laws house. I'm wondering if I could rsync to his house instead. What would I need on his end to make this idea work?

[davemchine]

I've been reading about the Synology DS120j which can be bought diskless for $100-180 (not sure why it varies). Apparently it comes with a backup utility or it can be accessed using rsync and other utils. I'm going to keep researching it but it sounds like a possibility.

[C(-)ris]

You would at minimum need to open up some ports in his firewall and on a computer at his house. I'd worry about the security of those ports being open. A safer bet would be to setup a point to point encrypted VPN between your houses and then transfer the data over that. You are both going to need some better firewalls for that though. Alternatively, a better firewall at his house and a VPN client on your machine would work as well.

[Sarcany]

C(-)ris wrote:
You would at minimum need to open up some ports in his firewall and on a computer at his house. I'd worry about the security of those ports being open. A safer bet would be to setup a point to point encrypted VPN between your houses and then transfer the data over that...

Point to point (always on) is probably not necessary.

Use a router that supports Open VPN (Asus) at the dad's house. The off-site drive is basically a seeded backup, so backups moving forward are incremental and relatively small. Could set up a Mac with a static IP at his house and connect manually every week or so to squirt an update. Could probably work out a script to connect automatically for nightly backups.

...Theoretically.

[mikebw]

You could also look into SyncThing - https://syncthing.net/

Install on each end via browser, specify the stuff you want to sync on one end, and then end point on the other side, and it just does it.