Encrypted network drives using SSHFS

Judland · Post by **Judland** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 1:01 pm

This weekend I happened to learn about the use of SSHFS to connect to network shared folders stored on my home server. Anyone here use SSHFS?

I blogged about it briefly and thought I'd mention it here.

Basically, it's much like using NFS, but it's easier to set-up (no need for server admin to do anything other than provide SSH connections to the server) and is encrypted, as is the nature of SSH.

It works really well and I'm glad I learned about it.

More information about SSHFS can be found on Wikipedia. If you haven't heard about/used SSHFS before, I suggest you take a look.

snarkout · Post by **snarkout** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 2:23 pm

I use sshfs all the time for streaming media from my workstation to my lappy. It rocks. The encryption really does add a lot of overhead though - things I can stream remotely via nfs or cifs will not stream at all via sshfs. I understand that media streaming wasn't one of the main proposed strengths of sshfs, though, so just consider that a data point I guess.

Judland · Post by **Judland** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 4:38 pm

I seem to be able to stream MP3s and OGGs just fine... no delays at all. However, I haven't tried video content, yet. I don't have much in the way of that anyway.

snarkout · Post by **snarkout** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 5:28 pm

Judland wrote:I seem to be able to stream MP3s and OGGs just fine... no delays at all. However, I haven't tried video content, yet. I don't have much in the way of that anyway.

The key word in my post is "remotely." Locally, on my LAN, streaming of all sorts is just fine with SSHFS. I love it!

Judland · Post by **Judland** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 5:37 pm

Snarkout wrote:The key word in my post is "remotely." Locally, on my LAN, streaming of all sorts is just fine with SSHFS. I love it!

I get it.

Anyway, it's a useful tool. I'm liking it a lot, too. It's fish:// on steroids!