Owncloud vs. VPN for "cloud" access

[Bear Island]

Newbie here. I want access to files on my FreeNAS server remotely, kind of like Dropbox.

Is the preferred method set up a VPN server and tunnel into my server that way? Or, is setting up Owncloud secure? I understand I would then have to forward a port?

It would just be me accessing the server.

 

[dlavigne]

Did you decide upon a solution?

 

[Bear Island]

I did. I set up PfSense on an old Dell Optiplex and use it for (among other cool things) an OpenVPN server. For one user, it works perfectly and was easy to set up. I think it would also be easy to add family members and others who I allow to access my home network.


However, if I wanted to add people who only should have cloud access (e.g., my coworkers collaborating on projects with me), this does not seem like a good solution.

 

[TheDubiousDubber]

If it's solely for personal use, I think a VPN is the best option, which is clearly the approach you took. If you want to grant others access I would imagine OwnCloud would be a better fit. It allows you to share data publicly or privately. You can password protect and give out the password to your coworkers and you can even place time limits on access.

 

[maultrommel]

Having just set up my machine, it may be a bit early to give decisive answers, but I found pyd.io very useful!
It offers similar basic file access capabilities, but (opposing to owncloud) it is made to give remote access to files which are often changed by an external source. That is, it doesn't solely rely on its own database, but kind of rescans a folder whenever you access it.
Furthermore pydio also offers secret links, password protected links, time limited links or even download number limited links.
I even started using it to directly add photos from my phone to my FreeNAS, works like a charm.
As I said, I haven't been running it for months yet and am still fine tuning it, but it might be what you are looking for.