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Connect to your Mac: Step by step

how to access your personal iGet Mobile server


When running, iGet Mobile displays your server's connection details in the main window. You will see two URLs (in blue text) which you can enter in your web browser to access your server:

screen shot

You can click these links to preview the server from your Mac. There are normally two URLs displayed, one using your server's numeric address, and one using the alphanumeric version of the address. (For most typical Internet connections, the numerical one is a lot shorter and more convenient, which is why iGet Mobile displays them both.)

(Later, for convenience, you might set up a dynamic DNS name for your Mac, which gives you an address that doesn't change, even if your IP address does. For clarity, though, we'll use the simple IP address in this tutorial.)

Initiate the connection

To connect from your client device, you enter one of these URLs into the client device's web browser. This starts the connection to your personal server.

Entering URL on iPhone
Entering the URL on the iPhone.
Entering the URL using Firefox on Windows.

 

Accept the SSL certificate

In the default configuration, iGet Mobile creates a "self-signed" SSL certificate, which is used to encrypt the connection between your client device and the iGet Mobile application running on your Mac. Unlike an SSL certificate you purchase from a commercial certificate authority, this type of certificate is not automatically recognized by your browser. So, depending on the client device you're using, you will see some form of warning, asking whether you want to accept the unknown certificate:


Firefox on PC
Safari on the iPhone prompts the user about the self-signed SSL certificate.
A similar (but much more verbose) alert from Firefox on Windows.

To use the self-signed certificate that iGet Mobile has automatically created for you, you should accept the certificate. If your client device has the option to "remember" the certificate, you should choose to do so.

(Note: iGet Mobile will allow you to use a full commercial-grade SSL certificate, if you wish. See SSL Certificates In-depth for details.)

 

Enter your username and password

Finally, your client device's browser will prompt you to enter the username and password. This is the username and password which you entered in the Access Control setup sheet.

Entering the username and password on the iPhone. ...and on Firefox for Windows.

 

Voila! You're in.

The connection is now complete. You are connected to the iGet Mobile application running on your Mac. Your connection is secure, and your data is protected while it's being transmitted.

Using iGet Mobile from the iPhone. Using iGet Mobile from Firefox on Windows.

 

What's next?

Once you are connected to your Mac running iGet Mobile, you are ready to browse and access your files. We hope that the web interface feels familiar and intuitive, but for complete details on how to use it, you can refer to the next section of this guide.

Next: Access your files: using the iGet Mobile web interface


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