Create Your Own Web Photo Album

Transcription

1 READYNAS SOLUTIONS SERIES Create Your Own Web Photo Album Infrant Technologies, Inc Skyway Court, Fremont, CA

2 Create Your Own Web Photo Album with Infrant Technologies ReadyNAS NV and JAlbum Web Album Software You know when the digital photo bug has bitten you. You bought the coolest digital camera you could afford. Of course, you also bought several huge memory cards. And you have been taking many, many, MANY hot photos of the people, places, and events in your life. Now you have hundreds, maybe even thousands, of photos. It would be great to share your albums with your friends and family. But the available Internet photo sharing sites just don t light your flash. Loading albums is slow, the album styles are limited, and you want greater control over your precious photos. What to do? How about hosting your own Web album from your home storage and network? You can have as much storage as you want, oodles of album styles to choose from, and share your photos with those who would enjoy them almost as much as you do. Requirements Here s what you ll need: Local storage (Want LOTS of storage? Use external storage, like an Infrant ReadyNAS NV) Personal Computer o Windows XP PC, Mac OS X, Linux PC Web album software Broadband Internet service Home network router Your photos Your creativity Process Once you have all your hardware set up and working, there are a few more steps: 1) Set up your network to allow outside access. (Port Forwarding and Dynamic DNS). 2) Set up your NAS to provide security for various groups of people. (Optional.) 3) Create your web albums. Get album creation software (like the free JAlbum from JAlbum.net). 4) Tell your family and friends how to view your albums! Infrant Technologies 1 P/N: IT U-01

3 Set Up Your Network Quite honestly, this is the most technical and most complicated part of the process. There are two major steps: Setting up Port Forwarding (with your router) Signing up for a Dynamic Domain Name Service (free!) What is Port Forwarding? What is a Dynamic Domain Name Service? These are not exactly common dinner conversation topics. A short explanation follows for those of use who are not networking gurus. About Ports and Port Forwarding The Internet uses TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) as the standard communication language. Applications using TCP/IP use ports to help identify traffic meant for one application from traffic meant for another application. This way, more than one program can use TCP/IP on the same computer. You may know that your home network router serves as a firewall, blocking unauthorized traffic into your home network. If you open a window in your firewall, you can allow other computers (used by your family and friends) to access data (like your photos) on your home network. You can do this with a setting on your router called Port Forwarding. IP Addresses The Internet is a network of millions of computers, communicating via TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). TCP/IP is a set of standard rules for formatting data. Each computer has a unique IP (Internet Protocol) address to ensure delivery of messages meant uniquely for that computer. This address is in the form of a 32- bit numeric address, written as four numbers (0 to 255) separated by periods. For example, an address of could be an IP address. Setting Port Forwarding The following procedure is based on a NETGEAR router. Routers from other manufacturers will have similar capabilities. Refer to your router s User Guide for the specific steps for your brand and model of router. Log in to your router, using your Web Browser (like Internet Explorer, FireFox, Netscape Navigator, etc.). With NETGEAR, you type the IP address of your router, into the address field. Log in with the user name and password. You created these when you configured your router for the first time. You did change these from the factory default settings, didn t you? :-) You will need the IP address of the NAS on your local network. From the Start page of the router configuration firmware, you can go to the Attached Devices page, using the navigational links in the left column. Infrant Technologies 2 P/N: IT U-01

4 Find the IP address of the NAS, and write it down (e.g ). Infrant Technologies 3 P/N: IT U-01

5 Next, go to the Port Forwarding page. On the Port Forwarding page, click on Add Custom Service. Infrant Technologies 4 P/N: IT U-01

6 The next screen shows the Ports Custom Services page. Fill in the form: Infrant Technologies 5 P/N: IT U-01

7 Service Name: https (NOTE: Suggested input is https and not http ) Starting Port 443 Ending Port 443 Server IP Address (This is the IP address of the NAS you wrote earlier.) When you are done, click the Apply button. Congratulations! You have completed the Port Forwarding step! About Dynamic Domain Name Services (Dynamic DNS) Dynamic IP Addresses and Dynamic DNS If you have a typical Cable or DSL ISP (Internet Service Provider) contract, your IP address can change occasionally. Also, upon reboot (after a power outage, being turned off, or reset), your Cable or DSL modem will search for the ISP, which will probably assign it a different IP address. DNS, or Domain Name Service, is an Internet service that translates a domain name (such as into the proper IP address. This is great, because domain names are much easier for humans to remember, and IP addresses are needed for computers to communicate. A Dynamic DNS allows you to assign a domain name to a dynamic IP address. How does that work? You sign up for an account at a service provider (e.g. which allows you one free account). They will keep your chosen domain name (also called host name) associated with your current IP address in their database. If your IP address changes, Infrant Technologies 6 P/N: IT U-01

8 the change is reported to the Dynamic DNS. Anyone typing your domain name into their Web browser will be redirected to your new IP address automatically. Set Up a Dynamic DNS 1) Set up your dynamic DNS account. a. Go to Create your free account, with a user name (e.g. mydyndns) and password. b. Choose a host name (e.g. myhost). DynDNS.org allows you to choose from 68 free domain names (just a few examples: dyndns.org, dynalias.com, myphotos.cc). Your full host name could be myhost.dyndns.org. Now you have your Dynamic DNS. 2) Set up router to update DNS. a. Log in to your router. b. Go to the Dynamic DNS page. With NETGEAR, it is in the Advanced section. Infrant Technologies 7 P/N: IT U-01

9 On the Dynamic DNS Page, check the Use a Dynamic DNS Service box, and fill in the form with the information you used when registering for your account with dyndns.org. When done, click on the Apply button. Next, test your new host/domain name. Open a browser window, and type your host name into the address field. You will probably get a Security Alert window. Infrant Technologies 8 P/N: IT U-01

10 Click Yes. [You do trust yourself, don t you? :-)] You will be shown the log in box, asking for your name and password, just as when you log in to the ReadyNAS NV. After you log in, the result should be a screen like this: Infrant Technologies 9 P/N: IT U-01

11 Great! Now, when someone (even you!) wants to access your system from somewhere on the Internet, all they need to do is to type your host address into their browser address field. (Remember, you set up your host address with rather than the standard Infrant Technologies 10 P/N: IT U-01

12 Set Up Your NAS Security Let s say that you intend to host albums intended for different audiences. For example, you may want to have separate access to albums you build specifically for your family, your friends, and your colleagues. For example, while you want to share your photos of Cousin Sally s wedding with your family, you don t want your colleagues to see you in a pink tuxedo. You can use the Infrant Technologies FrontView control software to create a workable security setup. Here s one way. The main steps are: 1) Set Security Mode to User. 2) Add User Accounts. 3) Create Shares (basically, folders associated with the User Accounts). 4) Assign appropriate Web Access privileges/restrictions to each Share. Set Security Mode to User Log in to FrontView. From the Welcome screen, click on the Security button. On the Security page, on the Security Mode tab, I clicked on the User option. Infrant Technologies 11 P/N: IT U-01

13 If this is a change to the existing security mode, you will get a Warning that changing the security mode can cause unrecoverable permission problems with existing files. If you are starting this project with a set of blank disks, this step will be much easier. Add User Accounts Once you have resolved any potential permission issues, go on to the Accounts tab. Here, you can create new user names with passwords. In this example, I have added users named colleagues, family, and friends. Remember to record the passwords you set Infrant Technologies 12 P/N: IT U-01

14 for each user so that you can tell your colleagues, family and friends how to view the albums you place in their respective shares. Leaving the Quota at 0 means that the system will not restrict the amount of space for each user. Since you control what is placed on the ReadyNAS NV, this is not an issue. When done, click on the Apply button in the lower right corner. Create Shares Now, click on the Shares button in the left navigation column. On the Shares page, click on the Add Share tab. For our example, I added three Shares: Albums_Colleagues Albums_Family Albums_Friends Click the Apply button when done. Assign Web Access Restrictions Click on the Share List tab. Infrant Technologies 13 P/N: IT U-01

15 On the Share List page, note the column headed by Web. Clicking on an icon in the Web column, in the row for any share, will allow you to set the Share Access Restrictions for that share when it is accessed from the Web. For example, click on the Web icon for the Albums_Colleagues share. Infrant Technologies 14 P/N: IT U-01

16 Here, you can: Set the Default Access to Read-only (for example, to prevent the office wag from painting a moustache on a picture of your boss in one of your albums). Click on the check box to restrict access to specific entities. o Enter colleagues in the Users allowed access box. Click Apply when done. You can repeat the steps above for the Albums_Family and Albums_Friends shares, with the appropriate names in the Users allowed access box. Great! You have now completed the NAS Security step. Next comes the fun part: Creating your Web albums. Infrant Technologies 15 P/N: IT U-01

17 Create Your Web Albums To create your Web albums, with the appropriate security for your various audiences, here s what you do: Get Web Album Software Organize your photos Create your albums Copy your albums to the appropriate Shares (folders on the ReadyNAS NV) Get Web Album Software Now you need your album creation software. One very nice application for creating a Web album is by JAlbum.net. And it s free! It s easy to use, gives you many choices of album styles and colors, and did I mention it s free? Go to to learn about the software and see samples. If you decide to use it, you can download it from the left navigation column. The JAlbum Web site provides easy guidance to download and install the JAlbum software. Step 1: Get Java JAlbum runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux because it uses Java. You can use a link on the JAlbum site to check your Java runtime version. If you need to update it, JAlbum provides a convenient link to update your Java software. Step 2: Optional registration Infrant Technologies 16 P/N: IT U-01

18 Registration is optional, but JAlbum provides benefits of update notices and offers a newsletter with hints to improve your albums, new skins (or album styles), and offers from partners. Step 3: Select Installer Here, you choose your Operating system, and a logical download location. Download the software, and follow the easy instructions to install it on your system. Organize Your Photos Creating your albums will go very quickly if you already have your photos separated into various folders corresponding to your desired albums, with the photos in your desired order. For our example, I have collected photos of a trip to Italy into various folders: Rome Florence Milan I named each photo file with a number and a short title. The number helps to sort the photos in the order that I want. The title reminds me what is in the photo. For example, the first two files of my collection are named: Rome Temple of Venus and Roma Colosseum Infrant Technologies 17 P/N: IT U-01

19 Create Your Albums I will use JAlbum to create: A Rome album in the Albums_Colleagues share A Florence album in the Albums_Family share A Milan album in the Albums_Friends share First, I created the target album folders in the media share: Rome Album Florence Album Milan Album Why is this step necessary? The three destination shares for colleagues, family, and friends were created with access restrictions. JAlbum is not able to create an album directly into those shares. If we create the albums in the media share, we can use administrator privileges to copy the album folders (Rome, Florence and Milan) to the appropriate shares (which appear as other folders), then delete the album folders from the media share. Start the JAlbum software. A very easy screen appears. Infrant Technologies 18 P/N: IT U-01

20 Image directory refers to the folder that holds your picture files. Output directory refers to the folder that will hold your completed Web album. You can drag and drop the folders to the input fields, or you can browse for the proper folder by clicking on the folder icons to the right of the input fields. I ll start by creating the Rome album, with the Thumbnail Layout of 3 columns by 3 rows. Infrant Technologies 19 P/N: IT U-01

21 Next, select your image ordering mode. You can arrange your photos by date or name. I chose Name since I have already named my photo files to sort in the order that I want. Make your choice of your album s Appearance from a multitude of different Skins and various Styles (basically, color schemes). You can make a selection with the drop down box, and see a Sample before you commit to making the album. I ll use the Chameleon skin, and Black.css style for the Rome album. When you are ready, click on Make album. JAlbum works for a while, showing a dialog box with a progress bar. Infrant Technologies 20 P/N: IT U-01

22 After JAlbum finishes, you can click View album to see the results. And here it is, the Rome album, with the Chameleon Skin, in the Black.css Style. Infrant Technologies 21 P/N: IT U-01

23 Next, I go the media share, and copy the Rome Album folder to the Albums_Colleagues share. Then I delete the Rome Album folder from the media share. I followed a very similar process to create the Florence Album (copied to the Albums_Family share) and the Milan Album (copied to the Albums_Friends share). As I experimented with navigating to the albums, I found that the direct Web address was in the form of: The acid test, pretending to be a colleague, accessing the Rome album: Opening a new browser window. Typing the above into the address field. Logging in as colleagues. Infrant Technologies 22 P/N: IT U-01

24 Success! This has been a very interesting project. I used: A simple, complete, Dynamic DNS enabled Web address A password protected share on my Infrant Technologies ReadyNAS NV directly to a JAlbum Web album of my own photos! The only things left to do is to inform my colleagues, family and friends of my new album sharing capability, and to give them the appropriate Web addresses and passwords. Did I say the only things? This is only the beginning! After all, I do have a terabyte of storage May you have as much fun! ====================================================== ===== References: Dyn DNS JAlbum Home Net Help.com Infrant Technologies Luminous Landscape PC Webopaedia Infrant Technologies 23 P/N: IT U-01