The Missing Dropbox iPhone App

Dropbox is one of my most frequently used, hidden tools at home, office and on the road. By hidden I mean, it's seamless and well integrated into my computing lifestyle regardless of platform or hardware. As good as Dropbox is though, in my opinion it's only weakness within my workflow is it's lack of a native iPhone application.

Before I move on, it's important to note, that Dropbox does currently have a mobile web formatted version available to the iPhone and other mobile devices. Indeed, they are also working on a true native iPhone app that will appear in the near future. Could be days or weeks, but it is coming, and promises to address all your iPhone needs and then some.

That said, I set out to mash together some ways to access and manipulate my Dropbox account from my iPhone. I came up with 2 solutions, which may help fill the void for you as well, as we wait for the official iPhone Dropbox app to arrive.

The first and simplest solution is a hack or rather a cheat on my part. I enjoy Sugarsync's native iPhone application. It's UI is simple, attractive and useful in cases where you need to read/access data and possibly share your content with someone else. Until recently it was a PAY ONLY service. However, Sugarsync NOW offers a FREE 2 GB account, just like Dropbox. So with that in mind, sign up for your free account with Sugarsync. Setup Sugarsync on a computer (Mac or PC) where you have Dropbox installed. Add a sync folder pointing to your dropbox folder. Finally, Install the Sugarsync app on your iPhone. Enjoy your read/share access to your Dropbox files through the Sugarsync App.

My other solution takes a bit more work, but it's much more flexible and powerful. This will not only give you access to read/write to your Dropbox account, it will also allow you to access any shared volumes you want accessible from your home machines. Comes in very handy when you're on the road and need to reach your data.

Before I begin, it's important to know a few things. Security will always be an issue. There are ways to make it harder for someone to tap into what you are doing, via a VPN or secure tunnel, however that is a topic for another day. So please do not try this or place sensitive materials available via your network if you have any doubts.

The process involves using a WebDav Server to share your volumes on your internal network, via an obscure port forwarding. Using Webdav makes it easy for the iPhone to access via many of the file based apps already available in the iTunes store such as Air Sharing, OneDisk, EzShare, etc.....

If you're on a Mac, you already have an Apache Web Server built in. Your task is to activate the Webdav service and configure it's authentication, then define your volume shares.

If you're using a Windows machine and use Sharepoint or any other Webdav server, that will do as well.

You can find tutorials on the web for configuring your Webdav server of choice. Again, Google is your friend. If you’re using Linux, then chances are you already know how to do this.

Security: Make sure you use Digest Authentication. Basic only offers unencrypted passwords over plain text.

Once you have your volumes/shares defined (ie. Dropbox folder and/or other volumes ) and accounts configured, it's time to configure your router to port forward some obscure unused port number towards --> port 80 of your Webdav server’s ip address. Hackers rarely waste time port scanning the full range of ports from 0-65535. So pick a high number that's not normally open for services. For this example I’ll use 46771.

Before we get to the iPhone portion, you need a way to access your computer from the outside world. Most likely your isp is using DHCP, which means your ip address won't always be the same. There are many services to resolve this problem, I prefer the free solution from Dyndns.com. Once you have reserved your own hostname, you can finish it all off.

Install a Webdav access iPhone application like the ones mentioned above, I prefer Air Sharing Pro. Launch the app on your iPhone. Add a generic WebDav server Connection. In the Url field(server address) type in your new Dynamic DNS Host name with port number (ie. www.yourhostname.com:46771/ShareName). Some apps, have the Port number on a seperate field, so fill that in accordingly.

When you are done, you should have access to your shares for copying, moving, renaming, deleting, e-mailing, printing, zipping, unzipping, and whatever operations your iphone app provides.

If you've read this far, I hope this has ignited your thoughts in new ways to use your iPhone/dropbox or other file sharing methods. Additionally, since the source of this last method is Webdav, you are not limited to your iPhone as a client. Experiment and enjoy.