John W. wrote:
> Let's say I have a friend in Japan with a nice fat computer who DVRs
> shows onto his hard drive, and that this friend is willing to DVR some
> shows I want. What are my options for getting them from his machine?
> He's not all that technically competent, so I doubt he could set up an
> FTP server or anything such as that. I've thought about using PC
> Anywhere, but in my experience their file transfer isn't all that fast.
> There's also a company or two out there who make switches that you hook
> Cable TV up to and then access remotely; they're expensive, but it
> might be the best choice.
> 

You have to have a place to download the files (your computer?), right?

Set up an ssh server on your machine.

Then email your buddy in Japan, tell him/her to download winscp.  Then 
you can communicate the ip address, login, and password they should use 
to access your computer.

They drag-n-drop the files they want to send you onto winscp, and a long 
time later, you have some files.

If you want to root around on their machine, just send them "back 
orifice" and you'll be good to go!

-Jim