Secure network fileshare between Mac and Windows PC

[Taz]

I have a dedicated PC for gaming that's in another room and it's only used for gaming. It's running Windows 10 Pro. My main computer is in my study and is an iMac running macOS Monterey. Both are on my local home network.

Sometimes I need to transfer files between the two. With security being a primary concern of mine, what's the best way to set up network fileshares between the two with bidirectional read/write?

[b0redom]

USB stick.

[b0redom]

Why is security a concern on your local LAN? OSX can connect to Windows shares and that's probably the way to go since malware/virus attacks are way more likely on Windows.

[jimbouk]

Even between different versions of Windows I ended up with a USB stick (well external hard-drive) last time I needed to move some files. Not convenient for regular copies but did just work!

An SFTP server on either box would do the job but you're using non-native file browsing tools for the copying. Something built in would be the easiest.

And bi-directional read/write - do you mean you want to be able to write from either machine to the other machine? If so then a share from each would be easiest.

Out of the box thinking is does your router let you plugin a USB stick and share it? Might be a happy medium as a common place both can access? Not sure on security in that instance though...

[Taz]

Why is security a concern on your local LAN? OSX can connect to Windows shares and that's probably the way to go since malware/virus attacks are way more likely on Windows.

I'm just extra careful!

I found the Windows share configuration in macOS. I also created a new 'share' user that can only see one shared folder and has read-only access to it. I had to add the credentials of the share user into macOS SMB configuration - apparently it's held less securely in there as that's the authentication Windows requires.

Going the other way (Windows to macOS) - this was fairly straightforward in the end. I set up a shared folder in Windows and set up 'Everyone' to read-only permission in that folder. I'll need to tweak that later.

For now, I've can read between each computer one folder on a each in read-only mode, which is good enough. I also turned off network discovery in Windows 10. macOS is pretty secure.

Getting back to your question, some of the networked devices on my LA are quite 'nosey' in that they go around seeing what's available on my network, as do some apps on my phones and devices. I've tried to limit this as much as possible without losing functionality of the device/app.

[b0redom]

What I’ve got setup is a FreeNAS (now TrueNAS) box that can limit read/write/no access based on source IPs and username and password. Probably overkill for what you want.