Exactly that is doing Qnap, with his own software, you can share specific content, secure and do much more stuff. You should study it more. Is a wonderful solution that I use for 10+ now, with exactly the features you need.
Your data must stay with you not in a cloud server.
I agree that my personal photos should stay with me, but when it comes to collecting photos from other family/friends, most of which already have their photos in google photos, collecting them on a cloud server before moving them to more private storage is not a big concern to me. I'd rather that than worry about the security of connecting some friends of friends on a group trip into my own home network with a passwordless link, which I would still need to do with a home NAS.
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here you have a demo to play around https://www.qnap.com/en/live-demo
I don't want to sell you Qnap, I just want you to think about. Synology have similar software / features.
I have for example configured my NAS on my mobile device and all photos I am taking are automatically uploaded to my NAS. If I lose that mobile, no worry all my data is safe. And many more cool features for personal data sharing. You could have even your own youtube if you like, photo albums etc
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Yea, I'll definitely play around with it. Seems like more of an improvement to other areas of my file management, with a side benefit of if I set up a reverse proxy, I could securely use it for the purposes of this post. Perhaps a few extra steps, but combined with other benefits, may be worth it. Appreciate it.
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If you do not own a domain and a public IP at your home, no problem, Qnap/Synology is even offering a DynDNS free service for your NAS. Just few clicks and your NAS is available online from anywhere. Of course with some security restrictions for specific accounts. But as a end user, is very simply to setup.
You can configure your NAS in both ways:
  • directly with a public IP / domain : port
  • DynDNS through Qnap/Synology services.
Both ways works perfectly the same. You DO NOT have to publicly share this address of your NAS, share it only with your friends/family. You can even use just an IP, not even need a domain.
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21 sats \ 1 reply \ @ACYK OP 27 Oct
Thanks, I’ll definitely look into this for my own use, but, I’d still be skeptical about sending out a link to a shared folder with upload capability, and having it be passwordless to friends of friends. Adding a password already adds a barrier to some, adding a weak password isn’t much better. I don’t have to want to keep track of what security vulnerabilities are out there which might allow for exploits to gain access beyond the group folder. I kind of like the idea of keeping my personal storage separate from links I send out to a wider audience for group photos. Even if the fears are unfounded, the value of peace of mind is real.
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You can create as many accounts you want for those people, with limited rights for specific folders. Also you could send a shared link with a password and time to expire. If you want to limit the uploads also you can do it.
You could have separate repositories for public and private, as you like. Is up to you how to configure that NAS.
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