I currently have a ReadyNAS RN 204 set up on a 1GB Up/Down Internet connection. Within my LAN, I have several video editors who access the ReadyNAS using AFP. They then are able to edit video directly off the ReadyNAS, effectively streaming the files as they work on them. This flow has worked really well so far.
We are now trying to get a remote editor. Because of the speed of the network connection, they should be able to carry out a similar system of streaming the content as they edit (given sufficient download speed). Is it possible to set up AFP for remote access? If not, how can I get the editor to be able to mount the drive in OSX, in the same way the local editors do?
Link speed is not the only consideration. Security is certainly important with remote access. You want to make sure the connection is authenticated and also encrypted. I don't believe AFP is encrypted, and Apple is saying that they have deprecated it (though it is still available). Ideally you would deploy a VPN, which would give your remote workers the ability to access your enterprise network (including the NAS) in a secure way.
Also, the real-world performance will vary, depending on the end-to-end speed and and round trip time.
Even if the NAS and the remote user both have gigabit connections, the end-to-end speed will usually be slower. That might be temporary (due to congestion), or it might be a bottleneck because some links along the connection path aren't gigabit.
The round trip time/latency will limit the editing speed no matter how fast the link is. If the latency is 100 ms, then whenever the editor communicates with the NAS, it will take at least 100 ms for editor to get confirmation on the response.
That said, per Apple's documentation, AFP over TCP uses port 548. So if you aren't using a VPN, you'd need to forward port 548 from the router to the NAS (and likely use DNS or DDNS in order to allow your remote workers to reach the NAS using a FQDN).
