Remote File Sharing

[rw120555]

As is usually the case when I stop by here, this question will reveal how little I know about networking...

My wife runs a small business out of our home. She wants everyone to have access to a shared set of files. That is easy enough to do for the people who work in our home, i.e. I just set up a shared folder with read/write access on one of our networked machines. However, she has some temporary workers who will mostly work from their homes, and she wants them to have easy access to these files too. I've been doing that via remote desktop connection; but as far as I know, only one person can connect to the same computer at a time, so that is not very good if you have as many as 4 or 5 people trying to access remotely. Plus I really don't like opening up our network to the entire world when all that is really needed is selected file access (everybody just uses word or excel, which I am sure they all have on their own machines anyway).

In short, I'd like multiple people (both on-site and off-site) to simultaneously access an N: drive (or whatever). Hopefully any file would be locked if more than one person tried to use it simultaneously.

Now, I suppose one solution would be to buy as many cheap PCs as I could and set them up for remote desktop access, but I would think there would be better solutions! (Although we could buy one more computer.) Also, I know that people could copy files to their home machines and then copy back, but I'm afraid files will get zapped if multiple people are working on different copies.

Other info: All machines involved use XP Pro or Vista Home...And we have a fixed IP address for her business (but no company web page or anything like that). And my router lets me do port forwarding. And again, I am no IT professional, although my wife is starting to wish she had married one...

So, if there are any suggestions on relatively cheap and simple solutions, I'd appreciate it.

 

[TheKub]

You can install Hamachi on each of the machines then use normal windows file sharing across the VPN (virtual private network) connection. Providing you trust the individuals that you are granting access too it is very secure and simple (no port forwarding needed).

Or if that seems to be too much you can look at document sharing services like microsoft office live workspace. Should allow you to do what you want just that the files you are sharing are now on a server on the internet and not on your home machine.

You might also might be able to use live mesh, you could in theory create a mesh of all the machines involved and create a set of folders that sync across all the systems.

The first option Im sure will lock the file, the other 2 Im not entirely sure.

 

[mxnerd]

http://www.windowsnetworking.c...orials/WebDAV-IIS.html

 

[heymrdj]

I use Hamachi. Just set up your home computer to only share drive N, and that's all that Hamachi will give access to.

 

[rw120555]

Thanks everyone! The Office Live option looks very viable, but it makes me a little nervous to have stuff online, plus the 1,000 file limit could be a problem. The WebDav and Hamachi options look tempting. I just downloaded Hamachi - I'll see how idiot proof it is.

 

[RebateMonger]

A Windows Home Server can host shared files and can allow outside Users to access them with with password protection and encrypted connections. You can protect the folders on the WHS with disk redundancy. Access is via a web site, so no special client software is needed. And, of course, you can host as many files as your hard drive(s) will hold.

In addition, it also gives you automated image-based backups/restores of every PC (up to ten) on your home or office network.

While VPNs certainly have their uses, remember that with a VPN you are putting those remote PCs on your office network. This means that malware installed by an employees kids gets a shot at attacking all your office PCs, too.

 

[rw120555]

Interesting point about malware. I feel reasonably confident about all the machines we have in our house - they either have McAfee (provided by the ISP) or Norton Internet Security. But I can't vouch for outsiders who are using their own laptops.

I do have it set up so that there is just one directory that people have write access to - and it gets backed up every night. So I think the worst that happens is that one day's work is zapped. Still, I'm not sure how well we would hold up against a really malicious attack, either from the inside or outside.

I have Hamachi now so I'll play around with it a bit and see what I think. Then I'll try to check into approaches that are pure file sharing rather than VPN. Thanks again.

 

[TheKub]

Originally posted by: rw120555
Then I'll try to check into approaches that are pure file sharing rather than VPN. Thanks again.

To use "pure file sharing" you pretty much have to use VPN if you are trying to share with people not attached to your LAN.

If you like Hamachi remember that it if you are using it for commercial purposes you have to pay for a license (~$40\yr for each computer).

On a side note if the overall idea of the office live workspace option would work for you you can also check out google docs their version gives you 10GB of storage space. They also have a commercial version (~$50\year per account) that will give you alot more features such as 500MB storage increase per user, ability to enforce SSL to ensure that your data is safe to and from the Google servers, as well as a 99.9% uptime SLA.

 

[mxnerd]

http://windowsitpro.com/articl...nt.cfm?articleid=49847

WebDAV with https should be secure enough. I think VPN does increase the possibility of virus or malware attack and harder to setup, hamachi probably is easier, but your wife's clients not necessary willing to install hamachi.

 

[TheKub]

Originally posted by: mxnerd
I think VPN does increase the possibility of virus or malware attack...

Installing and running a public facing IIS has its own security ramifications too.

 

[Gooberlx2]

I just played around with the Microsoft live mesh service/software....I gotta say, it's pretty slick. Filesharing/syncing was working well and remote desktop was working as well as Logmein does.

You can invite other uses to share files/folders. Not sure about any kind of check-in/out system though.

Edit: Don't seem to be able to share files or folders outside of the user's profile though (like My Docs, Desktop, etc..). Hopefully such capability is added in the future.

 

[RebateMonger]

Lots of good suggestions here.

A very sophisticated way to share files and to keep track of who's updating them is MS' SharePoint Server or Windows SharePoint Services. A very useful version comes on every Windows Server, and on SBS 2003 it's pre-configured.

SharePoint allows web access to easily-created shared web sites. Document librarys are a built-in tool that allows users to access files, to approve changes, to "check them in and out", and to keep records of all the revisions of the files.

MS' SBS 2003 software has been as low as $450 with five user licenses. But it requires somebody knowledgeable to install it correctly, so the installed cost would be quite a bit higher.