Shared directories and remote access from phones

[HappyKhicken]

Hello all,

I currently live in a house of multiple people. Since replacing my current computer case I've since found myself with some 1TB drives that won't fit in my new one. I've decided that I am going to get one of my older PCs up and running, then setup a RAID array on the drives. After that, I am going to partition the drives and give them each a shared network folder with individual password protected user account access to prevent other housemates from accessing each other's files. That's the easy part that I know how to do.

After that's setup, I'd like for them to have easy remote access from their phones. The people who will be accessing things remotely are not the most tech savvy and I am not aware of any apps to make things simplistic for them. They use a mix of Android and iOS devices.

If anyone has any suggestions for how to go about this, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thank you in advance.

 

[Ketchup]

I am currently using the Network Browser app for that on my Android device and it's the best free one I have found so far. Not sure if they have an iOS version.

The only limitation a have found so far is that it only "plays" one file at a time. I keep selected music on my phone anyway, so this may not be a big deal.

 

[Spungo]

I use ES file explorer on Android, but you can use almost anything. What you are looking for is called a Samba client.

 

[quikah]

Do you need access outside your network? That is going to be a lot more complex. I haven't used it but Owncloud.org seems to be what you want if you need to access from internet. There are mobile clients for android/iOS. It might be more complex than you need though. (client costs $0.99 on android, not sure about iOS) You still need to setup DMZ or something to expose it to the internet.

If you just want internal access any of the above will be fine probably.