Anyone here like answering basic server questions?

[Mizwax]

I want to set up a network drive so that any computer in my house can save/read files from it (easy) but then wanted to take it a step further. Now I'm curious about using an old computer as a server so that those file can be accessed/created from any computer at any time.

To give you an idea of my expectations... I'm studying computer science and have a light-use desktop (elementary OS), a desktop for graphics (Windows), and my Macbook (used for Xcode and every day stuff). The idea is that I need to be able to share files quickly and easily to one central place (of course a flash drive is the obvious answer, but that's no fun) and also want to access them from campus or any computer. How would I go about setting this up? I know an FTP client could be used, but is there any software for setting up a nice web interface for accessing it through a browser?

Also, having individual user directories and privileges would be nice for letting family members use it too. And the possibility of hosting a personal website is fun too.

Am I aiming too high or getting too complicated here? If so, I don't mind having a long-term project, but I also don't mind scrapping the idea in favor of simply setting something up over my house's network. I'm currently reading about Amahi and Debian, btw, what are you're thoughts on those for my purpose?

 

[lowpro]

I want to set up a network drive so that any computer in my house can save/read files from it (easy) but then wanted to take it a step further. Now I'm curious about using an old computer as a server so that those file can be accessed/created from any computer at any time.

To give you an idea of my expectations... I'm studying computer science and have a light-use desktop (elementary OS), a desktop for graphics (Windows), and my Macbook (used for Xcode and every day stuff). The idea is that I need to be able to share files quickly and easily to one central place (of course a flash drive is the obvious answer, but that's no fun) and also want to access them from campus or any computer. How would I go about setting this up? I know an FTP client could be used, but is there any software for setting up a nice web interface for accessing it through a browser?

Also, having individual user directories and privileges would be nice for letting family members use it too. And the possibility of hosting a personal website is fun too.

Am I aiming too high or getting too complicated here? If so, I don't mind having a long-term project, but I also don't mind scrapping the idea in favor of simply setting something up over my house's network. I'm currently reading about Amahi and Debian, btw, what are you're thoughts on those for my purpose?

Check out ISS on windows, it's free any relatively easy to set up. You would also need to port forward from your router to your specific computer to be able to access it from the outside, but it would basically look like a website, and with the proper credidentials you could upload and download files. You would access it by either typing the IP address and port, such as xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxxx or if you used some type of URL link like dot.tk it could be websitename.tk.xxxx where xxxx is the port. Not the prettiest, but it works, and the interface could look like a normal website as ISS uses normal web technology such as HTML, CSS and JS.

 

[Mizwax]

Check out ISS on windows, it's free any relatively easy to set up. You would also need to port forward from your router to your specific computer to be able to access it from the outside, but it would basically look like a website, and with the proper credidentials you could upload and download files. You would access it by either typing the IP address and port, such as xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxxx or if you used some type of URL link like dot.tk it could be websitename.tk.xxxx where xxxx is the port. Not the prettiest, but it works, and the interface could look like a normal website as ISS uses normal web technology such as HTML, CSS and JS.

I will do that! I'm googling now. Thanks for the quick response