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This is what i'm trying to accomplish: - Have files on one machines in different folders. And be able to access those files locally in the office from different computers, laptops and desktops, and be able to access them from outside the office via the internet. How do i make this happen? - Also limit which accounts on which gets to have access to which folder on the main machine that has these files.

What technology can be used to accomplish these goals? The operating system that can be installed on the machine machine and other machines accessing from it can be any variation of windows. Since i have experience with windows, and don't have any experience with linux, i will limit the OS to windows. But it can windows 7 or windows server 2008 R2.

Thank you for your responses. I appreciate it.

Alex Foster
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This is such an awful question for so many reasons, but I'll answer it anyway...

  1. You set up a (or configure your existing) Windows domain to allow users access to a shared folder you create. Accessing this from "outside the office" would (or should) involve using a VPN for connections from outside the network. Since this seems to be pretty far out of your depth, move on to #2.
  2. You hire someone who knows enough about Active Directory, Windows Administration, VPNs and general security to set this up for you. Given that your environment seems pretty small, and your requirements seem pretty simple, you could probably get a decent Windows admin to do it for you pretty cheap. Of course, since it doesn't seem like you'd be willing to shell out a couple grand for the professional services you need, move on to #3.
  3. You don't. Without Active Directory and a secure remote access solution (VPN), this is way more trouble than it's worth and a security hole that any script kiddie or power user could drive a mobile home through. But, given that you're not likely to accept this as an answer, move on to #4.
  4. Since you're going to try anyway... without AD and a VPN, you'd set up a share folder on your server, and create a local account you give access to the folder with. [servername]\account Then you'd connect to it over UNC \\[servername]\[sharename]\ and put in the credentials you created for access to it. To get this to work from "outside the office" without a VPN, you'd have to have your server directly accessible to the internet (which is a horrible idea) and you'd connect to it over UNC with \\[server's externally-facing IP address]\sharename\ and naturally, pretty much anyone else in the world who wanted to would also be able to do that.
HopelessN00b
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How do you limit folders to certain computers in network

You don't. You take a look at how things have been working for the past few decades and redesign whatever plans you have to limit access to people, ideally via centralised user accounts.

  1. Configure Active Directory and configure accounts for all users
  2. Join all workstations to the Active Directory Domain you've just created
  3. Configure File Sharing on the server that is to hold the files
  4. Create shares to hold your files and then populate them with your data. Secure the shares against the accounts of the people who you wish to have access to this data.
  5. Create a VPN, to allow remote access to these shares.
  6. You're done.
Rob Moir
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