Member Avatar for wisedave

Hello,

I have a small office with 4 employees. We all work off of laptops (although I am about to bring a desktop in because I need a little more horsepower for some graphic stuff).

I have a number of files I would like everybody to share, update and save so we can all access them. I also need the ability to access them remotely.

What is the best way to do this?

Thx,

Dave

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Short version: for a four‑person office the simplest, most reliable setup is a small NAS on the LAN for shared storage, plus an offsite backup and a secure remote‑access method. That keeps things cheap and easy (as and suggested) while avoiding the management overhead of a full Windows server (see ) or the limits of remote‑control tools like TeamViewer (as mentioned).

Practical configuration to start with: pick a NAS with user accounts, SMB/CIFS support, snapshot/versioning and at least two drive bays. A 2‑bay device in mirror (RAID1) gives basic redundancy; 3+ bays let you use RAID5/6 for more usable space. Put the NAS and your router on a small UPS, create per‑user folders and groups, and map shares from each laptop. For large graphic files, work on a local copy and copy back to avoid app/network conflicts.

Remote access and collaboration: don’t expose raw SMB to the internet. Use either a VPN into the office or a NAS vendor’s secure remote service (with MFA) or a sync client that mirrors selected folders to the cloud. If your workflow is document collaboration only, Google/Microsoft cloud apps offer real‑time coauthoring (as noted), but they rarely replace a local central store for large binaries or project directories.

Must‑do operational items: RAID is redundancy, not a backup — keep at least one offsite copy (3‑2‑1 rule), schedule and test restores, apply firmware/OS updates, disable SMBv1, enforce strong passwords and MFA where possible, and audit logs periodically. Start simple, validate restores and access from a remote location, then expand features (snapshots, version retention, cloud tiering) as you get comfortable.

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Member Avatar for rubberman

My advice would be to purchase a small NAS (Network Attached Storage) unit. They connect into the office network and allow you to do exactly what you want, at a very reasonable price. For example, a Buffalo Tech TeraStation NAS with 8TB of data is less than $900 USD on buy.com (free shipping). They have many other options, with less storage (cheaper). I paid more than this, each, for two of their 1TB units about 6-8 years ago, and they are still functioning without problems on my network. One I upgraded to a 2TB capacity this year, and that holds system backups, Linux distributions, and copies of my purchased software. The other I use to store my music files. They are both configured as RAID-5 devices, and work really well in surviving disc failure (the excuse I used to upgrade the one unit - one drive started to fail - no data was lost).

Edited by rubberman because: n/a
commented: clear and detail. Keep it up +0
Member Avatar for jingda

Try remote software. File sharing is also good. Try teamviewer is awesome. If met all the requirements you want and is cheap. I can tell you how to use them if you want

Member Avatar for jlego

yeah there is a hole bunch of ways to do this, i agree with both posters. you could go from simple file shares on a server, Microsoft share point, if you have exchange use the public folders, there is online hosted solutions. if they are docs maybe check out good docs? its free and has support for documents, excel and so on and is accessible anywhere there is an internet connection

Member Avatar for monem

1- you can install windows server 2003 or 2008 and with active directory you can create folders and share them with access control.
2- or if you like free OS you can use linux server edition like ubuntu 10.04 server and install Desktop environment because linux server are command line and then install samba to allow you share folders with your windows users with user privileges for access.
Good luck

Member Avatar for wisedave

Hello,

Thanks for all of the ideas. I think the learning curve for this will be steep. I am not sure if doing it 'in the cloud' would be an option.

I will do some research based on the recommendations here.

Cheers,

Dave

Member Avatar for jingda

You are welcome dave

Member Avatar for jlego

i ment google docs on my post above, sorry

Member Avatar for walayt

I think that you should go for nas or go for easy browsing timer to make it short, i believe that whould work and will be easiear for your staff to acess what ever they want easily................

Member Avatar for rubberman

Just remember the KISS principle. Small office == small solutions. Sharepoint? Too complex. A NAS behind your firewall is secure, and provides a very large data store for a very reasonable investment. Don't overthink this.

commented: you are right about sharepoint, that is too complex thank you for pointing that out +3
commented: Right, you are +0
Member Avatar for walayt

I got you right.

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