Question Basic network drive -- simplest/best setup?

[21MSB]

Hello, and thanks in advance to anyone who reads this.

I'm working a long-term research project with a half-dozen colleagues. We have a central office with internet access, but I want to set up a separate wireless network not on the internet so I can set up a network drive that will give us all access to the same files.

Our need is pretty straightforward: we want everyone to have access to the same files and we want it to be totally separate from our internet setup and only accessible to those within range (we're in a very remote/secure physical location and aren't concerned with potential unauthorized access).

My thought is that a wireless router with an attached external HD will do it, but I'm here to ask y'all if there's a more optimal way to accomplish this. Thanks again for any guidance!

 

[kanewolf]

Hello, and thanks in advance to anyone who reads this.

I'm working a long-term research project with a half-dozen colleagues. We have a central office with internet access, but I want to set up a separate wireless network not on the internet so I can set up a network drive that will give us all access to the same files.

Our need is pretty straightforward: we want everyone to have access to the same files and we want it to be totally separate from our internet setup and only accessible to those within range (we're in a very remote/secure physical location and aren't concerned with potential unauthorized access).

My thought is that a wireless router with an attached external HD will do it, but I'm here to ask y'all if there's a more optimal way to accomplish this. Thanks again for any guidance!

Do you need shared read/write? If so, you probably need something more sophisticated to prevent overwriting. Maybe setup a configuration system like GIT that allows checkout for exclusive write access.

 

[21MSB]

Do you need shared read/write? If so, you probably need something more sophisticated to prevent overwriting. Maybe setup a configuration system like GIT that allows checkout for exclusive write access.

Thanks for your reply! While I don't foresee accidental overwrites being an issue due to the nature of our workflow, it can't hurt to prevent one. I'm unfamiliar with GIT; are you able to recommend a solid starting-point for me to learn about it? Is it terribly technical, or can someone moderately tech-savvy get it going?

Thanks in advance for any further guidance you feel like sharing.

 

[kanewolf]

Thanks for your reply! While I don't foresee accidental overwrites being an issue due to the nature of our workflow, it can't hurt to prevent one. I'm unfamiliar with GIT; are you able to recommend a solid starting-point for me to learn about it? Is it terribly technical, or can someone moderately tech-savvy get it going?

Thanks in advance for any further guidance you feel like sharing.

I have worked in multi-engineer environments, some type of document management system is necessary. Being able to identify changes, and keep a change history for shared documents is crucial. GIT, chef, SCCS any of those CAN be used. Windows file versioning could be used. SOMETHING to protect your key resource, your shared knowledge.

 

[gggplaya]

A wifi router with a basic USB port drive will work, but most are typically very slow. They don't have the CPU power necessary to offer the full available speed of the USB drive. Typically 25-50MB/s for most lower cost ARM routers. Higher end ARM routers might be 50-80MB/s.

I would get a NAS unit and attach it to the router via ethernet. If you can get your hands on a Raspberry PI or similar single board computer. For the fastest speed, the x86 ZimaBoard is good. You can install OpenMediaVault or something similar to create a NAS with username and password access control. Or use a file checkout type of SVN file versioning system. WIth the Zimaboard, you can install TrueNAS and have access to alot of plugins and docker to do a really custom setup(8GB version only).

If you have an old laptop or desktop PC laying around. You can install TrueNAS for free and have a truly powerful NAS. Set the power management in the BIOS to always stay ON regardless of power loss. But even a 10 year old desktop would be a good NAS server.

 

[bill001g]

As you have seen the network part is as simple as you suggest. File sharing is not just as simple as putting files on some disk unless your needs are extremely simple.