Remote Accessible Hard Drive

[sxereturn]

Hey guys,

My second IT related question on a MTB forum in a day...go me.

I've wanted to set up a remotely accessible hard drive for my staff and I for a few months now. We have a lot of files that are constantly being updated and it's such a hassle to always be emailing the most current versions to everyone and managing which version is at what point. I want to have a hard drive that stores all of these files, plugged into my cable modem and accessible by just my staff from anywhere in the world.

I went to JB today some moron sold me a WD My Book Studio and promised me it's what I wanted after I explained really clearly what I was doing...from what I can see this is just a normal fucking external hard drive. All the people who work for me and need a computer are provided a MacBook Pro...will Time Capsule do this? I just want to upload a couple of hundred PDF's, as well as our MYOB program. What do I need?!

 

[Ivan]

iCloud?.....


or Google Docs?

 

[willsy01]

Netgear Readynas or something similar.

Most modern ADSL modems/routers have a facility to plug in a NAS and configure it to be accessible externally.

 

[Steve-0]

iCloud/Anything stored on a random server won't really be secure enough for a business.

What willsy said will work for a simple external HDD, I do it at the moment with an external HDD plugged into my router. I just use FTP to access files remotely on my phone. If you want big space though, you'll probably need to setup a server. Which isn't all that hard but another PC is obviously added expense.

 

[sxereturn]

Just went back to JB and they exchanged what I had for a 3TB WD My Book Live...this seems to do what I want. The bloke at JB thinks I may have trouble putting the MYOB data file on it though...we'll see tomorrow.

 

[indica]

QNAP make great little servers.
Or you could rent a seedbox, they are generally used for torrenting but could just be a file server.
PM me for details but cost wise you'd be looking at $45 a month for a dedicated with a tb harddrive.
Access can be via VPN or FTP and can be encrypted and secure.

 

[willsy01]

iCloud/Anything stored on a random server won't really be secure enough for a business.

What willsy said will work for a simple external HDD, I do it at the moment with an external HDD plugged into my router. I just use FTP to access files remotely on my phone. If you want big space though, you'll probably need to setup a server. Which isn't all that hard but another PC is obviously added expense.

2 x 2TB mirrored would be more than adequate for a small business.......i'm talking a proper NAS, not just a USB hard drive.

Just went back to JB and they exchanged what I had for a 3TB WD My Book Live...this seems to do what I want. The bloke at JB thinks I may have trouble putting the MYOB data file on it though...we'll see tomorrow.

Yeeeaaahhh, I wouldn't have got something that isn't servicable......i'd go get a refund.

 

[sxereturn]

The problem is I'm not technically minded - this is convenient, simple and makes senese. Everything you said went over my head...NAS? Mirrored?

 

[frensham]

Hey guys,

My second IT related question on a MTB forum in a day...go me.

I've wanted to set up a remotely accessible hard drive for my staff and I for a few months now. We have a lot of files that are constantly being updated and it's such a hassle to always be emailing the most current versions to everyone and managing which version is at what point. I want to have a hard drive that stores all of these files, plugged into my cable modem and accessible by just my staff from anywhere in the world.

I went to JB today some moron sold me a WD My Book Studio and promised me it's what I wanted after I explained really clearly what I was doing...from what I can see this is just a normal fucking external hard drive. All the people who work for me and need a computer are provided a MacBook Pro...will Time Capsule do this? I just want to upload a couple of hundred PDF's, as well as our MYOB program. What do I need?!

DropBox would be perfect for this. https://www.dropbox.com/ Lots of options but the Teams version would be right up your alley.

 

[willsy01]

The problem is I'm not technically minded - this is convenient, simple and makes senese. Everything you said went over my head...NAS? Mirrored?

I should have elaborated a little.....

NAS = Network Attached Storage (basically a box full of disks available on a network)
Mirroring = 2 hard disks each containing the same information that are configured in a way that should 1 drive fail, you don't lose your data. Replace the failed drive, it rebuilds and you're back on deck.

You buy the enclosure, two hard disks of your choice and you're away. They're almost idiot proof these days.

 

[crampy]

A NAS (Network Attached Storage) is the way to go.

If you go down that path I would recommend Synology, NetGear or Thecus. All are pretty straight forward to set-up.

 

[jayjay3032]

Dropbox is the way to go. You'll never have to worry about hardware and if someone leaves the company you just remove them from your account.

Some people are scared of cloud based things but the reality is their rudundency and security is way beyond anything you'd setup yourself.

 

[mason33]

OP The model the guy has shown you (WD My Book Studio) is just a regular hard drive with high speed usb and firewire. The model you are after is either My Book World edition or My Book live, both have an ethernet connection i.e. plug into your router. I'd recommend buying a gigabit capable router if you intend to use the nas for streaming video. I've got the world edition the older version and can't fault it, it's very useful for backing stuff up and streaming media to the ps3.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/WD-3-5-External-1TB-My-Book-World-Edition-NAS-Gigabit-LAN-WDH1NC10000A-/140825562074?pt=AU_HardDrives&hash=item20c9db8bda

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/WD-WESTERN-DIGITAL-MY-BOOK-LIVE-HOME-NETWORK-DRIVE-2TB-WDBACG0020HCH-/320960498355?pt=AU_HardDrives&hash=item4ababc8ab3

 

[Handles]

The company I work for uses dropbox and it is excellent (and free if you keep can keep the data under 2GB). Oh, and dropbox saves a copy of the document on your local drive so you don't need to be connected all the time to access your files.

 

[sxereturn]

JB swapped what I had for the My Book Live without any cost - it's working exactly as I want it too and was dead easy to set up. Very happy.