VPN & File Server advice

Hey all
Im doing a project for a friend of mine and Im in need of some advice.
Im setting up some machines for him in two different offices. Both
will have cable Internet connections. Now, he wants to be able to
share files from both locations, so I agreed to build a small server
for him to have a central area to store files for both sites. His
workstations are running windoze xp, and Im using linux running samba
as the file server.

The workstations on the site with the server (in other words, on the
same LAN) can access it with no problem, but Im looking for a secure
and easy way for the other location to access the server as well. I
have used poptop at home to set up a VPN to connect to my home
network, but Im just looking for some ideas. It would be great if the
remote network could view the file server and its files by using the
"My Network Places" icon on the xp workstations.

I was also thinking that maybe there is something like an easy to use
HTTP file server so the workstations can use the web browser to
download & upload files. Anyone seen anything like that?

Any input would really be appreciated. Please keep in mind that the
users of the PCs are not very computer literate...

TIA
Rob

SME server can do that.

you can download webshare from contribs.org. Which is a HTML file sharing
using SSH.

Otherwise you can share Ibays over the internet, using usernames and
passwords. - ie you make one drive share available to the internet. - I'm
yet to try this, as I'm still waiting for my DNS registration


"Robert" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> Hey all
> Im doing a project for a friend of mine and Im in need of some advice.
> Im setting up some machines for him in two different offices. Both
> will have cable Internet connections. Now, he wants to be able to
> share files from both locations, so I agreed to build a small server
> for him to have a central area to store files for both sites. His
> workstations are running windoze xp, and Im using linux running samba
> as the file server.
>
> The workstations on the site with the server (in other words, on the
> same LAN) can access it with no problem, but Im looking for a secure
> and easy way for the other location to access the server as well. I
> have used poptop at home to set up a VPN to connect to my home
> network, but Im just looking for some ideas. It would be great if the
> remote network could view the file server and its files by using the
> "My Network Places" icon on the xp workstations.
>
> I was also thinking that maybe there is something like an easy to use
> HTTP file server so the workstations can use the web browser to
> download & upload files. Anyone seen anything like that?
>
> Any input would really be appreciated. Please keep in mind that the
> users of the PCs are not very computer literate...
>
> TIA
> Rob

"Robert" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

.....
> The workstations on the site with the server (in other words, on the
> same LAN) can access it with no problem, but Im looking for a secure
> and easy way for the other location to access the server as well. I
> have used poptop at home to set up a VPN to connect to my home
> network, but Im just looking for some ideas. It would be great if the
> remote network could view the file server and its files by using the
> "My Network Places" icon on the xp workstations.



use openvpn
ethernet bridging

bye

"Robert" <(E-Mail Removed)> ha wrote
[....]
> Any input would really be appreciated. Please keep in mind that the
> users of the PCs are not very computer literate...

if you want to see everything in your network neighbour you need to pass
broadcast traffic or install a wins server.
i would prefer broadcast traffic...
i set up a ethernet bridging wich works perfectly using openvpn.
try it