Setting Up an Office Server Solution

[Luigi239]

For the office I work for, we keep all client files in one central location on the cloud (right now through GoDaddy). We keep running into the problem though that the cloud is too slow. Frequently flies take forever to open, or will not save properly. We're realizing that a server solution is what we need to go towards.

My idea was to turn an office Mac Mini into a file server. Only about 8 people plug into this folder per day, and rarely all at the same time. Would I be able to use Lion Server to keep all files on one machine, and then have the be accessed by Macs and PCs both over the local network and remotely? How would I go about doing this?

Thanks!

 

[mforsman]

This was what I used to setup our office. His directions are clear and very easy to follow. Worth paying for the book.

http://www.wegotserved.com/2011/12/03/os-lion-server-home-server-ebook-grab/

 

[Consultant]

For the office I work for, we keep all client files in one central location on the cloud (right now through GoDaddy). We keep running into the problem though that the cloud is too slow. Frequently flies take forever to open, or will not save properly. We're realizing that a server solution is what we need to go towards.

My idea was to turn an office Mac Mini into a file server. Only about 8 people plug into this folder per day, and rarely all at the same time. Would I be able to use Lion Server to keep all files on one machine, and then have the be accessed by Macs and PCs both over the local network and remotely? How would I go about doing this?

Thanks!

GoDaddy is POS.

Mac Mini will be fine. No need for Lion Server, unless you want user account sync.

What about dropbox??? How much space do you need?

 

[kolax]

What is your budget? Might be worth investing in something for the future if you ever expand the office or suddenly have more people trying to access files simultaneously.

 

[Luigi239]

What is your budget? Might be worth investing in something for the future if you ever expand the office or suddenly have more people trying to access files simultaneously.

The budget is pretty tight right now. You have a good point that for the future I need to start thinking about something else, but for right now, I think this is the best solution (cost wise).

GoDaddy is POS.

Mac Mini will be fine. No need for Lion Server, unless you want user account sync.

What about dropbox??? How much space do you need?

We thought about doing another cloud based option, but we file lots of documents into client files and we've noticed that it seems to take a lot of time to upload and move documents around. Do you think Dropbox would be better? We're using about 10gb of space right now (our files are mostly PDFs and word documents).

Without lion server, how do I set it up so that other computers (Macs and PCs) are able to access the stored files on the Mac Mini over the internet, and not on the local network?

Thanks everybody!