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To attempt to address some of the questions, let me explain some of the reasons for the setup, or at least what led me there. I'll certainly defer to the knowledge of others, but this isn't the kind of arrangement to which I am accustomed.
The reason for the file server is more complicated to explain than the situation is, but I'll try to summarize.
The person I'm doing this for is a single mother with three kids who is also a PhD candidate working on her dissertation.
Purpose 1) Without going into all the details of why, my friend wants a common library of files (music, video, etc.) from which the kids can draw without everything devolving into a fight over who gets to use what computer where that *one* file they want is located. Neither of the two desktops "belong" to any of the kids. One is located in an office, the other in the dining room area, and they all three switch between them. It would greatly reduce the amount of time she spends breaking apart needless fights to have "a" folder for documents, music, etc. the kids could access no matter which machine they are using, sort of like some companies do with their documents. The reason the idea occurred to me at all was because of how this was all arranged when I worked at Cox and how it is *not* arranged where I work now. With Cox, I could be in any office anywhere and access my files and my home office's files, etc. Where I am now, with no central file serving mechanism, I have to carry around a USB stick.
If there's a simpler way to do this, I would certainly be open to it. To set up the file server, I'm having to paste together a machine for it from my old parts.
Purpose 2) Related to the above concerns, but somewhat different. As I said, she's working on her dissertation. I am, for all intents and purposes, her editor. I read what she does, offer suggestions, fact check, etc. We had a situation arise recently where I needed an older version of a document she had never sent me to look up some reference that was in it. She was in her office at school, and I was at home, so I couldn't get to it. I would like to be able to access the machine remotely and access a directory where all this gets stored.
It's a HUGE project, and organization along with centralization is the point here.
Firewall/Filtering
The firewall isn't so much the issue as the kids and filtering some of the content they access during the times when she can't be at home when they are. I know how to do what I want to do with a combination of openDNS and IPtables, but getting it done on both machines *and* making sure there are no holes in it via both Windows and Linux is a headache I'd rather not tackle *if* I can do it on one machine through which the other machines access the Internet.
If that makes any sense...
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