SOLVED Need help setting up household network storage device

[Schwim]

Hi there everyone!

I have a household of devices that connect across a mix of wired and wireless connections. Homegroup seems incapable of dealing with this. I've searched and every result comments that the devices must either be on the same wired or wireless network. I need a solution that doesn't care as long as it's on the local network.

I hope to set a PC up that will allow RW permissions for all on certain directories and RW for certain users on others.

\\STORAGE\Shared <~~ All devices on the network can store and retrieve from here
\\STORAGE\Shared\Schwim <~~ Schwim can RW here but nobody else (Win 10 on wired network)
\\STORAGE\Shared\Red <~~ Red can RW here but nobody else (Win 10 on wireless network)
\\STORAGE\Shared\Schwims_laptop <~~ Schwim's laptop can RW here (Debian on wireless network)

So I need something that will support multiple OS on multiple local connections. Do I need 3rd party software to achieve this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time!

 

[Bighorn]

You may not want to spend the money but my solution is a Wireless Router with 4 Ethernet ports and an 8-port Switch, both are Gigabit with Wi-Fi being 802.11n. I have attached 2 WDC NAS drives to the Switch, any device that can access the Internet can Map the drives whether connected Wired or Wireless. It works with Mac OS X/macOS, Linux and Win7 and later. Wife can access with her SmartPhone [I use a flip phone]. Any files that need access can be stored on the drives and most worked on.

 

[Schwim]

Hi there Bighorn, thanks very much for taking the time to help!

I should have mentioned that I want to use the existing PC I have and preferably not purchase anything else to achieve this. Any solutions within those parameters would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Tim Locke]

MY system looks like yours Schwim software wise but my hardware is like Bighorn. In my case //storage is an ancient Dlink DNS321 NAS box with a couple of big disks in it plugged into my wired network. I only have two separate mappings after the //storage. However you look at it it is a Network attached storage solution that in itself is available to the whole network.
All my wired and wireless devices can map the resources on the box.
You say that "I hope to set a PC etc" If you have an old PC hanging around then use that instead of a dedicated device. If I were doing it that way I'd use Ubuntu ideally but any old version of Windows works fine. On a large scale you could run Windows 10 Server I guess but at that level Linux is better and cheaper.

 

[Schwim]

If you have an old PC hanging around then use that instead of a dedicated device. If I were doing it that way I'd use Ubuntu ideally but any old version of Windows works fine.

Hi there Tim and thanks a bunch for the help!

I have a Win 10 PC that will be sitting in the living room and being used for movies and the odd games and it has some big drives so I wanted to use it for my solution. The gaming and a couple win-only apps are keeping it from being a linux box.

When you say "Any old version of Windows works fine", how would I manage it in a Windows install? I actually have an XP box in the basement that everyone can access via \\ip.addr.ess\General for the shared folders on that computer but for the life of me, I can't remember how I managed it since it was literally over a decade ago that I set it up.

To clarify my issue: I just can't figure out how to make a drive or folder accessible to everyone on the local network in Win 10.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Tim Locke]

An old XP box should work fine. Caveats: That it has space for the disk drives, enough power supply for them and enough SATA connectors...and probably at least 4Gb of memory. So leave the living room box on W10 and utilize the basement box for your file server.

From what you say, all you need to do is to set up the users on that box Schwim, Red etc and then to fiddle with the permissions. The easy way might be to have multiple signons to that box for the secure folders.

I am not familiar with Windows security... when I had to do that stuff it was on Window 2000 AND I had people to do that for me. But someone on this forum will know. If you decided to go Linux I am sure that Google would provided exact instructions!

 

[Schwim]

Hi there guys, I just wanted to take the time to update this in case someone else finds it useful in the future.

During the hours spent trying different things I began to remember similar issues when setting up the XP box(PTSD symptoms, perhaps). I began to remember there was a particular reason why I connected all to the share via IP address instead of Windows computer name.

I tried the computer's IP address instead and after providing user credentials once, was able to send and receive files from all machines, regardless of OS, connection or membership to the homegroup.

Setting a static IP on the machine and mapping the network drives worked without issue. It seems I've solved my problem.

Thanks to everyone for your help. I really appreciate it.

Until the next catastrophe strikes!