I would like to offer my sister who is in another state some remote storage space on my machine. She is a Windows XP user. I have a cable connection that does not change IP address often enough to worry about. Any suggestions on the best way to set up some space for her to store files? Thanks.
Scott

You could use webdav and apache, that way she could connect to the storage space using XPs webfolders.

Thanks for the reply. I will look into webdav & apache. I ran Samba and was able to use it within my home network. I don't suppose this would work outside the LAN?
Scott

I will throw in some other options:
You can use any one of the free dynamic IP address DNS sites like noip.com and then there is no need to check if it changes.

For simple file transfers you can use winscp which is a windows SSH secure ftp client. This requires sshd to be configured on the linux PC and of course add a new user.

samba is not secure and I do not recommend allowing access outside of your local network. Instead you can setup a Virtual Private Network (VPN) like openswan, openvpn or poptop.

Is there a reason not to use an FTP server to offer remote storage? It seemed easy to set up at first although the default allows anonymous access.
Thanks for all the comments so far - Scott

FTP is not secure and transmits passwords as clear text.

PASSWORDS IN CLEAR TEXT! That doesn't sound very secure. I can see that I'll be in the 'newbie' forum for a while. I see in a prior post you suggested, "For simple file transfers you can use winscp which is a windows SSH secure ftp client" or setting up a VPN. I'm not sure what other features I would use on a VPN or whether it would be easier for my sister ( the remote end user with the file storage needs) to cope with one or the other. I'll go read about VPNs and Winscp. If you can think of a reason to or not to use a VPN please share it! Thanks again for all the help!
Scott

Some VPNs also work in clear text but you could use sslexplorer which is very easy to set up and use and is all encrypted:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sslexplorer

I installed software called Webmin so I can control the machine more easily. It seems a security risk but also easy to use and facilitates the hardware being tucked away in the basement. I think a VPN Server is the way to go. Webmin has configuration modules for PopTop ( PPTP VPN Server ) and for FreeSwan ( IPsec VPN ). Would one be a preferable VPN server?
Thanks - Scott