Hello all, first I'll just say i'm a pretty much a linux newbie with some spare compy parts so i've decided to make a server to further my experience in the linux world.

I recently installed Ubuntu 10.04 Desktop (was easier than Server edition with no GUI).

What I want is a file server to share movies / music with my friends at school, that we could remotely access from school. I would like to leave this server at home.

I have read a lot on the net but I have not found someone with the same situation as me so have not gotten far.

This would probably involve a single user login which I would give all so it would be strictly read-only, while only 1 user (me) would have admin capabilities.

Any recommendations / directions? Is this even possible? I would be willing to try Ubuntu 10.04 server if anyone thinks it would be eaiser.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Welcome to LQ.

Well, I'd setup an FTP server, because it's easy and it will do what you want.

For Ubuntu there seems to be several detailed HOWTOs:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=79588

Basically just use the GUI program gproftpd to set it up. Shouldn't be too hard.

Is it legal to share music and movies where you live ?

If not then you are going to get into trouble with the authorities.

Personally I don't object to it, but by being the admin of such a file sharing server, giving a password to people and basically broadcasting that you are doing it by sharing things at school, you are making it very likely that you will get caught.

The school won't like it being accessed from their network, and will hand you over to the law as soon as they find out.

Set up your server, by all means, but don't access it from school, (unless you go through a proxy) and don't tell loads of people.

Hmm, yes, I would not try to serve anything illegal to school, like entire movies and music ... you'll get into lots of trouble, and it would be a bad idea.

Hmm well thanks for the help!

You guys are definitely right, especially in a school setting. That really wouldn't be a good idea. Maybe I will still set it up though for use for my hall to store files on anyhow, i/e pictures or video.