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Creating a small office network - advice
My apologies if this is a naïve question.
Having successfully steered myself away from networking for many years (the last time I did anything significant was in setting up a small Novell network in the 80's :)), I've been asked by a friend to give them advice on setting up a small network in their office. I'm not sure that I'm actually up to the task, given my lack of experience, but it might be an interesting challenge. I wonder if anyone could give me pointers. Here is what I'm looking for / considering: . The network will include (roughly) two PCs, 2 laptops, a large media screen/monitor, a couple of tablets, and a printer. The PCs and laptops will be running Windows, the tablets Android, but I also want to be able to access it with my Linux laptop. There's no need to have Apple access. . There is no need for devices on the network to communicate with each other individually. All I'm looking for is a central file server that each device can access (including watching videos on the media screen). . The network should communicate though the router rather than having to cable in ethernet, but needs to be well protected from outside hacking through that router (which is probably an entirely new subject in itself). . The file server will need to be easily backed up at regular intervals to an external hard drive (and probably also make its own internal backups). . It would be advantageous to have some form of security access rights on the file server which means that e.g. only individual machines have access to specific directories. I can't think of anything else at the moment, but am more than ready to answer questions. Cheers. |
Maybe a modded version of one of these server set ups, based on Debian.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/ras...-is-now-pinet/ https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/piserver/ |
As long as the devices are on the same subnet they will be able to communicate without any extra setup. And based on your network size there are plenty of addresses with a simple /24 subnet mask.
As far as the server you could use a simple Linux box with ftps for your file server and even Plex Media Server to simplify/organize the media streaming process. The use of the Linux box will allow you to restrict access to the box ( with iptables or nftables ) to allow only certain IPs or MAC addresses. |
Much appreciated.
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Also, not sure if you have messed with Plex but its pretty easy to set up the server, and apps are available for android and ios and some smart tvs or via a web browser. Works pretty well but idk if a raspberry pi would be ideal for hosting that kind of media because of its limited hardware. I have it running on my Centos box just fine though.
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The RPi3B seems to work quite well as a server, & that only has 1GB ram, the new RPi4B has the option of 1, 2, or 4GB ram & a faster processor, & 5Gb wifi, so should work even better, (once all the software drivers are sorted).
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