Connecting two office PC networks to share files - How best achieved?

[Dave Smithz]

Hello there,

Bit of a relatively basic networking question I think.

A friend has an office of about 5 PC's connected through a broadband
connected wireless router. They are intending to open a new office
elsewhere.

They want the new office computers to have access to one of the computers
shared drives in the original office.

What are the different ways and associated pros of cons of doing this?

One that springs to mind is making the PC with shred drive into some kind of
server and setting up a VPN (At present I have no idea if this is expensive
or easy) but I would welcome other ideas particularly if they are simple
(Secure of course) and cheap to set up.

Do note that in the first office the shared drive is in constant use so fast
access to it is desirable.

Kind regards,

Dave

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

XP Pro includes Internet Information Server (IIS) This can have no 'default page' and will become an online ftp folder on the web
(e.g my site's folder with no default page http://www.geocities.com/marfer_mvp/ftp/ rightclick test.htm, and 'save target as")
Other filetypes would download by a simple click

Your connection would need to know it's IP, but even a DHCP IP could be sent by email daily to contact the web server.
(http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:80 ) Static IP would be better. A web site like that should require a password, but that is easily done.
Uploading to the site with a password is also an option of IIS.