Home Networking Question

[KI6EBF]

great work on the server switch over and everything hard work well done. and well i just have a couple of questions i have been trying to set up a network at my house and i kind of have the "JIST" of how networking works and here is what i thought up make a server and put windows server 2003 "which i know nothing really about" and have it work where i could connect to it and transfer files and programs through the internet. there was a message board i went to that said something about vpn and something about a remote thing to control the desktop and files transfer could someone please give me some hints or directions lol my name is Douglas and my call is KI6EBF and i also remember something about email addresses. plus my friend wants to be able to store stuff from his computer to mine over the internet. i getting stuff from frys to get ready for the building process and i already have windows 2003 server premium edition so if anyone here could let some pointers it would be appreciated thanks. what i really would like to be able to do is have my computer be able to connect to my server then while connected be able to control one of my radios that is connected to one of my other computers and have access to 2 other computers files on the network then be able to have my friend upload his files and what ever to my computers hardrive and use it as a remote storage. i have 2 hardrives both sata and both 500gig 2 512mb graphics geforce cards 8800 and one 256mb "i have 3 moniters" a modem a eithernet card for a second ethernet card i heard you need 2 a ecs motherboard with a 2.0 dual core processor 2 gigs of ram a linksys befw11s4 802.11b wireless router and three lenths of 150ft cat 6 and 2 50ft lengths and 3 25ft lengths of cat 5 . i just need the case and thats it and i can start the long process of setting it up. i just need some info well hope someone reads this lol thanks alot my email is pace2300@aol.com regards and 73's Douglas ps. the way i have seen this happen is something about typing a ip in the address bar and a login window pops up and you login in and connect then you could have full access to the network just like that? well 73's thanks again

[kf6rdn]

Ummmm.. This is REALLY hard to read, with no whitespace, my ADD kicks in and I lose where I was...

Anyway, Yes Windows server 2003 pretty much can do all that. I can't get into all the "howtos", but some things to consider are firewalling so nobody can get in, make sure all passwords are secure.

I know there's alot more to your question, you might want to take each section and make a seperate posts, it's alot to try to take in, aside from the format, the format makes it even harder.
(I'm not trying to insult you, it is just hard for me to read)

[w8gtf]

No offense, but some carriage returns would have heloped greatly.

If I understand you, you are trying to do remote control of a windows 2003 server? Is this over a LAN or WAN? If it's over a LAN, then all you need is to use the Remote Desktop Protocol that is built into XP & 2k3. You can remotely log into the server from a distant machine (on the same network) and access/control it.

If you are wanting to do this from another network (say control a server at the office from your home), this would take a bit more work.

From re-reading your post, it sounds like you want to do this via a LAN. Really this is simple. It seems to me that the two things you need are network shares & to use the remote desktop connection. Above and beyond that, you are going to need to be familiar with the IP addresses of your computers name's.

If you want to access the file system of the server, click "start" and type in "//<ip address of your other computer>/", you can get a list of all the network shares on that computer. If you type in "//<ip address of your other computer>/C$" you will be prompted for a login and you can access the C drive of the computer. You can also substute the "C" for other drive letters. You should be able to also enter that into a web browser in order to get the same information.

If you want to actually log into the computer like you were physically at the computer, click start, and go to all programs, then accessories, then system tools. There should be an icon for "Remote Desktop Connection". When you click on it, it will prompt you for an IP address or computer name. After you enter that information and log in. You will be looking at the desktop of that computer. From there you can pretty much do anything that you could do if you were sitting in front of the computer. You should be able to access either of the other 2 computers from the 3rd.

Let me know if this makes sense.

EDIT:

After reading your post for a 3rd time, setting up remote login's will be tricky. First off, I'm assuming that you do not have a static IP address from your ISP. This means that your IP address could change at any time (some change daily, some are basically the same forever as long as the service doesn't go down). The short version of what would need to happen is that you would need to set port forwarding on your router so that it can send packets that come in on a specific port to your server. The problem with that is that you could run into security issues from having this server open on the internet. Also, most SOHO (small office/home office) grade equipment isn't really designed for this. I would seriously advise investing in some used commerical grade neworking equipment.

Without knowing more about your network setup, it is nearly impossible for me to give much more advice. Your best bet would probably google "building an FTP server", as that would be alot easier than trying to do a VPN. It will still require you to configure port forwarding on your router, but will be easier. There are also many free/low cost FTP server software packages for windows, or you could install & configure IIS to act as an FTP server.

In addition to the above, you need to check and see if your ISP blocks port 21 incomming. If they do, you will have to get fancy with going through another port on the router to get FTP connections.

[KD8FFJ]

For a very easy network with file sharring and chat capabilities try Hamachi Free here- https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi/vpn.asp

Just a thought. I use it with my father over the internet and on my home computers. Works pretty good and is secure.

And I also use the logmein free- that is great for remote desktop assistance give to friends and family and it too is secure. And did I mention both are free. I have about 12 on my account right now. That is friends and family who constantly call me to help them on their computer. I sign into logmein.com and then click on the friends/family members computer and give a password and their computer becomes mine. In other words, I bring their desktop to my screen and can install/un-install programs, clean cookies and run diagnostics on their computer from mine. EXCELLENT tool of which I use alot.

Keith KD8FFJ

[KD6NIG]

There is also "VNC" but to get the encrypted version (which, if you want to bring the screen up remotely would basically be a must!) you'd have to pay a small fee.

Or are you just looking to control it locally? If so, you might want to look at something like this:

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10333399&listingid=11272785&dcaid=17902

The only drawback is both computers have to be near each other.

I use this method as I have 2 computers-one that runs 24/7, feeds weather data etc to the internet as well as keeps a UI-View map going. The other one I only fire up when I'm at home, its the faster of the 2. I share one common monitor with them. I can switch between them by tapping scroll lock rapidly twice. The one I have is for USB Mouse/Keyboard but they make them for older ones too.

Is your goal just remotely accessing files? You could do that with any windows OS really, but if you're going to hook it to the internet, you want something internet safe. I personally run XP on both, but I don't have remote access setup either-I just need the ability to check on it occasionally and do stuff from the keyboard. Otherwise the keyboard mouse is set to the main machine and it just runs happily.

If you want remote internet access then you're looking at stuff where you need to make sure you're securing everything right, only opening the ports you need, etc etc. You'll probably want to set up a single folder to share and put stuff you want remotely accessible in there only for further safety.

Remotely controlling a computer screen and all will take a lot of bandwidth. On both sides.

Hope this helps, your post was kinda hard to digest, I hope one of us is putting you in the right direction.