File server question?

[nd4spdbh2]

OK heres the deal i have a dell mini 9, love it, but it only has a 4gb hd, and tbh i have wanted to make a file server like this for a long time.

So heres what i want. I would like to have a file server at home on my sevrer, that i can securely connect to on my laptop via any internet im on. The catch is that i would like to have it be like a maped network drive in mycomputer, so i can just double click on the virtual drive and access files as if they were on my laptop.

How would i go about this? my server is running windows server 2003.

[Albaholic]

For access outside you LAN, you're going to want to set up a VPN connection. An easy way to do it would be Hamachi (it's gonna be slow though)

[gangaskan]

you may even be able to setup some form of VPN connection with your Server 03' server


i never got it working myself got authentication and it grabbed a IP but nothing more. i think i needed some type of routing on my box. but never got a chance to do so.

[nd4spdbh2]

ya i setup server 2003's vpn... just installed the service... problem is when i connect to the vpn i dont get actual internet http on the machine.

ill look later today on google what it has to say.

[nd4spdbh2]

Hmm... having a hard time with this... it should be simple... make vpn server on home server... connect to vpn walla like ur on your home network.. but it aint workin

looked on google for a tutorial on how to map a network drive via VPN but no luck.

EDIT.... SWEET NESS I DID IT, im able to connect to my server's vpn and access the network via a completly different internet connection (laptop connected to my friends wifi across the street) i can browse shared folders as if i was on the network... omg this is zactly what i wanted!!! i have it set to use the highest 128 bit encryption.

ONLY prob i have is that i have to use ip addresses... i cant just connect to my main rig by going \\bens i have to do \\192.168.1.105 ... is there n e way around that?

EDIT #2 - Ok well in addition to the small problem above i got a lil bigger one... now i cant just go \\lilserver to get to my server via any of the computers on the local network, and i cannot be on the server and go to any of the computers on the LAN via their netbios names... but i can connect to every other computer on the network talks just fine with netbios names. so its obviously a problem on the server... n e way i can Fix dis?

[Albaholic]

ONLY prob i have is that i have to use ip addresses... i cant just connect to my main rig by going \\bens i have to do \\192.168.1.105 ... is there n e way around that?

EDIT #2 - Ok well in addition to the small problem above i got a lil bigger one... now i cant just go \\lilserver to get to my server via any of the computers on the local network, and i cannot be on the server and go to any of the computers on the LAN via their netbios names... but i can connect to every other computer on the network talks just fine with netbios names. so its obviously a problem on the server... n e way i can Fix dis?

I had the same problem. Try going into your connection and enabling NETBIOS over TCP/IP... After you do this, you should be able to access the share using Netbios name instead of IP

http://easycaptures.com/fs/uploaded/108/5753975520.jpg

Edit:sorry for the crappy screenshots (im at work, our comps suck)

[nd4spdbh2]

thanks that was a super easy fix!!!

now to just transmit netbios names over vpn!.