Plex for lots of files for multiple people

[Yellow_]

I work in a marketing department, and am on the graphics side of it

 

Including myself, there are 5 graphics designers who are all using the adobe CC for web storage, and it's ass.

 

Would building a plex server be a suitable option for this?

We don't need anything over ~3TB.

 

We are all spread out across the country and need access from home as well.

[Electronics Wizardy]

So you want a way to share files between editors?

 

You don't want plex for this.

 

You probably want nextcloud or simmilar. Its like good drive but self hosted. You can also just use the smb to mount the server on the client.

 

Are these users all on the same lan?

[Yellow_]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

You probably want nextcloud or simmilar. Its like good drive but self hosted. You can also just use the smb to mount the server on the client.

 

Are these users all on the same lan?

Could you go into more detail on those services?

 

And no theyre not, sadly. 3 of us are in the same office, the other works remotely from home and one works from a city on the other side of Canada

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Yellow_ said:

Could you go into more detail on those services?

 

And no theyre not, sadly. 3 of us are in the same office, the other works remotely from home and one works from a city on the other side of Canada

nextcloud lets you have a synced folder between multiple clients. Its works basically like google drive.

 

You can also just have a fileshare, and have everyone access it. Have something like a vpn for the people offsite.

[Yellow_]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

nextcloud lets you have a synced folder between multiple clients. Its works basically like google drive.

 

You can also just have a fileshare, and have everyone access it. Have something like a vpn for the people offsite.

Does nextcloud force users to keep the data downloaded and synced locally? 

 

Thats the problem we have with the Adobe CC, aside from it being super slow and unreliable, is that we have to download and sync every time the pc turns back on- eating up hard drive space.

 

 

How could I go about setting up a fileshare?

[BrinkGG]

9 minutes ago, Yellow_ said:

I work in a marketing department, and am on the graphics side of it

 

Including myself, there are 5 graphics designers who are all using the adobe CC for web storage, and it's ass.

 

Would building a plex server be a suitable option for this?

We don't need anything over ~3TB.

 

We are all spread out across the country and need access from home as well.

2 ways to do this.

 

1: NextCloud hosted on something like freenas or Unraid. 

 

2: VPN through OpenVPN to the office network with a file directory shared from the network. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Yellow_ said:

Does nextcloud force users to keep the data downloaded and synced locally? 

 

Thats the problem we have with the Adobe CC, aside from it being super slow and unreliable, is that we have to download and sync every time the pc turns back on- eating up hard drive space.

 

 

How could I go about setting up a fileshare?

Nextcloud doesn't force you to have it locally, but it downloads the file before you can use it. Unlike a file share where all the editing is done off the server.

 

What nas do you have now? normally its as simple as create a fileshare and mount it on the client.

[Yellow_]

Just now, Brink2Three said:

2: VPN through OpenVPN to the office network with a file directory shared from the network. 

So in this situation, would I do this set up a NAS or similar pc?

[Yellow_]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

What nas do you have now? normally its as simple as create a fileshare and mount it on the client.

None

 

Literally the only storage we have going for this department is the Adobe Creative Cloud and sharepoint, both of which have shown to be fairly unreliable 

[BrinkGG]

Just now, Yellow_ said:

So in this situation, would I do this set up a NAS or similar pc?

You could either set up a server with a networked file directory or you could have one of the office computers be the "Server" and just set it as a windows share. That computer should always be on though. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Yellow_ said:

None

 

Literally the only storage we have going for this department is the Adobe Creative Cloud and sharepoint, both of which have shown to be fairly unreliable 

Do you have a IT dept to set this up for you? Id try to do this through them. 

 

Do you have a budget in mind? 

 

Do you have access to the router and firewall settings?

[Yellow_]

Just now, Brink2Three said:

You could either set up a server with a networked file directory or you could have one of the office computers be the "Server" and just set it as a windows share. That computer should always be on though. 

Do you know of any decent resources on how to set this up? Sounds intriguing.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Yellow_ said:

Do you know of any decent resources on how to set this up? Sounds intriguing.

You can right click on a folder in windows and under properties, then sharing, make a network share and other systems on the network can use it. 

 

Have you give make network share a google?

[Yellow_]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

Do you have a IT dept to set this up for you? Id try to do this through them. 

 

Do you have a budget in mind? 

 

Do you have access to the router and firewall settings?

We have about 1/4 of an IT department, which is basically me at this point. There is a dedicated IT guy, but if I send in a request to him he'll blow it off and nothing will be done.

 

I know a good bit of consumer pc parts, but this area isnt near my expertise. 

[Yellow_]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

You can right click on a folder in windows and under properties, then sharing, make a network share and other systems on the network can use it. 

 

Have you give make network share a google?

Alright I see what you mean now.

 

What do you mean by make network share a google?

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Yellow_ said:

Alright I see what you mean now.

 

What do you mean by make network share a google?

having you tried googling for guides to make a network share?

 

https://lifehacker.com/how-to-share-a-folder-over-your-network-5808814

 

Though, Id probably get a deticated nas box like a synology here. 

[BrinkGG]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

having you tried googling for guides to make a network share?

 

https://lifehacker.com/how-to-share-a-folder-over-your-network-5808814

 

Though, Id probably get a deticated nas box like a synology here. 

Synology, Old Desktop PC and install freeNAS, Netgear even makes some NAS boxes for cheap iirc.

 

[Yellow_]

Just now, Brink2Three said:

Synology, Old Desktop PC and install freeNAS, Netgear even makes some NAS boxes for cheap iirc.

 

 

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

having you tried googling for guides to make a network share?

 

https://lifehacker.com/how-to-share-a-folder-over-your-network-5808814

 

Though, Id probably get a deticated nas box like a synology here. 

No I havent taken a look at that yet, thanks for the direction.

 

So my best bet is to set up a NAS out of whatever device using synology and then set up a vpn for external users? 

 

Sorry If im not following 100%

[BrinkGG]

Just now, Yellow_ said:

 

No I havent taken a look at that yet, thanks for the direction.

 

So my best bet is to set up a NAS out of whatever device using synology and then set up a vpn for external users? 

 

Sorry If im not following 100%

Yep you've got it. VPN service to connect your two external clients via something like OpenVPN, then a NAS box on your office network to host all of the files. 

[Yellow_]

6 minutes ago, Brink2Three said:

Yep you've got it. VPN service to connect your two external clients via something like OpenVPN, then a NAS box on your office network to host all of the files. 

Awesome.

 

I'll start my hard research then.

 

Thanks so much @Brink2Three and @Electronics Wizardy

[Mikensan]

Just keep in mind where-ever you stick your solution, you will want fairly decent upload speeds.

 

I would second something like QNAP or Synology and install the nextcloud plugin. Exactly like google drive, you can work from a web interface or mobile app.

 

Plex would be a good solution if you just need to watch a video file or picture. If you need to work on the files it won't help you.

[nka]

Simple solution would be to use QNAP/Synology (Atleast 4 ports) NAS with VPN on it and connect everyone to the network share.

 

Cheaper (and better IMO) solution would be to build a unRAID Server and use the NextCloud Docker and openVPN-AS Docker. This solution is better, but require a bit of "it" knowledge (with nextcloud, you may not even have to use a VPN).

 

For the Marketing Deparements here, I got them a 2 ports QNAP TS-251 with 2 x 4TB, backuped into our backup QNAP 12 ports TS-EC1279U-RP with 12 x 3TB, they use the network share directly on there PC. But it's more to put file than "working" on it. Else I would have taked something more powerfull.

 

VPN is done on the Fortigate side.