What's the dead simplest NAS software for setting up a simple file sharing box?

[maximumzero]

I have an old PC that I'm tinkering with and I'd like to make a it a catch-all file sharing PC, a local Dropbox if you will.

 

Can anyone recommend some dead simple NAS software to do just that? I'm trying out OpenMediaVault and it's certainly feature packed but it does way more than I need it to.

[rmgdnz]

What OS are you using? There should be an option to enable network file sharing without having to install any software at all (if that suits your needs).

[jaslion]

Windows whatever version.

 

Right click a driver,folder,... got to sharing -> advanced sharing ->share this folder->permissions-> click everyone -> check read and write -> hit ok

 

Now you can see the folder on the network if you give in the ip address of the pc OR use the computer name in a file manager, Small disclaimer you NEED a password on the pc for this to properly work. As you'll be promted to enter the username and password of the user that shared the folder.

[maximumzero]

15 hours ago, rmgdnz said:

What OS are you using? There should be an option to enable network file sharing without having to install any software at all (if that suits your needs).

Windows 10.

15 hours ago, jaslion said:

Windows whatever version.

 

Right click a driver,folder,... got to sharing -> advanced sharing ->share this folder->permissions-> click everyone -> check read and write -> hit ok

 

Now you can see the folder on the network if you give in the ip address of the pc OR use the computer name in a file manager, Small disclaimer you NEED a password on the pc for this to properly work. As you'll be promted to enter the username and password of the user that shared the folder.

Yeah, that's my current setup, though the files are being shared from a computer that's being used; I was gonna move those files off to a separate computer whose sole purpose is file sharing. I thought maybe using one of the multitudes of file sharing-specific operating systems like FreeNAS or OpenMediaVault would be better than just having a Windows instance just for file sharing purposes.

[Electronics Wizardy]

27 minutes ago, maximumzero said:

Windows 10.

Yeah, that's my current setup, though the files are being shared from a computer that's being used; I was gonna move those files off to a separate computer whose sole purpose is file sharing. I thought maybe using one of the multitudes of file sharing-specific operating systems like FreeNAS or OpenMediaVault would be better than just having a Windows instance just for file sharing purposes.

What drive and hardware setup do you have?

 

It will work basically the same as the windows file sharing for most uses, with about the same performance. The nice thing with those nas oses is you normally get a web interface.

[akio123008]

5 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

The nice thing with those nas oses is you normally get a web interface.

Which you could sort of do on a windows box by just using remote desktop.

 

Personally on my NAS I just use a server version of Linux and I use a remote terminal to configure it when I need to (although that's a pain, a windows PC with remote desktop is a lot nicer to use)

 

5 hours ago, maximumzero said:

I thought maybe using one of the multitudes of file sharing-specific operating systems like FreeNAS or OpenMediaVault would be better than just having a Windows instance just for file sharing purposes.

But really a windows instance running is perfectly fine for sharing some files. I wouldn't buy a windows license for a file server, but if you already have the instance running I see no reason to make things more complicated and trying to move onto something else; if it aint broke don't fix it.