Drop box/networked folder question.

[jaykingfunk7239]

I look after 27 macs using ARD.

I'm fairly new to networking and wondered if there is a way that I can put a folder on the desktops of all the macs connected to my admin mac that will link to my drop box so users can easily back their work up to my machine so I can then back it up to an external HDD?

Or if its possible a folder that links direct to an external HDD??

The admin mac is running 10.6.2

Thanks in advance, J.



 

[paulyras]

I look after 27 macs using ARD.

I'm fairly new to networking and wondered if there is a way that I can put a folder on the desktops of all the macs connected to my admin mac that will link to my drop box so users can easily back their work up to my machine so I can then back it up to an external HDD?

Or if its possible a folder that links direct to an external HDD??

The admin mac is running 10.6.2

Thanks in advance, J.



Do you care if they can all see and manipulate each others files? Are they all on Snow Leopard or Leopard?

My recommendation (though I'm only doing it with about 4 macs right now at home so I can't attest to the true scalability) is to back up to a whomping backup drive using Time Machine. If you set it to only backup the desktop folders and document folders, it shouldn't kill the drive space (depending on what you're saving), and it's cleaner than having a single drop box. Best of all, it's brainless- brainless is good.

I've also started using dropbox (the program / service). The great thing is it syncs computers if one person uses multiple computers, but it is also stored in the cloud and could be accessed by people from outside computers (with appropriate username and password), so depending on the level of security you need...

There's probably a better solution, but that's my simpleton advice...

 

[ViViDboarder]

Are all computers and the admin computer you want the files backed up to on the same LAN? Or does this need to be done over the internet?

 

[brand]

In would recommend OS X Server. A Mac Mini Server might even work for you.

 

[ViViDboarder]

If everything is on the same LAN, as I was asking about earlier, you can just share a folder and then mount that on everyone's desktop.

 

[jaykingfunk7239]

Thanks for your replies people!

All the macs are on the same LAN.

Operating systems range from, panther, tiger, leopard and snow leopard on the admin machine! I work in a school and many of the macs are old machines that were donated, hence having so many OS versions.

The time machine option sounds good.

We wouldn't be able to afford an OS X server but I have thought about the mac mini option but haven't looked into it yet.

Ideally I would like it so that the users can't manipulate each others files.

ViViDboarder: Is your suggestion of a shared folder just simply creating a folder and making an alias for it??

Thanks in advance again people!

J

 

[ViViDboarder]

Thanks for your replies people!

All the macs are on the same LAN.

Operating systems range from, panther, tiger, leopard and snow leopard on the admin machine! I work in a school and many of the macs are old machines that were donated, hence having so many OS versions.

The time machine option sounds good.

We wouldn't be able to afford an OS X server but I have thought about the mac mini option but haven't looked into it yet.

Ideally I would like it so that the users can't manipulate each others files.

ViViDboarder: Is your suggestion of a shared folder just simply creating a folder and making an alias for it??

Thanks in advance again people!

J

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1549

There is a guide on setting up a shared folder from your Admin machine. You can set it up so Admin or whatever user you use has Read & Write access and every other users has only write access. Then other users can only drop files into the folder but cannot go in and open or edit files. You'll just want everyone to have a unique name for their file. Probably something like "Vividboarder - MyDocument.doc" so nobody will overwrite another users file.

Once you have the folder shared you just need to mount it on each other computer. Or set the drive to automount. I'll look for links on that last part, but mounting shouldn't be too hard. I think you should see them in finder.