How can I allow my company to use 1 server for multiple stores?

My company has 2 locations and soon will have a 3rd. Right now our "server" is a NAS which obviously isn't designed to be worked off of and cannot be accessed off site. What would be the cheapest effective way to integrate the files so that all stores or employees could access our server anywhere?

Do I need a Windows Server or can I configure a standalone pc to act as a server to achieve this?

All helpful info is appreciatedHow can I allow my company to use 1 server for multiple stores?
You would need to provide logical securely encrypted access,w hich unless you are going to write the definitions for, would be inherit in the server O/S, and the Server App.



I would recommend file merging into a dedicated VPS running on Linux/Unix with apache 2.0.



There are plenty of hosts that have Dedicated VPS that are completely secure, and cost as little as $50 a month, with 20GB of store on the HDD, and unlimited bandwidth.



check into http://www.mediatemple.net, they're absolutely great.



Hosting with them is quite easy, cheap, and amazingly effective. 24/7 tech support will help you achieve any result you want, they'll help you for 24 hours straight too, if you stay on the phone, they never stop. Pretty great. imo.
A standalone server could be a Windows server or it could be a Linux server. "Standalone" means that it's not connected to other computers, so it wouldn't serve much.



You have 2 choices, the cheapest of which is to put the server (you can use it as one of your workstations, or use a dedicated server, a computer used only as a server) on the internet and let all your computers access the data via the internet. (They can read from a database on the server and write to it.) I wouldn't suggest that you try doing this yourself - you need a secure web server, and that's go9ing to take a lot of programming.



The other way - much more expensive - is dedicated lines from all your other stores (1 now, 2 soon, who knows how many eventually) to the store with the server and treat all the computers as a network. Depending on the locations of the stores and your annual net, the mileage charge for the lines could put you out of business.



There are other ways, like having the computers call the server via modem periodically. Or if the stores are line of site to each other, or close to it, a long range wifi link between them.



But no solution is an off-the-shelf, do-it-yourself-if-you-aren't-experienced solution.How can I allow my company to use 1 server for multiple stores?
Using a secure VPN would be the easiest route. VPN's allow you to access a remote location as if you were sitting in the actual office. If you are looking for a more secure and stable solution you may want to look at http://www.MouchettTechnologies.com
Try looking up info about VPN's. Virtual Private Networks.

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GoogleHow can I allow my company to use 1 server for multiple stores?
Try looking up info about VPN's. Virtual Private Networks.