Guys,

At work I'm S L O W L Y trying to fix up our IT / network.

Basically what has happened is that the company started with 1 PC then another was added then internet was added to the first PC then they networked the two then a 3rd was added etc etc as such there has been no real file structure.
But I've slowly got a file structure in place and got the girls to use a VPN rather than remote desktop to work from home (way faster and doesnt tie up a PC in the office)

Currently I'm just using one of the PCs at work as a file server. But I want to eventually take the PC out of the equasion using a NAS - but my question is then can I log into the network using VPN directly to the NAS or do I still have to go through another PC on the LAN to access the NAS?
(I dont have a NAS yet so I cant try it - I want to know if it can work before I invest in one)

Also I want to start doing remote backups possibly using a VPN how do I work out how much traffic this will generate - is there any way of tracking it locally so I can work out how much data traffic overheads to allow for in both locations.

Also does anyone know of any NAS which have a USB port to back up crutial files to say 16gb USB thumbdrive or 2.5" laptop drive in external case.

Any help / advice appreciated

Sounds like you are doing this on the cheap.

As for VPN into a NAS I would have to assume that it depends on the smarts of the NAS. If it's jsut a HDD in a case I'd have to think no, but I could be wrong. i can't see the HDD having the ability to create the VPN tunnel?

I'd maybe look at Windows Stoarge Server 2003 R2 as a file server option. It's a nice cut down version of server 2003 with some nice storage options.

As for backup data over the VPN it would depend on the backup system? Are you doing it nightly OR running full backups ever night or just weekly and running dletas during the week? There is plenty of software that will allow network monitoring but you should be able to get an idea of how much data you want to back up and how big the deltas\incrimentals will be.

This probably wasn't much help, but I have only really dealt in enterprise solutions rather than small office type setups.

Thanks Sig.

After speaking with Andrew (nidekcus) and reading around a bit more im starting to think i might look at another option.

And yes it is to be done on the cheap (dont ask - it frustrates me that we can drop hundreds of thousands on equipment in the factor yet when it comes to the office / IT its tightas$ zone)

No worries.

A lot of companies are like that. IT is very low on the list of priorities. I am lucky at the, moment the company I work for throws heaps of money at IT as they like to be ahead of the game and kind of show off a bit in what they have.

Good luck with it all.

As Sig said, go with storage server. Depending on your current e-mail setup, consider small business server. With a domain controller you can regulate users, groups, drives. Also exchange caters for multiple e-mails for smaller amount of users. You can centralise the network catering redundancy etc all at once. Just babling, have a do it right the first time approach. Get angry and push for dollars as it'll save ass in the long run.