Building System to Share and Store files?

[ryanbatc]

A friend of mine wants to setup a computer that other PC's (about 10) on a network could access to share and view files. 3 printers will be on it as well.

I guess it sounds like a network. Networking isn't my strong point but I said I'd try it.

For starters I want and he prefers the connections to be hardwired. Which means I'll need to buy a switch for his router as well.

1) What do people recommend I should do? Just build/buy a boring PC with a few hard drives (is RAID 1 the best way to backup data?), create a shared folder with Win7 and go from there?

He wants to be able to have full control of files and the other computers would only have read only privelages. Seems like advanced sharing in Win7 can do this.

He also already tried cloud storage ie Dropbox type setups and it didn't work. Some of the files are quite large I guess. But mainly they will be documents that needed revisions.

It's basically a small business.

2) Also should I run synergy+ and share the KB/mouse between his main pc and this one using an extra monitor or should I just setup a new pc with the usual peripherals?

3) Cost is an issue. Obviously there are more advanced solutions like IBM blade but those are expensive He wanted to keep the costs under 1000 USD.

Thanks for any suggestions.

edit: Doing some quick research, would a NAS be something that would work here? Can a NAS work on a switch/router combo?

[Slaughter]

So there are about 10 PCs in this small business, but they aren't already on a some sort of network?

[ryanbatc]

Most are. The problem the owner described to me is different people edit files and they lose track of the most recent file.

But you have a point - I could simply change permissions so one or two could edit duh!

[baconoclock]

Sounds like there needs to be some sort of system where the file has to be checked out and returned.
My company uses stupid expensive software that I dont like. So that wont be of much help.

All else fails take a nightly backup of the networked files, that way a restore can be done if someone overwrites something.