I currently maintain a small business network that utilizes a Linux/Samba server for file and print sharing. The owner of this company is interested in moving all of his employees to home offices. He would be leasing DSL lines for each employee so, all IPs would remain static. He wants to move the file server to his home and maintain the same file sharing environment (i.e. mapable shares). My question is this: Can I use samba in this type of environment by maintaining a hosts file that crosses the employee's IPs with their new HOST names? Is Samba usable over the Internet with TCP/IP? I understand that is this type of setup is possible, there would be a huge security issue. Would I need to configure some type of PPTP to access the Samba server over the Internet? I hope this makes sense, thanks for the advice. - Humble Newbie

Yes it is possible. You just have to enable access for the specific hosts in your samba configuration. But try reading the following HOWTO on VPN: http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/VPN-HOWTO.html Mik

Yes it's possible IF samba box have a static public IP address.... most dsl connection are dynamic! In the /etc/smb.conf file you can specify which IP can access or not. Tunneling is not required, but could be more secure if your employees have dynamic ip. But PPTP is not very secure. take a look to serious vpn solutions that use DES or ARC4 encryption.