Help setting up a home Media + File server [duplicate]

Question

okay, here is the thing -

I want to set up a Media + File server for my home...

I have a tp-link wifi router+modem.

I plan to use xbmc as the media server...i tried it out and i can now use it..

but, i have problems in the following -

how to use the same server as a file server?

i installed vsftpd but i cant understand how to use it from a remote ubuntu , android and windows machine...

is there any other software like xbmc for file server access apart from filezilla... filezilla is fine but i would like to know if there is anything as simple to use as a file manager to access the files on the server...i do use the ubuntu filemanager to access ftp server set up on my phone to access the phone but i cant seem to figure out how to use such a thing where i can just access a location in my network on ubuntu, android, windows pcs...

also, i cant figure out how to remotely upload files on the server for use through xbmc(like movies etc...i guess that shall also be done with ftp..but just asking if there is any other way)..

Access from outside the wifi network is not a priority at first though it would be a thing to add later for sure( guess it needs port forwarding on the router... :/ )

hope my question is understandable... thankyou...

Answer 1

To share files only inside your home network, "samba" will do the job. This link explains how to set it up: https://help.ubuntu.com/14.04/serverguide/samba-fileserver.html. It works with both Windows and Linux clients, and there a ton of configuration possibilities (permissions, guest access, user-only editing permission, ...).

If you want to access this files remotely, one solution would be to configure a SSH server. I think that is the safest solution, once it uses encrypted keys to control the access. You can configure a special user to store the files, and configure it to be accessible through SSH connections. This way you avoid that system files to be accessible through these connections. And you can also use GUI interfaces to access it, like Nautilus, even if the server is command-line only.