Would love some expert advice on setting up a home network using openSUSE 13.2 KDE 4

English Network/Internet
1

Thanks for taking the time to read and hopefully be able to help point me in the right direction on where I am trying to go with a Home Network. So this is what I have.

As the title says I will be using openSUSE for the server. I know the basics of setting up a samba server and see that its already installed by default now in 13.2 My issue is that the small network I had setup before will not be sufficient for the needs I have now. Now I have multiple users and multiple devices that need to have access to the network. I have Windows, Linux, Android and IOS devices that need access to the Network and user files for that user.

I need to set up groups for using the Multimedia that will be stored on the Network. For instance I will create a kids group to watch movies but limit the types of movies they can have access to. All together we have 7 users with each having a minimal of 2 devices. The only exception is really the two younger kids. All together there are about 20 different devices that will access the network.

The network will be used as both a media distro center/player. The system will be connected to the main tv in the living room and has 2 permanently attached via usb 3 terabyte hard drives. The hard drives are currently on NTFS and I will be converting them over one at a time to EXT4 I want to use the Network for both media and backup purposes.

I know I have to setup and create the user accounts and group accounts and can pretty much take care of that part on my own however I do need to know if there are any special things I should do for the different mobile devices that will access the Network. I’ve connected android to the home network I had in the past but have no idea of how to get a iPhone to have access. We also have Kindles, Nooks and Android tablets that I will need access. I know most of those are Android so I hope that will be easy enough to figure out.

Any way if someone is willing to get with me and give me some tips and pointers I would greatly appreciate it :slight_smile:

frog

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When you’re talking about 7 Users(and many more devices), you likely have crossed the line from simple ad hoc management to where centralized management makes sense. It’s too big a topic to cover in a single post, but you should spend some time look at LDAP and/or SAMBA4 as an LDAP authentication server. Whether you decide to transition from “home network” to “small business network” practices probably depends largely on if you decide you want to implement “Single Sign On” – ie A User signs in once to your network and then is granted access to services and resources depending on what your centralized management configuration. Besides centralized configuration, you could also benefit from centralized log management, client management and configuration, more.

My guess is that the SAMBA you now have installed is likely only client utilities. Of course, if you wisch to serve CIFS shares, you’ll need to deploy the Server components. Particularly if you support a variety of devices, you may want to consider serving shares behind a webserver instead, you’ll probably find that much simpler than setting up CIFS support on all your devices.

There are a variety of home multimedia systems, you’ll probably find many recommended in the Multimedia forum.

TSU