Virtual Office

Birdman_UK

Hi

I am looking for some advice regarding setting up a 'virtual office'. Essentially I want to set up a website where I can store my clients data so that my clients can view the data (images/text/video/GIS) and download the data for amendments/corrections and where the data can also be uploaded.

Some of the filesizes could be pretty big (TIFFs etc) but generally I don't expect there to be lots of activity or major bandwidth issues.

Originally I had thought I could just setup a website and make use of password protected folders (but on reading the small print - Fasthosts - I see that hosted sites can't include zipped or archived files for download etc). This is a real shame as a hosted site of this nature would have been less than £10/month. I should add that this is a start up business idea and I have all the usual cash flow problems associated with this type of venture!

Any ideas. Do I need to rent a dedicated server? Have I misinterpreted the small print? Would another provider give me what I want?

Any help would be greatfully recieved.

Thanks in advance

Astaroth

I would be carefull with the term "virtual office" as this is already accepted by the SME community to be outsourced telephone answering/ mail handling etc

Personally I use http://www.dataflame.co.uk and havent spotted anything in their T&Cs about archive files but best to check with them to make sure.

wolfman

Seems a bit harsh if the host won't let you store zip files. There'll be plenty of hosts out there that will let you.

On a simple level, yes you could just setup authentication via the web server, so that when the client goes to a specific folder it prompts them for a username/password.

Or you could setup an ftp server, you may want to use secure ftp though.

Both of the above aren't really ideal solutions though. Something like using a VPN, or having a secure web application would be better, but will cost more and be more diffucult to setup.

Lord_Chris

ok... this could take a while lol:

1) if you intend to set up a website where you and clients can download and upload files (and i assume you want them to be secure? ie password protected access) you will need to use a Database driven website - this is done by using a computer language called PHP, and you use it with a MySQL database.

2) You will have to pay for hosting, thats not an option, simply because free hosts do not tend to allow MySQL databases, and if they do, they can be quite limited.

3) you do not need a dedicated server - this will cost you loads, all you need to do is buy hosting with a company. I would recommend streamline.net great little service, i use their £40 a year package, includes unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth (important if uploading and downloading files a lot), they provide 5 MySQL databases, and you get a free .co.uk domain.

If you would like more help, i design websites, and i know a bit about PHP and MySQL, just private message me with some more information about your 'business venture' and i'll help you out if i can.

Birdman_UK

Thanks for all the comments so far. I will digest and consider your suggestions...

Very helpful.

wolfman

Further comments, see below:

Lord_Chris wrote:

1) if you intend to set up a website where you and clients can download and upload files (and i assume you want them to be secure? ie password protected access) you will need to use a Database driven website - this is done by using a computer language called PHP, and you use it with a MySQL database.

Not necessarily. If you did want to save complexity, you can just set authentication per folder via the web service (ie IIS or Apache). When a user does try to go there, a standard username/password prompt will appear.

Lord_Chris wrote:

2) You will have to pay for hosting, thats not an option, simply because free hosts do not tend to allow MySQL databases, and if they do, they can be quite limited.

If databases aren't an option you can store the values on the web server, in a config file, or xml file. If doing so hashing the username/password in the file would be a good idea.

Lord_Chris wrote:

3) you do not need a dedicated server - this will cost you loads, all you need to do is buy hosting with a company. I would recommend streamline.net great little service, i use their £40 a year package, includes unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth (important if uploading and downloading files a lot), they provide 5 MySQL databases, and you get a free .co.uk domain.

Definitely don't need a dedicated server. That would cost thousands. One of the hosts, like mentioned above will more than suffice. A web app would be a good idea though, but would require some work.

meandu229

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