Networking a folder over the Internet

jrochie

Hi all,

Need a hand with something. I've managed to get my hands on a second hand till system for our shop. It's windows based, has a POS and back office. It's licensed for 3 computers, as in 2 shops and an office which is what we have.

I've worked on the system for 10 years previously so I know it inside out and have no problem setting it up or maintaining it or anything like that. I do have one problem though with the set up though which I can't get my head around.

The way the system works, each till has a number of folders which holds all the stock,updates etc. there is an interface in the back office which communicates between the two, sends and receives update files between all the computers. Basically the way it works is you set the folder paths for each system and it works away itself. Now I've set this up on a local network and everything tests perfect. My problem is that the computers will be in 3 different locations so won't be on a local network.

I need to map the folders from each till to the office PC. That's where my problem is. My set up:
Each shop has a static ip on the dsl line.
The tills are running win XP SP3.
The 2 PCs have the folders set up to be shared.
Each shop has a Zyxel 660hn eircom router.

I know there is gonna be security issues which I plan to address but can anyone talk me through setting up networking the folder? Is it possible to do it with the router I have?

Thanks guys, let me know if you need any more info.

ED E

First off, good job on giving loads of info in the OP, wish more were like you.

It sounds like to me you need FTP, or sFTP. How sensitive is the data? Does it store customer records or just stock levels? Any CC data?

How I'd set it up:
Back off machine is the host, runs Till Software + FTP server
Back office connection has a static IP OR dynamic DNS service(this causes a name like office.dnsprovider.com to always go to your IP dynamic IP)
Port forward set up for FTP on the 660

Two off sites just then need to have the drives mapped under windows, then you can set the software to work in those drives and they'll actually read/write from the host machine. Their lines dont need to be on statics and there is no router configs needed for them as its purely outward connections.

The one thing I'd want to check is if they could collide, that is say both tills sell something at the same time, are they going to write to the same database? If so you could have transactions disappear as the second till to write the sale would not see the previous one that just went in seconds before.

jrochie

thanks ED_E.

The plan would be to have seperate mapped folders for each off site PC so no fear of anything colliding.

my biggest issue has been mapping the drives from the other PCs. I can't seem to set up a connection between my BO pc and either of the offsite ones.

What do I need to do on the off site PC to all my BO PC see it? I've tried setting up port fording on the offsite router to the till PC and then setting up the shared folders on that, but I can't connect to it from my BO pc..

ED E

You really dont want to use windows shares and open that to the public internet.

Try this:

Install this(Host version) https://filezilla-project.org/ on the back office PC
Here's a guide on the basic steps to set it up http://lifehacker.com/339887/build-a-home-ftp-server-with-filezilla (only give access to say \TillSysteam\) (give users full permissions)
Forward port 21 to that machine
Go to one of the tills, map a network drive then enter ftp://youripfrombackoffice/ and the user and pass you set up when prompted.

It will then have a drive listed that is \Tillsystem\ and away you go.

dilallio

You could install Dropbox on the 3 pc's using a different dropbox userid on each. Then, on each PC share the folder associated with the till to the other 2 userids.
When the folder is updated on one, it will automatically update on the other 2 pc's.
Dropbox will not update the other 2 pc's as quick as a proper network but this may not matter and it's simple to install and it's free.

jrochie

Thanks guys. Is looking like the FTP solution is going to work with one extra thing I've had to add. I've also had to use another free program called NetDrive by Novell which allows me to map the FTP address to a drive letter in windows. Haven't been able to fully test it yet but it's looks spot on so far!

Appreciate the help guys! Also I tried the Dropbox idea as well, in theory it's a perfect idea, but unfortunately because of the way the till system works Dropbox can't update one of the files. Pity because it was a good idea.

Will give a final update tomorrow once I've properly tested.

Overheal

ED E wrote: »

First off, good job on giving loads of info in the OP, wish more were like you.

Most cases if you know so much info you know the fix or stumble upon it. I've written a dozen posts asking for help over the last couple years where halfway through typing it I realize I forgot a troubleshooting step and answered my own question.