Accessing users files via Sharepoint?

[rpycroft]

Hi all,

I'm looking into the possibility of allowing pupils and staff to access their files remotely (over the internet from home, say...) through Sharepoint. I was told somewhere down the line that it can incorporate this functionality and I've tried installing Sharepoint Services 3.0 on one of our services to see if I could work it out but I seem to have fallen at the first hurdle and cannot find any documentation explaining how this is possible. Does anyone know if it is actually possible or not and if so is there any kind of intro to adding this feature?

Thanks for your help, really appreciate any help anyone can give on this issue.
Richard.

[TheScarfedOne]

Take a look at my blog where Ive talked about this. Essentially, there are two ways of doing this - free and not free. Free - head to Codeplex and look for "User Home". Not free... look up Richard from Salamander, which is a great tool. Been using that here for quite a while.

Stuart

[imiddleton25]

SalamanderSoft Limited - SharePoint Web Parts

above is like to the website for salamandersoft we have been using it with great success here for a while now, Very Richard is very helpful so give me a shout

[rpycroft]

Hi guys,

Thanks for getting back to me so quick, really appreciate you taking the time to respond!

Can I just check - what would be the advantage of that rather than us upgrading our Exchange Server to 2007 and using the UNC file share access feature thingy that I've read about in that (plus getting the added benefits of a fancy new version of Outlook Web Access)...

The only thing I can think is that I don't think you can upload files with that whereas it looks like you can with the salamander one...

Thanks again.
Richard.

[NewOrder]

Whilst a number of schools use sharepoint then allow students to access home directories that should not be your main consideration for using it.

Sharepoint is a foundation to allow collaboration, communication and sharing. There are many built in feature that support this, blogs, wikis, surveys, announcements, lists, shared sites and so on.

I know that Richard of salamander has a tool that allows you to create individual sites for each student. If you then designed a site that has document storage, blogs, wikis students could use this instead of file storage!

[Sylv3r]

Salamandersoft now also have a tool to map to your Shared areas on your network as well as to MyDocuments.

[Maxell]

I have managed to get the free 'Home Drive' solution working perfectly internally. Can anyone enlighten me as to how to get the home drives accessible from outside of school?

Do I need to add another rule into ISA somehow - set up VPN File Shares rule/group?

[mleighton]

Hi guys,


Can I just check - what would be the advantage of that rather than us upgrading our Exchange Server to 2007 and using the UNC file share access feature thingy that I've read about in that (plus getting the added benefits of a fancy new version of Outlook Web Access)...

The only thing I can think is that I don't think you can upload files with that whereas it looks like you can with the salamander one...

You are correct - the Salamander web part allows 2 way integration with files. It also integrates completely seamlessly with SharePoint, so is very neat and unobtrusive. Simple to install. We have been using it for some time now without any problems at all.