Fast network sharing AND permanent address?

Hi,

I need a place to share files between a few other people that:

1. Is fast and easy, like sharing files on a local network with gigabit hardware. Why not do exactly that? (see next point)

2. Has a permanent address to access the files, as if it were hosted on a website. The reason for this is the software I will be using to point to these files does not use relative paths. If it did use relative paths, I was simply going to setup a shared dropbox with all the files, but alas, that does not work. I want this solution to be future proof, so that no matter how much I change my setup, the file paths that my software is looking at will always remain the same.

3. (optional, but preferred) Ability to automatically backup these files. Like an rsync with amazon S3 or something.

I am guessing there is a simple and widely used solution to this, like an ftp setup, just not sure how it all works.

Thanks in advance for any info!

Ian

Is everyone actually on the same gigabit LAN or are they at remote locations? What total data space volume do you need? If all on the same LAN, how much do you want to spend for this storage (thinking NAS with FTP with cloud backup) v. a drive on your computer via Windows 7 or FTP software?

Yes, you would just setup the NAS with an FTP service and access it with that address within your network.

You could also just map a network drive on your primary machine and share it with everyone, use a desktop shortcut to the mapped drive to keep the same drive letter.

Yes whatever address you select will remain static, yes you can move the ftp server and files to another machine and configure with the same address, and yes it will be limited by your wired or wireless connection speed.