Simple file server accessible remotely with managed access. Do I need ML Server for this?

Question

Hello,
I have a  Mac Mini that will be dedicated to serving 15 folders of documents to 7 people. It would be great if each person had their own password and I'd like to be able to decide what folders each user will have access to. The people need to be able to access the files from home and on the office network.
Do I NEED to run OS X server for this Or can i accomplish this in OS X?
I have to get this running quickly and I may not have time for the ML Server learning curve (even though it has been simplified).
I tried to get ML server running on my machine a few weeks ago but got stuck. If setting up ML server with JUST the file server is dramatically easier I will try again. Can anyone please suggest a tutorial that takes me through simply setting up a remotely accessible file server with managed access with ML Server?
V

Answer 1

OS X client can serve files to remote clients, via both SMB/CIFS and AFS; via the Windows and OS X fiel services.  That's cheap, uses hardware you already have, and works fine.
Most NAS boxes don't do distributed authentication.  Typically, you have credentials for the box at most.  Some of the mid- and upper-end boxes do offer distributed authentication, but that means having that authentication around.  At the low end, an Apple Time Capsule is a reasonable NAS box, and you can add an external disk.   And can be used for backups via Time Machine, too.  The mid- and upper-end boxes from Synology have a reputation for capabilities and flexibility.  There are (many) other vendors.
I'm not a huge fan of LogMeIn for various reasons that I won't get into here, but that service does work for accessing hosts.  I don't know if that allows access to NAS directly, but I'd tend to doubt it.  You'd need to check with both LogMeIn and with the specs for whatever NAS box you're using.  
Given the choice, I'd use a VPN.
Using a VPN does mean you can control — at the VPN level — who can access your private network, so that can provide a broad-brush form of access control to your NAS device or your OS X client or your OS X Server box, if you go that route.
I don't prefer to openly serve files to the internet, as the underlying protocols have occasionally had security issues and vulnerabilities, and the internet gremlins will find and will poke at any open ports and any accessible file servers.  I prefer to configure these services via VPN.
VPNs are also more involved to set up, where LogMeIn can be simple.
As mentioned previously, I'm also not a huge fan of the host-based VPN servers in OS X, though those do work.  The gateway boxes I've been using in the last year or so are probably not a good choice for a user that isn't familiar with networking  — the boxes provide a user interface that very definitely expect the user to understand IP and routing and related, but is both self-consistent and quite powerful — and they're cheap for what they can do, and they do work nicely.  ZyXEL ZyWALL USG series.  If you are evaluating any of these firewall boxes, then I'd definitely encourage downloading the manuals and making sure you can understand the available information.  The server-grade firewall boxes are almost inherently flexible and thus complex devices.
One of the easiest ways is to work with somebody that does this sort of thing to sort through the options and requirements and trade-offs available here, and potentially to set up your VPN or NAS or server configuration for you.  (Disclosure: I offer this.)