Home Networking
Hi there, I am interested in setting up a family network to share printers and files within my home. We currently run a iMac and a MacBook Pro off of a Airport Extreme Network. We share our documents through Dropbox. We load all of our iTunes and iPhoto picutres on to the iMac as it is permanently in the house. Our AppleTV connects to the iMac. We use a shared iCloud account to share an email account, a calendar and contacts.
It is time for us to replace both the iMac and MacBook Pro. We would like to get two MacBook Pros (one for me and one for my wife) and a ThunderBolt Display. With the new system, I would like to be able share our pictures in iPhoto (400GB) and our iTunes media (music, movies, etc - 100GB). I don't want to get really large hard drives in the new MacBook Pros but I would like to get a way for them to be stored else where and have both of the new MacBook Pros access it.
My first idea was to get a MacMini (or MacMini server) to leave at the house all the time so my AppleTV (and Airport Express for Airplaying) has something to connect to. The iTunes media could be put on the MacMini. The iPhoto stuff could also be stored there. I could set up that the iTunes would auto download to the two MacBook Pros when I purchase something new. On my MacBook Pro, I could delete music that belongs to my wife and my wife could do the same but we would have a combined library on the MacMini.
As for the iPhoto Library, we could keep only the most recent pictures from the year on the MacBook Pros and older pictures on the MacMini.
Does it make sense to get a MacMini Server?
When I get the two, possibly three computers, do I log in with the same username on all? What is the best way to share everything between the three? Any better suggestions to share documents other than Dropbox? I know iCloud does store things but my impression it is only for iWork files.
Are there any other suggestions?
Thanks in advance,
Mike
AirPort Extreme 802.11n (5th Gen), OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)