Best practices for tiny firm sharing Revit Central files - Best step past dropbox? VPN? Revit Server?

HI,

My partner and I have just started our own business. It's extremely lean, in that we are both working from our home offices with no central office location.

I have both a mac running windows 7 and 8 on vmware (my primary workstation) and a pc (win7) and a static IP address. She has an iMac running vmware and a static IP.

I'd like to have a stable, cheap file storage solution for our central file that is SIMPLE and cheap. I'm willing to dedicate one of my machines as a server if necessary, but buying a new server and configuring windows server seems like too much.

Right now we're using dropbox, but we're very careful not to work on the same file at the same time, and each time we have to resave the central. It's gotten to be so much coordination (or corruption) that we don't even bother enabling worksharing and just take turns on the local file.

But we'd really like to move into worksharing. What is the simplest best practice for a tiny firm of our size.

Is there an easy way to set up a VPN network or Revit Server installation on one of my computers that she can tunnel into and access?

I'm having such a rough go of configuring the VPN. I've intermittently been able to connect to the VPN on the windows side, but then not to the drives? Is there a good start to finish guide on setting up the network and the file system. I've found tutorials on configuring VPN endpoints, connecting to VPN endpoints, but not on accessing the file system once your connected, let alone setting up central file locations. IS there a definitive guide out there anywhere?

I know enough net admin info to be dangerous, but I'm quickly getting in over my head, and Revit Server seems even harder.

Why won't autodesk make this part of the Cloud services? Seems like such an obvious advantage. Think how many firms would save on server admin costs if autodesk took it on and how much better the systems would work if we were all on the same one.

Thanks for any help in advance.

Lost in the bitstream,
-eric

I suggest trying the following.

Setup Hamachi VPN (free) between your computers. Then setup Revit Server (free) on each of your systems. Setup yours as both a central and an accelerator. Setup hers as just an accelerator. You can install Revit server on Windows 7 by editing the setup.ini file. Here is a blog post explaining how: http://do-u-revit.blogspot.com/2011/...s-desktop.html.

This setup will allow you to both work on the same models through Revit Server and Hamachi VPN.

Thanks Troy. My win7 pc is a underpowered and I need a new machine regardless. Could I set up the central server on vmware or is it best on a straight windows 7 machine? Or win 8 for that matter?
(My research now has me debating trying this or going whole hob and setting up a "bim cloud" on an 8 core Mac Pro with virtualized machines and remoting in. Either one I try is an investment in time and equipment. Someday I'll get back to using the software instead of setting it up...)

I just heard about www.join.me which has a little app that lets you "drive" someone else's machine in the free version, and each can drive the other's in the paid version. Seems promising. The app works directly through the web, not a browser. wow, I sound like an infomercial. I am not. just trying to do the same thing as you, with a lot less talent.
Donna