file server for both windows and lcnc acess ??

With Rockstor enable samba and install from rock_ons install (Web Service Discovery For Windows Networks). Windows will handle it as a network drive, and so will Linux. This will run on a Pi and it is free.

so, get a NAS and setup samba, seems easy enough, thanks

Not just a NAS, Grab a Synology NAS and its all set up. Add a user of the same name as used on your cnc box with same password
Mine is over 12 years old and still going strong and they still give me support!
Its got 9 security cameras hanging off it too

I already have a standalone DVR IP camera system, I might look at one of their smaller offerings. I don't need a big massive NAS for this.

Look at rockstor.com/

I have a Synology DS920+ with 17TB of storage. I love it. I run OpenSSH on my CNC mill and use WinSCP to send files to it. I also use WinSCP to backup my linuxcnc directory to my Windows PC.

I have a server running Linux Debian Server, headless.
With Samba file sharing between Linux and Windows.

Here are my notes on installing Samba.
Samba works good for me.

How to install Samba on Debian
====================================

**Install Samba so that files can be shared on a Linux - Windows network**


**Install:**

Do an update::

sudo apt-get update

Install Samba::

sudo apt-get install samba

Check if Samba is running::

systemctl status smbd

Open /etc/samba/smb.conf::

cd /etc/samba
ls -l
sudo pluma smb.conf

Define workgroup::

#======================= Global Settings =======================

[global]

## Browsing/Identification ###

# Change this to the workgroup/NT-domain name your Samba server will part of
workgroup = WORKGROUP

Create a Samba Share (add to end of smb.conf)::

[Share]
path = /home/smbuser/Share
available = yes
browsable = yes
public = yes
writable = yes
force user = smbuser

[NC_Files]
path = /home/smbuser/linuxcnc/nc_files
available = yes
browsable = yes
public = yes
writable = yes
force user = smbuser

Check smb.conf syntax::

testparm

Restart smbd::

sudo systemctl restart smbd
sudo systemctl status smbd

Quit smbd (press q for quit)

Install Samba_Client and list shares::

sudo apt-get install smbclient
smbclient -L localhost

Connect to Samba from Linux::

sudo apt-get install cifs-utils

**Create Static IP**

Find IP::

hostname -I
'or'
ip -c addr show

setup network manager, manual