Me and some buddies of mine are trying to set up a database that we can all access securely from our homes. We are looking to have a server of some kind and have the ability for all of us to access it from various parts of the country. We have a server built already and are just looking for the software that we would need to be able to all connect to it and keep it secure. From my limited understanding we need Windows Server, possibly SQL server and some form of hardware/software to help keep it secure. Do we also need to have the server on a stic IP to be able to accomplish this? Is there anything else that we should be looking at? Thanks for you time and assistance.

As to a server, it could be Windows and SQL server, but you could just as easily run Linux and MySQL, for example. Ultimately, what you choose will depend on how heavily the server is used, what you plan to use it for specifically, and your budget and the hardware you've got to run the solution on.

As to the IP, you don't technically need a static IP, but you would need a dynamic DNS registration for the server (like one you can get from dyndns.org), and a client running on the server that updates that DNS record whenever the IP address changes (so you can always access the box via the dynamic DNS record name, rather than IP address).

Along with the dynamic DNS (No-IP has a free service) I would suggest some form of encrypted VPN. That way the database its self is not directly exposed to the internet. Connect to the VPN 1st, then you can access the database securely.

what anbout a terminal server you can all RDP to? then you can read the database even over the slowest link