Is it possible to create some Sort of File Sharing Server/Service/Feature For My Home /Neighbourhood Network

Question

I want the users in the Network to be able to Share their files with one Another. I know about Port Forwarding and UPNP . I tried DC++ and its HUB server. HUB server was accessible but They couldn't connect to each other Directly as the Direct Connect Protocol Allows.

It Seems only Bottom to High (In Laymans term) in Network Topology can Access Each other. I am Currently in Home 3.

DHCP handles all the IP Address Assignments.

Answer 1

If you can trust everyone in all these homes as if you're all one big happy family, and there are less than 254 devices in total among the several home, then turn off NAT and DHCP service in all the routers except the one at the head of the network (home 1). You want them all to act as transparent bridges. Some routers don't let you turn off NAT, or don't add the WAN port to the LAN-side switch when you turn off NAT, so you may need to use a LAN port from each router as its upstream connection.

This solution puts everything onto one moderately sized Ethernet LAN and IP subnet, so any local file sharing and service discovery protocols should work just fine.

If you don't trust everybody, please beware that the network architecture you already have probably leaves machines in the upstream houses vulnerable to attacks from the downstream houses. If anyone on the network did a ping scan of 192.168.0.0/24, they would discover all the running hosts in home 1, and from there they could do port scans to find vulnerable services to connect to. The connection traffic would look like it was coming from the local LAN, so even personal firewall packages might not block it because it looks like "in home" traffic.