Network Attached Storage question

I have a 400 GB Buffalo hard drive, a Linksys wireless router, and 2 MacBooks and my question is in two parts:

The first question is how do I access my hard drive from outside of my network so that I can play all my songs while I'm at work(or any other network) from my MacBook?

The second question(which is probably better suited in another thread) is how do I set up iTunes to access my songs while I'm at home and on the road without having to clear everything and then load it all again once I switch networks?

You used to be able to do it in itunes, but they disabled it

However there is an OS X solution

http://www.simplifymedia.com/index.html

You'll find more information on this at lifehacker.com, but the tool you want to use is your router. Upgrade the OS on the Linksys to DD-WRT, and use the VPN function to allow you to connect from anywhere. You'll also need an openVPN client for OS-X, but that's fairly easy - www.openvpn.net

To louishen: The simplifymedia option will only work if I have computer hooked up to my hard drive and mine is connected only to my router.

To PerryLynch: I tried checking out your options but it seems really complicated but I am still trying to figure it out. Do know if there are any sights that breaks down the VPN thing into a little bit more simpler terms(kind of a newbie here)?

On a side question should I have to worry about backing up my Buffalo drive because that is where I backup all of the things on MacBooks in addition to obviously storing all my media?

I don't know how I missed seeing your 2nd question earlier. I don't know how I missed the fact that both of your macs are mobile. Open VPN may not be your best choice, then.

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/vpn.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSL-Explorer:_Community_Edition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_network

Personally, I'd recommend grabbing some older PC or Mac and running SSL-Explorer. It's incredibly useful, and runs on Windows, Mac, or Linux, so there is no cost for running it except hardware. All you'd need is an account with DynDNS.org or one of their competitors to make it consistently available to you from the outside world.

I figured that I am able to access my hard drive from work and I did it using ftp but now my problem is that I can see the folders where my files are kept but iTunes only sees my song that were loaded on my home network. Also if I try to even open a song or video my connection gets cut off before actually opening anything. Are there any suggestions or does it sound like I need to just give it up? I'm thinking of going with your idea PerryLynch because now I have an excuse to get a Mac Mini now which won't make the wife too happy , but I would like to work with my current equipment .

Well, the rest of that excuse list is as follows:
1. Honey you'll be able to get to your mac if you need it - even when you're at the office.
2. We can attach extra hard drives to it and have full backups of all of our stuff - you don't want to lose the pics of the baby do ya?
3. It can be used as a media PC in the living room and as the VPN server - Now we can record Springer AND your soaps at the same time!

I notice plenty of people are watching this thread has anyone(hopefully) come up with a solution for this situation? The only thing I can think of is the new Time Capsule. The one thing I'm not sure of with TC is can it be used just as a hard drive if I don't have Leopard? I'm sure this for another thread but can TC be used like an AppleTV?

It's basically a Network Attached Storage (NAS) Appliance. Logically, you should be able to use it with any Mac, and possibly with any PC on your network. I've not read the specs, though.