Best way to keep 2 computers in sync

Dropbox
http://www.getdropbox.com/

Year-old demo video:



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Ah, on your local area network or directly between pcs, but not web-uh-muhfied.

Something like this, perhaps?

--- deleted ---

Meh. Can't vouch for that one, so I deleted it.

There are local server apps that set up a file server for sharing purposes, but they don't automatically synch like Dropbox does.

Don't have time to check into the plethora of local and LAN sharing apps to see what synchs. Sorry. :P

Subject: Syncing between two PCs

For just syncing two PCs with a USB cable, I like the freeware program Syncback. I've used it to sync my PC with files on a memory stick, but it can be used with any drive. I found it through CNET.
http://download.cnet.com/SyncBack-Freeware/3000-2242_4-10413802.html

The Editors Ratings and Reader Ratings were great. The company also has a paid version, Syncback Pro, but I found the free one to be sufficient for my purposes.

Ah, there ya go.

^that would work from a size perspective, but then I could not be mobile and that wouldn't be convenient. I'd like to take my laptop somewhere and have everything on my local HD without having to bring my Passport. Thanks for the suggestion, though

^ Some NATs / routers allow you to set a particular IP address on your internal network to be a DMZ (demilitarized zone outside the firewall, available to requests from the outside world.) It will then route any outside-world web traffic through to the computer on your local network at that IP address.

Alternatively, there are some Network Attached Storage devices that can be set to do the same. This can come in the form of a router that comes with a hard drive inside it, or a router that comes with a USB port (often...) that allows you to plug in an external USB Hard Drive in there to act as the same thing (a storage device on your network). Either type usually gives the option to open up partitions of those hard drives to external traffic coming from outside world (outside the firewall).

That's at least what I've noticed out there, anyway.

And there's always a vnc/remote desktop option (for the remote access bit), although this isn't going to let you play media, though I'm sure there's a solution to that, too...

er...thanks....but I really want the info ON my heard drive - not in the cloud, not remote access, etc

Subject: Re: Syncing between two PCs

Breukelen9999 wrote: For just syncing two PCs with a USB cable, I like the freeware program Syncback. I've used it to sync my PC with files on a memory stick, but it can be used with any drive. I found it through CNET.
http://download.cnet.com/SyncBack-Freeware/3000-2242_4-10413802.html

The Editors Ratings and Reader Ratings were great. The company also has a paid version, Syncback Pro, but I found the free one to be sufficient for my purposes.

I'm confused. I installed Syncback on both laptops. I created a profile on each (Laptop A and Laptop .

However, I can choose a source (MyPictures from Laptop A) and yet I don't see the file structure from Laptop B (to select MyPictures and keep both in sync) when using a double USB cable.

HALP!

All synced now :-)

Thanks, guys

I have the 1 bay version of this and it's awesome: http://www.synology.com/enu/products/DS409/index.php. Or you could get the DS409+ which gets faster cpu, more ram and so has better performance. The + one is about $600.

It has just about every feature you could possibly think of, including a slick remote access web interface and one for photos specifically. It even has an internal application that auto-updates free DNS services like DYNDNS.

You could just stick your current drives in there, or get 4 new 1-2 TB drives and have a raid 5 array.

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Best of luck
Fancy

I've been looking into, and have decided upon pursuing, the DIY option.

If you can put together a cheap box (regular x86 PC), you've got some options - FreeNAS is a (no surprise) free operating system that will get you all of the functionality that you'd expect out of a off-the-shelf NAS, but your level of computer knowledge needs to be more than rudimentary and it's a beta, so some hiccups are expected.

I think that the (less tweaky) route I'll take is MS Windows Home Server (~$100 for the OS). RAID isn't available, but redundant storage is. Your files can be made available from the outside world, you can host websites (provided your ISP doesn't notice the bandwidth usage), expansion is more friendly, and it does all of the media server stuff expected. Also backs up all networked PCs in the event a repair is necessary.

I've found a reasonable sized (under 15" high) PC case, with included power supply, that has plenty of room for internal HDDs, microATX board with 6 sata ports (more available with PCI sata card down the road), etc, etc. In all, I'll be able to put this together (hardware) for about $150, not including hard drives, but including a spare dual core CPU that I already have about the house - this should have a significant bump in processing power vs most of the NASs that I've seen.