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sethneal · Jun 19, 2008, 12:54 PM

Hi,

I need to find a solution to sync a number of specific directories over a number of Macs that are NOT at the same location.

I've looked into FolderShare. I've looked into MacOSX Server. Not sure what would be best or what alternatives are out there. What have other people done?

Money isn't the most important concern (but, obviously does play a factor). Having this system work without constantly worrying about it, or constantly trouble shooting it, IS THE most important concern.

Thanks.

mduell · Jun 19, 2008, 02:49 PM

More options; I like FolderShare, but there's another "more Mac like" one that's currently in beta... can't think of the name.

sethneal · Jun 20, 2008, 04:39 PM

OK, well, I'd love to hear about this other program... and I'd especially love to hear from someone who has used one of these programs for this sort of thing!

Thanks.

besson3c · Jun 20, 2008, 05:32 PM

rsync... You can't go wrong with it.

sethneal · Jun 21, 2008, 11:50 PM

Hi Besson...

Yes, I've seen your other posts recommending rsync and I've looked into it.

For a number of reasons its not a feasible solution in my particular situation.

So... from what I'm hearing, no one really has this particular need in this forum? Foldershare is the only game in town? Bummer...

ooninay · Jun 22, 2008, 12:06 AM

The solution I have found to work the best for me is FolderShare, although I can't recommend it unequivocally. Good things about it: once you set it up, it's automatic, effortless, and usually pretty quick (often almost instantaneous) to pick up on changed files and sync them to your other computers. Also, computers don't need to on the same LAN for it to work; it will automatically sync files over the internet--great if your PCs are in different locations. Finally, you can log into their website and access your files from another computer over the internet if you need to. What's bad about it is that occasionally their server goes down and computers stop syncing... sometimes for a day or even more. This isn't frequent but has happened at least half a dozen times in the past few years or so. There's a forum for FolderShare users here.

Like you I'd be interested in a more reliable method of syncing macs but so far haven't found it despite a number of other options. I think SugarSync looks promising, but the last I checked you couldn't delete a computer once you set it up... they said they were working on it.

besson3c · Jun 22, 2008, 01:22 AM

Originally Posted by sethneal

Hi Besson...

Yes, I've seen your other posts recommending rsync and I've looked into it.

For a number of reasons its not a feasible solution in my particular situation.

So... from what I'm hearing, no one really has this particular need in this forum? Foldershare is the only game in town? Bummer...

Can I ask why you think this sethneal? If your concern is learning curve, that's cool, but technologically speaking it's a perfectly valid solution. We sync literally terrabytes of data with it daily.

Andy8 · Jun 22, 2008, 01:55 AM

Dropbox may work for this?

sethneal · Jun 23, 2008, 10:16 AM

Yes, Besson, rsync may work from a technology standpoint, but not from a deployment standpoint. I can't expect others who have no "geek know-how", in remote locations, to open up terminal and trouble-shoot rsync when I need them too.

I've checked out SugarSync and Dropbox and both look very promising! I'm trying them both out this week and already like what I see!

Thanks for the help!

besson3c · Jun 23, 2008, 12:44 PM

Originally Posted by sethneal

Yes, Besson, rsync may work from a technology standpoint, but not from a deployment standpoint. I can't expect others who have no "geek know-how", in remote locations, to open up terminal and trouble-shoot rsync when I need them too.

I've checked out SugarSync and Dropbox and both look very promising! I'm trying them both out this week and already like what I see!

Thanks for the help!

You wouldn't necessarily have to have your remote users troubleshoot rsync, you can push and pull to these machines from yours.

sethneal · Jun 30, 2008, 01:27 PM

OK, so both sugarsync and dropbox are great. Both are in beta but work really well and I'm sure we are going to be using one of them full-time here in the next couple of months as we get all this figured out.

Another issue along these lines that I'm trying to figure out is how to sync mail folders in Apple Mail. Everyone uses Mail and we all use IMAP but with different usernames. So we have [email protected], [email protected], etc.

But there is certain correspondence that is saved on the actual machine in folders. How can we sync those folders between the machines even though the original email may have only been sent to user2 for instance? Any ideas?

Thanks.

besson3c · Jun 30, 2008, 01:44 PM

Those folders should be transferred to the server if you want to sync them. Is this not possible for you?

sethneal · Jun 30, 2008, 01:59 PM

Well, I guess the problem is how to sync the same folders between different accounts. So, if we all were using the same address it would be real easy, but everyone has a separate account but it would be nice if we could share some common folders between the different accounts.

Maybe this IS possible but I can't figure out how. Thanks.

besson3c · Jun 30, 2008, 02:09 PM

sethneal: it sounds like what you are looking for is a shared mailbox/folder. Who is your mail service provider? If they are running an IMAP server such as Courier or Cyrus, shared folders are supported providing that each of you have accounts on the same server/system.

sethneal · Jun 30, 2008, 02:19 PM

Total Choice Hosting is the provider. I can check and see if they are running something one of those. Thanks.