Friday, June 21, 2013

Synchronizing files across computers: new and noteworthy!

[I found this in Drafts. I meant to post it on June 14, but got interrupted. So, here it is now.]

I'll skip the narrative other than to say that I was shocked (no exaggeration) to find out that Syncbox was changing the time stamps of files to the time it was transferred. I ripped it off of my computers immediately.

I began giving AeroFS another try, but one thing I don't like about most synchronization services (including AeroFS) is having to move files into a single folder controlled by the service. It also means that when the folder is synchronized with a folder on another computer, everything is synchronized. Also, most services require that files be backed up on their servers. While all of the services are happy to provide a free account, they are hardly large enough for even moderate sized music collections.

BitTorrent Sync (BTSync) has the potential to solve these problems. BTSync is a peer-to-peer solution that lets the user specify which folders are to be synchronized on which machines.

  • Pick a folder to be synchronized.
  • BTsync generates a key.
  • Use the key to link the folder that generated it to folders on other computers.

While programs like BTSync do not require their users to buy online storage, it means that there is no online backup. A file that is erased from one computer is erased from every computer.

The world is evolving rapidly. The latest bunch of letters to learn about is NAS (Network Accessible Storage).

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