Two Computer Synchronization

Like a lot of people, I have a desktop at home and another system (a notebook) which I take with me on contract sites. There is also another PC usually provided for me by the company I am working for at any one time. I like my Thinkpad notebook, and I take it with me nearly everywhere, but I use my home setup for backing up my data (over WiFi network) and burning the backups to DVD-ROMs. The problem is, that nothing about today's Windows computers makes dual-PC work easy.

That's not to say it can't be done. Over the past year, I've experimented with several tools that make the two-PC setup a workable option, to the point that I don't have to think about it much anymore -- it just works. At least for now. Here's what I've learned along the way.

My notebook holds all of my work and personal files. Previously, when I wanted to work on my desktop, I would copy and synchronise all of my files between the two PCs. Then when I was done working, I'd synchronise again so that the notebook had my latest work on it. Add the 3rd machine in work into the equation and it’s a even bigger headache.

This was time-consuming and basically a real drag. But I've since discovered a live synchronisation utility called FolderShare that keeps the data files on my three computers in perfect sync'ed state (there's also a solid competitor, BeInSync).

Foldershare is free with some conditions (only 1 file can be transferred at a time and max 2 shared folders with 500 files). The upgrade is an annual subscription of approx €60

Now, every time I create or change a file on one computer, the changes are automatically sent over the Internet to the other PC. It uses encrypted Peer to Peer (P2P) technology to do this. It also works through the firewalls and proxy's encountered in both work and home environments using uPnP.

There is a web interface that allows remote access to each machine but I have not tried this out yet.