Network Folder/File Sync Options

[chaos945]

I'm trying to synchronize a few folders over a large network and I've been looking at the 'Briefcase' and at 'offline files' built into xp.

For a few weeks I had been using 'offline files' but after removing certain registry entries pertaining to lame usage messages, the server now restores the entries on my machine every time I login to the domain, somehow this has totally messed up the use of my ‘offline files’. So I need a new option/application or a way to stop the server from changing my registry!

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[fitz]

well, it sounds like you are on a windows domain that is using group policies to enforce certain settings. We do the same thing here - the difference being that I am one of the people that manages the policies...

If you only make changes to files in one location, you could just use a directory mirroring utility (or even xcopy/robocopy/etc..) to mirror the directory to the other location. Setup a robocopy batch file and run it as part of your logoff/logon scripts..

If you want true directory/file synchronization closer to what the offline folder feature does, you can check out things like:
- Unison (http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/)
- SureSync (http://www.spursuits.com/suresync/suresync.htm)
- FolderMatch (http://www.saltybrine.com/fm.htm)
- HandyBackup (http://www.handybackup.net/synchronize-files-and-folders.shtml)
- and a whole lot more (http://www.pcworlddownload.com/system-utilities/file-synchronization/indexrating.htm)

 

[chaos945]

Thanks for the recommendations, I tried them all and a few others I found.

Amazingly none of them are as good as the built-in synchronization for Windows XP; I guess I'll have to figure out what exactly is going wrong with it.

"offline files", "sync", "alternative"