Software / Set up suggestions for home network

KAGY

Hi all,
Finally, I have got two decent PC's set up in our home office. Does anybody have any suggestions for software for synchronising the two machines or some sort of general set up for the two. (e.g using one a server with local log-in

I need a backup of personal documents from both machines, viewable but not necessarily editable by the other (probably a simple backup job without compression, any software suggestions). But for media files I would like changes to be reflected on both machines (e.g. tag an MP3 or delete a photo).
I used to use a windows app called secondcopy but that hit problems when the clocks changed (and everything was sync'd again!)

One PC is a XP/ Ubuntu dual boot (trying for mostly Ubuntu) and the other is solely XP. Open source apps would be prefered


on a similar note has anybody had any experience with a server/thin client setup in the home. I might try to get my old machine hooked up too!

robinvn

As for the backup solution, I highly recommend SyncBack. Not open source, but freeware, very lean and it does everything you want, including ignoring times if that's what you prefer. Don't forget to set up a good firewall when you're going to share data in a local network and you're connected to the internet.
The program doesn't run on Ubuntu though. There are plenty of backup programs for ubuntu but I have always used K as a desktop environment and don't know the names of the good Gnome backup programs. K programs work fine but you have to install all those extra files, would be better to stick to gnome..
I also heard about a linux distro for backing up, should look up what it's called though.

woolymammoth

hey kagy,

like robinvn, i can't recommend SyncBack high enough, but alas, it is Windows only! There's the MS FolderShare too, but as you guessed, windows too.

You said you have a decent PC you hope to run mainly Ubuntu on, if you're interested in going down the Thin Client route, I would recommend you take a look at the Linux Terminal Server Project. When set up and running, this can act as your main server, accepting computers as old as 10 years as long as they have a PXE network card. This way you can get your old machine hooked up too (extra pc is always good!) and you can use it as the file share for your Windows box.

As i'm sure you know, there's a ton of cool sh!t you can do with Linux. If you're interested, or anyone else for that matter, I've set this up before on Ubuntu from a college project a couple of years ago, and i can tell you it's pretty sweet when it's up and running, just PM and i'll send on any documentation i have! I think (haven't looked into it recently) Canonical were integrating a new version of the LTSP into Ubuntu, so you might wanna check that out if it's already installed.

KAGY

woolymammoth wrote: »

hey kagy,
You said you have a decent PC you hope to run mainly Ubuntu on, if you're interested in going down the Thin Client route, I would recommend you take a look at the Linux Terminal Server Project. .

I'll defo look into this, then I may even be able to use my PDA as a wireless client...

woolymammoth

PDA as a wireless client eh...!?! sweeeet idea!