A few weeks back, my friend and mentor Alice Seba blogged about the down side of XsitePro. Being the outsourcing queen she is, the fact you can’t do live updates (as you can in Microsoft FrontPage) is a big deterrent to her. In the comments, the conversation gradually turned into using file sharing and syncing tools. Incidently, that very same week another friend Doug Lietz asked me about syncing software.
So I thought I’d highlight what tools I’ve used and how you can use them.

FolderShare – this is a file sharing and sync tool. Offered by Microsoft, it’s simple and pretty straight forward stuff. And get this, it even has a Mac version – great for dual platform users. Anyway, you download the software, install it and tell FolderShare what files or folders you allow people to access, assign them a permission level and send them an invite. The invited will be asked to download the FolderShare software and once they get on board, they will have
all the contents in that folder replicated on their computer. FolderShare sits in your system tray and works quietly, occasionally a popping up an alert that the computer is currently in sync. Pretty neat.

You can also sync the folder automatically so you and your assistant will have the exact same files. The software and service is free as far as I can tell but Doug tells me it costs $35 which I have still not encountered. Limitations – so far I’ve come across one. You can have 10,000 files on FolderShare. That’s plenty if you just want to sync your XsitePro or any working files with your assistant.

Another down side is, FolderShare requires your computer to be online when the other party wants to access your files. So that could mean running the computer 24 hours. For me, I have a file server that’s up 24/7 so that’s not a problem but I know for many this is a biggie.

If you don’t relish the thought of people accessing your computer no matter what it says on the tin and you don’t want to leave your computer on all the time, maybe a good old syncing software would work.

I use SyncBackSE for backups but it could be used in so many ways. Because it can FTP your files that’s a big plus. You could upload the files you wish to share with your assistant to a web site where she can retrieve it any time. If you want a more seamless approach, Syncback SE is inexpensive enough that you can get her a copy. This way, with both of you syncing, you’ll always have the freshest files on both ends and you don’t have to be online
when she needs to retrieve the files.

One big drawback (and it may not be for you) has to do with FTP. Unfortunately, FTP is an insecure way to transfer files. You can however encrypt your files if you have extra sensitive stuff. There is a freeware version but I highly recommend the SE version because of encryption and just a lot better features overall. And it’s only $25.

For that price, you also get an excellent backup tool. If you recall earlier, I talked about backups that won’t restore. This is exactly why I backup with SyncbackSE because the backups I make are as is, un-fooled with. I can open them without any restoration process.

Technorati Tags: computers, sync, FileSharing, technology