Everybody Sync now

On or about 4/24/07 12:11 PM, thus spake "david.frith"
<david.frithbigfoot.com>:

> Is there a solution that will allow 2 (or more) machines to remain in step
> with each other when they are both switched on and connected across the
> Internet? I would like to be able to sit down at my wife's computer, log in as
> me and see my whole environment as if I had sat down at my computer.

If that is *really* what you want, why not simply use your wife's computer
to see and work at *your* computer?

<http://www.netopia.com/software/products/tb2/>

With Timbuktu, you can "control distant computers as if you were sitting
right in front of them." Isn't that what you're describing?

Or use the poor man's version of Timbuktu, VNC, which is free.

That way, you don't have to worry about doing something on one computer that
gets out of sync with the other computer, because you're only really using
one computer. (The other is just a window on it.)

m.

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Actually I do use VNC exactly like this. However this gives me 2 other problems which I would like to overcome.

VNC is not as responsive as being on the local Mac. Screen re-draws are not quite fast enough not to be an annoyance. Screen sizes quite often are different between machines and I think it's cool for 10 minutes and then quite clunky!

If I grab our Powerbook to take with me and then go somewhere out of range of a Wireless point, I cannot work at all. And the bandwidth problem on screen re-draws is worse on Wireless B (10 Mb/s) than on Ethernet (100 Mb/s).

I know I want the world, but didn't Apple have a product that worked like this on Mac OS 9 to sync up a laptop with a desktop?

David

Unison is a way of allowing you to shadow the contents of two files. It uses rsync for its synchronisation work.

http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/

Alex.

If you don't find software to do what you describe, you can instead, carry a 2.5", 80 or more GB bus powered, F/W drive (bootable).

There is only one complication to this. You can boot any Mac from the F/W drive as long as it is the same processor type. There may be a workaround for this too that someone else can help with but, the advantage is, no syncing needed.

So, assuming your Mac and your wife's Mac are both either PPC or Intel based;

Use something like <http://www.qdea.com> Backup Simplicity to make a bootable backup of your Mac to this physically tiny external bus powered 2.5" F/W drive.

Take this drive with you. Boot your wife's Mac from the F/W drive, do your work. Quit. Take the drive with you.

When you get back to your Mac, boot your Mac from the F/W drive, run Backup Simplicity. Tell Backup Simplicity to make a bootable backup using the F/W drive as the main drive.

Or, skip the above step and simply boot and work from the F/W drive on your Mac.

Every so often, when convenient or after having done a pile of work you don't want to lose, then back up the F/W drive to your Mac using Backup Simplicity.

Hope that helps... Mike

At 6:01 AM -0700 2007/04/27, david.frith wrote:
>Actually I do use VNC exactly like this. However this gives me 2
>other problems which I would like to overcome.
>
>VNC is not as responsive as being on the local Mac. Screen re-draws
>are not quite fast enough not to be an annoyance. Screen sizes quite
>often are different between machines and I think it's cool for 10
>minutes and then quite clunky!
>
>If I grab our Powerbook to take with me and then go somewhere out of
>range of a Wireless point, I cannot work at all. And the bandwidth
>problem on screen re-draws is worse on Wireless B (10 Mb/s) than on
>Ethernet (100 Mb/s).
>
>I know I want the world, but didn't Apple have a product that worked
>like this on Mac OS 9 to sync up a laptop with a desktop?

        You could accomplish this with a "Portable Home Directory",
which would also provide an excellent excuse to get a (new) iPod.
You'd want a hard drive based model unless you don't care about write
speed. No, I haven't done this personally, so I can't provide more
guidance, except to say that Apple only supports PHDs on Mac OS X
Server.

http://www.radiotope.com/writing/?p=22
http://managingosx.wordpress.com/2006/03/15/portable-home-directories-without-open-directory/
http://developer.apple.com/networking/networkfriendlyapps.html


                                                Chris
--
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I use 2 tools to keep my Treo, MacBook Pro and Mac Pro synchronized. For PIM data I use both of Mark/Space's syncing products - Missing Sync and SyncTogether. Other than the Palm MemoPad, this works well. Occasionally, Mac SyncServices and SyncTogether get weird. Fortunately, the data is backed up on the Palm. As a beta tester for SyncTogether, I have seen the product get better. Hence, I expect that it will quickly approach the reliability of Missing Sync.

For my personal mail, I use an IMAP server. (Sync Together handles the rules, etc.) Work email is handled via Lotus Notes. IT worries about backups.

For the rest of my home directory I use ChronoSync. It allows pretty good conflict resolution.

Andrew