Syncplicity wins...

Hi all,

Just wanted to blog about a good and free solution for either backing up, synchronising 2 PC's or both. Previously, I wanted a solution that would sync my work laptop and home PC documents and blogged I was trying foldershare (which later became MS live mesh, and then MS live sync). This worked well, but had one very important limitation for me - it did not work through a proxy. This sort of defeated the purpose, as when I'm on my work laptop, I'm generally at work connected to the Net via the proxy. I would have to connect my laptop to the home network in order to sync. Crazy.

So, when I heard about syncplicity - I was pleasantly surprised to see that it does indeed support proxies. I downloaded and installed it on both PC's - it detects IE proxy config, so it's just a matter of setting the user and password and that's it - easy peasy.

I quickly ditched MS foldershare/live mesh/live sync/whatever the branding is this week as syncplicity offers more features (apart from just synchronisation):

Real-Time Backup: Murphy’s Law doesn’t pay attention to the clock. Syncplicity backs up your files not once a month, once a week, or even once an hour, but immediately. Create a masterpiece only to accidentally delete it three seconds later? Skip the sinking feeling. Just go straight to the Syncplicity website and get your precious data back.

Sharing made Simple: Share any folder with anyone with a simple click of the mouse. Because your files are already in Syncplicity, others get access right away. And if they choose to use the Syncplicity client, the files simply show up on their computers.

Access anytime, anywhere: Access your files while away from your computer through the Syncplicity File Explorer. At friend’s computer, and need to print out a file? Grab it from the File Explorer and print it out. Find a typo along the way? No worries. Just make the change and upload it back. The edited version will be waiting for you on your computer when you return.

Multiple Computers, One View: Keep all of your computers in sync. With Syncplicity, it doesn’t matter which machine you use. Writing a letter at home on your desktop, but need to run? No problem! Just save the file like you normally would, grab your laptop and go. Your letter will be on your laptop, ready and waiting.

An Elegant Experience: Pleasant and powerful. The Syncplicity client is built to be second to none. It intelligently synchronizes your computer and is never intimidating. The client integrates tightly with Windows so you can see status with just a glance and perform common actions with just a right-click. Want more information or help? The client walks you through common tasks with ease.

Bridges the Online and Offline Worlds: A one-of-a-kind platform breaks free of limitations that restrict you to a single website or set of computers. With Syncplicity, your files follow you to where you want them, including web applications such as Google Docs and Facebook.

Secure: Syncplicity transfers all your data using 128-bit SSL, the same encryption used for online banking. On the backend, your files are stored encrypted using AES, military grade encryption. Only you can access your files.

One handy feature I like is that up to 30 days of revisions are kept on a file by file basis, I've found this very handy as I have on several occasions reverted to an earlier version of a file (don't know what that says about me though).

You can get it work between XP and Vista, my home PC is Vista, work laptop XP. I think syncplicity is meant to handle this, but for whatever reason when I set it up it didn't quite map 'My Pictures'(XP) to 'Pictures'(Vista) and the like correctly, so I ended just renaming the folders in XP.

Some limitations to note:

• 2GB storage with the free account. However, if you send invites to friends and they accept, you'll get 1GB p/friend to a limit of 5GB.
• Currently does not support Mac.
• The web based file browser requires Flash.
• Initial backup slow (obviously) - first time will be the size of your 'Documents', 'Pictures', 'Music' and 'Desktop' folders if you use the default - but this can be interupted as backup/synching always resumes.
  

Generally, I'm very happy with the tool, so much that I have set it up on my Dad and bother's PC's to protect their documents. They are novice PC users, so it runs in the background purely for backup purposes.

Still not convinced, go and watch the video.

Anyway, cheers for now.