FolderShare
I ran into FolderShare one day while looking for an easier way to send files back and forth from my home to the office. The typical way of doing this for me was to simply email them to my home email or office email address or upload them to my website via FTP to download later. I also use a SVN server at times for software development but that is way overkill when just wanting to be able to simply transfer files or share files.
Sure there are other solutions like purchasing a home NAS device that allows web access to the files you specify, that’s a cool solution but kind of pricey unless you are in the market for a NAS device anyway. I have also used other services in the past like Hamachi (now taken over by LogMeIn) for creating a VPN setup between different computers. That was a good solution but when wanting to share files to multiple locations it required some setup that the beginning user could find intimidating. With that said I will admit I have not tried it since LogMeIn has taken over the project. A true VPN solution would be far more than I wanted to spend and why use hardware when you have solutions like Hamachi? So after much searching I found and started to test out FolderShare.
According to FolderShare
FolderShareTM is a service that allows you to securely keep files synchronized between your devices, share files with friends or colleagues, and remotely download your files from any web browser. FolderShare consists of two components – My FolderShare and the FolderShare Satellite.
I have now tested it for about a week or so and can say I have not experianced any issues yet, however there are documented issues in the more recent past.
Tuesday 2008/02/12, 9:30 AM (GMT-08:00)
Earlier today our system encountered a server failure from which it is now recovering, during this time some of you might experience connectivity issues. Your client machines will automatically sign back in over the next couple of hours.
We apologize for the inconvenience and will keep you up to date on our efforts to restore full functionality. Updates will be posted to our public newsgroup.
However seeing as how I was just looking for an easy way to do a simple file sync between computers and nothing more this has not detured me from using the product. And yes, it is free.
Now for how this works.. You sign up for a free account at FolderShare and then download the software to your computer. The software runs in the background and can either automatically or manually sync its files with another location of your choice. PC, Mac, Friend or Family member it doesn’t matter. Yes you can also set permission levels for accessing these shares. Reader (can only download and open files, cannot alter your files), Contributor (can add new files), Editor (can edit and delete files), or Senior Editor (can invite other users to the library). Each account is limited to 10 libraries, and each library may contain up to 10,000 files. There is a limit of 2GB per account though so this is by no means a serious solution for an online backup. Just a convienient way of sharing / syncing files from one location to others.
I can see people using this to share pics, mp3′s and data with friends and family. Right now I am currently only syncing data between home and work. With the ability to set up 9 more libraries I definately have room to start up some P2P shares with my friends. Anyhow, I think its worth checking out.