Make Files Available Offline vs BTSync

[Kelemvor]

So I was thinking about setting up something on my home network where someone would log on and it would map them a drive to my "server" and they could use that for storing all their files. This would make things much simpler any time a computer got replaced or someone had to hop on a different computer for some reason.

However, the problem comes in when someone is out of the house and needs to access their files. I came up with 2 possible solutions and am wondering what anyone would recommend.

Note: I'm ruling out any service like Dropbox because I want this to be free and they have space limits for free accounts.

So, the first thing that came to mind was simply using Windows' built in "Make file available offline" option for network drives. I believe this works by basically maintaining 2 copies of your files, 1 local and 1 on the network, and it keeps them in sync somehow. If you edit files when away from the server it then syncs them back up when you get back home. I don't know the technical details but I always hear of people who try to use this but end up having problems.

Then I realized that this sound pretty much exactly like how BT Sync works but BT Sync would be more robust in that it still syncs when you're not at home.

With BT Sync you're always using the local copy and it's always syncing the files back to the server copy behind the scenes.
With Windows Offline Files I believe that if you are on the network it will use the server copy by default but when you are not it then uses the local copy.

If someone gets their computer replaced, then we just reinstall BTSync and have it pull all the files back down. I assume Offline files would work the same way...?

Anyone use BT Sync, or offline files, for this sort of thing? Or have any other recommendations for other ways of accomplishing this?

Thanks.

 

[Mushkins]

We map home drives to H:, make it the default My Documents folder, and enable Offline Files for all of our laptop users.

It creates a server copy and a local copy. When they're out of the office, edits are made to the local copy, and when they connect back to our network (in an office, via VPN, etc) it pushes any updated local files and overwrites the server copy. If there's a conflict for whatever reason there's a little ! that pops up at the bottom of the folder and clicking it lets the user decide what to do.

I can't remember the last time I saw a ticket regarding sync issues. Server 2012R2 infrastructure, Win7 workstations btw.

 

[Kelemvor]

We have Home drive for everyone at work as well but dont' do the offline by default. We use DIrectAccess/VPN so they're always available as long as you can get online.

However, at home I don't have any actual "Server" OSs so this wudl be using a Win7 machine as the "server" to host the files. I'm not sure if that makes anything not work as well or not since it's jsut mapping a drive which is no big deal.

But that's when I figured that BTSync does the same thing and doesn't require remapping My Docs or mapping a network drive or anything. The syncing is all just behind the scenes.

Maybe both would work fine but I just wasn't sure if there's a reason to try one over the other.

Thanks for the input.