PC to PC Sharing Open Source- Is it out there

jrazz wrote on 4/1/2006, 6:35 PM

I record the sermons from the church of which I am a member (www.cccnow.org) and put them on the internet as well as make the cd's. I make the cd's at home and upload the mp3's right after the service. Currently I am bringing home the desktop tower and hooking it up via lan and copying the sermons over to my system that is hooked up to the Bravo II.

Here is my Question: I would like to be able to leave the PC at church and connect over the internet to it directly without the use of a server as a middle man as the wav files are huge (45-55min. sermons)- Is there free software that I can utilize to do this with? If so, what, where and how? Thanks guys,

j razz

Comments

TheHappyFriar wrote on 4/1/2006, 6:41 PM

an ftp server would do it. cerberus is one i reallt like for windows.

HHaynes wrote on 4/1/2006, 6:42 PM

http://www.foldershare.com

not open-source - but free just the same.

Former user wrote on 4/1/2006, 6:48 PM

Sounds like you could use RealVNC. It's kinda like PC Anywhere.

If you are using XP Pro on the host system at church (and at least Windows 95 on the remote client system) then you could use Remote Desktop.

Jim

RNLVideo wrote on 4/1/2006, 6:52 PM

jrazz -

I do almost exactly the same thing and have started using Remote Desktop to log onto the Church PC remotely. The audio is recorded and encoded to .mp3 on their system. If I can't be there, I remote into the PC, encode and upload.

Rick

riredale wrote on 4/1/2006, 7:48 PM

If you're going the remote route, check out logmein. There's a free version and a pay version (I think if you're transferring large files you'll need the pay version, but it's cheaper than gotomyPC).

jrazz wrote on 4/1/2006, 7:49 PM

I think I will give the folder share a try- I already do all the encoding before I leave church, I just don't want to burn CD's to transfer the data when I can do it all at home. Thanks for the suggestions.

j razz

rmack350 wrote on 4/1/2006, 9:36 PM

I think that the suggestions went astray a bit.

VNC will allow you to log onto the remote computer and use it almost as if you were there sitting in front of it. However, I don't think it'll help you to transfer the file from the remote computer to your home computer. If you want to burn the CD at home then of course you need to transfer the file to your computer.

PC Anywhere allows you to transfer files, I believe.

If you had a spare HDD and USB enclosure you could bring the work home by hand and that would probably be the fastest. But maybe you want to start a render before you start to head home and then download the file when you get there.

FTP isn't a bad choice. While I don't know of a free one, we use a pretty cheap one called ServU. I think Rhinosoft is the publisher. All of this takes a little setup because you have to make a hole in the church's firewall and route ftp traffic to the right computer. Then you just set up a directory as being the ftp directory.

If you have a second system with a modem at the church you can test things before going home. Get a dialup connection and try to log into the ftp server at the church before you go home.

Rob Mack

jrazz wrote on 4/1/2006, 9:44 PM

I downloaded the Fileshare program and it does exactly what I need and I currently have 502 of 753 files downloaded and it is free (at least for now until MS decides they want to charge for the service).

If anybody needs or wants a free FTP utility I use Filezilla to upload the mp3's to the website.
Thanks for all the suggestions and help.

j razz

douglas_clark wrote on 4/2/2006, 12:03 AM

Where is the Fileshare program download?

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 4/2/2006, 12:28 AM

I think he meant folder share. and it's at www.foldershare.com

jrazz wrote on 4/2/2006, 10:38 AM

Thanks Dave, that is what I meant. I just got back from church and all of the files have synced up nicely- great product! Now, I wish I could use something like this at work (my day job) to where I can save a file to a folder and simultaneously save the same file to a networked drive located on the server.

Thanks for the help on this- I wish I would have known about it a long time ago.

j razz

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 4/2/2006, 2:16 PM

now I'm gonna try and convince the church I do video stuff for to get the machine on to the internet so that I can cut back on my drive times to and from to upload files etc.... Seeing as how I charge for my work (they get an extreme discount), they would save a little for every video that I do.

Dave

dat5150 wrote on 4/2/2006, 5:16 PM

www.networkmagic.com

How about setting up a simple server at the church that members can download files....of course I recommend a high speed upload....this software is great and incredibly easy to manage, plus a new upgrade in April.

jrazz wrote on 6/2/2006, 6:36 AM

Folder share has worked great for its purposes, but now I need more. Does anybody know of a program that I can load on a server at work (doesn't have to be free) and set up a folder on everyone at work's computer that when they place a file in that folder, it will automatically sync up with the server to the same folder there- so everybody will have their own folder on the server that only they and the administrator can access? Basically, I need the function of RAID, but with the computer and the server with limited access to the folders. This will need to support about 28 people. The server is Windows server 2003 and the operating systems are all XP SP2.
I did some searches and found Server Sync, but all I saw was screenshots and no download or purchase link- that appears to do what I want done.
Thanks,

j razz

Chienworks wrote on 6/2/2006, 6:54 AM

I use Samba under Linux for this. It doesn't auto-sync, but that really isn't a huge issue. I put a shortcut to the network folder on each user's desktop and tell them if they want a copy on the server to drag the file to that shortcut. I also usually map a drive letter so that if they're inside an application they can SaveAs to that drive letter. Every user automatically gets their own private folder. The system administrator and any other users specifically chosen have open access to all the other users' folders.

Take a look at RedHat's Fedora Core, version 5 currently available. It's about 2.8GB to download, but it's free. It's also very secure, extremely fast, and efficient. It will run great on that old 300MHz Celeron sitting in the back closet that you don't know what else to do with. It can also act as an internal web/email/application/database server too, if you should ever have need for such things. Give it a public IP address and it will be an external web/email server too.

http://www.redhat.com/fedora/

jrazz wrote on 6/2/2006, 7:29 AM

Thanks Kelly,

I guess when I said work I should have specified. I work for a state agency and Windows Server 2003 is what they have to use (don't know which suite in an office decided that). The reason that I want a program that automatically syncs is b/c a lot of the people who work here barely know how to get into MS Word and if they open up the wrong directory and save there, they think the computer lost their file!
We have a 3 mapped drives with only 2 accessible to them. All three are setup with a RAID configuration that allows for backup on 2 drives per mapped drive.
We have wireless laptops that are taken in the field and in the office as well. So, there will be documents saved on the laptop that will never make it to the server b/c they think they have already saved it and that is enough. This is all sensitive information that would be detrimental to the worker to lose. I can send out email instructing them how to do this, I can set up a training (and I have) showing them how and why to save to the network, but it doesn't happen. That is why I would like something similar to Folder Share that will automatically sync up whenever the network detects the laptop is back in range.

j razz

johnmeyer wrote on 6/2/2006, 1:04 PM

Real VNC is the usual recommendation, as someone already noted.

The program I use, because it is ubiquitous across all versions of Windows and is installed on virtually every computer is the old-fashioned, barely supported Netmeeting. Just go to the Run dialog (Start --> Run) and type:

CONF

and you'll be able to start it. Most people have not idea it is on their computer. You can share screens, transfer files, chat, do whiteboarding, send audio, and share video.

Steve Mann wrote on 6/5/2006, 10:21 AM

How do you transfer files using Real VNC?

GlennChan wrote on 6/5/2006, 12:08 PM

UltraVNC has a built-in file transfer feature. I can't remember if realVNC has it too. UltraVNC was the best VNC flavour available last time I tried it.

Otherwise, just use yousendit.com or setup a FTP server and FTP the file (i.e. filezilla I think has a free open source FTP server).