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I need to sync some folders between two Win 7 machines. While they are connected to the same LAN, they can't see each-other over Windows Networking since sharing is disabled on both of them (security reasons).

Do you know any sync app which can work over IP?

The folder I need to sync has 500,000 files in it (80 GB in total), so the sync app should be pretty efficient. At the moment I copy the files from one machine to the other over FTP, but it takes forever, since a separate connection is opened for each file.

Or maybe you know some app which can efficiently transfer a large number of files between two machines on the Internet?

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  • Why do you have sharing disabled? are you not on a home network?
    – James Mertz
    Aug 27, 2010 at 22:07

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I did use PowerFolder back when the free version didn't have any limitations but now you have to pay $60 to manage more than 1GB of storage.

I had a bit of a look around and found CrashPlan which allows you to synchronise files between your own computers and storage devices for free. It also uses compression and deltas to minimise data transfer so, if you synchronise the 2 computers first, it should be quick and painless after that. I think it even does file versioning, if that is something you're after.

I'm glad you asked the question - it gave me an excuse to take another look at these solutions.

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I would use DropBox for this. You can get a 100GB account for $200/year

dropbox.com

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Perhaps you're looking for GoodSync that i believe can do both network and IP synchronization.

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  • I tried it, since the site said that it supports sync over network. But it doesn't
    – Meh
    Aug 27, 2010 at 22:21
  • well to be honest in order to backup/sync that ammount of data will take a lot of time and bandwidth since if it's conducted over IP i believe it will be conducted over the internet thus leaving the speed but here's a lifehacker link that might help more.
    – James Mertz
    Aug 28, 2010 at 0:46
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Microsoft's Windows Live Mesh is perfect for this. But I think they are discontinuing the folder syncing aspect of the service in January, unless I am misunderstanding the email they sent out this week.

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(I just posted this in another question, but I think it applies equally well here.)

BitTorrent Sync is a relatively new player in the synchronization arena. While it's in beta, it's in constant development, always improving, and always free (unlike Cubby). It's designed to be secure and not to use external servers (only a direct connection between PCs). It can use trackers and relays if it's unable to establish a direct connection to another PC, but that's optional and can be disabled. It's worth looking at because, unlike Cubby, it lets you establish a read-only connection for a folder, so that the target machine cannot modify the source machine's files. This is a very nice feature for backup/archive machines.

As for using an IP address, BTSync uses a "secret" rather than machine names or IP addresses, so it should fulfill your needs.

(As of version 1.1.48)

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