network software

[djclewes]

hi when i was at school we used to be able to logon to any computer and see all our saved documents no matter what pc in the school. i was wondering how do they do that and can you do it with windows xp and also does anyone know of software where it deletes all the changes users have made to setting up on restart of windows

 

[andyjohnson79]

when at school youd have got a roaming profile so wherever youd logon it pulls your profile off a server and then loads it over the network to whichever PC you logon to

cant really do it on a home PC unless youve got a little domain set up, like you would at school/work etc

 

[VKS1]

Hi,
You can share any folders you want, even without a domain, as long as they are sitting on the same network, I take it you are at home using a home wired/wireless router.. if so then you can right click any folder that you want to share, I think WinXP has the option Properties, within there you can select sharing and then select who you want to share with, perhaps easier if you dont have a domain set up to share that folder with "everyone"

Failing that.. go to Tesco and upgrade your XP to Windows Vista/Windows 7 and you can share files a lot easier between your computers, even via the internet

 

[Boogie]

Hi,
You can share any folders you want, even without a domain, as long as they are sitting on the same network, I take it you are at home using a home wired/wireless router.. if so then you can right click any folder that you want to share, I think WinXP has the option Properties, within there you can select sharing and then select who you want to share with, perhaps easier if you dont have a domain set up to share that folder with "everyone"

Failing that.. go to Tesco and upgrade your XP to Windows Vista/Windows 7 and you can share files a lot easier between your computers, even via the internet

Another nice option to mange this principle, but over the internet, effectively accessing your files from any PC with internet access, is to use a product like dropbox (google it), which gives you a 2 Gig storage area (for the free version) on an internet server, fully encrypted, which can be automatically accessed (with app installed), or manually accessed through a web site. It has some very nice features such as undo for deletions, and is a very nice bit of kit if it suits your needs.

 

[VKS1]

Maybe going away from the topic slightly.. but dropbox is good, but the 2gb limit (extra for introducing friends) only downside. I think Microsoft has got it on this sense with SkyDrive, also google has a cloud based storage solution as well.

Think the originating question was different though. But just incase someone is unaware going forwards

 

[digdilem]

The system you describe is Active Directory with roaming profiles. It needs a windows server somewhere on the lan. (you can do it in linux and samba, but appears to be a lot of faff)

It's not designed for home use, and the software involved can be somewhat expensive.

Dropbox is a good solution to some situations. I use it to sync a couple of users who want access to their docs from various sites.

 

[Monkeh]

(you can do it in linux and samba, but appears to be a lot of faff)

Anything involving working around Microsoft brokenness is a lot of faff.

 

[Boogie]

(you can do it in linux and samba, but appears to be a lot of faff)

Anything involving working around Microsoft brokenness is a lot of faff.

My, admittedly old, experience with roaming profiles, was that they sounded great, until the users stuffed too much in them, and waited forever for logon's and logoff's, as the LAN struggled to cope with dragging those Megs (or worse) around the place. Maybe they got a lot better now, but I always found they were more trouble than worth (in circumstance I was in).