Handling files between multiple computers

[Jeff Body]

So I'm working on a better work flow.

Previously I designed the art on my desktop computer in my office and loaded the laser ready file into dropbox.
I would than move into the garage on my laptop, pull the file out of dropbox, and run it through the laser. If I had to make any changes I'd have to walk back into the office and edit the file. I would have to start the process all over again. My old laptop was too slow to run more then 2 applications at the same time AND I didn't have a 2nd license to my graphics program.

I've recently upgraded my laptop so that it can easily handle everything I throw at it. I also bought another licence to my graphics program.
The problem is how do I get access to all my files on my desktop computer?
I tried using icloud and my master folder is to big to load on my new laptop. It only has a 256gb SSD and I have over 150gb in my graphics/project folder.
I've tried file sharing but I'm having trouble setting it up. I'm going to get my neighbor to help me set it up but the problem with file sharing is both computers have to be on the same network to share the files.
What if I want to work on my laptop outside of my house.

So the question is what is everyone else doing to sync and work on files across multiple computers?

[Gary Hair]

all of my computers are in the same office so that makes it a bit easier, but I use a networked drive array that houses 5 - 2TB drives. That may sound like a lot, but they are set up in a RAID array so there is only about 6TB available... only... I use this through the network for all of my customer files and I also have it setup to automatically backup the drives on the 5 computers connected to the network. This is probably overkill for you but you can buy a box that connects to your network and you pick the drive size to put in it, all for a few hundred $, much cheaper than the $2k I have in mine.

[Mark Sipes]

I guess I am running the share that you describe
"I've tried file sharing but I'm having trouble setting it up. I'm going to get my neighbor to help me set it up but the problem with file sharing is both computers have to be on the same network to share the files.
What if I want to work on my laptop outside of my house. '



I have,
3 computers, Win 98, XP and Win10 all talking to each other through the router


.

[Keith Downing]

There is no simple and free option I know of that will work from OUTSIDE your home network and allow that much storage space.

If you're comfortable with Dropbox and willing to pay a small fee, their premium service is $8 a month and gets you a terabyte of storage space. That might be an option.

There are also apps that allow you to login to your system remotely and transfer files. I use LogMeIn and it works great, but it's also no longer free.

You could also setup some combination of these along with a shared drive on your local network to allow you to access all your files while on your home network; and also access some of your files remotely through a cloud service like Dropbox. Probably the way to go if you don't want to spend any money.

Finally, you could setup your home computer as a server and allow ftp access to files/directories; but this would not be a good use of your time unless you're already experienced with IT and server security.

[Kev Williams]

My business is in my house--
in the one bedroom is our office, and one XP computer, to do books--
in the garage is the Triumph, GCC, 3400 Orbiter, IS7000 and one XP computer that runs them-
Downstairs in the north end of the basement is the 3200, the C2000 and one XP computer that runs those-
at the south end are the other two 3400's, then in the middle are the two 5000XT's, the 5000, the IS400, the LS900, the vinyl cutter and the Triumph fiber-
also in the middle are two more XP computers, a Win98se computer, and a Win8 that's also running an XP virtual machine.
What's not ethernet cabled runs thru a Linksys EA8500 router...

This is my network, all computers, machines and connections...
358287

I'm surprised it all works, but it works great for me--

The trick is the computer in yellow- It's just an old e-machines XP that still works well. What it does is steer work to 5 machines, and houses 3 hard drives.

One of them is "thee" drive, I just call it the "common" drive. EVERY JOB that I access or save, for Corel or Gravostyle, all graphic art from customers, sample photos, comes and goes from that drive. Every computer defaults to that drive when saving jobs or recalling them. So no matter what I'm doing on whatever computer, I'm always using the same files.

The next trick is the blue box showing the computers that I can access via Remote Desktop. Which means if I'm doing something on Corel downstairs and I'm in the garage and need to edit or work with it, I don't have go downstairs, I just connect, copy & paste or save or whatever I need to do.

So basically, anything I can on one computer I can do on any other computer. For the most part I can send jobs to any machine from any computer too. The only exception is the 98 (no remote desktop) and Win8 (requires passwords which I won't do), but the 98 is pretty much proprietary, and I have the XPVM on the win8 so it still works :)

I just have to remember to back up my files ;) ... I've been going to get a dual SSD setup for redundancy and to speed up file access, just haven't done it yet-

it all just boils down to a good network and picking one place to store all the files you use regularly

[John Lifer]

I've the main computer that is downstairs that runs the two lasers and has all my software on it. Is on WiFi network, and thru ethernet to RF1390 and USB to the Fiber. Second monitor, keyboard and mouse for Fiber. My main house computer is upstairs at other end of house. I try not to do much on it, but I do have some 'work' on it.
So they both are on a simple home network. Both running Win 10. I have luxury of being a quarter mile from closest house, and so I don't worry about security on WiFi. But with both computers on, I can share files pretty easy. I use the upstairs machine for website updates as it runs slightly faster on internet being cabled into router. So I can grab photo, artwork from basement computer and add using upstairs relatively easily.

[Jim Coffee]

I'm a bit unclear about what the question really is. As I read thru the threads so far I think that the question is "how can I include my garage in the network?"
So, assuming that is the question:

There are wireless Ethernet access points available that will extend an Ethernet network.
There are also Power Adapter Ethernet extenders...these plug into your wall receptacles.

In my studio I use:

A pair of strong Engenius wireless access points to get my Internet connection from the main house to the studio.
A wired Ethernet network in my studio that connects several computers, printers, drives, etc.
A wireless access point in my studio that allows wireless devices like printers, cameras, etc. to connect to the network.
A pair of Power Adapters to connect my studio network to the laser shack.


Regards

[Jeff Body]

I might not have been very clear Jim. The main question is how do you manage your main folder and use multiple computers in different locations to edit them.

I'm going to back track alittle because I was in a rush when I type the post above.

My old setup and process-
I use to have 2 computers. A desktop in my office and a laptop in the garage. My desktop is fast with lots of storage space. I designed everything on my desktop and save all my work in iCloud drive. Saving it in iCloud would save my work locally on my computer and back it up in "the cloud" So I have 150gb of info saved on both my desktop and in "the cloud". icloud is great for the price and works really well with my phone also but it has 1 huge flaw. Icloud doesn't sync immediately. I couldn't save it there and go to the next computer because it could take a few hours to sync . To overcome this problem I would save the .ai file in a "Send to Laser" folder in dropbox. I would then head out to the garage.

Now I had a old laptop I used in my garage hooked up to the laser. It was old, slow, and had a small hard drive but it worked. I would pick up the file out of dropbox and send it to the laser. The major problem with this was the laptop was to slow to run a graphics program and I also didn't have a 2nd license. So If I needed to make an edit I'd have to go back into the office to make changes. The other huge problem with this work flow was I couldn't design and babysit the laser.

So ON TO THE FUTURE

Last week I purchase a new laptop and another license for my graphics program. The new laptop is super fast with an i7 and 16gb of ram. When my neighbor came over we found a big problem with it though. I can't load my icloud onto it because of the type of SSD it uses. It actually partitions it out and neither partition is big enough to hold the icloud drive (Weird I know). And you can't combine the partitions. So I'm trying to figure out a different way of syncing my files.

In the end I' hoping this will help with my work flow. Now I can sit by the laser and work on designing the next project.

[Julian Ashcroft]

I work on files in three different places, in my home office, my workshop where the lasers are and ocassionally on my works PC. I have the same software on each computer, Inkscape for design and a copy of each of the three different laser software programmes my lasers use to run (RDWorks, Power Cut and EZCAD). All files are saved in Dropbox and I can open them and work on them on any computer. The only one that causes issues is EZCAD as it will only work in demo mode if it isn't connected directly to the laser.

[Kristian Matz]

All of our business files are stored on a NAS drive. We are currently using a 4 Drive netgear box. The drives are running in a mirror raid configuration. 2 two TB drives that give us just under 2 TB of storage. I have ALL of our engraving files for the past 20 years on there plus every user keeps all of their important files on this box. Nothing important is worked on or saved on the local computers. We have 11 pcs. Everyone can access all of artwork from any of the computers. The NAS drive is setup on a continuous backup to an offsite (Amazon S3) server. We recently lost our NAS drive to a failure (not the hard drives) I was able to order a new NAS and hard drives from Amazon, download our backup files and have it back up and running less than 18 hours later.

[Jim Coffee]

Hi Jeff...

In my case my 'master laser files' reside on a drive on one of my machines. I access the 'master file' from any machine that I'm working on. In my case the only time the files are replicated (to another drive) is for backup purposes. Some folks (like myself) use backup programs, others (like myself) backup into the cloud. Others use a RAID configuration. I have only one master file that I edit and engrave from. That file sits on a drive on a machine that is on my Ethernet network.


Hope this helps.

[Tim Bateson]

My setup:
Laptop
3GB external drive - NOTE: Do NOT use the file syncing software included. It will grind your network to a halt.
PC

All on my network & kept in sync with AllwaySync. Great product and my files are the latest version wether I'm on my laptop or PC with a just a quick sync.