Networking and file sync for dummies 101--i need help

jthomas1959

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Dec 27, 2016
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Hello I have been a Tom's reader for years and had an account once a long time ago but long lost and the email don't exist anymore so I am starting over with this new post.

I am an old school electronics engineer from analog days now semi retired. I have built many many computer systems and know hardware and windoze extremely well but my one weakness is networking and for something that should be extremely simple and the ability to do simple things always ends up being a complex nightmare somehow. I manage my own home stuff fine thanks to things like homegroup but trying to do this with other computers or a group of them is where i struggle. Setting up a vpn or nas and I am lost. I have a ton of old hardware and could build a massive file server but once it comes to the networking I am totally lost and know nothing about vpns or the permissions to work them or even basic networking.

Right now I am in the US in the mid west and my fiancée is in Melbourne AU. and we collaborate on some hobby projects and there are also documents. All I am trying to do, she has a 1tb external hard drive on her tower, and I have a 1tb internal in mine. All I want to do is keep these two drives in sync so that as long as both of us have our pc's running they will sync with each other daily as her and I are talking in skype every day. This should be simple but everything i try either requires an amazing amount of permissions, ip addresses, ports thru modems, command line or who knows what else and with all I know about computers this should be simple right? On the other hand she's a web browser and email reader that does some light photo stuff, Basically a basic windows user. I do everything on her computer using either windows remote assistance or team viewer which is how we send files now but thats a resource pig and i want something simpler that will auto sync. I cant talk her thru something I don't clearly understand myself. The last thing i want to do is use windows services like sky drive or any of the cloud stuff, this should be simple. One thing I do know about windows and it's wizards is if you let it do what it wants it will usually take forever our your going to need to be a scholar to understand it.

All I need is a way to keep these two drives in sync daily. Period. Would be nice if it does it by itself. I don't need the cloud or any paid services and this should be as easy as a login and password.

Any help at all would be appreciated please and thanks.

 
Solution
It seems you have found the simple solutions...ie the cloud stuff but have rejected it. You are now back to setting up vpn between the locations. The devices are behind routers and can not see each other. Any form of direct file sharing via port forwarding is not secure. Many ISP have even blocked it.

The simple way to use vpn is to buy routers so you can set it up on the routers and not deal with client issues. It still is hard for new person to get this setup. Your only other option is to use pc based vpn like openvpn but you still must make changes to the router to allow it to pass in many cases. You still must then setup the file sharing and sync over this vpn.
It seems you have found the simple solutions...ie the cloud stuff but have rejected it. You are now back to setting up vpn between the locations. The devices are behind routers and can not see each other. Any form of direct file sharing via port forwarding is not secure. Many ISP have even blocked it.

The simple way to use vpn is to buy routers so you can set it up on the routers and not deal with client issues. It still is hard for new person to get this setup. Your only other option is to use pc based vpn like openvpn but you still must make changes to the router to allow it to pass in many cases. You still must then setup the file sharing and sync over this vpn.
 
Solution