Local dropbox alternative

[step1041]

Is there any application that anyone knows about that sort of works like dropbox but instead of using the internet I can use a network drive only home server? I'm really just looking to back up some bigger files that I can't sync through dropbox like my iTunes library and possibly some Virtualbox VMs. Any ideas? OpenBox was one I came across.

[antoainb]

Do you mean only inside your own network? Or do you want to access it from outside it? Do you have another PC to run it?

[Ssoele]

Check out OwnCloud.

[scottyboy]

For local network only, SyncBack is a good option for backing up / syncing your stuff.

 

http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/syncback-hub.html

[step1041]

OwnCloud was the one I was thinking of before. And yes, it would be something that would run only on my local network. My network drives are installed on a computer running Windows Server 2012 if it matters. SyncBack and OwnCloud look promising.

[scottyboy]

My network drives are installed on a computer running Windows Server 2012 if it matters. SyncBack and OwnCloud look promising.

That's fine if the drives are on windows server. As long as the network drives are mapped on the windows machine you'll be running syncback/owncloud on you'll be good to go!

[step1041]

That's fine if the drives are on windows server. As long as the network drives are mapped on the windows machine you'll be running syncback/owncloud on you'll be good to go!

That's exactly what I thought was the case, I just didn't know if there was software I needed to install on the host computer (Server).

[ygohome]

*edit:  sorry, I just saw that you are not using linux.  My ideas below involved linux, but the protocols (SAMBA, NFS, HTTP) should still apply.

 

You could create a shared folder on a linux system using smb (Samba) service.  Then map to the shared folder on any of your Apple or PC computers.   Then you can store whatever you want there.  

 

If remote, I connect to my router's VPN.  Then I have access to the mapped share drive (the shared folder on linux) as if I were at home on my LAN.

 

I can also get to my folder and files using https if I wanted to.  From anywhere.   https://myURL:port/share/filename      But this required a bit of configuring of the http service to get SSL and authentication working the way I wanted it to.  It is pretty secure and it is encrypted.  But I only really use it for my SVN repository via tortoise.  It is nice that I can get to my SVN file repository from anywhere, even if behind firewall at an office building.

 

For a dropbox like setup, I use an rsync script to sync/mirror some of my folders to one of my linux servers.  Or, "lftp" using sftp protocol with the lftp mirror option would work similar to rsync.  These solutions are not the same as dropbox in that it isn't realtime, only a nightly sync.  It also doesn't keep revisions.  But it does mirror/sync your files to another machine on a scheduled basis.  It is a sync, so deleting a file on the source system would delete the file on the linux system too.

 

I still use dropbox though.  If any of my backups fail to restore or if my server mirrors burn to the ground, I can still get to my files from the Dropbox cloud.

[Satlen]

Owncloud or Bittorrent Sync