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[benn600]

How does everyone handle files on their laptop/desktop?  Right now, all our files are stored on the server so desktops at home are problem free as all files are accessed directly from the live server.

I'm trying to find an acceptable solution for configuring our laptops, though.  My main problem is that at home, I want live access to the server but when I leave the network, it needs to gracefully fail over to the local copy.  Windows has a built in synchronizer program that handles this just as I want but it seems to have strange issues.

I've considered directing the documents, desktop, etc. folders to a local spot and then just offer manual synchronizing.  Also, some programs allow multiple profiles (MC, Firefox, etc.) so when the program is started up, a user could choose which one to use (local or server).  But this isn't a great solution, either.  Plus, syncing can lead to strange issues including unintended file overwriting.

Any suggestions?

[dcwebman]

I'm not sure if this is directly answering your question but this is what I did on my Thanksgiving trip and what I'll do for the upcoming Christmas one. I used an external USB drive and SyncBackSE to sync the directories I knew I would need access to from my NAS. All my MC and other program drive locations are pointing to mapped network drive locations instead of using UNC names, so when I hooked up the USB drive to the laptop, I used a simple batch file with subst commands to map to the USB drive's locations so they were the same as if it was being connected to the network. When I got back home, I used SyncBackSE again to sync whatever I changed back to the NAS. I was surprised that it was a pretty fast process and should even be faster next time since it doesn't have to do the initial copying of files to that USB drive.

[benn600]

That's a great procedure.  The only issue is that at least with my laptop, I will be home and away from the home network on a regular basis.  With these EEE's I'm realizing there is some benefit to having its own profile on them because due to resolution, I have Firefox slimmed way down (hidden status bar, bookmark toolbar, navigation toolbar).  So syncing with the server's profile wouldn't really work because then it would carry between the two--ruining the desktop experience or ruining the laptop experience.  Maybe I should just sync the bookmarks file...

I'm starting the process of making decisions now (setting computers up) and I'll hopefully make some decent decisions.