Online Files over WAN

[Tom]

Hello. We have 190 remote small offices, each with about 5 or less PCs.
We're moving away from thin client and putting in desktops. The users will
need to have local documents and have them sync to datacenter near realtime.
I know that over a 128kbps connection they will not be able to access the
documents directly from the datacenter server within a reasonable speed, so
they'll need to access them locally, and have the changes sync. "Offline
folders" will connect directly to the file server when it's available, so
that will not work. Any recommendations on how I have them access locally
(fast) and then sync in the background?

Thanks in advance!


Tom

 

[Tom Jolly [MSFT]]

The bad news is that XP CSC doesn't do exactly what you want - you must go
online to synchronize.

Windows Vista will allow exactly this scenario, complete with a "work
offline" / "work online" button in the explorer folder UI (Vista Beta 2), in
addition to not requiring all open handles to be closed to transition online
again. We'd love your feedback on the changes.

The better news is that you can give users some level of control via CSCCMD
reskit utility. Some customers have created a desktop shortcut for their
users which maps to...

CSCCMD /DISCONNECT:\\server\share

So users can force particular servers offline even when they are
"available". Tranitioning online to sync is accomplished via the task tray
icon as usual.

Hope this helps,

Regards,
Tom Jolly
--
Development Lead
Windows Vista - Offline Files / CSC Feature

** This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
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