Synchronizing multiple users' files on home network

[Guest]

I have 3 (will be 4) XP Pro computers in a workgroup at home. Each user (5)
has their own "Limited" or "user" account on each, plus my admin account.

I'd like to allow each user to log in to any computer and access copies of
the same "My Documents" files and other user information as the last time
they logged on to a possibly different computer in the workgroup. "Other user
information" includes cookies and application settings; presumably their
directory tree under "Documents and Settings" -- but maybe it's not that
simple? Of course, some computers may not be on the network at any given time.

I've seen "Second Copy 2000" recommended in this group, but can it maintain
the privacy of the files it copies? So that files for user "John" on computer
A gets copied to a private directory of user "John" on computer B, and "John"
on B has the same rights he did on computer A (and others do not)? Also,
although I looked over the site "centered.com", I could not figure out how
many licenses I would need, because their pricing is based on "number of
users". There would only be one actual user (me) who would schedule the file
copy operations, but it would be on behalf of 6 accounts on 3-4 computers.

Reading some XP Pro Resource Kit documention, it appears that some
combination of "folder redirection" and "offline files" may also work, but I
only know what I've read for a few minutes, and I've never heard anyone talk
about using those features for peer-to-peer synchronization.

Or, have I crossed the line to really needing a domain instead of a
workgroup (yikes)?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

I have 3 (will be 4) XP Pro computers in a workgroup at home. Each user (5)
has their own "Limited" or "user" account on each, plus my admin account.

I'd like to allow each user to log in to any computer and access copies of
the same "My Documents" files and other user information as the last time
they logged on to a possibly different computer in the workgroup. "Other user
information" includes cookies and application settings; presumably their
directory tree under "Documents and Settings" -- but maybe it's not that
simple? Of course, some computers may not be on the network at any given time.

Or, have I crossed the line to really needing a domain instead of a
workgroup (yikes)?

Yes, you have. The solution is a domain controller and roaming
profiles.

Short of that, I see two other ways. I use one of these on my
two computers here, a desktop and a laptop. I simply copy my
profile and, with some precautions, the All Users profile to the
other computer when I switch computers. This requires some
discipline, a resource kit tool (Robocopy), and a batch file.
Could be done with more than two computers.

The other would be to declare one of your computers a server and
have at least the data on it. With the profiles it's more
difficult, but you could try to copy profiles to and from the
server.

Keep it simple.

Hans-Georg