Move files between networked computers using Dropbox

If you have more than one computer, a home network can be a great way to ensure the files you need are available whichever PC you are using.

And copying files from one PC to another can be simple, as long as they are all using the same version of Windows. Add in more than one version, though, and things can get fiddly – and, of course, many homes might include computers that don’t use Windows at all, such as a Linux PC or Apple Mac.

Fortunately, there are ways around the problem. Thanks to fast broadband connections and clever websites it’s easy to share files between different sorts of computers and, as an added bonus, to access them no matter where you are. In this article, we are going to explain how you can solve your file-sharing problems with a service called Dropbox.

Put it online
Setting up a network used to be considered something of a black art, but recent versions of Windows have made it easier than ever. Windows 7, in particular, with its new Homegroup function, makes sharing files between computers a lot simpler than it used to be.

Unfortunately, Homegroups only work with Windows 7, and unless all the computers in a home are new, there is a good chance that one or more of them will have a different version of Windows.

Different versions of Windows share and secure files in different ways, and it can be frustrating ensuring all the different computers can access the same folders. And matters can get even more fiddly if you add a Mac or Linux computer into the mix.

One solution is to add a network-attached storage (Nas) device to the home network, but that’s not cheap, and not always easy to set up either.

Also, many people now want to take advantage of a broadband connection to access their files from any computer on the internet rather than just on computers at home.

If you are visiting a friend’s house and want to show them something, for example, wouldn’t it be great to grab it from the internet rather than having to carry it on a disc or USB memory key?

Setting up remote access to your home network can be tricky, though, so few people bother.

However, there is a way of solving all these problems by storing files on the internet, rather than on one of the computers at home. Internet storage services typically allow access from any device with a web browser, so files can be accessed from an internet café, friend’s house, Apple Mac, Linux PC, Windows PC or even some mobile phones.

These services don’t rely on the home PC being turned on, either, so everything can be switched off to save energy when you are out of the house. There is also added security, since vital information can be stored securely, and will not get lost even if your PC is stolen.

Any information stored using these internet services is password-protected and encrypted, so it cannot be seen by unauthorised people, though many of them also provide ‘public’ folders, to make sharing easy, if you want to do it. Some will even automatically create photo albums from pictures that are copied to them, too.

Often, there are programs that can be installed on a PC or Mac, which will automatically copy the contents of specified folders to the storage service, or make it appear as another hard disk. Typically, users install these on their main computer, and use a web browser if they are on a different one.

Introducing Dropbox
One of the most well known of these services is Dropbox, which provides 2GB of free storage and works with all the recent versions of Windows, as well as Mac and Linux computers.

Besides web access to your files, there’s a program to install on your PC that will automatically keep a Dropbox folder up to date without needing a browser on all those types of computer. So, in effect, it looks and behaves just like any other folder on the hard disk. If you copy any files or folders into the Dropbox folder on one PC, they will appear there ready to be used on any other computer you connect from.

You might, however, be wondering how this works with broadband. After all, home broadband is faster at receiving files than at sending them, so when a file is copied to Dropbox on a computer it can take a while before it’s been sent to the Dropbox servers and is visible via a browser. So does that affect sharing files between computers on a home network?

Fortunately not. One of the things that makes Dropbox clever is that if it’s installed on more than one computer on the same network, they can detect one other and files will be copied between them directly, which is obviously a lot faster than if they have to go via the internet connection.

So, you can share files between different versions of Windows, and even Mac or Linux systems, without having to do anything more complicated than install the Dropbox application on each one – and, once they have been uploaded, your files will be ready to access from elsewhere, too.

Getting started
As with many similar services (we have listed some alternatives later in this article) Dropbox has a free option, but you can pay a monthly fee if you want more space. To use it, visit the Dropbox website and click the Download Dropbox button at the bottom of the screen; it’s very easy, and you will find step-by-step instructions on the last page of this article.

On Windows, Dropbox will create a folder with its own name inside your Documents (or My Documents on XP) folder; inside that you will see a Public folder and a Photos folder. Dropbox will automatically create photo galleries for items in your Photos folder, and if a file is placed in the Public folder it can be shared with anyone.

But what we are interested in right now is sharing with other computers on your network. That’s extremely easy. Move a few files into the Dropbox folder on the first computer, then go to one of the others and download the Dropbox application from the website again.

The site will send the correct program for the computer you’re using, whether it’s XP, Vista, Mac or Linux – though if you’re not using the popular Ubuntu or Fedora versions of Linux you might need to do extra work to install it.

Each Dropbox folder is linked to an email address; normally, that’s entered during installation, and a Dropbox account created automatically. On subsequent computers, tell the Dropbox installer ‘I have an account already’, enter the email address and password, and after a few minutes, all the files from the Dropbox folder will appear in the folder on the new computer.