Sharing FH across network

Johnyeates · Post by **Johnyeates** » 26 Oct 2010 14:12

Hi,
I have 'My Family Tree' folder with the project and all the media on my Desktop computer next to the printer & scanner, but it is a bit anti-social being in another room from the rest of the family whilst editing the FH Project.

Is there any reason thet I shouldn't move the 'My Family Tree' Directory to the 'public' area of the Desktop and modify/link Multimedia etc from the laptop on the wireless network from the family room when I don't need the printer/scanner etc.
I prefer using the desktop computer but I feel I should be with the family sometimes.

Your advice and comments would be appreciated.
Regards
John

ID:4838

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 27 Oct 2010 07:38

Have you looked at Dropbox, that's how I keep my Family Projects in sync between my two computers.
[wiki]glossary:other_nonfh_software:sync[/wiki]

Chris_Grice · Post by **Chris_Grice** » 29 Oct 2010 09:15

Hi John, I have happily been using FH across my home wireless network now for about a year.I have the whole project on a NAS drive and can access it happily with either the laptop or desktop machine.

Speed is slightly affected, more so when using wireless access, but for all practical purpses it's fine. The only time it gets annoyingly slow is when using 'work with external file links'. I have about 9MB of data in 1366 files and the dialogue box can take up to 30sec to open or update. However as i use this functionality rarely it's a small price to pay to be able access my tree with laptop on lap!! [smile]

By the way I would endorse Jane's comments about drop box - I use this to keep a backup copy of my project safely out of harms way on the internet.
Cheers

Johnyeates · Post by **Johnyeates** » 29 Oct 2010 14:29

Chris,
Thanks for the reply, excuse my ignorance, what is a NAS drive?
I have a couple of external drives for backups (Plus my sisters PC offsite)

Why would I use a NAS drive or DropBox when I can drag the FH files into the 'Share Files' area on the PC and I can access the data from the laptop.

I am interested in finding out as I have more than 2Gb of data and would rather not have to pay to use the DropBox programme.

Regards
John

Chris_Grice · Post by **Chris_Grice** » 29 Oct 2010 17:51

Hi John - apologies for the jargon! - NAS is 'network access storage' and is essentially an always on hard drive that can share it's folders & files with other computers on the network. In use it is similar to putting files into the shared area in 'Windows'. An important difference for me is that I don't have to go and switch on my desk top machine to be able to use the files (eg FH) on my laptop. The 'NAS' drive is a mini computer in it's own right that will 'wake up' if my laptop or desk top machine tries to access files on it.

On top of this I also use it to send photos to view on my TV and music to listen to on a networked radio - so it serves several useful purposes for me [smile]

By the way dropbox is free up to a certain limit - I think it may be 2G - after that you do have to pay - so I guess with your data you would be approaching the pay up stage! [frown]

Anyway hope this helps
Cheers

Jeanieallergy · Post by **Jeanieallergy** » 17 Jul 2011 12:37

Sorry to be ignorant, but how do you set up the program to access files on a NAS drive? I copied my files from my computer to the NAS drive and when I tried to open them it copied them all back again! [confused]

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 17 Jul 2011 12:46

You are much better using your NAS drive as a backup, and working on the local copies, when ever you use Family Historian it will need to open you gedcom and attached media so it will have to copy the files back to open them.

What I do is sync my files to my NAS drive (all my Documents, not just my Family History) twice a day using a scheduled job).

Jeanieallergy · Post by **Jeanieallergy** » 17 Jul 2011 12:55

I want to be able to update the data from two different computers, so I think the only simple way to do this is to store the data on the NAS drive. I do have a backup drive for the NAS! Anyway I solved the problem - I didn't know there was a 'browse for project' option hidden away to open the file. Sorry for not looking harder first before asking the question.

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 17 Jul 2011 16:10

My personal solution is to use Dropbox (see the Knowledge base), it works wonderfully well for me.

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