Dropbox issues with syncing and in house storage with VPN


Recommended Posts

I work for a small company that uses Dropbox Pro that 7 people access at once. We are at the point that the company will grow from 7 to 30 in the next year or two. The issue I have is that files are not syncing or it hangs and would have to restart the program to work again. It's not a really issues with small files but when I work with my graphic design stuff like InDesign and someone else is opening up an InDesign and make changes. I go back and the information is not the same because it has not been updated on my side. Would it be the best option is to get an internal hard drive for the company and use a VPN if they need to grab anything to that hard drive outside the company and use Dropbox to backup the hard drive?

 

What should I do and what hardware should I get? The company does have a network so it would be easy to set up one at the office.

and how big are these files... So all your users are local to the office and your using dropbox as your shared drive?  Or are they users remote to the office?  You mention vpn - so that kind of tells me they are remote..

 

How big is your pipe at the office, how big is the pipe the users have - and how big are the files??  Dropbox only sends changes to files..

 

So if user A updates file A, even if the file was 3GB, if he only changed it by 100KB then that is all that would have to get sent..  But sure if he has not uploaded his changes to the file yet, and you look at your copy it will not have the changes.  your going to have the same sort of problems even if the files are local on some disk in the office..  And you wouldn't be just uploading or downloading the changes to the file.. You would have to move the whole file every time... So if the file is 3GB and user A made even 10KB worth of changes to it, he would have to upload the whole 3GB back to the office... Not a big issue if your local on a fast lan.

 

But if he is on lowend inet connection going to be major problem..

 

You could use say something like rsync that can do block level changes to file for sync.. But this gets complicated very quickly if your users are not actual IT people, which from past experience with graphic designers is quite often the case... They can do some amazing things in the drawing and design applications, but when it comes down to network protocols might as well be any other typical user..

  On 17/12/2015 at 21:49, BudMan said:

and how big are these files... So all your users are local to the office and your using dropbox as your shared drive?  Or are they users remote to the office?  You mention vpn - so that kind of tells me they are remote..

 

How big is your pipe at the office, how big is the pipe the users have - and how big are the files??  Dropbox only sends changes to files..

 

So if user A updates file A, even if the file was 3GB, if he only changed it by 100KB then that is all that would have to get sent..  But sure if he has not uploaded his changes to the file yet, and you look at your copy it will not have the changes.  your going to have the same sort of problems even if the files are local on some disk in the office..  And you wouldn't be just uploading or downloading the changes to the file.. You would have to move the whole file every time... So if the file is 3GB and user A made even 10KB worth of changes to it, he would have to upload the whole 3GB back to the office... Not a big issue if your local on a fast lan.

 

But if he is on lowend inet connection going to be major problem..

 

You could use say something like rsync that can do block level changes to file for sync.. But this gets complicated very quickly if your users are not actual IT people, which from past experience with graphic designers is quite often the case... They can do some amazing things in the drawing and design applications, but when it comes down to network protocols might as well be any other typical user..

Expand  

All but one will be working out of the office. A few other people will be too but it's not an issue because they will be working with docs and we don't have issues with that. It's more of me the only graphic designer and another co worker that works in Italy will grab my InDesign files at times. Files can be from 3MB to 10MB InDesign files.

 

Office bandwidth is 100MB download and 10MB upload. Comcast Business.

To be honest I would prob just look into what is going on with your files.. Setting up a vpn and maintain of a local store of the files just for everyone to remotely access them and then having to manually move files back and forth vs something as no brainer as dropbox..

 

Have you contacted dropbox about your issue?  They should be able to help you files that are not syncing, or taking long time to sync, etc. etc.

yeah prob want you to move to business.. Is the pro even designed to be used like your using it?  Your prob just using 1 account, even though you have 7 users?  So 10$ a month total..  If you were paying for all 7 then the cost difference between pro and business in not that much.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • I was a little disappointed with mine compared to the Lemokey P1, for example. Seemed cheap compared to all aluminum. But I liked the look to go with my Fractal North. Ended up getting a Keychron Q1 HE and a Lemokey L5 HE. Love the L5, which replaced my P1. The definitely aren't light boards.
    • Thunderbird 139.0.2 by Razvan Serea Thunderbird is a free, open-source, cross-platform application for managing email and news feeds. It is a local (rather than a web-based) email application that is powerful yet easy-to-use. Thunderbird is clean and elegant by default, but easily customizable to match your workflow and visual preferences. It is loaded with unique and powerful features. Thunderbird is developed, tested, translated and supported by the folks at Mozilla Corporation and by a group of dedicated volunteers. Thunderbird gives you control and ownership over your email. There are lots of add-ons available for Thunderbird that enable you to extend and customize your email experience. Thunderbird gives you IMAP/POP support, a built-in RSS reader, support for HTML mail, powerful quick search, saved search folders, advanced message filtering, message grouping, labels, return receipts, smart address book LDAP address completion, import tools, and the ability to manage multiple e-mail and newsgroup accounts. Thunderbird 139.0.2 fixes: Security fixes Download: Thunderbird 139.0.2 for Windows (EN/US) | 32-bit | ~70.0 MB (Open Source) Download: Thunderbird 139.0.2 for Linux (EN/US) | 74.7 MB Download: Thunderbird 139.0.2 for Mac OS (EN/US) | 127.0 MB Download: Thunderbird 139.0.2 in other languages View: Thunderbird Website | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Thanks Nik and thanks Mind. Nik: Just on the off chance, you don't know where I could get this part at cheaper than normal price do you? I tried I few places but the I can find it at is 70GBP? Just gonna have to suck it up and buy the add-on for my PC. Thank you guys.
    • Underwhelming update. Same as 12,13,14,15. Then M3E ain't showing up until Q3
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      elsa777 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      elsa777 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • First Post
      K Dorman earned a badge
      First Post
    • Reacting Well
      rshit earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • Reacting Well
      Alan- earned a badge
      Reacting Well
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      544
    2. 2
      ATLien_0
      272
    3. 3
      +FloatingFatMan
      207
    4. 4
      +Edouard
      201
    5. 5
      snowy owl
      139
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!