Network setup for Home users

I don't know if there's much of a way to do this (yet) or not. Your input is appreciated.

I've got 3 computers in my house: mine (a desktop with Win 7 Ultimate), a Win7 laptop and a HP TouchSmart, also on Win7. The last two have Win7 Home Premium.

Basically, I'm trying to get rid of the frustration factor of having to copy files from one computer to the next. I THINK what I want to do, is set up a domain. Also, I would like to set up a NAS on my router probably. What I want to accomplish, is for myself or my mother to login to any one of our computers and be able to see any of our documents from any computer. That is, have the documents be saved on the network.

When my mother goes somewhere with her laptop, I'd like to to have a local copy of her files on the laptop as well. So, I believe I'm looking at some form of syncing files between a network and the local machine.

Is there a way to accomplish this? That is, have Windows 7 login to a domain, have it sync files between the local machine and network storage? Or have it such that it automatically syncs the user's Documents, Music or Videos folder between the two?

I'm JUST wanting to copy files, not applications. I know those don't transfer due to licensing issues on some. I don't know if "Cloud" is the right word for this. Any input would be appreciated, or a link to a tutorial. Thanks.

pparks1 said:

You don't need a domain. A domain is a centralized network approach where you create users in Active Directory and set up all users there. Thus, people can logon to whatever PC they want. it's what businesses and enterprise networks do. And you cannot do it without a windows server running Active Directory....or a Linux box running samba and emulating a Windows PDC.

You just have a standard network setup. You need some type of device set up (another machine, a NAS device, etc), which you can share out to all machines and then just put your files and folders there. Then, map that share on all machines to the same drive letter and then everybody can find and see the same stuff from any machine using the same drive letter.

Not really.
What the OP wants it to have ALL files on ALL PC. That way when one PC leaves the network, like taking a notebook someplace, it still has all files on it. Mapping a drive to a NAS or base PC and storing everything on there leave you with NO files when you leave the network.

There are syncing programs out there that should be able to handle this. But you would need a NAS or base PC to be a repository for all files and I guess you would install the syncing software on that base PC or the NAS (not sure you can install software on a NAS) to go out and check the other PCs for updated files, collect them, then push them out to the other PCs.
But you may have to install the syncing software on each PC.

Seems doable.

Simplest synch is SyncToys - no bloat just the space the file takes on each computer, then any changes made to files are synched the next time the each machine is turned on.

MS Live Mesh (Mess) creates a second folder when the change is made on another machine so you keep your original copy on the synched machine in addition to the synch.