Windos Live Mesh

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Hi

I have used Live Mesh over the last two years (at least) to make sure that all three of my systems held the latest versions of the many files – Documents, music and Photos as well as programs that I’ve downloaded. It works beautifully in the background over my intranet.

Now MS with their usual dictatorial manner have announced a new and improved system that involves using the cloud. Considering the data in total is in excess of a 350GB I don’t want to incur expenses uploading this to some cloud based system that is currently free but which I have no control over.

I just want to ensure that it works over my intranet… Anyone any ideas as to where to go for something similar to Mesh. It runs out in February so the pressure is on !!

Regards
Tom

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Hi,

I have been there and even blogged a bit about it (see the comments where I address experiences with two alternatives).

From strictly a purely feature based approach (in terms of file syncing), Cubby by LogMeIn is as close as it gets and it supports P2P syncing. Problem is, the DirectSync feature, as they call it, which allows you to sync your data without going through their cloud, is only available through the paid Pro version, which will set you back around $50 and only that if you take advantage of promotional price, available only during the beta. I took the plunge and went with Pro, since there are really no other real options (I thought, for a while, that Acronis True Image could be it, but I confirmed it isn’t yet and, to be honest, knowing how Acronis versions evolve, I doubt anything meaningful comes before the 2014 version).
Feature wise, Cubby is a great replacement. There are some annoyances yet, surely due to the beta nature of the product. I have now almost completed syncing all I had synced before with Live Mesh and have been able to overcome some minor annoyances, with the help of LogMeIn’s support. Big caveat – you will need to pay at least $50 / year, but there is a slight hope that LogMeIn will support DirectSync with the free version, since many users have requested that feature.
For now, still in Beta, you can use DirectSync for free. Try it. It’s the closest thing to Live Mesh I found. If you find something else, please do let me know.

Regards

Rui

P.S.: I am quite angry with Microsoft’s decision myself and I will take everyone else’s paid alternative over theirs, since they chose to take this decision that traded a superb app by a lousy half baked alternative. They had no need to do this and if they cared about providing the very best solution for their users, Live Mesh should have been the base for the SkyDrive app, would be a much better choice.

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Have you thought about Carbonite ? I don’t mind paying for it at all. I started with the home version and have since gone to the Home Pro so that it will back up my external HD as well.

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Carbonite is just a backup solution, not a solution for computer syncing, as far as I can tell. For multiple computers, CrashPlan seems a much better (cheaper) option than Carbonite.

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Hi
Thanks to all contributions so far … Sounds like there is an opening for someone to develope something that does not involve Cloud based solutions !!

As I have several large > 7GB spreadsheets which are integral to my business a solution with a 7GB limit is useless… Will look at Chubby and wait to see what else is suggested !!

Regards

Tom

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As I have several large > 7GB spreadsheets which are integral to my business a solution with a 7GB limit is useless… Will look at Chubby and wait to see what else is suggested !!

Not to hijack this thread, but …

Do you REALLY have spreadsheets that exceed 7 GB?? If so, someone should be using a database instead of a spreadsheet.

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(See Rui’s blog entry too – although I have not had sync problems I couldn’t solve by cleaning up hidden, system, read only attributes)

I have used Live Mesh from long before it was a Microsoft product – almost 10 years now. I synchronize Windows laptops with desktops and desktops with desktops. I use this for two primary reasons: 1) to have the same files on many machines so for example, “My Documents” is readily available whatever computer I (or others) have with me and 2) to facilitate backup from one machine that synchronizes directories with multiple other machines. I use peer-to-peer (not cloud based) synchronization both on a LAN and over the internet. I had this setup running with Live Mesh for myself and clients.

OK, so this about Cubby. I knew Microsoft was going to remove Live Mesh sooner or later. The official date is 2/13/2013. I have been testing Cubby for about two months in anticipation of the actual demise of Live Mesh. Cubby has iterated through at least five releases during that time. The third release finally made peer-to-peer work reliably over the LAN. I rely on P2P synchronization since I’m synchronizing over 100 GB of data. Early releases often fell back to synchronization over the internet (at much slower than LAN speeds). Cubby P2P speeds are close to my best Live Mesh speeds. There are differences in the implementation but file transfer over the LAN is very acceptable.

I have now converted myself and one client to Cubby. In order to use P2P synchronization, use of the “Pro” product is required. This gets some additional features, including 100GB of storage (which I don’t plan on using). If Live Mesh had had a similar option, I would have paid for it too. The cost isn’t prohibitive at present – ~$50/year per account. That means I can synchronize many machines on one account. The per account pricing (not per machine!) is what makes it cost effective. The developers of Cubby, LogMeIn (LMI), have not had attractive pricing models for their LMI products, but so far Cubby is priced attractively. There is an indication that the price will go to ~$80/year “eventually.”

My experiences to date with Cubby:

Pro:
· Much (MUCH!) faster at rebuilding the database required for P2P synchronization than Live Mesh.
· Nice interface to watch the synchronization progress. It has totally wrong numbers during the initial build, but it at least shows something is happening.
· The ability to rename the synchronized directories in Cubby (lots of requests for this feature in Live Mesh).
· During my evaluation, I submitted a trouble ticket about my P2P not using the LAN. I actually had an extended interaction with support, including two calls they made to me. This is indicative of LMI support and they are putting it behind Cubby (at least for now).
· Cubby takes advantage of multi-core processors by multi-threading the initial synchronization between machines. I haven’t done enough multi-file transfers to see if this works when many new files are added. This probably contributes to the improved speed (re)building the database.
· No special directories used for synchronization (Live Mesh used space in AppDataLocal). The files being synchronized are built in the directory where they reside.
· Same userid/password as my LMI accounts (I think this is a plus?).
Con:
· Pretty big log files. Although Cubby does zip them up daily and only keeps a few. I think it will end up using less “auxiliary” space than Live Mesh.
· Issues synchronizing read only, hidden and system files; I found ways to figure out what was causing the hang-up (either reading the log or in the “sync in progress” window). This isn’t unusual in synchronization, just a nuisance.
· The loss of IE favorites synchronization. This was a later Live Mesh add-on and I found it handy. I use the similar feature in Firefox too. There are some workarounds (e.g. moving the Favorites folder to a synchronized place – I’m beginning my experimentation soon).
· The automatic creation of “My Cubby” and cloud synchronization of it. I will be removing this directory for my clients.
· It puts an icon on the Desktop and stores the .exe, etc. in AppData. You have to install it for each user account that will use it.
· Oh, and the name “Cubby.” I don’t think my clients will find it as cute as the creator does :^).
Caveats:
· All of my work to date has been in Windows 7 SP3. I am just beginning my regression testing on Vista and Windows 8.
· I have not tested Cubby on iOS or Android. I don’t think it will add much to my work there and there’s no Windows Phone version.
· AreoFS is just going into beta. It could be a reasonable contender in this space. But for any P2P sync solution to be successful, there has to be a fee. I’m biting the Cubby “bullet” for now and we’ll see how the costs evolve.

My environment: I use Cubby (now) to synchronize 7 personal machines; Casper to backup my primary system to a second disk; Backblaze to create a cloud backup; Skydrive for OneNote and KeePass synchronization to my phone; Office365 hosted Exchange for Email/Calendar/Tasks/Notes synchronization between multiple devices and phone. It is a pretty complex environment but so far it seems quite solid. And for what I might think of as a full featured IT environment, pretty cheap!

Phil

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It covers our stud – Horses ponies breeding riding breaking sheep dogs litters … Not worth breaking it up into tables in a database – easier to use Excel

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Like others, I have been a user of Mesh, and FolderShare before, for at least 5-6 years, for the secure P2P feature only. I deal with patient medical records on a desktop and have 2 laptops for travel and remote office stuff. I have no need or use for cloud functionality. I agree with Phil that if a replacement service like Cubby provides equivalent–maybe better–secure p2p, then it’s worth a $50 to $80 annual fee. One big question here: Does Cubby handle pst files?? This is the one file Mesh would not sync… it’s the data file for Outlook email. Thanks for reply…

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For P2P syncing, Cubby works as well as LiveMesh did. Syncs very fast, using your local network. I have been using it for the last 4 days and I can confirm that.
The 7GB Cubby limit is not applicable to P2P syncing using DirectSync, so that wouldn’t be a problem even with your spreadsheets.

I don’t see a player like Microsoft, that will offer a free solution, like the big players can. This functionality is so integral to my workflow that I don’t mind paying, so price is not that much a factor, as long as it is reasonable.

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Phil,

That’s a very detailed experience, thank you for sharing it.

I am still experiencing issues with a 700 MB file that keeps generating errors and am dealing with LogMeIn’s support to find a solution for it, but overall, I share your views on Cubby.

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I don’t have a need to sync pst, so I haven’t tested it, but all files in a cubby (a folder to sync) can be synced, except hidden and system files: http://help.cubby.com/knowledgebase/articles/143854-what-types-of-files-can-i-store-in-a-cubby-

A user comment seems to indicate that .pst syncing, as implied by the previous paragraph, does indeed work: http://b.logme.in/2012/04/18/introducing-cubby/

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