what is the best prog to sync Outlook between two computers

[reboot_this]

I want to sync the usual... address book, contacts, calendar, etc... but I also want to sync all the mail (including the main pst or ost file, whichever it is) I have and do so across two different computers. I will be looking to do the same for my wife's outlook stuff which is on a seperate windows user profile.

Windows XP Pro support is a must but Vista support would be great since I am testing whether or not to make the switch yet... not all of the progs I use are supporting Vista yet, but should be soon. Right now I'm using Outlook 2003 but am also looking to switch to 2007, just not in a hurry to do this either. An exchange server and remote options (keeping my files on someone else's servers) are out of the question, I do not want to touch these methods.

Also if an encryption method was used by the "sync" prog, that would be useful as well. Heck, it would be really cool to be able to sync across a number of computers (for future-proofing my set up as computers are added).

I guess I want my Outlook (for email stuff) to be just like SageTV (for A/V media) for me and my wife, access from any computer! So what does everybody here use to sync their Outlook between at least two computers?

[peternm22]

This might not be too helpful, but have you thought about using Thunderbird?

You can have a centralized location for all your profile settings (including mail) on a network drive. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Thunderbir...Network_Access

We do this at my work so everyone can access their e-mail accounts regardless of which computer on the network they're using.

I'm not sure how Thunderbird generally stacks up to Outlook though in terms of features, since I've only use Outlook Express.

-Peter

[dflachbart]

Well, there is sync2, but it's not cheap ($49 for 2 licenses) and I haven't tried it yet myself. Probably a lot of shareware out there too.

Dirk

[nielm]

I run an imap server on my server (cygwin uw-imapd, exim and fetchmail) and then use any old email client on whatever PC simultaneously... All mail is stored on the server in 'open' formats...

[reboot_this]

Well, I don't know where to start, so I'll just reply in a linear fashion...

"by peternm22: This might not be too helpful, but have you thought about using Thunderbird?"

I looked into Thunderbird, and it proves interesting... With themes, I can make it "appear" to the user to be very similar to Outlook 2003 (what we currently use) and there is only one location for email related files, so only one location to perform autobackups on and no worrying if some 3rd party program did its snyc job successfully. My only reservation is I got tired of using Firefox as a browser due to being a memory hog all the time and this prog is by the same company.

"by flachbar: Well, there is sync2, but it's not cheap ($49 for 2 licenses) and I haven't tried it yet myself. Probably a lot of shareware out there too."

I was looking at several progs before searching and posting to the sage forum, and this is one of them... also looked at SyncBackSe, SynchPst, OsaSync and even looked at Outlook 2007 to see if Microsoft had finally integrated some sort of syncability (I found nothing). All in all, I feel I will just have to read some reviews, if possible, just close my eyes, and pick one... a real hit and miss.

"by nielm: I run an imap server on my server (cygwin uw-imapd, exim and fetchmail) and then use any old email client on whatever PC simultaneously..."

As I don't have a "true" server right now, I'm not sure about this... I know I probably could do this on the main computer, but I already rebuild that stupid thing at least once a year (if not twice) and this would add even more steps to my growing list of "rebuild steps". Not to mention even more things to learn and multiple software to keep updated. (and yes, I've been looking into the "make an OS install image to quickly backup from" so rebuilding will be much less painful. I have experience doing so on a friend's machine and backing up from the OS install image took about 15 minutes!!! just awesome! It takes me 2-4 hours to rebuild depending on the computer I'm doing so on.)

What I have learned after reading the above responses and more on the web... I got frustrated with all the reading and did one last google search, which somehow led me to Windows Home Server (WHS). I saw a match on Paul Thurrott's windows site and read what he said about WHS. VERY interesting, I always thought about running an old computer I have with a copy of XP pro and just using that as a server, I guess WHS is a completely different animal being it's intended to be an actual server. This may be what I'm looking for as it not only can serve as a central location for everything (my email, pics, personal vids, graphics files, etc., etc.) PLUS if needed I can access all of it via the internet (I am kinda nervous about vulnerability on doing so though) AND from what I read, it keeps incremental backups of the OS installs on all the computers on my LAN! Rebuilding would be super simple. Also, I think WHS would be a winner for me because I have multiple copies (read my way of "backing up" files) of pics, graphics files, etc.... in some cases I have 3 or 4 copies of things.

So, still residing on "square one", what does anyone think about using WHS? I don't think its yet available, at least Thurrot's site stated "second half of 2007" But I would be willing to wait, leave the email use on one computer, and look forward to building a "true" server later. I should add that I have always had one computer... until I built another one exclusively for SageTV use. I do know, email access won't be added to the Sagebox. But to add to everything, I now am dealing with two computers not including the Sagebox, hence my issue with where email access will be made available. Being spoiled by having SageTV media access in multiple rooms, I want everything else possible to be accessible in the same way.

Sorry for the long post, and I know all this is not SageTV related stuff, but I know I can always rely on getting answers from the SageTV family. After all, we are all family right?

[reboot_this]

no responses? where are you, computer pros? what do you think?

update: I signed up for the WHS beta, so hopefully I get an invite... that way I can use the old 1.3GHz computer I have that I feel would be perfect for server use....

[sainswor99]

Thank Google

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-10168_7-5511111-1.html

http://www.pstsync.com/

http://www.synchpst.com/sync_outlook.htm

[doc]

I work away in the week and used to have 2 pc's, one where I lodge and one at home. I used to download mail to both, and have the one at home delete the mail from the server so that it was the main store, but it didn't help solve the sync'ing of calendars etc.

I'm now using a laptop and carrying it between both places, and keep it fully encrypted incase it gets stolen. Each weekend I run a script that backs it up to a usb hard drive.

This still isn't ideal.

Hotmail? would you trust an online mail system with all of your personal stuff? My credit card got scammed 2 weeks ago, and I'd only used it on one online site, which was for my car tax renewal...........

I'm was debating using a small business server with exchange 2003, and using outlook web access. This will work, but is a bit of a sledgehammer for a single user. I'd like a silent pc that sits there that I don't notice, just like a headless sage server, but then I'd want a tape deck and backup software on it, and hot-swap raid of course incase a drive fails.

This is all easily do-able if I use work licenses and an old server thats lying about under my desk, but my house just isn't big enough, and it certainly won't help decrease my carbon footprint (todays in-phrase). CFP... another TLA to remember. (yes, more concerned about my bills than global warming, we've had some lovely weather this last week for a change)

I've even debated setting it up at work on our 'dirty' internet system, but redundancy is looming.......

So like you, I'm still here debating what to do.......

[jhh]

hi,

http://www.desknow.com works fine for me.

A bit frustrating probably that when you're asking for synchronisation that you get server recommendations. I have to say that I don't regret it for a second. The thing sits happily on my SageTV server.

Jan

[lamanmi]

Have you tried Plaxo (http://www.plaxo.com/)? It works pretty well, I was using it for a while until our company shut off access to it through the proxy server.

[ukmgranger]

Originally Posted by lamanmi

Have you tried Plaxo (http://www.plaxo.com/)? It works pretty well, I was using it for a while until our company shut off access to it through the proxy server.

Plaxo is OK but it doesn't allow access to your emails. It's more for just your contacts and calendar. Quite a handy program though, especially if you want to import your contacts from Gmail to Outlook 2003.