I have just spent the best part of the last two hours searching the net trying to find an easy to use solution to sync folders between two macs in our house, the iMac and the Macbook that I frequently use away from home – mainly at uni. The reason I spent so long on this is that I had been battling trying to figure out how to use Microsofts Live Mesh (Beta), I should’ve known better. While Live Mesh seems really great in theory, and verges on giving you some of the aspects of Apples Mobile Me but for free, but it just doesn’t deliver it in the easy to use & non frustrtating way that Mobile Me does.

Basically what I was after is something that would allow me to have a folder on each computer that would automatically keep the most up to date version of every file that I work on, on both computers. This is where I came across Dropbox! I downloaded the application and installed it, basically you sign up and get the option to select the free account or choice to two tiers of paid accounts. I selected the free one as I don’t require any more than 2GB worth of space to be synched. The install is quick and easy, after setting it all up on your initial machine you then install on the second computer, log in and viola, your files automatically start to sync up between your two computers. Now the great thing about this is that it automatically knows when something has been edited and copies the updates of the file to your other computers. Another thing I really liked is that if you accidentally delete something, you can log into the web based account and retrieve what you just accidentally deleted.

The other excellent thing about Dropbox is the ability to share folders/files/photos with friends and family. All you have to do is select the option to make that file or folder public, you can select who you want to have access to it by sending them an email or just note down the link that it provides you and anybody can view the selected files when they navigate to the link.

After having a hell of a time fiddling with Live Mesh to try and sync, it was a relief to find Dropbox and discover that it did exactly what I wanted – the first time & hassle free, I would seriously suggest giving it a go if you frequently use multiple computers or share files with others.