Shell folder synchronization

[tristanwalter]

Hey all, I have some thoughts. First, I have a desktop and a laptop with two users (myself and my girl). I want "My Documents", "Documents", and Firefox Bookmarks to mirror each other on both machines. I have a wired/wireless network. So, I'm looking for suggestions on how to keep these things synchronized. I have tried SyncToy and do not like it. Both machines run Windows XP Pro SP3. I am thinking of using Offline Files and redirecting my laptop to use my desktop for it's shell folders. Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

Second, I am going to be getting a new desktop and I am wondering if it would be better to keep my old desktop and turn it into a file server rather then give it away. I was thinking with it setup that way I could use offline files and redirect the shells on my new desktop and my laptop to my old desktop. However, I'm not sure how well this will work and if I would need Windows Server on my old desktop to make it work properly. Also, my new desktop would most likely have Vista so I'm not sure if the network and/or hierarchy will work with this setup. Any thoughts or comments on this would be appreciated.

And lastly is about iTunes. I have two users on a computer as stated before, and currently have 2 copies of all our music under each profile. Is there a way to consolidate the music, have each user with their own library (my girl doesn't want all the music I have in my library), and keep both synchronized so when I add a song it is added to her library and vice-versa? The libraries would also have to synchronize with another machine however that should be taken care of when the machines sync up.

[tristanwalter]

Add:
An issue I would like to address with synchronization is with databases, i.e. Quicken financial software. If I add an entry on my laptop the same day my girl adds one on the desktop, the most recent file is synchronized losing one or the other files and thus the transaction rather then consolidate the entries within the file. Does anyone know of anything that can synchronize on that level or is it all just on the file level? Really, my only concerns is with Quicken and with Microsoft Outlook (I don't care for the IMAP functionality with gamil and I would like to keep my calendars synchronized). I cannot find any kind of synchronization with Quicken and I cannot edit my calender entries using the share calander function in Microsoft Outlook.

[johnwill]

Truthfully, you need the multi-user version of Quicken to do what you're talking about there.

Instead of keeping an old computer for a file server, I'd just get one of the many NAS units that are available, I personally like the D-Link DNS-323, it's pretty speedy and has worked well for me.