Both laptops on to share files and folders?

I have been reading on how to share files/printers between two laptops. The laptop upstairs is the one that will get the most use. One in the basement will be used mostly for my sublimation work using two printers Silhouette Cameo 4 and a coffee mug press. . My question is after I get both laptops talking to each other do both laptops have to be on all the time? Such as if I'm in the basement do I have to have the upstairs laptop on to access different files or folders from it? My thinking is yes, but, hoping for a no.

TYI.

Duane

Yes, any given system has to be on in order to access files on it.

Edit: Actually, I forgot about offline files. This might still work in Windows 11. I haven't used it in ages.

Yes, devices must be on to share files through file sharing. I truly don't understand what kind of work it is you do, but there are other ways to share files between devices that might suit your situation better. If your router has a usb port, You can connect an external drive as a NAS drive (network attached storage)You could then move files from both devices to the NAS and see them on both devices.. With a NAS drive it would not matter if one of the computers was off .
This is by far the cheapest method, especially if you have a large amount of data and it keps all your data onsite..

Another option is to use a Microsoft account and sync files to Onedrive from both devices. What is on one device shows up on the other. However, you get only 5gb of free Onedrive storage so for anything over that you have to purchase extra cloud storage. If you are an Office365 user, storage would not be an issue since you get 1tb of Onedrive storage with 365

Other cloud providers like Google Drive work basically the same way.

There are things that you can do to work around this. As an example, I use Wake on LAN (WOL) on all my systems. That way, if I need to access files on a machine that is off, I can turn it on remotely by simply running one tiny batch file that sends the WOL signal to the other machine. After that machine is booted about a minute later, I can access all files.

Do some research into Syncthing. And also SyncTrayzor v2 (also available as a portable). I use SyncTrayzor v2 Portable myself to sync files between my Desktop PC and my laptop. The laptop is mostly just sitting in a cupboard and I only switch it on once a month to do updates. The syncing to the laptop gets done via the Wi-Fi of my router. My Desktop PC is connected to the router via an Ethernet cable, though it could just as soon be connected by Wi-Fi and that would make no difference.

I suppose you could conceptualise Syncthing somewhat by thinking of it being a bit like OneDrive (which I have never used) without some middle-man having access to your own files/data.

The only difficulty I ever came across with Syncthing/SyncTrayzor v2 is if a file is altered/changed on both computers then Syncthing reports a conflict for those two versions of the file and you have to manually choose which file is the 'master', which can be a bit confusing. However, with practice and understanding of what Syncthing/SyncTrayzor v2 are doing you will learn how to keep conflicts to a minimum. And with practice it becomes easier to identify which file version you want to keep.

If you are using SyncTrazor v2 Portable then it automatically updates itself and Syncthing too. And when you download SyncTrayzor v2 Portable it already contains the latest implementation of Syncthing. To use it both computers need to be switched on and each computer needs to have a running implementation of Syncthing/SyncTrayzor v2. However, you don't have to have both computers always running at the same time — once you do have both computers running at the same time Syncthing/Synctrayzor v2 will just pickup the systems when they were last 'linked'/connected.

P.S. Syncthing also allows connecting two or more machines over the internet, so the machines can be very remote from each other. However, I've never used that facility so can't comment further.

pseymour said:

Edit: Actually, I forgot about offline files. This might still work in Windows 11. I haven't used it in ages.

Click to expand...

I do - it works. Note: only available in Pro.

Want to Thank each and everyone for your help and guidance. I will use all your input of getting my laptops talking to each other.