Sync is BitTorrent's first foray into the commercial file synchronization and sharing space, and it's an impressive one.
BitTorrent Sync provides secure peer-to-peer sharing between your desktops, laptops, smartphones, tablets and network-connectedperipherals.By eliminating a central repository, Sync gives you enhanced control over your data. By frequently using your local area network for file synchronization, Sync provides vastly faster performance (up to 16x).
Isn't BitTorrent Just for Downloading Game of Thrones?
If you're like me, you've probably only used BitTorrent for downloading legally distributable independent documentaries.
Back inthe days just before YouTube, I built a popular website called CommonBits to share Fair Use political clips. CommonBits was featured inProgressive peek at TV's Web potentialin The Seattle Times and frequently mentioned on Boing Boing for its Daily Show clips.
In order to share files, we used the open sourceBitTorrent server.Ultimately,the YouTube guys had more commercialsuccess (to say the least).
In Sync, it's great to see a commercial application ofBitTorrent that we can all make use of.
In fact, I've wondered for a long time why no one's built a peer-to-peer podcast synchronization service on BitTorrent. And Microsoft's latest Windows 10 release makes use of peer-to-peer technology for its app store and updates.
What You'll Learn
In this tutorial, I'll introduce BitTorrent Sync and show you how to set it up to synchronize and share files across your devices and with other users.
I do participate in the discussions below. If you have a question or topic suggestion, please post a comment below.You can also reach me on Twitter@reifmanoremail medirectly.
Sync's Feature Set
Sync is ideal for mirroring your own content across platforms and devices or for sharing large files amongst teams. If available, Syncoperates over your fast local network and only resorts to the web when necessary.
Services such as Dropbox offer limited free storage and they are likely accessible by the surveillance state. They're also obvious targets for hackers. Sync stores data on your devices usingdistributed cryptographic security, making it much more difficult to compromise.
Sync is also sophisticated enough to operate on incremental file changes. There's no need to move entire files when small updates are made.
Sync is ideal for photos, videos, and large files shared by teams. Sync says it can easily handle 100 GB files and multi-terabyte folders.
It's compatible with almost every platform and device you can imagine: Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, etc.
Sync becomes especially powerful if you connect it to your ownnetwork cloud storage.
You can read Sync'sdetailed feature summaryon its website. It also offers explainers for some popular use cases:
The basic version of Sync is free, while the Pro version is $49.99 annually. For comparison, Dropbox offers 1 TB of storage for $99 annually.
Here's a comparison of features between free and pro versions of Sync:
Getting Started With Sync
Visit the Sync download page to get the code for your platform or device. When you run Sync the first time, you'll be asked to link to an existing device or make this your first device. I choseThis is my first Sync 2.0 device.
Then, you'll be asked to Create an Identity:
Then, I went to the AppStore to download Sync for my phone—here's what the iTunes view looks like on the desktop:
On the desktop, Sync gives you a QR code for the smartphone app to scan:
This secure code links the devices into a peer-to-peer network. Next, you'll be asked to specify a folder location for Sync files:
As your peer-to-peer device network expands, you can browse them from the app or from any device:
Setting Up Sync on iOS
Here's what the startup on iOS looks like:
In this case, I choseLink a device already running Sync 2.0and the app scanned my QR code.
In addition to syncing files, you can also use Sync as a backup for photos and video:
Camera Backup
The iOS to Mac OS X camera backup was blazingly fast over my local WiFi connection:
Sharing With Sync
Sync also offers powerful sharing features. You can set permissions and expiration dates and share via email or QR codes.
Sync will generate an email for you to send:
Unfortunately, recipients are required to install Sync in order to download your file. This may be prohibitive for a number of people or scenarios.
For personal uses, I find this very appealing compared to Dropbox.
Open Source Alternatives
There's also an emerging open source alternative to Sync called Syncthing.
It's in active development and fully transparent. Currently, there's an Android app but it's not available for iOS yet. It's not as mature as Sync yet, but perhaps it will be in the future.
What's Next?
I hope you're intrigued by BitTorrent Sync. It definitely adds a new dimension to cloud file synchronization andsharing options—especially for teams that need to quickly share files.
Overall, I was impressed with the level of polish, performance and flexibility that Sync offered. I thought its powerful feature set was a bit more complicated than a service like Dropbox, but not needlessly so. I look forward to seeing the product evolve.
Please feel free to post your questions and comments below. You can also reach me on Twitter@reifmanoremail medirectly.You can also browsemy Tuts+ instructor pageto see other tutorials I've written.
Tuts+ is a site aimed at web developers and designers offering tutorials and articles on technologies, skills and techniques to improve how you design and build websites.
Tuts+ is a site aimed at web developers and designers offering tutorials and articles on technologies, skills and techniques to improve how you design and build websites.