BeInSync on Hiatus Like a Flailing TV Show
BeInSync was a small company from Israel, a real hotbed of technology innovation for decades. They were bought by Phoenix Technologies to add file synchronization, backup, and sharing to an admittedly hardware-centric product line. Yet as happens too often, a big company buys an interesting small company, loses interest, and the interesting technology disappears. BeInSync is in danger of becoming like one of those TV shows that promises to come back but never does (hello, Middleman, are you coming back?).
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Either way you look at it Microsoft Data Center management did not follow standards or best practices in this failure. In which case it makes me wonder more about the outsourcing of corporate data much less personal data.
- mburton325
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Big Burn
My company just deployed BeInSync (maybe 2-3 months ago), so we are really getting burned by this. I wouldn't mind sharing the email I just received basically stating that the BeInSync operation is being closed down. We are least getting a refund, but now we have to go back to square one, looking at the other options, none of which were intelligent enough to sync files on the fly without scheduled tasks or the like. I will definitely continue looking, and if anyone has any other options, please speak up.beinsync closes down
I switched to beinsync after FolderShare morphed into Windows Live Sync. Beinsync served my needs well, and I don't want to go back to Windows Live. I too would like to hear of comparable services.filesharing
Hi Ryan;I suggest NomaDesk (www.nomadesk.com). We do exactly what Beinsync does, but unlike beinsync, we offer local encryption of files on the desktop. Our file servers show up on your PC like a mounted drive.
Unlimited space and bandwidth for $15 per month, you can try it free for 30 days www.nomadesk.com
Good luck!!
file sharing
it is a pity Phoenix are not selling the business looks like a good investment to me. Thank you for the steer to nomadesk.com looks good and same price and structure as BeInSync. Good luck. MarkA shame, but on the cards
I had beinsync for years - but I uninstalled late last year when I realised I'd never get fix for synchronising excel files (yes, it had probs with that) - I had emailed support many times. I suspected back then that it just wasn't getting the dev resources it needed - it wasn't the only problem it had.However,it was quite comprehensive and by and large worked reasonbly well, so its a shame to see it fail.
I use Live Mesh and Live Folder sync now - I think they're pretty good to be honest.
A very useful resource gone !
I too am pretty pissed off at losing beinsync. (besides the fact I did a story on them on CNN Business Traveller)It is a great tool that allows travellers like me to keep all my computers humming along nicely.
I would also appreciate knowing of any other syncing programmes since this was the first I had tried.
Richard Quest
CNN
Sugar Sync
It's annoying - I finally got all my machines synced and poor they're gone. Foldershare didn't really work for me because there was a number-of-files limitation (something like 10,000) that was too limiting.Has anyone used Sugar Sync? Looks like some good reviews, but I hate to find out this stuff by trying and wasting time to find out it doesn't do all I want it to do. Beinsync did, albeit slowly, but it DID work.
Robert M. Burns
SoundRealtyAdvisors.com
For your consideration: AllenPort
Robert,We have a number of Realty clients that are using AllenPort, not only for synch, but as an alternative to a traditional office network. Your files are even available offline. AllenPort was ranked the No. 2 Coolest Emerging Vendor of 2009 by Everything Channel's CRN. For information, visit www.allenport.com, or call us at 609-951-3700.
Jocelyn
Sugar sync review
Here's a link to a review I found:http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-9895297-2.html
Another Sync Software Review
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2344178,00.aspGoodSync
Have you tried GoodSync for file synchronization http://goodsync.com ? Siber Systems has been innovating for 10 years and we add new features weekly. We also have an Enterprise version available.I'm Using GoodSync and it Works Great
Been using it for about two years. The program is pretty flawless if you ask me.For an alternative, try GoodSync
Siber System's GoodSync is an easy to use, simple alternative for your syncing needs. It works great! Check it out at http://www.goodsync.comBeInSync Closing
I have been using Beinsync for several years now and am very disapointed to see it go. I have been demoing other programs to sync files and folders over the internet and have not found anything that works as well. I am interested in another solution. It would be nice if someone would by the Beinsync division and run it.Mark
In Same Boat
I, too, have been using Beinsync for several years now. In searching for a replacement, the best I have come up with so far is Windows Live Sync which seems to have the same synchronization functionality as Beinsync. In fact, I am wondering if the reason that Phoenix Technologies is getting out of the business is because they cannot compete with Microsoft, which is making Windows Live Sync freely available.Switched to Live Mesh -- Best Move Ever
All-Our companies had been using BeInSync since 2006 (and loving it) when we started to encounter problems with BeInSync last summer (2008). In particular, we noticed that BeInSync had stopped evolving after being bought out by Phoenix Technologies.
It was then that a few of our employees experimented with Windows Live Mesh (www.mesh.com). (It is important that people be aware that Live Mesh is different from other Windows Live or Windows services.) We were so impressed with the speed, simplicity, and stability of Live Mesh that we very quickly terminated our BeInSync service and migrated everything over to Live Mesh.
I would note that we do not use the free storage feature of Live Mesh. We prefer to maintain a local backup on a server in our headquarters. It is simply faster and more reliable than any online backup could ever hope to be. However, we use Live Mesh to synchronize folders across a global network of offices, and we have never once encountered a problem (we've been using Live Mesh for almost a year now).
If you give Live Mesh a try, the first thing you will notice, compared to BeInSync, is how much faster and simpler Live Mesh is to use. I am no big fan of Microsoft, but their Live Mesh development team has really figured things out here. The program integrates much more neatly than BeInSync.
One nice benefit of Live Mesh is that it offers remote access to your computer much in the same way that GoToMyPC or LogMeIn works... except that it's free with Live Mesh(!). We used to pay a small fortune every month to allow our sales force to access their desktop PCs with GoToMyPC. That expense has now been eliminated by going with Live Mesh. Remotely accessing your computer is infinitely superior to remote accessing files through BeInSync's clumsy browser interface.
This is just my humble opinion, although all 50 of my co-workers will readily confirm what I am saying. If you haven't tried Live Mesh to sync your files, you should give it a test run.
Live Mesh
I am trying it right now, I haven't figured out what it is doing. With beinsync you could go to "view sync status" and see exactly what it was doing and what was left to do. I am going to keep exploring it. Thanks for the tip.It Works Quickly; No Real Need for Status Check
Mark-Live Mesh works a lot like BeInSync in the way that it puts up temporary icons in your folder and then synchronizes the data, replacing the temporary icon with the actual file. There are a few menus that show recent activity with Live Mesh. However, aside from the Mesh icon swirling when synchronizing, there's not much else to show.
In my experience, Live Mesh works so quickly and seamlessly that you are likely to ever have to really check the status of its activities. Best of luck in your research for a replacement product.
LIVE mesh
Do you know if you can sync existing folders or do you need to create Live mesh folders and dump items into it?I use GOTO My PC. The thing I like most about it is that no matter who's computer I use I can access my office computers. Do you know if it is the same with Live mesh can it be accesed from any computer or do you need to access it from your own computer?
NomaDesk
I switched to NomaDesk - does the same as Beinsync and so far it even does it better.Centrally managed solutions?
I have the BeInSync Business solution that gives me admin of 5 users. In one case. we were able to retrieve the "My Documents" folder from an employee that left the company.Is there any other solution that does that?
Live Mesh works a lot like
Live Mesh works a lot like BeInSync in the way that it puts up temporary icons in your folder and then synchronizes the data, replacing the temporary icon with the actual file. There are a few menus that show recent activity with Live Mesh. However, aside from the Mesh icon swirling when synchronizing, there's not much else to show.Does any of the alternative offer a delayed option?
I am a ByInSync user for sometime. One problem that I have encountered, was that the program locked the saved file shortly after the file has been closed. This ment that I could not do a consequetive saves, and had to wait till BIS finished. I asked the support if there is a way to delay the sync, let say in 1 minute. They did not have that option. Does any of the alternatives offer that?Thanks
Zion
www.d3d.co.il
BeInSync - Corporate Irresponsibility!
I can't believe this! I had no idea they were shutting down. I just happened to log on to put a new computer on because my laptop died (and BeInSync had saved me because all my important files were sync'd elsewhere).I will be sad to see this product go, but I would never buy another Phoenix Technologies product. Any company that can pull a mission-critical software application with NO notice to paying customers deserves to go out of business.
I feel for the creators of BeInSync. Nothing's worse than watching some idiot corporation demonstrate their disrespect for your truly useful creation.
PowerFolder.com works just as good as Beinsync
I have been following these comments and have tried several of the recommendations above. I posted a comment above on 5-9-2009 when I was still looking. I only sync the "My Documents" folder on my computer with all of the sub-folders such as my music and my pictures, etc... PowerFolder.com works very much like Beinsync but does not need the background server the Beinsync uses. When I'm in my office on the network the syncing is very fast and it will also sync automatically over the internet. They offer a free trial that I am on now and I'm going to purchase. I know it sounds like I’m a salesman for them but I am not, I’m just very happy to find a good alternative.I am also using the live mesh now for the logmein and pcanywhere type of stuff however livemesh does not sync system folders like the “my documents” folder, they told me this in a response to a ticket that I submitted. Good Luck….
Oh, and BTW, I did get about 3 eMails over a 30 day period advising me that they were closing down, I'm not happy about it but I wanted to let the guy who didn't get notice know that they did send notice, maybe your eMail address changed??
beinsync not working, need help
I am really desperate because I lost my tiitanium cruzer device and thought I could recover the files which are vital. I paid for the subscription and have not been notified of any discontinuance of the on line back up. Is there any way to recover my data? Tha nks for any help.SugarSync is the Real Deal!
As a former BeInSync power-user synchronizing multiple folders and literally thousands of files, I can tell you that SugarSync is the Real Deal. 2 days with SugarSync reminded me of how clunky BeInSync really was. RIP. I looked at the other suggestions in this forum, but if you're a power-user then don't bother.I also did an extensive pilot of Microsoft Live Mesh. What crap, even if it is "beta". After I started seeing anomalous results, I went into the forum and saw all of the bug reports. At that point I ran like hell from it. Plus, my net ops guys got on my case because Live Mesh completely sucked-up all of my company's upload bandwidth. What's the matter, Microsoft, haven't you got enough resources to properly QA the thing? Live Mesh is a typical Microsoft first-effort, designed by folks who are so deep inside the ivory tower they don't even know what day it is.
My recommendation: Happily cough-up the few bucks for SugarSync and enjoy a nicely designed and working product.
Alternative
Syncing.net offers both file sharing and Outlook synchronization (www.syncing.net). It has no web access (like BeInSync) but it's pretty simple to setup. For keeping Outlook calendars & contacts in sync it's the perfect tool.SugarSync
I tried to use SugarSync to replace BeInSync. We keep a small database in sync across 3 machines but SugarSync appends the file name with the machine name and it causes the program to not recognize the data file. SugarSync support told me that it is not possible to keep database software in sync with their program because of that and I should find something else. Just FYI. If anyone has a different experience please let me know. I have been unable to overcome this issue.replacing beinsync
I was the user of Beinsync. To me it was the best syncronizing program. After it is closed down, I tried many different competing softwares. It seems to me that Syncing.Net meet my requirement. It is a simple program.BeInSync was peer-to-peer, important for the security conscious
This is a big issue for me (lawyer) and for a lot of my clients. Sugarsynch stores data on a big group of servers, worse still located in the United States, and not necessarily encrypted. This makes this type of structure (and most sync products have it) open to both US blanket discovery demands - but also vulnerable in security terms. This means that under a lot of legal ethics rules, say in the UK, SugarSync is not acceptable, because it put client files and or data out of the lawyer/law-firm's "possession and control" (part of responsibility for confidential information, especially in Europe, is that a lawyer must keep client confidential information secure and at all times in the lawyers possession and control.) It is also potentially problematic under the "Data Directive." The other problem is whether file data between the sync server and the user's computers is encrypted. Other clients make all sorts of security-certified "stuff" and the certification could be lost if key files were out of their control, while others have data issues resulting from the EU Data Directive.Fair disclosure -- I did have dealings with BeInSync a few years ago - pre acquisition. BeInSync's biggest strength is that it was peer-to-peer, i.e., syncing computers communicated directly without any necessary intermediary storage (you could use it for backup, but this was not mandatory) and that communication could be fully encrypted. This made it both secure, and also acceptable for lawyers because the client's data was never effectively out of your possession and control. This by the way was a thing that BeInSync never made enough of.
We wanted to use BeInSync, but we run Mac - and I was in fact checking into whether the long-promised Mac application had arrived when I found out what happened. It's unfortunate. MobileMe by the way is unacceptable for the same reason as SugarSync - it relies on a server farm and is not peer-to-peer. Now I will have to look for an alternative, but as BeInSync filed patents on its peer-to-peer approach, it is not clear if this will be possible.
BeInSync out and SugarSync may be in
Hi folks. I had a phone connection with a guy from Digital River. We chatted about the demise of BeInSync and he came up with this product. https://www.sugarsync.com, by SharpCast. I haven't tried them yet, and they are certainly more pricey than BeInSync was and they have a finite storage capacity per account (business 250GB for $249 per year) (professional 100GB for $149 per year) (premium 60GB for $99 per year) and (basic 30GB for $49 per year). However, after reading through their web site, it looks like they may have a product that is similar to BeInSync. I'm going to check it out this week. If any of you get more intel, please be sure to post it here too.Lori & G-II are Realtors in Arizona's Phoenix Metro Area.
AllenPort Goes Beyond Synch
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