Getting off the cloud

[Joel64]

The Rolling Stones said "get off of my cloud". Well okay, I will. lol

Seriously, though, I'm leaving the cloud. So what's the best way to set up sharing between the computers in my home. Three of them are Kubuntu, one is Windows 11 (for the time being).
Mainly interested in keeping the shared files synced, ala Dropbox.

[oshunluvr]

OK, so you're asking about local file sharing rather than internet based, correct?

There are many ways to do this depending on your needs, so start there - define what exactly you want and what limits there are due to your local setup. For example, do you want a single pool of files that everyone can access or are you the only user? Will their be guests? What kind of files are going to be shared - just music and videos or everything? Do you want "round-robin" style (all PCs access all other PCs files) or a single storage pool? There are lots of questions to answer before any real actions should be taken. Since Windows is in the mix, you will have to use SAMBA

For example, it your router has a SAMBA server USB storage option that is probably the simplest and easiest option. It usually has limitations like your ability to configure things like access control (who sees what) but it's easy to get a large USB drive and share it that way.

If you have a dedicated server like I do that make things considerably more configurable. The word "server" can mean a hardware device but also means a software function - serving a protocol. With a dedicated physical server, you only need to configure that device with network storage "host" functions and the other computers are all just clients. A dedicated server does not mean you have to go buy another PC, it can be one of the systems you have now that is on most or all of the time or at least on when you want to access the shared files.

[Joel64]

OK, so you're asking about local file sharing rather than internet based, correct?

There are many ways to do this depending on your needs. <snip>

Well that made me reach for more coffee, lol.

I've been using Dropbox to share mostly text based files (.txt, .odt) between all the computers. I could modify them on any one computer and the rest would be synced to the changes. Sometimes I might share a few photos or .mp3s.
All the shared files were in a single folder called 'Shared'.

That's what I want to achieve on the local network. I don't need Windows to be included. It's going to be converted later anyway.

[claydoh]

For example, it your router has a SAMBA server USB storage option that is probably the simplest and easiest option.

Yes, that is how it starts, before is sinks its claws into you
Then you do use that less-used PC and set up SAMBA , and NFS........then end up a couple of years later with a dedicated machine with an old i5-8400 "t" 35 watt cpu, a new mini-ITX board and new case with 4 ancient HDDs (out of 6 slots) in a RAID or Mergefs setup, running OpenMediaVault, where you learn just enough about Docker and domains and let's Encrypt and reverse proxies to start running a full Nextcloud instance (google Docs replacement), Immich (Google Photos replacement --and is really good), Jellyfin for media organization and playback, Qbittorrent with its own VPN to download the media for Jellyfin to play, PiHole, and a number of NFS shares for backups from the normal computers.

Or just a Rapberry Pi and an external hard drive.

[claydoh]

've been using Dropbox to share mostly text based files (.txt, .odt) between all the computers. I could modify them on any one computer and the rest would be synced to the changes. Sometimes I might share a few photos or .mp3s.
All the shared files were in a single folder called 'Shared'.

Actually, the router-USB drive is a good option for that. Many seem to still use USB2, though USB 3 is of course better. But for images and music, it is probably fine.
You don't need a lot, unless you wanted to play video content. USB 2 is not so good for that. That first step - getting a router with a USB3 port for my videos was the first step down my own persona rabbit hole.

[Beerislife]

I've been thinking about a Synology NAS for quite a while now. It would be useful not only for sharing my data between PCs but also for syncing
my photos from my phone with their Photo app so I can get my pictures off of Google's servers!

[claydoh]

I've been thinking about a Synology NAS for quite a while now. It would be useful not only for sharing my data between PCs but also for syncing
my photos from my phone with their Photo app so I can get my pictures off of Google's servers!

It is a bit extra work, being open source and all, but that is exactly what Immich does for me.
Nextcloud can do this as well, but isn't quite as nice.