Syncing an iMac with a MBP

[macpeach55]

Hi,
I spend about 50% of my time working from home, 50% traveling - and the traveling parts are usually 4 - 6 weeks at a time.
At the moment I use my MBP as my computer both at Home and for traveling, with a second 22" monitor attached when at home, but would like to upgrade to a 27" iMac for home, with the MBP kept only for my travels.
What would be the best way to sync everything between these two computers - both before I leave and on return? Is there any easy solution?
By this I mean primarily Folders & files & Mail, but also iTunes & iPhoto, though these are secondary considerations.
Thanks in advance for any advise you can give.

 

[zedsdead]

(1) For files, this keeps everything in sync all the time (it's an amazing program, much better than iDisk): Dropbox - http://www.dropbox.com/

(2) iPhoto and iTunes are not done easily. There are ways, do a google search. It may just be easier to do this manually through Home Sharing for iTunes, and library sharing in iPhoto.

 

[rkaufmann87]

It really depends what you want to sync. As has been mentioned for files Dropbox is the easiest. I use Dropbox and another tool to sync:

Address Book
Bookmarks
Calendars
Contacts
Dashboard Widgets
Dock items
Mail Accounts
Mail Account signatures
Notes
System Preferences

that tool is called SyncTogether. I've had pretty good luck with it and have used it for about a year. I have mine set to automatically sync every 15 minutes but you toggle that for different times if you want to.

There isn't a single tool out there that will keep everything in sync what you need to decide is exactly what parts of the computers do you need to sync and then look for tools.

Dropbox will sync 2GB of data files and the SyncTogether tool is $49. I considered MobileMe however at $99 /yr. I couldn't justify the expense.

 

[macpeach55]

Syncing

Thank you both for pointing me to these programs - they look like the way to go - also thanks for the way to sync iphoto etc.
I don't see any way to transfer my folders from mail except copy & paste - I have a mobile me account, so need to stick with mail, otherwise I would use Thunderbird as my mail client