How to know if LAN Sync is working?

[ab26]

My two computers are connected to the same wifi local network, but the synchronization seems still to be very slow. How can I be sure that the LAN syncing is used, and not the synchronization via Internet?

[Walter]

Hello @ab26 - welcome to the Dropbox family and thanks for posting your first question!

While there's no direct indicator, Dropbox needs to maintain a connection to the Internet in order to determine when to sync while in order to take advantage of LAN sync, all computers need to be connected to a LAN and the Internet at the same time.

I hope this helps and please let me know if you have any additional questions. 

PS: You can speed the syncing process up by changing your bandwidth settings, if needed. 

[JayLu77]

We are having the same issue in our office. LAN sync is obviously not working. The way we connected is through a WIFI router which is the same router that accesses the internet. So essentially we belong to the same network and we have internet connection. Is LAN sync supposed to be for computers connected to the network through wired internet (ethernet). As it seems using the WIFI connection isn't working as it shou.d

[Walter]

Hi there @JayLu77; welcome to the Community!

When you say LAN sync is not working, to what exactly are you referring to? Are multiple users in your office using the desktop application and they notice that syncing is not as fast as they'd expect?

Note that LAN sync only works with computers that are on the same subnet, or broadcast address. For example, usually all computers connected to a single router are on the same network (same subnet). If your LAN uses multiple network devices, such as routers, to extend its network, you will want to be on the same subnet as the other LAN sync-enabled computers. If this sounds foreign to you, you may want to consult your network device's documentation or a network administrator for help.

I hope this helps to some extent while if you need further assistance with this, I'd suggest contacting our support team so we can help with account and device specific information. 

Let me know how you get on! 

[JayLu77]

We have computer on our network which holds all of our data as a duplication to dropbox, which we perform an alternate backup on a regular basis. We also have multiple users (15+) in the office which are doing work and saving to dropbox. We need to collaborate regularly and we are finding all users are using the internet bandwidth to download files rather than pulling the file from each other. We are all connected to the same network (no repeaters, not extra switches). The main computer that has our complete dropbox on it, is the only computer connected by ethernet, the rest of the staff are on wifi but the same network. The whole office has managed to download 1TB in less than a month and we have exceeded our data usage and our bandwidth has been capped and now we are running on slow bandwidth. The majority of this traffic is through dropbox downloading straight from the internet and not through the LAN. Now you know how we are connected, do you have any tips for us to ensure we are configured correctly and making the most efficient use of our available bandwidth. I would have thought if LAN Sync was working, that it would still be fast during limited bandwidth availability?

[Walter]

Thanks for getting back to me with this additional information @JayLu77; I appreciate it.  

I'd really need to look at your device's logs at this point to see if there's an issue so please let me know if you'd like me to use the email address that's connected to your profile here to create a support ticket for you.

Just keep in mind that to be able to grab the files and bring them to the user’s computer using LAN Sync the files must be present on other machines on the network while they may not be if other users have selectively synced out those folders or removed them via Smart Sync.

I hope this information sheds some additional light on the matter at hand and I remain at your disposal should you have any questions.