allow Dropbox to run regardless if a user is logged in

[Robin I.1]

Ok I am a newbie here with DropBox

I did not set up DropBox with this company someone else did.

Company has a DropBox account, files are synced to the file server in the office.  End Users have a drive mapping on their desktops/laptops.

The issue is that the end users who have laptops are out in the field and need to have access to the dropbox files.  They lose connection to the drive mappings so they can not get to the dropbox. 

Someone suggested running DropBox as a Service. (http://www.coretechnologies.com/products/AlwaysUp/Apps/RunDropboxAsAService.html)  The desktop/laptops do not have the Desktop Client installed. 

I installed Dropbox on my desktop to test the DropBox as a Service. 
when I logged in as the administrator it asked what do I want sync. well I did not want to sync anything so I thought I could just close out the dropbox box and go on my own way.  NOT.... right now it looks like I am syncing everything that is in DropBox on to my computer.  not what I wanted to.  anyway....I figure I would go through the steps from the link that I have provided above.  

I downloaded and installed Dropbox, when I right click the DropBox icon in the task bar I do not get Perferences. (not sure if it because the sync is still going or not).  so I can not go any further. 

my questions are:

1)   has anyone set up their DropBox this way...

DropBox account with all the files at DropBox AND have a File Server in the company office to sync all the files that are out in DropBox AND the end users have a drive mapping to the file server so they can access the files?  If so, how did you solve the problem with the end users who are out of the office and use laptops to gain access to the DropBox folder on the file server in the office?

2)  I know I can uninstall DropBox client program on my computer after the files are synced. Can I delete those files without any problems and the files will still be out on the file server?. I have no need for them on my computer since they are files that I do not use.

Again I am a newbie to DropBox so I want to make sure I do the right thing. 

Thanks,

Robbie

[Robin I.1]

some more information...

All the End Users do not have a login or password for DropBox. 

all the files are on the file server which gets synced with DropBox and they access the files through a drive mapping.

I was just told about another issue:

"We are having intermittent issues with dropbox syncing to the server" 

it seems that DropBox is having an issue syncing with the server.  The End Users in the office will work on a file and it takes some time for the server and DropBox to sync.

any ideas?

Thanks again

Robbie

[Rich]

If so, how did you solve the problem with the end users who are out of the office and use laptops to gain access to the DropBox folder on the file server in the office?

You would have to provide them with some means of remote access to the file shares on that server. Most companies would provide VPN access to the corporate network. When the laptop is connected to the VPN it would be able to access the network as if it were in the office.

Can I delete those files without any problems and the files will still be out on the file server?

As long as you've uninstalled Dropbox from that computer, you can safely delete the local Dropbox folder.

[Robin I.1]

thank you so much Rich for responding. 

I know they have VPN for a couple of End Users and I am not sure if they want to spend the money to have all the off-site end users to get VPN. 

do you have any ideas as to what can be done for the end users in the office that are having intermittent issues with dropbox syncing to the server?

Robbie

[Victory D.]

You have two separate issues. One is VPN related. The other DB. We run Dropbox as a service on our server. Often after setting it up as a service I have to go into the Admin account, log into the client and make sure all the settings are correct. The "Service" version will adopt those settings. It also tends to auto update itself successfully to new versions. However Windows updates sometimes bump a log out on the DB client and you have to go back in. BEWARE! When this happens and the client has to be logged back in and files need to be indexed, the cloud versions supercede the local ones even if they are newer. This a horrible Dropbox bug. Granted you will have the new ones but marked as conflicted.

Local workstations can edit files on the server and they sync to the cloud by the server automatically.

Remote users are of two flavors. Company "roaming" computers have the DB client running in their user account and receive file updates via DB cloud service via full or selective sync. Non company computers from either employees, contract employees or consultants use their own DB account and we share folders from the company account. We denote those folders on our end as "xxx- Shared" so we can keep track as they are all over our tree.

We do not use VPN to get remote machines back into the server shares. That is rather antiquated, slow and unreliable. You might as well just use remote desktop in that case to minimize data loss.

You cannot reliably sync multiuser databases, such as accounting, this way. You can also sync two servers at remote locations. Since DB prefetches, sync's complete the moment the file is closed. There is no file locking across the connection though. But, for unreliable connections it's a great solution.