New user confused AF

[Gratidude]

I'd like to ween myself off the corporate file-sync tit and roll my own. I've got colocation space for hosting my own hardware and I'm ready to invest the time and money necessary to have a dependable private-cloud sync solution for family and friends. I thought Resilio would be the right choice because of the platform support and good reputation. But I'm immediately frustrated by a lack of straightforward documentation on the product. I've only installed the free version to try it out and simply want to sync a folder on one device, to an empty folder on the other device. But the "Getting Started with Sync" section of the Help site reads like a cut/paste of poorly written forum posts that rarely contain the information in their title. Full of grammatical errors and only partial information. I've found nothing that contains clear instructions for going from installing the software, opening firewall ports, and configuring the basic sync to start. Furthermore, after reading the overly complex guides about trackers, relay servers, conf files, etc I'm confused AF about how this thing works. I want a peer-to-peer solution but this software requires connections to the Resilio mother-ship?  

Right now, I just want to get one QNAP NAS to sync a folder with a Windows 2008 R2 Server at my datacenter. I'd like to give this software a try and I'm willing to pay the license fees, but right now this stuff is so user-hostile I'm just spinning my wheels trying to get it to work. Can someone help?  

Thanks in advance. 

 

[Helen]

Sorry for your frustration! We'll be happy to improve documentation.

There are guides on installing Sync on Linux (1 and 2), Windows service and NAS . For other platforms, do you think instructions with two steps like download exe and launch it or open Play store, find Sync and tap "install") are necessary? I'll be happy to get these done, with screenshots! 

I suppose you've found the list of ports that need to be opened. Each person might be using different firewalls, routers and NATS, and other security software, we won't be able to cover them all. Besides, out there in google we can find a number of guides for the <firewall> you have . What exactly instructions about using firewall you're missing in Sync guides? 

Here are two step-by step guides to set up a sync folder, one is profound the other is simplified, here's the guide for mobiles!  All's done in three simple steps: add folder on NAS, send the key to Windows, paste the key to Sync on Windows. 

[Gratidude]

Thanks for the quick reply Helen. I previously read all those guides you link to and you can look at the feedback comments I've left on those for details about what information is missing. The typical new users doesn't need to know "how" to do things (with screenshots), we need to know "what" needs to be done. The guides don't need any screenshots and can assume the user knows how to use their own equipment and can open ports on their firewall and install applications. The problem is knowing what needs to be done. The Getting Started guides do not need great detail about how the things work under the hood. The guides should not expect the user to "try things out" to learn how the software works. Right now, there's just a bunch of separated, very short, overly detailed guides that often miss the basics of what needs to be done to get things to work. A good example is the "What ports and protocols are used by Sync" guide that goes into step-by-step detail about what the software is doing but has NO INFORMATION about what ports need to be open on my firewall and if i need them open for every device or just for the source, or the target, and whether it's inbound or outbound, or both. 

Here's where I'm at: I've installed Sync as a service (one guide), installed it on the NAS (another guide), created the identity on each device (yet another guide) and created the link to sync my first folder (a fourth guide). But nothing is working so I assume I'm missing some basic step in the setup - but I'm guessing here. So I assume i need firewall ports open but I can't tell if I need that or not. Can you tell me what I might do to get a single folder to sync between two computers on two different LANs? 

If you want your company to grow, then you need to remove the barriers in front of new users. The biggest barrier is getting the first sync to happen. For the future new users I think you should have a "Get Started" guide covering everything a person needs to do have two computers sync a single folder. It should just cover the most common scenario of having two windows computers sync a folder. It should not cover every possible scenario and OS. It should include downloading the right version for the platform, installing Sync, configuring the OS and network. Then it should be clear about what to do on which computer. The guide should not use ambiguous words like "computer 1" and "computer 2". It should use clear words like "source computer (computer that has the files to sync)" and "target computer (computer that needs the files)". Then it should have common reasons why things aren't working. It would take less than a few hours for someone knowledgeable to write this guide, yet it would save all new users from frustration. 

 

[Helen]

12 hours ago, Gratidude said:

A good example is the "What ports and protocols are used by Sync" guide that goes into step-by-step detail about what the software is doing but has NO INFORMATION about what ports need to be open on my firewall and if i need them open for every device or just for the source, or the target, and whether it's inbound or outbound, or both. 

I've just revised this guide. The second sentence there is:
"these shall be open and let traffic through, in and out, on either side" (which means it's both - targets and source, inbound and outbound), and then comes the list of ports):
- HTTP, port 80:
- tracker server ... : TCP and UDP, relevant port and addresses are here;
- Sync's listening port, as defined in settings, must be opened and forwarded on all firewalls, NATs and routers between the peers;
- relay server ... : TCP and UDP, relevant port and addresses are here;
- Multicast UDP, 239.192.0.0 over port 3838;
- UDP, multicast to 239.255.255.250 port 1900
- UDP, unicast to default gateway port 5351

It seems to me it pretty much has information about what ports need to be open. Or am I missing something obvious??? Can you please share any advice on how to better mention which ports are to be opened? 
 

[Gratidude]

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I still see the old guide so don't see your revisions yet.

Here are my questions that this guide brings up:

1. What I want to know is very simple: What ports do I need open to get two computers to sync? That's it. I don't need to know how the software does it's magic and the detailed order of the connections and data flow. I don't need to know what ports to open to use the optional tracking and relay servers. I don't need to know what multicast ports are used in LAN sync scenario. I just want to know the ports to get two computers on different LANs to sync and this guide doesn't say that anywhere. 
2. The guide refers to "tracker and relay" servers. what is the difference between a tracker server and a relay server? 
3. The "What is a relay server" guide says relay servers are completely optional and only needed if it can't connect directly to the sync partner. That contradicts the "What ports" guide which says the computers need to be able to access the relay server. What's true? 
4. Most of the "ports and protocol" guide describes the details of syncing using trackers and relay servers. There's so much info on that I can't tell what ports I need to just get two computers to directly connect. Since the trackers and relays are optional and not needed (i think), it makes the guide really confusing. 
5. The guide says "relevant ports are located here" and then links to a sync.conf file? What am i supposed to do with that?
6. Then the guide describes how the computers discover each other via broadcast on the LAN. Another scenario. 
7. So I don't for sure, but it sounds like there are multiple scenarios and only certain ports need to be open for certain scenarios. Is thar right? 
8. Like anyone, I want to open the minimum number of ports to get the two computers to sync. If I share a link via email like your other guides say, do I really need port 80 inbound open on both computers? Do I really need UDP multicast open? Can't I simply have the Sync's listing port open inbound and outbound for both computers? Wouldn't that be enough?

Here's the format I would expect

Scenario 1: Computers on LAN (applies to all peers)

- port1 - protocol1 - all ports open inbound and outbound

Scenario 2: Computers cannot connect directly or are roaming (applies to all peers)

- port1 - protocol1 - all ports open inbound and outbound

- port2 - protocol2 - open outbound only

Scenario 3: Computers are in different LANs with firewalls between them (applies to all peers)

- port1 - protocol1 - all ports open inbound and outbound

[Gratidude]

Hi Helen,

Can you answer this one question: I need to know the minimum ports to get two computers on different LANs to sync. I'd rather not do a bunch of trial and error to figure this out. 

Also, I put a lot of time and thought into my reply to your question. I hope you find value in it.

[Helen]

1. the ports are underlined in my latest replies. 

2. the difference comes from what they server for. their purpose and the way they're used  is described in "ports and protocols" article. Tracker communicated IP addresses to peers, relay  acts as a middle man if peers cannot connect to each other directly. That's their difference. 

3. both. if peers cannot connect to each other directly for any reason, then connection to relay shall be available. 

4.the ports are underlined. Plus, quote -  to connect by these addresses directly, using both TCP and UPD. To make it possible, Sync's listening port, as defined in settings, must be opened - end of quote. This quite specifically answers your " I can't tell what ports I need to just get two computers to directly connect." 

5. open it and look up the addrees - IP:port of trackers and relays 

6 ok

7. Please see this from the "port and protocols" article 

The ports are specifically mentioned here and are additionally underlined in my latest reply. Sorry I cannot say more about "what ports to open".