I personally have three computers at home, a Mac Mini, a Macbook, and a MSI Wind netbook. I also have a Dell laptop for work that is running Windows Vista. Not long ago, I was constantly frustrated with trying figuring out where I had put all my files. Whenever I surfed the net, it was so annoying not to have the site available that I thought I had just bookmarked. There must be a better way to sync all my data together I thought to myself. So I did some research, and found some great tools that have helped me to manage all my computers together.

Dropbox is one of my favorite online services and it solves my problem of figuring out where I put my files. It's completely free, and all you need to do is create an account (one time) and download the Dropbox client program and install it on each computer you want to sync. What makes it so useful is that it works on both Windows, Macs, and Linux.

After installation, a special Dropbox folder will be created in a location you specify. You can put files and other folders inside of your Dropbox folder like you normally would. The Dropbox application, runs silently in the background, and notices whenever the contents of your Dropbox folder changes. It then automatically syncs your files to the Dropbox servers together with any other computers linked to your account. That means if I start writing an article on my laptop at work and save it to my Dropbox folder, it will automatically appear on my Mac at home so I can finish it from there. Very cool! Not only that, but they also have a web interface so you can access your files from any computer that has internet access

Dropbox is also perfect for sharing files which is useful if you are working with a team of people. You can create specifc shared folders that you allow certain people to access, and any changes will be sent to all of them. In addition, you can drop files into a Public folder which allows non-dropbox users to be able to access these files without having to sign up themselves.

One of the tools I happen to use a lot is called Bookmarking Demon, and I actually run it from one of the folders in my dropbox.  This lets me snyc all my accounts and bookmarks in one place and I can use the program from any computer I want.  This is a fantastic time saver.

Like I mentioned, Dropbox is completely free, and and you get 2GB of storage. There are so many uses for it, and I use it all the time.

Download Dropbox.

Another free tool that I install on all my computers is Xmarks (formerly known as Foxmarks). XMarks is a fantastic bookmark syncing service which seamlessly makes sure all my bookmarks appear the same across most of my browsers. The only downside right now for me, is that it doesn't work with Google Chrome. Currently it supports Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari (OS X version).

When you download XMarks and install it, you will be asked to create an account if you don't already have one. You then have three options:

1. Retrieve bookmarks on XMarks server and overwrite your local bookmarks
2. Overwrite the bookmarks on the server with your local bookmarks
3. Merge both sets of bookmarks together.

I usually go with option 1). After it has been setup, Xmarks will do its thing, and your bookmarks will be automatically synced across all your computers.

One other feature of Xmarks that I wanted to mention is the sync profiles feature. This lets you create separate profiles for say, your work and home computers. Which means you can now have one set of synced bookmarks for all your home computers, and another set of synced bookmarks for your work computers. Very handy!

Download Xmarks

I hoped you liked this hub and make sure to add me as a fan if you found it useful . If you know of any other great tools or services that help you manage multiple computers together, please let me know in the comments.