Newbie: Basic questions

[Sam]

I have just started reading about groove and have a few very basic
questions, I have not installed or seen the software in use beyond the
video on the windows web site.

1. Do all users that I want to allow access to my workspace need
groove or is there a way to allow access without every user requiring
groove?

2. I see that groove is peer to peer but is there a way to set it up
so that data is sync'd to a server and all users remain sync'd with
the server? I would think that would remove the limitation of
requiring the users to be logged on at the same time to sync.

 

[Mark Smith]

Hi Sam -

Yes, everyone needs Groove if they are going to be updating things. If they
jut need reports etc, then there are third-party tools that do that kind of
thing.

Groove 'comes with servers included'. If you buy Groove as a part of the
retail MS Office, then you get server conectivity from Microsoft. IF you buy
the $80 per year version, then again you get Microsofts servers. You can alos
buy and run your own servers.

Note - since you get this server capability, your team doesn't need to be
online at the same time to work together.

Hope this helps!

 

[Sam]

Thanks Mark,

I should have mentioned the version I am getting, I am a student and I
will be using ms Office Ultimate 2007 which comes with groove. Are you
saying that this version also comes with the server software?

I guess what I am really want is not the server software but a place
to host my data. I am a MBA student and almost every course requires a
team project so I was hoping that something like groove would help
with communication. The peer to peer capabilities sound interesting
but I was afraid of the requirement of being online at the same time.
If I understand you correctly you are saying that if I pay $80 yearly
Microsoft will host my data on their server? If not microsoft are
there other places compatitable with groove where I can host data?

Thanks

Sam

 

[c1sbc]

Sam -

The $79 client version uses only the Groove public servers primarily for
'relaying' communications for the Groove client. Each client keeps a copy of
the data locally (on the client machine) and that makes it available even
when you are offline.
If you need to store data on a server (say for a non-Groove client), you may
want to consider using the SharePoint Files tool (available with the Groove
client) and an external SharePoint server that can be accessed by a
non-Groove client.

SBC

-------------------

sbc111 atspamnot gmail dotty com

weblog:
http://weblogs.asp.net/sbchatterjee

Pickup Groove Developer workspaces:
http://www.ctdotnet.org (bottom of page)

 

[Mark Smith]

Hi Sam -

You see if you can get Groove as part of the student edition of Office (here
in the UK you can), or whether your department has got it on their software
distribution list.

However you get it, you do not need to buy or maintain a server. The only
people that do are those involved in volume licensing, which means buyong
lots of seats o
Groove via a sales person.

Your data will be 'hosted' on every computer where it lives, so provided you
make sure nobody can accidentally delete spaces or the data in them, you'll
be OK.