Syncthing - The Based Way to Sync Your Files
Summary
TLDRThis video script explores Syncthing, a peer-to-peer file synchronization application that enhances the CIA Triad of information security—confidentiality, integrity, and availability—over cloud-based solutions. It delves into the benefits of decentralized file syncing and provides a step-by-step guide on installing and setting up Syncthing on Linux, discussing the importance of avoiding root user execution for security. The script also covers the setup process on other platforms, introduces forks like Syncthing-Tray for enhanced user interface features, and demonstrates how to sync files between devices using unique device IDs, emphasizing the flexibility and control Syncthing offers compared to traditional cloud storage services.
Takeaways
- 😀 Syncthing is a peer-to-peer file synchronization application, contrasting with centralized server-based applications like Dropbox and Google Drive.
- 🔒 The CIA Triad, which stands for Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability, is an information security model that is improved by using Syncthing over cloud-based solutions.
- 🤔 Confidentiality with cloud storage is often based on trust, as users cannot verify the security practices of the 'cloud', which may lead to data monetization.
- 🔒 Encryption claims by cloud providers can't be fully trusted unless the application is open source, as proprietary programs may not use robust encryption or could potentially share encryption keys.
- 🛡️ Cloud storage providers are larger targets for hackers, affecting the integrity of data, compared to self-hosted solutions like Syncthing.
- 🚀 Syncthing can offer better availability, as it does not rely on an internet connection and can be used over a local network without the risk of cloud service providers going out of business.
- 🛠️ Syncthing is available for various operating systems including Linux, BSD, Solaris, macOS, and Windows, and there are forks like Syncthing-Tray for additional features.
- 🔄 The installation process for Syncthing on Linux may involve using package managers, editing configuration files, and ensuring it does not run as root by default.
- 🌐 Syncthing's web GUI can be accessed locally, and port configurations can be adjusted if necessary, with additional settings available in XML format.
- 🔑 Devices need to share unique IDs to sync data, and while these can be shared publicly, confirmation is required on both devices before syncing can begin.
- 📁 Syncthing allows for fine-grained control over which folders and files are synced, offering more customization compared to traditional cloud solutions.
Q & A
What is Syncthing and how does it differ from other file sync applications like Dropbox or Google Drive?
-Syncthing is a peer-to-peer file synchronization application, which differs from centralized, server-based applications like Dropbox or Google Drive. It offers improved confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data, as it does not rely on a third-party server for data storage and synchronization.
What is the CIA Triad in the context of information security?
-The CIA Triad in information security stands for Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. It is a model that organizations follow to ensure the security of their critical data.
Why might the confidentiality of data be compromised when using cloud-based solutions?
-Confidentiality can be compromised in cloud-based solutions because users have to trust the cloud provider's security practices. There is a risk that the provider might analyze or monetize the user's data, which goes against the principle of confidentiality.
How does open-source software relate to trust in encryption for file synchronization?
-Open-source software allows users to verify the encryption methods used in the application. With proprietary software, users cannot be sure if proper encryption is implemented or if encryption keys might be compromised.
What are the potential issues with data integrity when using cloud storage?
-Data integrity issues with cloud storage can arise from hacking attempts, which can affect the CIA Triad. Cloud storage providers, serving many users, can become larger targets for hackers, potentially compromising data integrity.
Why might the availability of data be better with Syncthing compared to cloud storage?
-Syncthing can offer better data availability because it does not require an internet connection for local area network (LAN) synchronization. In contrast, cloud storage requires an internet connection to access files, which might not always be available.
What steps are involved in setting up Syncthing on Linux?
-Setting up Syncthing on Linux typically involves installing it from the package manager, ensuring the necessary init component is available, and configuring the user, group, and home directory for Syncthing to prevent it from running as root.
What are some forks of Syncthing that users might consider using?
-Some forks of Syncthing include Syncthing-Tray and Syncthing-Resilio. These forks offer additional features like tray icons for synchronization status and are available for various operating systems.
How can users access the Syncthing web GUI for configuration and management?
-Users can access the Syncthing web GUI by navigating to 'localhost:8384' in their web browser. If this does not work, users may need to check the configuration file for the correct port or other settings.
What is the significance of device IDs in Syncthing and how are they used?
-Device IDs in Syncthing are unique identifiers for each device. They are used to establish connections between devices for file synchronization. Users must share and confirm these IDs on both devices before syncing can begin.
How does Syncthing provide more control over file synchronization compared to other cloud solutions?
-Syncthing allows users to select specific folders for synchronization and define which devices they should be synced to. It also offers fine-grained control over the types of files synced from a folder, providing more flexibility and control than traditional cloud solutions.
Outlines
😲 Introduction to Syncthing's Peer-to-Peer File Syncing
The video introduces Syncthing as a unique peer-to-peer file synchronization application, contrasting it with centralized cloud-based services like Dropbox and Google Drive. It emphasizes the benefits of P2P syncing in terms of the CIA Triad: Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. The speaker explains that using Syncthing can enhance these aspects compared to cloud solutions, where trust in security practices is uncertain, and data privacy could be compromised. The video also touches on the importance of open-source applications for ensuring genuine encryption and data security.
🛠️ Setting Up Syncthing on Linux and Other Platforms
This paragraph covers the installation process of Syncthing on Linux, mentioning the availability of the software in package repositories and the potential need for additional components like init systems. It advises against running Syncthing as root and provides steps to configure user permissions and settings to prevent files from being stored in the root directory. The speaker also discusses the availability of Syncthing on various platforms, including BSD, Solaris, Mac OS, and Windows, and mentions forks of the software like Syncthing-Tray, which offers additional features like system tray icons.
🔄 Exploring Syncthing's Web GUI and Device Setup
The speaker demonstrates how to access and navigate Syncthing's web-based graphical user interface (GUI), explaining the initial setup process, including the configuration of device IDs for syncing. They mention the importance of confirming device IDs on both ends before syncing can begin, ensuring secure data transfer. The video also covers how to add folders to sync, customize folder settings, and manage file synchronization preferences. It highlights the flexibility and control Syncthing offers over file syncing compared to traditional cloud storage solutions.
📲 Syncing Files Between Devices Using Syncthing
This section of the video script illustrates the process of syncing files between devices using Syncthing. The speaker shows how to add a device to the sync list, confirm the device ID, and establish a connection for syncing. They also discuss the importance of not running Syncthing as root to avoid storing files in the root directory and demonstrate how to change default settings for a neater file organization. The video concludes with a practical example of syncing an image file from a phone to a computer, showcasing the ease of use and functionality of Syncthing.
🌐 Advanced Syncthing Features and Conclusion
The final paragraph hints at more advanced features of Syncthing that will be covered in future videos, such as creating different sync folders and binding Syncthing to a public IP to create a personal cloud accessible from anywhere. The speaker encourages viewers to like and share the video to support the content and mentions their website, base.win, offering merchandise with a discount for payments made in Monero (XMR). The video concludes with a positive note, wishing viewers a great day.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Syncthing
💡Peer-to-Peer (P2P)
💡CIA Triad
💡Confidentiality
💡Integrity
💡Availability
💡Encryption
💡Open Source
💡Decentralized
💡Local Network
💡Device ID
Highlights
Syncthing is a peer-to-peer file sync application, differing from centralized server-based applications like Dropbox and Google Drive.
The CIA Triad model, which stands for Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability, is improved with Syncthing over cloud-based solutions.
Confidentiality in cloud storage is reliant on trust, as users cannot verify the security practices of the service provider.
Encryption in proprietary programs cannot be fully trusted without open-source verification, affecting data confidentiality and integrity.
Cloud storage providers are larger targets for hackers, impacting the CIA Triad's aspects of integrity and availability.
Syncthing offers better availability without the need for an internet connection, unlike cloud storage solutions.
The risk of cloud providers going out of business or deleting user data is avoided with Syncthing.
Syncthing is available for various operating systems including Linux, BSD, Solaris, macOS, and Windows.
Forks of Syncthing, such as Syncthing-Tray, provide additional features like system tray icons for different platforms.
Syncthing's web GUI can be accessed locally, with port configurations that can be changed if necessary.
Anonymous reporting can be disabled in Syncthing, giving users control over their data sharing preferences.
GUI authentication can be set up for Syncthing to secure access, especially when binding to a public IP.
Syncthing allows users to choose specific folders and devices for file synchronization, providing granular control.
Device IDs are used for synchronization between devices, with caution advised when sharing publicly.
Syncthing requires confirmation on both devices before syncing can occur, ensuring user control over data sharing.
The process of adding and syncing folders between devices in Syncthing is demonstrated, showing its ease of use.
Syncthing can be customized with advanced features for more complex synchronization needs.
The video promises further exploration of Syncthing's advanced features, including creating custom folders and binding to a public IP.
Viewers are encouraged to like, share, and support the channel for more informative content.
Transcripts
let's talk about sync thing it's a very
different kind of file sync application
from Dropbox Google Drive and others
because for one sync thing is a
peer-to-peer file sync application
whereas those others are centralized
server based applications and there's a
lot of benefits to file syncing this way
in fact I think all aspects of the CIA
Triad are improved when you use sync
thing over cloud-based Solutions now if
you aren't familiar with the CIA Triad
it's got nothing to do with the friendly
glowing agents that introduce krck into
the ghettos and send pallets of cash and
weapons to terrorists in order to ensure
our democracy no the CIA Triad uh is an
information security model that most
organizations follow or at least they
follow you know some version of it in
order to make sure that their critical
data is secure so the C stands for
confidentiality the I stands for
integrity and the a stands for
availability those are the things that
we want to maintain with our data now
when it comes to data that's stored in
the cloud the confidentiality that you
have is basically just trust me bro
because as we know the cloud that's just
some other guy's computer and so you
can't really be too sure about what
security practices are going on on that
computer or whether or not that person
is analyzing your data so that they can
monetize it which obviously that's going
to violate the confidentiality of your
data now even in cases where your cloud
storage provider says that data is
endtoend encrypted and it's encrypted at
rest you can't put any real trust in
that encryption unless the application
you're using is open source because with
a proprietary program you can't be sure
if good encryption is being used or if
they're not just sending off the
encryption key Keys along with your data
to that server to decrypt and then
monetize it uh and the same issues apply
to data Integrity as well hacking can
also be an issue for all three aspects
of the CIA Triad and when you're talking
about a cloud storage provider that's
providing that storage to many different
people in
organizations that's obviously going to
have a much bigger Target for hackers
than you just keeping your own data
synced on your own land and finally
availability is always going to be worse
when it comes to cloud storage because
it requires an internet connection for
one so you know if you're off in the
boonies you're not able to access the
files in your Cloud um but with sync
thing you can have everything just done
over your land it's also going to be a
lot faster uh and you also have to hope
that with Cloud providers like Dropbox
or whatever else you have to hope hope
that they don't go out of business or
that they don't delete your stuff in
order to make space for other people
that want to use the service that's
pretty common with the free cloud
storage plans uh so now that you're
redpilled on all of the great features
of syn thing let's go ahead and get
started with the installation and the
setup so on Linux syn thing is most
likely just going to be available for
you in the repos uh so you can just
install it from your package manager and
there may also be an in it component
that you need as well like sync thing
open RC or sync thing run it if you're
using open RC or run it and on some more
obscure dros like artics Linux you might
also have to edit the syn thing uh file
that's in your Etsy
confd uh
directory and you want to change well
you want to uncomment these lines for
sync thing user sync thing group and syn
thing home directory and you want to go
ahead and fill these out um you know
with your user in your group and stuff
like that because by default syn thing
is going to run as root if you don't do
this um I think on some dros like when I
was figuring this stuff out for myself
it seems like gentu um does this
automatically for you so maybe you can
skip this step uh but yeah by default
sync thing is going to run as root and
it's going to put sync files in your
root folder which you probably don't
want um now if you're running a more I
guess typical Linux drro that uses
systemd then you just want to follow the
um auto start docs on sync thing.net in
order to create a user service instead
of a system service and then that's
going to make sure that sync thing
doesn't run as root also
and of course if you're not using Linux
syn thing is available for basically
everything you know different uh BSD
dros it's available for Solaris it's
available for Mac OS and it's also
available for Windows and because sync
thing is free software there's also
Forks of it that people have made like
sync thing tray and this is actually a
fork of another fork called sink trasor
but this is a dead project okay notice
how no commits have been made since 2021
and notice how there's 140 issues open
that are not being closed that you know
people just keep making for some reason
you know yeah obviously this is not
being maintained um so you might want to
consider uh syncthing Trey for one over
syncthing tror if you're looking for a
fork and
generally uh this is something that
people use so that they can get like
tray icons for syncing and stuff like
that like it says here um that it has a
tray application for dolphin and plasma
um but they also have it for Windows as
well I'm pretty sure yeah Windows 10 and
windows 11 so if you're a Windows user
this might be something that you'd more
prefer over the regular sync thing now
in order to really start using sync
thing you can access its web goey by
going to localhost
8384 in your
browser and if this doesn't work for
some reason or you know you get like
page not found and stuff like that um
you might want to take a look at your
configuration file for sync thing this
is my configuration file and when I
first installed sync thing um the port
that was was listed here was like port
43,000 and something so I just changed
it to 8384 cuz like that's usually
supposed to be the default I don't know
why mine was different but yeah this is
where you can change it here in the um
XML if you're not able to access the web
goey and this also has a lot of other
settings that you can change um in an
XML format but you know unless you
really like this you're probably going
to prefer uh to just use the Easy Web
now uh when you first start up the syn
thing web GUI you're going to get this
message asking if you want to allow an
nymous reporting so I'll just hit no on
that and you'll also see this
notification that says guey
authentication set username and password
so by default there is no username and
password that's set for Sy thing you
know when it's running on your computer
you just go to Local Host
8384 um but but if you wanted to bind
this to a public IP I'm I'm not going to
go through it in this video but it is
possible
to basically set up your own cloud like
where you can access this from the
internet and if that's the case you're
definitely going to want to set up your
gooey authentication um or you know if
you're in an organization and there's a
lot of other people that are accessing
this and some of them you don't want to
have access then that's another reason
you might want to do um gooey
authentication now another thing you'll
notice is that it says uh the default
folder here is
unsynced um and you have options to add
you know more folders and you can edit
this and this is another really great
feature that I think sync thing has over
Dropbox and other Cloud Solutions
because instead of just
creating one massive folder to sync
everything to you could pick and choose
different folders that you want to sync
different things to and pick and choose
what devices they get synced to um and
then you can also have very fine grain
controls over the types of files that
are getting synced from a
folder um like it's just so much more
control that you have over your
synchronization than with Dropbox or
Google Drive um and again I'll probably
make another video going over those more
advanced features but I just want to
show you how to get just regular normal
file sync going now to actually sync
data between two or more devices they
have to share these identification
strings with one another so these are
unique IDs that just identify this
specific device now if you were going to
bind sync thing to a public IP or
anything like that you know use it over
the internet then you might want to be a
little bit more secretive with these
device identifications so that you don't
get random popups of other people's
devices out there that you don't
necessarily want to sync with but if
you're keeping everything over your land
like I am then it's not too big of a
deal uh and honestly it's not that big a
deal to share it publicly either because
you have to confirm on both devices
before data can start being synced um
but just wanted to give you guys that
little tidbit of information so I'm
going to leave this up and um well
actually
let me add the phone first because I'm
pretty sure um that it's going to pop up
automatically yeah so you see um you can
select one of these devices nearby so if
you have syn thing installed on another
device and that device is on the same
network then it's going to show up here
and you can
confirm uh that it is the correct device
ID so like on my phone for
example I can show you guys here I mean
I don't know if you'll really be able to
see it but that's the same device ID
that was uh showing on the
computer so we'll go ahead
and add that device and we'll give it a
human readable name call it pixel 6
Pro save
that okay so now down here it says
disconnected unused right because we
have to now connect it on the pixels
ends so let me bring up this device ID
and it's got a nice convenient um QR
code that you can scan with
the sync thing app from F
Droid oh my mouse is in the
way that's why it's not scanning all
right so I'll now name this thread
Ripper inside of my phone so that's what
that looks like
there all right and now we can close
this and now it says connected unused so
in order to actually get um files to
sync I'm going to send a file from my
phone over to the thread Ripper uh you
have to configure that on the per folder
BAS
okay
so go back on the phone here so this is
the only folder that I've got right now
to sync a file from open camera I know
it says three of three files but there's
only one file in that folder so if I tap
on
this I've got the list of devices right
there that says thread Ripper and if I
mark this actually let me switch to this
View so if I tick that
on we should uh get a
notification that pixel 6 Pro wants to
share this folder add new folder we'll
go ahead and add
it okay
now um this is this is another reason
why you don't want to be running things
as root so by default uh it's going to
put things in your root folder if you're
running as root but as you can see the
um till day character is going to be
used as a shortcut for Home Kenny so
this is where it's going to put things
and you can actually change uh default
settings so let's say if you um don't
want it to all go in fact actually I'll
do that right now um we'll go to
Advanced actually not that we'll go
to
settings and edit folder
defaults right so we'll go into that and
and then we'll
say
sync this way things are just going to
be a little bit
neater
save then
add so now you can see it's changed that
to the sync folder and that's
fine okay and it said that it was up to
date and um it's still saying three
files two directories but again it's
really only one
so I'm not too sure what that's
about so this is
my uh sync folder right here boom you
can see the one image uh that's
synced and it's just a uh image from
this is when I was trying to test the
soil at my farm with a
home NPK K testing kit which it turns
out is not the best uh thing to use not
terribly accurate but
anyway there you go you have seen sync
thing in action for synchronizing
devices across your land and like I said
there's a lot more advanced stuff that
you can do with this as far as creating
different folders and stuff like that
goes but honestly that's going to be on
a per user basis um so I might just
dabble a little bit in that when I show
you guys how to bind it to a public IP
and really turn this into uh kind of
your own cloud because you can then
access it from anywhere on the internet
if you enjoyed this video be sure to
like it and share it in order to hack
the algorithm and check out my website
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