Syncing files without the cloud

[mr friendly guy]

First some background.

Over the years I had to use a large portable hard drive to store all the files I have accumulated over the years as the hard drive that comes with my desktop was just not sufficient. I usually use a Western digital portable hard drive, and I had connected it to the desktop at all times for convenience, so I can access a file I need without plugging in each time the external drive. Unfortunately last year I got attacked by ransomware which spread from the desktop and encrypted files in the external hard drive.

Fortunately I had just changed external hard drives as I upgraded to one with more memory, so I was able to retrieve almost all of my old files. Now I keep two external hard drives, one unplugged and only use it when I transfer files. This is of course inconvenient.

Is there some method to link up files without using the cloud or manually connecting a USB part to a portable hard drive? I am thinking of a device that allows me to copy files without the cable from my desktop to said device, and then can sync with say a laptop or some other storage device. I am assuming such a device would be harder for ransomware to attack unless they design specifically for the storage device software, but I am not an expert. The reason I don't want to transfer and sync via the cloud is for security purposes.

[Zaune]

Is there some method to link up files without using the cloud or manually connecting a USB part to a portable hard drive?

Only setting up a file server with FreeNAS, connecting it to your home network and configuring the router to block its MAC address from the Internet, and then configuring rsync on both your desktop and laptop to sync files with it. That wouldn't be perfect, but it would be a rare and sophisticated form of ransomware indeed that could infect Windows and a FreeBSD derivative both at once.

It would also be the kind of thing you might be better off hiring an out-of-work sysadmin on PeoplePerHour.com to do for you because FreeNAS is one of the least noob-friendly pieces of software I've ever worked with.

A saner compromise would be to set up rsync so that it automatically copies over any files that have been added or modified since the last 'snapshot' whenever you plug the external hard drive in. I don't know how well that would work with the laptop, though; it's not really designed with the intention of having multiple devices using the same profile.

[Zixinus]

A quick note: there are freeware anti-ransomware software out there. Cybereason RansomFree and Malwarebytes Anti-Ransomware Beta might either be worth looking into.