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Several questions with regard to Firefox Sync...

  • 2 (ردّان اثنان)
  • 1 has this problem
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  • آخر ردّ كتبه msim62

msim62
msim62
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I work at a school computer lab and bookmark sites on my computer for sites I want students to use. I have been doing this in Firefox v3.x by copying the places.sqlite and prefs.js files from my computer to the student computers upon their login so that any sites I bookmark for them can be accessible easily on their computers, and also so any ProCon Latte filters I've added will be applied on their computers as well. It appears that I will need to use Sync with the latest version of Firefox to achieve this (bookmark) objective. I have been staying at v3.x because I was afraid sync'ing may 'break' what I have setup, but now I keep getting the warning about updating Firefox every time I open a new tab. Here are some questions:

1. How can you tell if your bookmarks are within 25MB? From what I've read, it sounds as though you can ask for increases, but I have a limited amount of time to set this up on 19 computers, so I would want to make sure my request is in place before I attempt to update Firefox.

2. Is there a limit on the number of computers that can sync with a given profile? I would want about 20 computers or so to be synched.

3. Can synched computers essentially have read-only access to synced data? For my purposes I need to be able to set up the bookmarks on my computer, and don't want other classroom computers to be able to add, change or delete these bookmarks. On the other hand, I would want to possibly access and modify synced bookmarks from say my home computer or laptop. Is there a way to specify allow and prohibit modification of synced data?

4. Sync data is stored online so my computer at school does not have to be on at all times in order for this to work - true? (I know it's likely a stupid question, but just want to be sure.)

5. Would I have to log on to each computer and sync up every time I log out or restart a computer, or will it remain sync'ed until I stop it from sync'ing? If I make a change to the bookmarks or ProCon Latte settings on my computer, will I have to visit each computer to update the sync? Would I have to restart Firefox?

6. I use ProCon Latte as a filter to prevent kids from going to sites with inappropriate content. Will sync'ing take care of ProCon Latte settings too, or is there a file I need to copy or something?

Please help! Thanks!

I work at a school computer lab and bookmark sites on my computer for sites I want students to use. I have been doing this in Firefox v3.x by copying the places.sqlite and prefs.js files from my computer to the student computers upon their login so that any sites I bookmark for them can be accessible easily on their computers, and also so any ProCon Latte filters I've added will be applied on their computers as well. It appears that I will need to use Sync with the latest version of Firefox to achieve this (bookmark) objective. I have been staying at v3.x because I was afraid sync'ing may 'break' what I have setup, but now I keep getting the warning about updating Firefox every time I open a new tab. Here are some questions: 1. How can you tell if your bookmarks are within 25MB? From what I've read, it sounds as though you can ask for increases, but I have a limited amount of time to set this up on 19 computers, so I would want to make sure my request is in place before I attempt to update Firefox. 2. Is there a limit on the number of computers that can sync with a given profile? I would want about 20 computers or so to be synched. 3. Can synched computers essentially have read-only access to synced data? For my purposes I need to be able to set up the bookmarks on my computer, and don't want other classroom computers to be able to add, change or delete these bookmarks. On the other hand, I would want to possibly access and modify synced bookmarks from say my home computer or laptop. Is there a way to specify allow and prohibit modification of synced data? 4. Sync data is stored online so my computer at school does not have to be on at all times in order for this to work - true? (I know it's likely a stupid question, but just want to be sure.) 5. Would I have to log on to each computer and sync up every time I log out or restart a computer, or will it remain sync'ed until I stop it from sync'ing? If I make a change to the bookmarks or ProCon Latte settings on my computer, will I have to visit each computer to update the sync? Would I have to restart Firefox? 6. I use ProCon Latte as a filter to prevent kids from going to sites with inappropriate content. Will sync'ing take care of ProCon Latte settings too, or is there a file I need to copy or something? Please help! Thanks!

All Replies (2)

Ibai
Ibai
  • مدير
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Hi!

I believe that while Sync may help you it can be a little imperfect for what you are trying to achieve. Let me answer your questions and explain why after.

  1. With 25 MB you should have room for hundreds of bookmarks if this is the only thing that you are syncing (i.e. you are not syncing history).
  2. You can connect as many devices as you want. We did something similar at the office the other day with 10 machines and it worked perfectly.
  3. This is the part where your set up seems not to work. Sync is intended to be bidirectional and all the machines will share the info after they get synced. So whatever you do in your machine will show up in the kids' machines and vice-versa.
  4. True. There are servers dedicated to Sync to cover this usecase. The information is not stored permanently so you shouldn't use it as a back up service.
  5. After setting up Sync computers will remain synced until you disconnect them.
  6. Settings from 3rd parties are not synced, so you will need to set up this manually.

My recommendation for your use-case is to set up sync in all the machines, populate them with the bookmarks, and as soon as that happens, click "Unlink this device" from the Sync tab in the preferences menu. This way whatever happens on those computers after the "unlink" will not be shared with the rest of the computers while the initial configuration will be shared.

Let me know if this helps. Ibai

Modified by Ibai

msim62
msim62 صاحب السؤال
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Thanks for the reply. I was afraid #3 would behave as you described which has been exactly why I have been holding off on doing the update. I update bookmarks for each class so that folders of activities for the day can be opened at once. I often have to reset bookmarks as teachers don't always let me know until shortly before their class what they want their students to do in the computer lab. I have been doing this currently by executing a .bat file that copies the 2 files in question, then restarting Firefox. Is it easy enough to unlink the device while I have students so that they can't change the bookmarks, then relink if I need to update bookmarks between classes? Is it time consuming? Would I need to enter anything at each computer? From what I've read, I think I would need to visit each computer and re-enter link keys in order for this to work.