New product suggestion: PrimoNetworkCache (cache network files)
Posted: Sat May 06, 2023 11:07 pm
Hello. It's been some time I've been looking for a way to cache files stored in a remote computer in my laptop, but so far I haven't found any that would work as I want. Windows' Offline Files, freefilessync, onedrive, everything is way too complicated, can't be fully automated, or can only do part of the job.
The idea is very simple: a network files monitor. Mainly for reading, because modifying would be very difficult.
1. You set a max size for caching (ex: 64GB), and everytime you open/read a file on the network, the monitor schedules to copy that file to the local cache as soon as it can
2. The next time you try to read that file over the network again, Windows will read from the local cache instead, transparently.
Offline Files can do either the first part or the second part, but not both at the same time: you can configure it to cache the opened files automatically (needs a sync to make it copy), but to get the second part to work, you'd need to set the slow connection mode somehow or switch to offline mode, to make it work with the offline files instead of the network files. You can even set Offline Files to always work offline (which will make Windows read from local cache instead of network), but once you're always offline, you can't access the other files that aren't cached locally, making it a game of chicken/egg dillema (be online to read the network files and don't use the cache, then be offline to read the cached files and lose access to the other network files).
Since PrimoCache will never support network files, what about making a whole new product just for that? I assure you, there's NO other product like this in the market, at least not with an easy setup. Not even Windows' own Offline Files can do that.
Then you'd have a perfect combo for 2 different products: PrimoNetworkCache and PrimoCache!
Get your network files cached locally with PrimoNetworkCache, then get your cached network files cached in RAM with PrimoCache!
The idea is very simple: a network files monitor. Mainly for reading, because modifying would be very difficult.
1. You set a max size for caching (ex: 64GB), and everytime you open/read a file on the network, the monitor schedules to copy that file to the local cache as soon as it can
2. The next time you try to read that file over the network again, Windows will read from the local cache instead, transparently.
Offline Files can do either the first part or the second part, but not both at the same time: you can configure it to cache the opened files automatically (needs a sync to make it copy), but to get the second part to work, you'd need to set the slow connection mode somehow or switch to offline mode, to make it work with the offline files instead of the network files. You can even set Offline Files to always work offline (which will make Windows read from local cache instead of network), but once you're always offline, you can't access the other files that aren't cached locally, making it a game of chicken/egg dillema (be online to read the network files and don't use the cache, then be offline to read the cached files and lose access to the other network files).
Since PrimoCache will never support network files, what about making a whole new product just for that? I assure you, there's NO other product like this in the market, at least not with an easy setup. Not even Windows' own Offline Files can do that.
Then you'd have a perfect combo for 2 different products: PrimoNetworkCache and PrimoCache!
Get your network files cached locally with PrimoNetworkCache, then get your cached network files cached in RAM with PrimoCache!
