If you are using Dropbox with multiple machines living in the same network, you can get advantage from the so-called LAN mode.
Basically, if you need to sync some Dropbox’s content between those machines, they’ll talk directly each one with the other instead of talking with the Dropbox servers.
This will drastically decrease the time to finish the operation (and reduce your Internet bandwidth usage)
A typical Fedora GNU/Linux installation won’t make use of the Lan mode feature because by default the needed network ports are close by the firewall.
All you need to do to make it work is open the port 17500 for both TCP and UDP protocols on all the machines involved.
To change your firewall configuration you can edit the file
/etc/sysconfig/system-config-firewall
and make sure these lines appears in your configuration:
--enabled
--port=17500:tcp
--port=17500:udp
and issue a
service iptables restart
as root.
If you feel more comfortable with a GUI, then you can find the firewall configuration tool under the Application->Other->Firewall menu.
You have to click on “Other ports” on the left menu, and then click on the “Add” button two times adding the TCP protocol the first one, and the UDP the second one.
You can make sure everything is working right clicking the Dropbox icon in the notification area during a sync: you should see “(LAN)” beside syncing and a much faster synching!
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