I am looking for an inexpensive program to sync files in 2 folders.
Please tell me if you know which one is right for me and where to find
it.

My criteria:

1. FUNCTIONALITY.
a) The program must not only be able to add files but very importantly
to delete files that were deleted from another directory. There are
lots of free programs keep adding files - I am not interested in
those.
b) It must work bi-directionally. There is no master directory. Users
can add or delete files in either of the directories and the program
should match another one. There are lots of free programs that can
work if one folder is set up as master ? I am not interested in those
either.

2. SPEED.
The program should preferably work in real time. The best if it
monitors changes in the file system and the moment a new file is added
or old one is deleted in one folder, the program should match it in
another folder. Not as good as real time solution, but it is
acceptable to have something that runs sync not less than once a
minute. The program should do it on its own without a help from a
third party scheduling programs or windows commands. If the program
does not have real time monitoring, running it more than once a minute
should not consume any noticeable resources of a server. Files can be
either added to any of the folders or deleted, they are not getting
changed.


3. PRICE.
Preferrably well under $100. May be a stretch to under $300.
Definitely not interested in anything above $500

I'm going to assume quite a lot, but are you running Windows 2000
Server or Windows 2003 Server?

If you are, you can easily setup Distributed File System (DFS) and
have folders replicated back and forth without any intervention, as
everything would depend on server availability and not a resident
application.

Just throwing it out there...

Simple answer:  Smartsync Pro from www.smsync.com

I had a similar problem set to you and have been using the product for
about 6 months between 5 PCs.

Check it out!

lsmithgo - 

THANK YOU, THIS IS JUST PERFECT SO FAR (I will test it more)
Why did not you enter it as a correct answer rather than a comment? It
is exactly what I was looking for. Much appreciated!

feign - 

I have 2 standalone Windows 2003 Servers (both Standard Edition). I
need to sync one folder on each of the servers.

Please correct me if I am wrong and I would like to ask you to show me
something that I am not sure about. Is there any way to contact you?
Do you have an account with any of the experts site? or may be I can
send you something through PayPal for your time...

I'd like to clarify 2 things about FRS and DFS.

FRS. As far as I know, what Microsoft called File Replication is not a
real file replication, which seemed very misleading to me unless i
misunderstand it. It is designed to replicate ONLY active directory
and cannot replicate just any given folder with any other given
folder. Well, may be it can replicate anything in SYSVOL folder, but
not desifned for anything outside of it. Is this correct?

DFS. My understanding is that (as well as for FRS) in order for it to
work, servers cannot be standalone. There must be a domain (and a
forest) established and both of them must join the domain. At least
one has to be a domain controller, I'm not sure if both should be
domain controllers, may be not. So is it possible to do it between 2
servers if they are standalone? If not, then  let us say I joined them
both to a domain. Can you walk me through some details in private that
I am not sure about?