Is there any way I can check in/out of a local repository, and have those changes sync with the remote repository in the background?
Internet connection where we are is weak, and the repository is huge. When I want to browse the repository with TortoiseSVN’s Repo Browser, I can wait 30 minutes to load the repository information.
Ideally, I would communicate with a local server, that would in the background/periodically sync with the remote server.
You could use SVK to create a local mirror of the SVN repository. The you would commit your changes to the local SVN repository (using SVN) and the push the changes to the ‘real’ repository using SVK.
I believe this strategy is described in Using SVK as a repository mirroring system