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Personal file sharing tools revisited

This edition of NetSpeak introduces a couple of new tools developed for sharing resources across PCs linked to the Net.

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) service allows you to access any machine on a private LAN from the Net and make the remote machine a part of the local network. This means the remote PC can also access the shares (shared resources like files and folders) and other facilities available on the LAN.

If you wish to create a VPN facility without incurring any additional cost, try out the free software Hamachi that enables you to set-up a VPN service with a few simple steps.

When you start Hamachi (https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi/vpn.asp ) the first time, it displays a tutorial guide that explains the various buttons available on its interface. Once the software is loaded, switch on its ‘Power’ button to make the tool live. At this point Hamachi contacts its server and obtains a Hamachi private network ID (starting with ‘5.’) , which looks (and functions) like an IP address, for your machine.

Now, if you wish to create a network for others to access your machine, click the ‘Create or join network’ button, and select the ‘Create a new network’ option.

Once a network is created, you can send its name/password to your client for connecting to the network and accessing your machine’s resources from her Hamachi client — using the ‘Join network’ option.

Besides accessing the shares available on your machine, the remote machine user can even take control of your desktop (using the ‘Remote Desktop’ feature) and access the programs/services available on your machine. Of course, this will be possible only if you make your machine available for remote access and offer the access details to your client.

Several others could also join your Hamachi network in this manner. As a result, everyone in your network can access each other’s shared resources.

Another tool worth a look for accessing your PCs files/resources from anywhere on the Net is the free software Cyberlinklive ( http://www.cyberlinklive.com/). To use this service you need to install CyberlinkLive client software on the machine, whose data you wish to access from the Net. For instance, if you wish to collect the files on your home PC from the office, install the client software on the home PC. Once the software is installed, set-up the folders and other resources to be shared. Now, register an account with the service and log-in with this account through this client.

Once your home machine is set-up, you can access all the shared resources from anywhere on the Net via the Cyberlinklive web site. Access the site and log-in with your account details. At this point, you will be connected to the home machine and from the service’s interface you can access the various shared files on it. Apart from being able to share the folders and files stored on your PC, you can even share the TV tuner installed on your PC. This means you can watch TV programs running on your machine from anywhere on the Net. Of course, for this feature to function smoothly, you need a reasonably fast Net link.

Though Firefox is certainly fast catching up with netizens, many still use IE. This means, a web developer has to make sure that his site is compatible with IE too. Moving back and forth between one browser to the other frequently is not an ideal solution.

The Firefox extension ‘IE tab’ helps you circumvent this problem easily. Once installed, you can change a specific tab’s browser engine by just right-clicking on it.

As mentioned in this post (http://lifehacker.com/software/how-to/use-firefox-as-a-windows-file-manager-264 332.php), this extension could be useful for an ordinary user as well.

An advantage of IE (on Windows) is that it lets you use the browser as a file manager (Windows explorer) too. This means, once you change a Firefox tab’s rendering engine to IE, you can use this tab as a file manager as well- an icing on the cake.

You may be visiting a set of sites everyday and a few on specific days. If you can automatically load all the sites to be visited on a specific day (say Monday) with a single mouse click, you can make web navigation more comfortable.

The Firefox extension ‘Morning Coffee’ ( http://www.shaneliesegang.com/projects/coffee.php) helps you do this. You can enter the sites to be visited on each day separately.

Once the extension is configured, whenever you click on the ‘Coffee cup’ icon, Firefox will load all the sites designated for that day in separate tabs.

A thesaurus is an important daily life tool for many, especially for the ones who write a lot.

In this regard, ‘Mobysaurus’ ( http://www.mobysaurus.com/), Donationcoder’s free English thesaurus software, could be useful for finding appropriate synonyms.

For those of you who always live on the Net, Donationcoder hosts an on-line version too (http://freethesaurus. net/).

The success of Wikipedia has prompted its promoters to apply the collaborative content creation model to other realms as well.

Wikibooks, mentioned in the past ( http://www.hindu.com/biz/2003/10/27/stories/2003102700010200. htm) is one such great project . Wiki Junior (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior) and Simple English Wiki books (http://simple.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page) are related projects worth a mention.

Here, students and teachers could find several useful text books for free download.

J. MURALI

He can be contacted at: jmurali@gmail.com

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