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File sharing and online file storage

A previous post discussed remote access and remote control services. These are great solutions for accessing your home computers from anywhere, whether you're at work, on the road or even on vacation!  Yuck, who wants to think about work when we're on vacation - but, alas, we all do.

In this post we'll talk about file sharing and online file storage or backup. Now when we say file sharing here, we aren't talking about Gnutella or Limewire or Kazaa - those are services focused mainly on sharing music and video files with other people.

What we're talking about is using file sharing services to help you access files you have at home from work, or from anywhere.

File Sharing or File Synching Services:
-BeInSync: a very popular file synching service. Have a free version that limits the number of shared folders and synchs per day. $59.95 for an annual subscription with no limits.
-FolderShare: Free. Recently acquired by Microsoft, who is rolling this into their new Windows Live services.

Online File Storage or Backup:
-iBackup: Highly rated by PC Magazine and PC World.
-HyperOffice: More of an online collaboration service than strictly a file sharing and file backup service.
-FilesAnywhere: Highly rated by PC Magazine. Not free but is very well put together.
-MyNetStorage: Basic online storage. May get the job done for you.
-Yahoo Briefcase: If you have a Yahoo! account (or want to sign up for one free), this is a great option.  You get 30MB of free storage. The user interface is very, very basic - but, you can't argue with free.

Happy Sharing!

Remote access and remote control services

One type of service we don't think enough people take advantage of is remote access and remote control services.  There are all kinds of flavors of these, but in general they let you access files you have stored on your home PC while you are at the office, at a friend's house, travelling on vacation - really anywhere where there is an Internet connection.

They are called remote access or remote control services, and here are some of the leading providers:

GoToMyPC - Free 30 Day Trial - $19.95/mo for 1 PC or $179.40/yr
LogMeIn - Free
PCNow (from WebEx) -  1 Month Free Trial - $9.95/mo per PC - save 20% with annual plan
Positive Networks - For businesses not consumers - Free Trial for businesses
PC Anywhere (from Symantec) - $199.95 for current version (PC Anywhere 12.0)

All of these products let you access files on your home PC from any other PC, as long as that PC is connected to the Internet. And they let you remotely control that PC, which means you can start applications, pull up a file, send an email from that computer, etc.

For mobile workers like consultants or sales executives, these services typically pay for themselves really quickly.  And with gas prices what they are today, they probably pay for themselves even quicker!

In a later post we'll talk about file sharing services.  These also let you access your files from anywhere, but they don't let you control programs on your PC remotely, and they approach the problem of accessing your files from anywhere from a different angle.

Wi-Spy: New gadget to help fix home network interference

Ever suddenly experience degraded wireless network performance for no apparent reason? I certainly have.

Most people know that microwaves, cordless phones and baby monitors can interfere with your home wireless network's performance and cause your connection speed to slow down or you to lose your connection alltogether. I for one have a nasty habit of leaving the baby monitor right by my laptop - duh!

Well, now there is a new small gadget to help you diagnose wireless interference problems. It's called the Wi-Spy and it is a customized USB key that you plug into a USB port on your computer. The Wi-Spy then proceeds to analyze the 2.4 GHz frequency band in real-time and provide you with all kinds of charts and graphs. You can even record what is going on and play it back later.

Wi-Spy provides some telltale example patterns of what the signal will look like if you are experiencing a microwave interfering with your wireless network for example. This reminds me a lot of the handheld ultrasound my wife rented when she was pregnant with our son. We listened for our son's heartbeat, but there were all kinds of swishing sounds going on - hard to tell what they were! Thankfully the company provided a CD of what a typical heartbeat sounded like, and what some of the other sounds were that we were hearing.

Here's a screen shot of the Wi-Spy in action:

This is a pretty geeky device - I think most people can just try to keep cordless phones and other wireless devices away from their laptops, wireless routers and computers and they will be fine - but, for the more serious home networking aficionados, and for home network installers, this seems like a great tool.

The Wi-Spy retails for $99 - very inexpensive for what it does. You can buy it directly from the manufacturer, MetaGeek (what a great name).

New Linksys router takes home networking to next level

Linksys has announced a new wireless router that also includes what they are calling a 'storage link' which lets you add as much storage on to your network as you want by simply plugging a USB hard drive or flash drive into the router. This is a really exciting enhancement because it could provide a really inexpensive way to add network attached storage to your home network (without having to buy a specialized network attached storage device). Pricing of this new router, the Linksys WRTSL54GS Wireless-G Media Storage Link Router with Speed Booster, has not yet been announced.

Linksys describes the router as four devices in one:

• First, there's the Wireless Access Point, which lets you connect Wireless-G, Wireless-B, and other performance-enhanced SpeedBooster devices to the network.
• There's also a built-in 4-port full-duplex 10/100 Switch to connect your wired-Ethernet devices together.
• There's the Storage Link feature that lets you easily add gigabytes of storage space onto your network using readily available USB 2.0 hard drives -- or plug in a USB flash disk, for a convenient way of accessing your portable data files.
• There's a built-in Media Server, which streams music, video, and photos from the attached storage device to any UPnP compatible media adapter.

You can also set the router up so that your storage is accessible from the Internet -- files can be easily downloaded via your web browser. Your files can be available publicly, or you can create password-protected accounts for authorized users.

This ability to access files remotely from anywhere is something that advanced users have done for a long time with services such as Go To My PC. But this has not yet caught on with the mass-market. Network Magic home networking software also offers this ability to access any files on your home network remotely using just an Internet browser. See Network Magic's remote access feature called Net2Go here.