Is there a way to this between a windows PC and a mac?

Roger Solano

Too bad they are not affiliated. That could've been the thing to make me sell my soul to Google.

jupiterthunder

@MattMcKindling: If it goes through VPN, I'm assuming it'd be encrypted like any other VPN traffic

shockwaver

But is the connection secure, or does it have the same problem most of the VPN programs have, which is no SSH?

MattMcKindling

Hmm...so let me get this straight - it requires you to have a Google account, yet it isn't associated with Google in any way. Funny how that doesn't seem to make sense. Or am I missing something?

izzy9985

Good tool for personal use. However, for professional use I would recommend Techinline Remote Desktop:
[www.techinline.com]

Robert-S

"Great extension of Google's Gtalk infrastructure." Looks like it runs on top.

Nedly

@izzy9985: Wondering the same thing.

robio376

Painless VNC? Maybe, but I think LogMeIn is about as painless and easy as it comes.

aharris

Does it support DX9/10?

Wolf_in_command

oops @LogMeIn was supposed to be @aharris.

snaildarter

@LogMeIn: The free version of LogMeIn doesn't have filesharing or auto syncing. I've been looking for something like this for a long time.

@izzy9985 and robio376: To work, it has to have SOME kind of secure infrastructure for sharing passwords, etc., and Google is as ubiquitous (and free) as you can get. They could have done it other ways, but this was the simplest.

snaildarter

Their use of the term 'sync' differs from what I thought syncing was. All their program can do is transfer files in one direction. If you add files to syncfolder on computer A, they move to computer B. But if you add files to syncfolder on computer B, they stay on computer B only. In that sense their 'sync' and 'Autosync' really have nothing to do with synchronizing the contents of folders in two locations. I'm using FolderShare to sync 7,000 files among four computer. So far so good.

Since I have sync handled with FolderShare, my next concern is drag-and-drop files/folders from one computer desktop to another open desktop. LogMeIn Pro does what I want but not the free version.

dchall8

Hamachi is a great zero configuration VPN tool, assuming your network allows it (my school doesn't really allow its functionality for me).

nihility

Gbridge provides much more than a painless VNC. I just painlessly synced a folder, which has about 100 photos and some mp3s, from my brother's computer. Don't think logmein or any other vnc can do it.

The feature I like the most is live browsing. I can listen to my brother's music online before I do any download, and the real time photo slideshow just blows me away.

spaceleo

I have commented about Gbrige in another post here about 3 weeks ago, now finally others start to notice this wonderful utility.

I have been using it to backup my photos (80K+ and growing) for a while. Also used it to exchange some big media files with my friends. very smooth.

As pointed out by dchall8, Gbridge's default sync is one way, but that's what I want most of the time. Also I can easily create another autosync with reversed direction, i.e. construct an autosync pair, to do 2-way sync if I want. BTW, I cannot use foldershare because of their 10K file number limit(and 2G size limit). Do not quite understand M$' rationale behind it. In addition, on features like livebrowse, which is my favorite, foldershare has a lot to catch up on.

eistanla

Microsoft's Windows Live Mesh [www.mesh.com] does much of this too. It actually also does real file sync (like FolderShare). Additionally, it syncs the files up into the web so you have access to them from anywhere even if your machines are all offline. And it gives you access via Remote Desktop Protocol. They say it's coming for Macs too, but I'll believe it when I see a beta.

gkanapathy

@MattMcKindling: I'm not sure I understand your question, as a VPN is just an abstraction on top of an existing transport, but you should be able to use SSH on *any* true VPN. In any case, check out "Does Gbridge allow other network applications' traffic to b..." from the FAQ.

@shockwaver: VPN in no way guarantees encryption, even though encryption, authentication, authorization, non-repudiation, etc. are a part of most modern VPN implementations.

@izzy9985, @robio376: it appears that the company responsible for the software is also named "Gbridge LLC". I'm guessing they meant that the company is not affiliated with, and the software is not sanctioned by Google.

@snaildarter: I think the most important reason that they use Google services is to simplify NAT traversal and other connectivity problems.

jcowan

When I want to help my father with his computer over the net, I use Teamviewer. It has file transfers and chat built in and its free. It works on both the PC and Mac, and even on linux using WINE (almost).

They also have a version for u to install on your USB drive which is always neat.

[www.teamviewer.com]

compacho

For just sync'ing I don't think you can beat dropbox [www.getdropbox.com] for the price (free). Although they do cap it at 2 gig, it keeps versions of each file, so if you made a huge mistake or, say, and excel file got corrupted you could roll back to a previous version.

SockPuppets

VNC isn't really the "best" solution for remote access on *any* platform.

Windows Remote Desktop is considerably better than VNC in most instances. It's supported on all platforms, extremely fast, and painlessly takes care of things like sound and printing.

On the Unix/X11 side of things, NX blows anything else out of the water. Even on a low-bandwidth or high-latency connection, the responsiveness is good enough to forget that you're running on a remote connection. Clients are also available for almost every platform you'd want.

Remote access options on Mac are considerably more limited. Apple's remote desktop is a non-free product, and appears to be built on top of VNC. It's not particularly fast or well-integrated with the OS. Apple gets serious points taken away from it for this, considering that MacOS is generally quite good otherwise.

Granted, VNC does have the distinction of running on every platform under the sun, which is a pretty nice bonus, especially if you only want one client app, and don't care too much about speed.

schmod

@schmod

Gbridge integrates Windows Remote Desktop (RDP) pretty well. Just tried RDP my xp pro through Gbridge, the experience is much better than vnc. Gbridge also has vnc built-in, likely for computers that don't have RDP, like xp home. The invitation based collaboration mode is interesting to explore.

spaceleo

@compacho: Thanks for the info, just checked it out and sounds good. I currently use LogMeIn Free but it doesn't have the facility to show someone else my screen if I want to show them something.

However, when providing support for my family, I prefer the way LogMeIn doesn't ask for an ID or password, it simply asks the user if they want to give me permission to take control.

I'll probably end up using a combination of both, so thanks again.

mcv2

@snaildarter: Have to agree with you, paying for a LogMeIn Rescue product just to copy files is pricey, and the free version doesn't have the transfer available. Techinline (www.techinline.com) does seem to be the least expensive remote access tool which allows for this. Or am I wrong?

ZakD

has anyone used Remobo, for easy vpn? it works with both windows and Macs, they say that the Linux is coming soon.

[www.remobo.com]

Alynch86

FYI, Gbridge will not work with Google Apps accounts.

MitchMan

@Roger Solano: You can try Remobo to create your own VPN between windows PC and MAC:

[www.remobo.com]

Remobo is free, and it has built-in features that allows you to share files with buddies through any BitTorrent clients. I use it to share party photos & videos with friends.

jackierono

I came from remobo, its service seems to be flickering, my other machine is constantly shown to be up/down. After I uninstalled remobo and reboot. There is a window popup again asking me to "config" remobo for first time installation (Some kind of ghost?), hit config then it says can not continue. It kept coming back for every reboot and I can not remove it easily. So I am so much happier when I saw gbridge here, very smooth operation even though the GUI is not as fancy as remobo. But I value function/stability more than look!

tinkering

The trouble with Windows Remote Desktop for me is that it requires some firewall hole punching whenever routers are involved. Not exactly the kind of procedure I wanna go through with someone asking for help. So which of the Remote Desktop/VNC options mentioned actually enable me to easily connect to someone? Maybe a topic for another Hive five?

neomagic

@izzy9985: The tool uses the Google Talk account to check that the two computers belong to the same person, and also to find out who your "friends" (on GTalk) are so you can share with them too.

It's an open API so anybody can use the Google account info but not be affiliated.

TorbenGB

@SockPuppets:

I totally agree on dropbox for synching.

rdn98

Oh man... another great looking product that doesn't work with XP x64! Grrrrrr... I'll have to keep an eye on it and hopefully they will support it soon.

umpitygrumpity

Most of the time RD is good, but it blocks out the other screen and most of the time I want to guide the other person on the end.

holdemm

I use DropBox and TeamViewer. Used to use LiveMesh, but that was still in development and upgrades were painful.

raasiel