iPC-Mac-Net FileShare
User Manual
HTML Edition:
5.5.2.0
Release date: 19 January 2006
Basic Operation
Notices
Overview
Introduction
Cross-platform
file transfers on a LAN
Conveniently
transfer files via the Internet
Cross-platform
Internet downloading
Limitations
of Internet connection sharing
Security
considerations
Detailed Operation
Appendices
Overview
Introduction
PC-Mac-Net FileShare allows you to easily
and
securely transfer files between Windows, Macintosh and Linux (i86)
computers over a
local area network or over the Internet. It's also simple to set up as
it uses the most popular networking standard: Internet Protocol
(TCP/IP).
- Perfect for cross-platform file
sharing on home, school or office networks
- Provides a secure, enhanced
replacement for Microsoft Windows file sharing
- Allows you to conveniently get files from your friends via the
Internet
- Swap digital
home movies, photo collections or music with your family
- Huge files can
be transferred reliably, even when using dialup modems
- Transfers between computers can be
stopped and resumed at any time
- Easy localization into
any Unicode-based
language eg. German, Japanese, etc.
- Simple Virtual
Private Network function offers encrypted data transfers (Pro Edition
only)
- Protects confidential
data from snooping on wireless networks (Pro Edition only)
- Simple
workgroup messenging system (planned feature for Pro Edition only)
- Clear,
centralized control of shared files and folders helps improve security
- Long file names
and file names with Unicode characters are supported
- Easy
Internet setup of
dispersed LAN workgroups (eg. students at Universities)
- Users can be set to act as
workgroup
hubs, for easy LAN workgroup segregation
- TCP, UDP and
firewall diagnostic functions assist with network setup
- File access is protected by highly
secure 896-bit encryption
- Automatically renames files to
ensure cross-platform
file name compatibility
- Sets Macintosh type/creators
correctly based on PC file name
extensions
- All incoming remote
user connections can be viewed, and their actions monitored
- A compact
global floating window allows unobtrusive monitoring of file
transfers
- List of types/creators and PC file
name extensions can be changed by user
- Fully
compatible to DHCP and other
automatic IP address allocation protocols
- Uses standard Internet protocols (ie. TCP/IP) for all operations
- Offers large file support (ie.
files > 2GB in size) on most computer platforms
- Versions for Windows 98/NT/ME/2000/XP, MacOS and Linux (i86)
available
The PC-Mac-Net
FileShare application must be running on all computers you wish to
share
files between. It only uses Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) for it's
operations, so you don't need other protocols such as NETBEUI,
AppleTalk, etc. to successfully share files.
In addition, you
don't need file sharing enabled on your computer, nor do you use the
Network Neighborhood, My Network Places, the Chooser, or any other
networking functions built into your operating system to use PC-Mac-Net
FileShare.
Cross-platform
file transfers on a LAN
You can now transfer files easily between
any Windows, Macintosh and Linux (i86) computers on your home, school
or office
network
(see
example local area network in Figure 1 below). PC-Mac-Net
FileShare provides a bridge between different computer types without
requiring complex installation and set up procedures. Just select the
files and folders you wish to share on one computer and they can be
requested by and transferred to another computer on the network.
Figure 1. Example LAN connecting
different computer types
Conveniently
transfer files via the Internet
Friends can now easily, safely and
conveniently transfer huge files via the Internet (see Figure 2
below), irrespective of what type of connection is used (eg. dialup
modem, ADSL, cable, etc). File access is protected by highly secure
896-bit encryption, so your files are never exposed to anonymous users.
Setting up a workgroup for Internet file sharing is as easy as entering
a workgroup name and pressing the 'Join' button. All users with that
workgroup name will then connect together for file sharing. You can
protect your shared files from unauthorized access with a 'Sharing
Password'.
Figure 2. Example of connecting
computers via the Internet
Cross-platform Internet
downloading
Often one computer on a home network is
set up to access the Internet, whilst the others are only connected to
it via the Local Area Network (see Figure 3 below). Now you can
download files using the Internet-connected computer and transfer them
across the local area network to the other computers using PC-Mac-Net
FileShare. This also means you can download PC files from the Internet
using a Macintosh or download Macintosh files (in MacBinary or BinHex
format) using a PC and then transfer them to the appropriate computer.
Figure 3. Example of
cross-platform setup with Internet connected computer
Limitations of Internet
connection sharing
Most functions in PC-Mac-Net FileShare
will work on computers connected indirectly to the Internet via an
Internet connection sharing host (see diagram in Figure 4 below).
In this case, you will be able to connect to a remote computer via the
Internet, view it's file list and get files from it, but the remote
computer won't have access to your computer. This is simply a
side-effect of how Internet connection sharing works.
All functions in
PC-Mac-Net FileShare
will work on the Internet connection sharing host itself when
transferring files over the Internet, since it is effectively
connected directly to the Internet.
Figure 4. Example of setup with
Internet connection sharing
Security
considerations
PC-Mac-Net FileShare was designed from the
ground up with security in mind. All control operations are protected
by
highly secure 896-bit encryption and no passwords are ever sent across
the network or the Internet in clear text (unlike FTP). If the user
trying to get access to your shared files doesn't know the password you
have set, they cannot access anything, including the list of files you
are sharing.
Since you are
sharing files with
friends via the Internet, rather than with anonymous users who
inherently cannot be trusted, you are much less likely get files
carrying viruses, worms or trojan horses.
The 'Pro
Edition' of PC-Mac-Net
FileShare
also provides you with the option to encrypt file and folder data,
keeping it secure during LAN and Internet transfers. This option is not
available in the 'Standard Edition'. A simple
workgroup messenging system is also a planned feature of the Pro
Edition,
which will operate
like a quick email system between workgroup members. Some other
advanced options are also planned for the Pro Edition, including
powerful data backup functions.
Detailed
Operation
These
instructions apply to all
platform versions of PC-Mac-Net FileShare, though the focus is on the
Windows XP version and screenshots come from this version. If there are
platform-specific differences in operation or features for Macintosh or
Linux, these differences are described in the relevant sections.
The dynamic help system built into
PC-Mac-Net FileShare displays specific help information for all
controls and textboxes. To get information about a particular control,
move the cursor over it and help information will be displayed.
On MacOS Classic 8.6, you need to have
CarbonLib 1.6 installed on your computer to run PC-Mac-Net FileShare.
It can be
downloaded from http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120047
Setting up
Select the Preferences panel (see Figure 5
below) and enter a Sharing Password
to ensure only authorized users
(ie. those people who know your password) can
access your
shared files and folders. You may also wish to change the default Computer Name - this is the name
that other users on the network will
see when they connect to your computer.
Further information about the
other controls on the preferences panel can be found in Transferring files to
your computer
and Localization into other languages.
Figure 5. The Preferences
panel
Now choose the Shared
Folders
panel (see Figure
6 below)
and add all the files and folders on your computer you wish to share by
pressing the Add Folder and Add File buttons and selecting them.
Alternatively, you can add files and folders by dragging them directly
from the desktop and dropping them onto the Files/Folders To Share listbox. You
can remove shared items by selecting them in the listbox and then
pressing the Remove button.
Since the
files and folders you selected for sharing on PC-Mac-Net FileShare are
always listed in
one central location (ie. on the Files/Folders
To Share listbox), you always know
what you are sharing. In contrast, when using Microsoft Windows file
sharing, you can have shared files and shared folders scattered all
over
your hard disks and not know what is currently accessible to others
over
the network. This presents a security problem in Microsoft Windows
file
sharing, which is eliminated
by PC-Mac-Net FileShare.
If you wish to make
any folder shown on the list writeable, check the checkbox on the left
side of that folder. The icon will change into a folder containing a
pencil, indicating it is writeable. These writeable folders can accept
uploads, allow new folders to be created in them, and will allow files
and folders in them to be renamed (Note:
renaming is not available in the Linux version of PC-Mac-Net
FileShare).
Note: If a file or folder has been
added to the Files/Folders
To Share listbox, but is no longer available (eg. you are
sharing folders on a CDROM, zip disk, floppy disk, etc. and have
ejected it), it will be removed automatically from the list. When it is
re-inserted, it will automatically appear again in the list.
The File/Folder Set popup menu allows
you to choose from a number of sets of file/folder lists, and will be
fully implemented in a future version of the Professional Edition of
PC-Mac-Net FileShare. For example, if you wanted to share only a small
number of folders with a group over the Internet, whilst sharing
folders widely over a home LAN, this selectivity will be possible.
Figure 6. The Shared Folders panel
Sharing files over
the Internet
If you wish to share
files with your friends over the Internet, select Internet
(Internet Workgroup)
from
the Workgroup Setup Method
popup
menu on the Preferences panel
(see Figure 7 below).
Then enter the Workgroup Name
you and your friends have chosen to use, and press the Join button. You should see a
number of messages in the Connection
Status
textbox detailing the network operations in progress, including
connections coming in from other remote users in your workgroup. Your
friends'
computers should appear within a few seconds in the Remote
User Connection List as well as the Connect
to popup menu on the Transfer
Files panel.
Figure 7. Joining an Internet
workgroup
See the Transferring files to your computer
section below for
details about locating and transferring files from
remote computers.
When you press the Join button, PC-Mac-Net FileShare
actually contacts the Lava Software server on the Internet, which will
assign you to be the 'workgroup hub' for that named workgroup (if it
has not already been assigned to another user getting in before you).
Users who subsequently join that named workgroup will then be
automatically redirected by the Lava Software server to your computer
to get information about all the other users in the workgroup. When
they have this information, they will connect directly to these users.
Thus, the workgroup hub is like the axle of a wheel, with the other
users forming the spokes of the wheel.
If a computer
assigned as a workgroup hub goes offline, the first computer in the
workgroup to poll the Lava Software server after 90 seconds has elapsed
will be assigned as the new workgroup hub. Thus, a workgroup almost
always has a central and dynamically assigned workgroup hub to bring
all users of the workgroup together.
Solving Internet
connection problems
Most Internet workgroup connection problems in PC-Mac-Net FileShare are
caused by firewalls and NAT devices, such as routers and proxy servers.
Firewalls
Firewalls
prevent other computers on the Internet from connecting to your
computer without your authorization, by blocking all network ports
except the standard ports used by web browsing (port 80), email (port
25), FTP (port 21), etc. They generally also prevent outgoing
connections on non-standard
ports, to stop malware (eg. spyware,
viruses, worms, etc.) which has found its way onto your computer from
doing nasty things, such as allowing the remote control of your
computer.
However,
the
problem with blocking all non-standard ports using a firewall is that
many online programs, particularly games, use specific non-standard
ports for their operation. For example, World of Warcraft requires
ports 3724, 6112 and 6881-6999 to be open. Counter-Strike requires port
27015 to be open. If these ports are closed, the software will not work
correctly. Thus, users must configure their firewall to be able to play
these games.
Similarly,
PC-Mac-Net FileShare requires port 3300 to be open on your firewall for
both incoming
and outgoing TCP connections.
On Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) installed, a basic firewall is
included and switched on by default. To check this on your computer,
open the Network Connections
control panel, double-click the network device connecting your computer
to the Internet (usually an Ethernet network card) and press the Properties button. Then select the Advanced panel - you should see
a Windows Firewall groupbox
similar to Figure 8 below.
Click the Settings... button
and you will see if the firewall is on.
Figure 8. Checking for a
Windows XP
firewall
Unfortunately,
on Windows XP with Service Pack 2, you can only switch the entire
firewall on or off - you can't enable individual ports. With the
firewall
on, you'll have a more secure computer which won't support non-standard
online programs; with the firewall off, you'll have an insecure
computer which supports non-standard online programs. Though this is a
lot better than older versions of Windows (which have no built-in
firewall at all), you really need both security and online program
support. Thus, you should
purchase a firewall program, or download and install a free firewall
program, such as ZoneAlarm (www.zonealarm.com).
After installing ZoneAlarm, you can make PC-Mac-Net FileShare
work correctly by clicking the Allow
button on the dialogs displayed by ZoneAlarm when you
run PC-Mac-Net
FileShare for the first time (see Figure
9 below). You should probably
also click the Remember this setting
checkbox, to save you having to click the Allow button every time.
Figure 9. Allowing PC-Mac-Net
FileShare
to send and receive Internet data
On MacOS X and Linux, the built-in firewall allows you to enable
individual ports. On MacOS X, the firewall settings can be found on the
Sharing control panel. Click
the Firewall panel, click the New...
button and enter the information required for PC-Mac-Net
FileShare
(see Figure 10 below).
Figure 10. The MacOS X
firewall
setup
If you have only a software firewall (ie. not one built into a hardware
router or proxy server) and can't get PC-Mac-Net
FileShare working over the Internet, try completely disabling your
firewall temporarily and then doing the firewall test (described below
in Diagnosing
network problems). It it works, you're
on the right track and it's a matter of configuring the firewall
settings. If it doesn't work, it's
probably not the firewall causing the problem.
Proxy
servers
Proxy servers funnel Internet traffic from various computers on a home
or office network to the computer on the network which is directly
connected to the Internet via a dialup or broadband modem.
Proxy servers generally have a built-in firewall, since all Internet
traffic comes directly through the proxy server. This built-in firewall
usually allows you to enable individual ports. PC-Mac-Net FileShare
requires
port 3300 to be open on your firewall for both incoming
and outgoing TCP connections.
On Windows, for example, you may be using WinProxy (www.winproxy.com). To enable port
3300 in WinProxy, select Advanced
Settings from the File
menu, and then click the Firewall
panel. Press the New Application
button and enter the port information for PC-Mac-Net FileShare
(the incoming port information is shown below in Figure 11).
Figure 11. Configuring the
WinProxy
firewall
Routers
Wired or
wireless routers
generally
connect directly to a broadband modem via a USB or Ethernet connection,
and funnel
traffic from various computers on the home or office network to the
Internet. They also contain a firewall to secure the network from other
computers on the Internet.
Some
routers can be set to allow ports to 'pass through' to a computer
connected to the router, thus allowing that computer to act as a file
server (PC-Mac-Net FileShare acts as a file server when authorized
users get files from your computer over the Internet). Some less
expensive routers do not offer this 'pass through'
capability. Please read your router documentation for specific
information about setting up
this 'pass through' capability.
For example, on the D-Link DI-624
wireless router, you can set up a 'Virtual Server' (as shown in Figure 12 below). On this brand of
router, the 'Virtual Server' feature performs the
'pass through' function.
Figure 12. Setting up a D-Link
router for 'pass-through'
Diagnosing
network problems
If you have problems
connecting to other users on the Internet, you can diagnose the network
using the Network Monitor.
To bring up the Network Monitor,
press the Diagnostics... button
in the Advanced groupbox on
the Network panel. The
dialog shown below in Figure 13
will be displayed.
Figure 13. The Network Monitor dialog
To test if a
firewall
is stopping you connecting correctly to other Internet users, press the
Firewall Test button. A request
will be sent out to the Lava Software Internet server, which will
respond by making a test TCP connection to your computer on port 3300
(the default base port number). If the test is successful (as shown in
the test message sample in Figure 12
above), your computer can act as a file server ie. users on the
Internet can get files from your computer.
If the firewall
test fails, either you have a firewall preventing access from the
Internet, or your network topology (how the network is connected
together) is causing the problem. Please read the sections above on
firewalls, proxy servers and routers for more information about what
you can do to fix this type of problem.
With the network
diagnostic tests, you can check TCP and UDP connectivity to a remote
computer, either on a LAN or on the Internet. Simply enter the remote
computer's IP address in the IP
Address: textbox and click the TCP
Test or UDP Test
buttons. You can find out the IP address of a remote computer by
pressing the Adapter Scan
button on the PC-Mac-Net FileShare program running on that remote
computer.
If you have a
router in your network, the IP addresses displayed may only be LAN IP
addresses - these type of IP addresses usually are similar to
'192.168.xxx.xxx' or '10.0.xxx.xxx'. These are useful for setting up
tests for connectivity across a LAN, but are useless for testing
connectivity across the Internet. For information about setting up
routers so that you can use PC-Mac-Net FileShare across the Internet,
please refer to the Routers section above.
When a computer is
connected directly to the Internet (ie. with no router in the way, and
a modem plugged directly into the computer), you should get an IP
address displayed which is assigned by your ISP (Internet Service
Provider) and which identifies you uniquely on the Internet. You can
then do valid network diagnostic tests across the Internet which can be
helpful in getting PC-Mac-Net FileShare working. All dialup modems
offer this type of direct Internet connection, so a dialup modem can
come in handy for testing your Internet setup.
Sometimes ISPs
(Internet Service Providers) block ports to help prevent the
propagation of worms, viruses and other malware (this is a serious
problem on Windows computers). If you have tried everything to get
PC-Mac-Net FileShare working over the Internet, including disabling all
your firewalls temporarily (as described in the Firewalls
section above), contact your ISP and ensure they are not blocking ports.
Sharing
files over a LAN
When sharing files over a LAN, there are a number of workgroup setup
options available.
The fastest way to
set up a LAN workgroup (eg. a simple home network) is to select Auto-Discovery from
the Workgroup Setup Method
popup
menu on the Preferences panel.
All computers on the LAN should then be discovered quickly and
automatically. If you have multiple network adapters (eg. Ethernet
cards) in your computer, you should select the one connected directly
to your LAN. No further setup is required. See Figure 14 below.
Figure 14. Selecting auto-discovery
If you are in an
office or school and wish to set up a number of fixed workgroups,
select Workgroup
Hub from
the Workgroup Setup Method
popup
menu on the Preferences panel
(see Figure 15 below).
Allocate one computer in each workgroup (one with a fixed IP address
and which is switched on all the time) to act as a workgroup hub by
checking
it's Act as Workgroup Hub
checkbox. For all other computers in this particular workgroup, enter
the workgroup hub's IP address and sharing password and press the Join button. Once the IP address
and password are entered, whenever PC-Mac-Net FileShare is launched,
the user will automaticaly connect to the workgroup hub and
subsequently with all users active in the workgroup.
Figure 15. Using a workgroup hub
If you are in an
office, school or university, each computer can access the Internet,
and you wish to allow for any number of dynamic named workgroups,
select Internet (LAN workgroup)
from
the Workgroup Setup Method
popup
menu on the Preferences panel
(see Figure 16 below).
Then enter a Workgroup Name
and select the LAN Network Adapter
which is used for LAN access. When you press the Join button, the computer will
connect to the Lava Software Internet server and dynamically connect
all users in your named LAN workgroup. This process works through
firewalls, since only the setting up of the named LAN workgroup is done
via the Internet - all subsequent network activity between file sharing
users is done on the LAN, which is usually behind the firewall.
For example, if all
students in a particular University dormitory wanted to form a
workgroup and share files, they might select a name like 'ucla-dorm1'.
All users who join this named LAN workgroup will then be able to
connect together and share files.
Figure 16. Using the Internet to set
up a dynamic or dispersed LAN workgroup
You can also set
up a
workgroup manually, if all computers have fixed IP addresses. To do
this, select Set
Manually from the Workgroup
Setup Method popup menu.
Then, for each workgroup member, enter their fixed IP address into the IP Address textbox and press the Add button. You can also enter IP
address ranges by making the last three characters of an IP address
"xxx". eg. 192.168.244.xxx (in this case, IP addresses 192.168.244.0 to
192.168.244.254 will be scanned). This may be useful for LANs which
have
dynamically allocated
IP addresses (eg. DHCP).
Alternatively, you
can get the 'Workgroup IP Addresses' list from another user on
the network. Start by selecting Get
From Other User from the Workgroup
Setup Method popup menu.
Then enter their IP address into the User
IP Address textbox, enter their password into the User Password textbox and press the Get button. Their list will then
be transferred and placed in the Workgroup
IP Addresses listbox. This makes it very easy to set up and
maintain workgroups containing a number of users.
Solving LAN
connection problems
If you have
problems
connecting to other users on the LAN, you can now diagnose
problems using the Network Monitor.
To bring up the Network Monitor,
press the Diagnostics... button
in the Advanced groupbox on
the Network panel. The
dialog shown in Figure 7
will be displayed.
Press the Adapter Scan button to display all
Network Adapters installed in your computer. This gives you information
about their allocated IP addresses, subnet masks and MAC addresses.
To test TCP
connectivity to another computer running PC-Mac-Net FileShare, enter
the target computer's IP address (use the Adapter Scan button on the target
computer to find out it's possible IP addresses) and press the TCP Test button. A TCP connection
request will be made to the target computer and the results displayed.
If a connection could not be made, the most likely reason is that you
entered the IP address of the target computer incorrectly. Go to the
target computer, press the Adapter
Scan button to check the IP addresses of all the Network
Adapters it contains. If you're not sure which Network Adapter is
connecting your LAN computers together, try the different IP addresses
displayed by the scan until you find one that works.
You may unknowingly have a firewall active on your LAN (firewalls
prevent incoming and outgoing network traffic on particular ports, to
enhance computer security). If it's a firewall
problem, enable
the default base port (3300) for both outgoing and incoming TCP and UDP
using your computer's Network or TCP/IP Control Panel
and try again. See further information about Firewalls
above.
A less likely problem is that you accidently entered different subnet
masks on computers on your LAN. The most common subnet mask in home and
small office networks is '255.255.255.0'. You can change the subnet
mask on a computer on the Network or TCP/IP Control Panel.
A rare scenario is that there is a Network Address
Translation (NAT) device, such as a bridge, in your LAN. You should
talk to your network administrator about what may be done to change the
network topology to fix this.
To test UDP
connectivity to another computer running PC-Mac-Net FileShare, enter
the target computer's IP address (use the Adapter Scan button on the target
computer to find out it's IP address) and press the UDP Test button. A UDP connection
request will be made to the target computer and the results displayed.
Important note: UDP connections
are used for the auto-discovery feature in PC-Mac-Net
FileShare.
Transferring
files to your computer
When you launch PC-Mac-Net FileShare, you
should see other computers running PC-Mac-Net FileShare listed in the Connect to popup menu on the Transfer Files panel after a few
seconds. They will also be shown in the Remote User Connection List listbox
on the Network panel, and
you can see their IP address, their computer name and what they are
doing.
Select a computer
from the Connect to popup menu
to view it's
shared files (see Figure 17 below). You may need to enter a Sharing Password to gain access to
files on this computer (once
entered, the password will be stored and automatically used for
subsequent operations).
Figure 17. The Transfer
Files panel
All folders are
marked with a yellow folder icon, and all files with a grey file icon.
In addition, applications (programs) are shown with an orange diamond,
and packages as an orange folder. On MacOS, you can check the Use Custom File/Folder Icons
checkbox on the Preferences
panel. In this case, the correct custom Finder icons will be
displayed in the Local File List,
though this does slow the refresh time of the list.
All actions
available on items in the local file list and remote file list are
accessible using the context sensitive menus displayed when you
right-click the item.
On the local file
list, actions include 'Get Info', 'Get Info (With MD5
Signature)', 'Upload', 'Sync', 'Open With Default Application',
'Delete' and 'Reveal On Desktop'. Of course, actions such as 'Upload'
will only be available if the remote file list displays a writeable
folder. See Figure 18 below.
Figure 18. The local file list
contextual menu
On the remote file
list, actions include 'Get Info', 'Get Info
(With MD5 Signature)', 'Download' and 'Delete'. Of course, actions such
as 'Delete' will only be available if the remote file list displays a
writeable folder. See Figure 19
below.
Figure 19. The remote file list
contextual menu
Files and
folders can also be dragged between the
local file list and remote file list to initiate a transfer. If you
drag files and folders from the remote file list onto the local file
list, those items will be downloaded. If you drag files and folders
from the local file list onto the remote file list, those items will be
uploaded.
If you hold down
the Shift key whilst clicking
the Download or Upload buttons, overwrite is
automatically chosen (normally, an alert will be displayed if there are
existing files and folders at the destination location). In this way,
you can conveniently force an overwrite transfer.
Folder navigation
To move into a
folder on the remote computer, double-click it in the Remote File List listbox and the
contents of the folder will be displayed. To move up the folder
hierarchy, select an item from the Remote
Folder Navigation popup menu. At the top level of this popup
menu, you
will find the root list of files and folders shared by this remote user.
To move into a
folder on the local computer, double-click it in the Local File List listbox and the
contents of the folder will be displayed. To move up the folder
hierarchy, select an item from the Local
Folder Navigation popup menu. At the top level of this popup
menu, you
will find the name of your computer and the various hard disks, DVD
drives, etc. located on it. If you insert a CD, DVD or other media,
these should be displayed in a few seconds at this top level.
The Local Folder Navigation and Remote
Folder Navigation popup menus clearly
show each of the folders in the path to the folder being displayed, so
you can navigate around quickly and consistently.
Note: Some folders on Linux cannot
be accessed. Usually these are folders for which you do not have access
permission, according to internal Linux OS settings. It's best to only
navigate through folders in your home account.
Bookmarks
This easy
navigation is further enhanced by the bookmarking system built into
PC-Mac-Net FileShare. When you are located in a folder you wish to
bookmark, select Add Bookmark
from the bookmark menu displayed when you press the Bookmark buttons above the local and
remote file lists. To quickly go to this location in the future, simply
select it from the bookmark menu. To remove a bookmark, hold down the
Ctrl key on the keyboard whilst
selecting the bookmark, or go to the
bookmark and select Remove Bookmark
using the Bookmark button.
If you bookmark a
folder in the Local File List
located on ejectable media (eg. CDROM, zip disk, USB flash drive, etc.)
and eject the media, the bookmarks will automatically be removed from
the local bookmark list. When the media is re-inserted, the bookmarks
relating to that media will again become available.
Bookmarks to locations in the Remote File List are linked to the
user selected in the Connect to
popup menu when the bookmark was added. Thus, you will only see
bookmarks relevant to each particular user.
Creating folders
To create a new
folder on the local or remote file lists, press the Create Folder button above the list
you wish to create the folder in. A new 'untitled' folder will be
created and highlighed in the list, so you can easily name it as you
wish. If you can't create a folder in the particular folder displayed
in the local or remote files lists (ie. the Create Folder button is disabled),
it means it's not valid to create it there.
Folders can only be
created in the remote file list if the containing folder (ie. the
folder whose contents is displayed in the remote file list) is
writeable. Setting a remote shared folder to 'writeable' can only be
done on the remote computer, in the Shared
Folders panel.
Renaming files and
folders
To rename a file or
folder in the local or remote file lists, simply click on it and edit
it directly (see Figure 18
below). When you have finished editing the name, click somewhere
else in the listbox for the name to be set. If you decide not to keep
the name you are currently entering, hit the Esc key on the keyboard and the
changes will be cancelled. If you can't change a name in the list, it
means you can't change the name in the list - it may be a folder which
is not set to writeable in the remote file list, or a read-only folder
on your local hard disk, for example.
Files and folders
can only be renamed in the remote file list if the containing
folder (ie. the folder whose contents is displayed in the remote file
list) is writeable. Setting a remote shared folder to 'writeable' can
only be done on the remote computer, in the Shared Folders panel.
Figure 18. Renaming a remote file
Deleting files and folders
To delete a file or folder, select it in either the local file list or
remote file list and press the Delete
or Backspace key on the
keyboard. If you have the Display
Delete Confirmation Alert checkbox checked on the Preferences panel, the confirmation
alert shown below in Figure 19
is displayed before the deletion is made.
Files and folders
can only be deleted from the remote file list if the containing
folder (ie. the folder whose contents is displayed in the remote file
list) is writeable. Setting a remote shared folder to 'writeable' can
only be done on the remote computer, in the Shared Folders panel.
Figure 19. The delete confirmation
alert
Downloading files
When you wish
to download a file displayed in the remote file list, simply double-click
it (or highlight it and press the Download
button
- the left-pointing arrow) to begin transferring it to your computer.
After the file transfer is complete, your local file list will be
refreshed automatically and the transferred file displayed in it. A
number of files and/or folders can be selected at one time on the
remote file list, which will be downloaded when you subsequently press
the Download button.
During a transfer,
the average transfer speed as well as the instantaneous transfer speed
is displayed. The time remaining estimation is calculated using the
instantaneous transfer speed.
You can stop a
transfer at any time by pressing the Stop
button, and later resume
it. After resuming, PC-Mac-Net FileShare will determine which files
already exist on your computer and then display the overwrite dialog
(shown in Figure 20 below).
Figure 20. The overwrite dialog
If you press the Overwrite button, any existing
files shown in the Local File List
will be overwritten
with
the transferred files.
Pressing Continue will make the transfer
continue from where it left off. The Transferred
text (on the bottom right side of the Transfer Files panel) shows
information about progress, including the amount of new file data
transferred,
the amount of new file data that needs to be transferred, and the total
amount of file data selected. For example, '3.010 gb of 7.050 gb (8.763
gb)' means that 3.010 gb of file data has been transferred of a total
of
7.050 gb. The amount of file data selected was 8.763 gb. Thus, the
continue on the transfer occurred after 8.763 gb - 7.050 gb = 1.713 gb
had already been transferred.
If you are getting
a large group of files over the Internet from a remote computer
(especially via a dialup modem), then the continue function could save
you a lot of time. With PC-Mac-Net FileShare, you just need to
reconnect
and continue the transfer if the modem connection drops out
unexpectedly
(as they sometimes do) and transfers are not fully completed.
If you are
transferring a lot of folders and files over a LAN with PC-Mac-Net
FileShare, the continue function can be very helpful if there are file
access problems. In contrast, if a problem occurs when transferring
files and folders using built-in Microsoft Windows file sharing, the
transfer is terminated abruptly and you have to start again from the
beginning.
In addition, very
large files, such as digital home movies, can be reliably transferred
over the Internet (even via dialup modem), making it easy for you to
share digital movies, photo collections, etc. with your family and
friends.
The Update
button
should be used if you
only want to transfer newer files between computers, overwriting
older files. This can also be
used as a simple one-way data backup function by making a copy of a set
of
files on another computer.
Note: Holding down the Shift key whilst you click the Download button will force an
overwrite and bypass the overwrite
dialog.
Uploading files
When you wish
to upload a file displayed in the local file list, simply double-click
it (or highlight it and press the Upload
button
- the right-pointing arrow) to begin sending it to the remote computer.
After the file transfer is complete, the remote file list will be
refreshed automatically and the transferred file displayed in it. A
number of files and/or folders can be selected at one time on the local
file list, which will be uploaded when you subsequently press
the Upload button.
Files and folders
can only be uploaded to 'writeable' folders in the remote file list. If
the Upload button has a red
cross through it, the selected remote folder is not writeable and you
cannot upload to it. Setting a remote shared folder to 'writeable' can
only be done on the remote computer, in the Shared Folders panel.
Note: Holding down the Shift key whilst you click the Upload button will force an
overwrite and bypass the overwrite
dialog.
Synchronizing to a remote
folder
To synchronize two
folders with the same name in the local and remote file lists, select
the folder in the Local File List
and press the Synchronize
button (see Figure 20 below).
Any files not in
both locations will be transferred, and files with newer modification
dates will be transferred, until both folders contain the same set of
files and folders. For example, this function is particularly good if
you wish to work on a set of files at both home and work. You can be at
either location, yet be working on the latest set of files. This has
the added benefit of maintaining a remote backup of your files as well,
in case something happens to one of your computers eg. your laptop is
lost, stolen, etc.
Local folders can
only be synchronized to 'writeable' folders in the
remote file list. If the Sync
button has a red cross through it, the selected remote folder is not
writeable and you cannot synchronize to it. Setting a remote shared
folder to 'writeable' can
only be done on the remote computer, in the Shared Folders panel.
Note: You can't synchronize with
root shared folders ie. folders at the very top level of the remote
file list. You can only synchronize with folders contained within root shared folders. For
example, in the setup shown in Figure
21 below, we have already navigated into the writeable
'Chemistry' folder
and can now synchronize any local folder to it.
Figure 21. Synchronizing a local
with a remote folder
Getting
detailed file and folder information
To get detailed information about an item in the local file list or
remote file list, right-click that item and choose
Get Info or
Get Info (With MD5 Signature) from
the contextual menu. See the example File Information dialog shown
before in
Figure 22. You can
also select multiple items (up to 3 at a
time) and
get information about all of them at once.
Figure 22. The
File Information dialog
The File Information dialog
shows various information about the file or folder. Unusual information
includes the sizes of the data and resource forks, the type, the
creator, and the MD5 signature. These are labelled Data, Resource, Type, Creator and MD5 respectively.
Only some MacOS files have
resource forks - pure Windows and Linux files do not (they only have a
data
fork). However, since you can transfer both data forks and MacOS
resource forks to Windows and Linux computers with PC-Mac-Net FileShare
(by checking the Transfer MacOS
Resource Forks checkbox on the Preferences
panel), you may see a non-zero resource fork size. The Type and Creator values (which are generally
equivalent to a file name extension on Windows and Linux eg. ".pdf")
only exist on MacOS.
The MD5 signature is a very, very unique value generated by a special
algorithm using the contents of the file. If even a single bit or byte
of a file changes, the MD5 signature created will be completely
different. This special ability makes it a superb way to check whether
two files are identical - the files are identical only if their MD5
signatures match. This is particular useful if files are located at two
different locations, and you want to check that they are the same.
A particularly powerful feature in PC-Mac-Net FileShare is the ability
to generate an MD5 signature from the contents of a folder. In this
case, all the files in the folder and it's subfolders will be scanned
and a cumulative MD5 signature created from them. This makes it
possible to check that the contents of two folders match exactly.
Since MD5 signatures can be generated from items in both the local file
list and remote file list, you can check that a file or folder was
transferred correctly (ie. there was no file corruption). This is
particularly useful if you sometimes get modem dropouts, powerouts, you
can't fully complete a transfer from one location and need to resume it
at another, etc. Also, if you are located
in New York and are transferring a folder of important documents to
London, knowing that all documents were transferred correctly is very
helpful.
Note: MD5 signatures are
usually 16 bytes in length, resulting in a 32 character hexadecimal
value. The MD5 signature displayed in the File Information dialog is
calculated to 32 characters, but trimmed to 8 characters to make it
easier for users to visually compare two values.
Using the File Information
dialog, you can also change the permissions of a file or folder. After
making changes, press the Apply
button for the changes to be set.
Transfer
logs
A log file is
created during each transfer you perform, showing which files were
uploaded and downloaded, the total amount of data transferred, and
other information about the transfer. These logs files are all stored
as readable text files in the 'Transfer_Logs' folder in the PC-Mac-Net
FileShare preferences folder. Transfer logs older than 1 week are
automatically deleted, to prevent too many from accumulating.
Note: Hold down Ctrl and Shift
on the keyboard whilst clicking the Preferences
on the main window and the preferences folder will be displayed on
your desktop (this function is not available on the Linux version).
Encrypting data during
transfers
If you wish to
get files and folders, but keep file data secure during LAN or Internet
transfer, check the Encrypt Data
checkbox on the Preferences panel.
File data will be encrypted by the remote
computer (using very strong 896-bit encryption) just before it is sent,
preventing hackers
from being able to read your file data as it passes over the network.
Enabling data encryption slows down the file transfer speed by around
25% over high-speed networks (slowdown is negligible on slower
networks). This encrypt data function is only available in the
Professional
Edition of PC-Mac-Net FileShare, though the remote
computer from which you are getting files can be either the Standard
Edition or the Professional
Edition.
The encrypt
data feature is especially useful for companies wishing to set up a
simple-to-use, inexpensive, highly effective Virtual Private Network
(VPN). With the continuing proliferation of wireless networking in
homes
and businesses, the point-to-point protection of sensitive or
confidential data from snooping can be critically important. PC-Mac-Net
FileShare
elegantly solves this problem.
MacOS resource forks
MacOS files
sometimes have resource forks (indicated by an asterix, '*', in the Size: column of the Local File List and Remote File List listboxes), in
addition to the normal data fork. Resource forks store additional
information, such as icons, pictures, text, etc. Windows and Linux
files traditionally only have a data fork. If you
wish to fully download MacOS files with resource forks onto Windows or
Linux computers, check
the Transfer MacOS Resource Forks
checkbox on the Preferences
panel. If you leave this checkbox unchecked, downloading any MacOS
files with resource forks to Windows or Linux computers will not
include their resource forks, possibly corrupting the file.
Each resource fork
file name is the same
as its data fork file name, except that a '._' prefix is added. The
'._' prefix is used to ensure compatibility to other cross-platform
file server applications. You may need to view hidden files to see
these '._' prefix files on Windows and Linux. On Fedora 4 Linux, for
example, check the Show Hidden Files
menu item in the View menu on
the desktop.
Note: When you upload files
from MacOS to Windows or Linux and the Macintosh files contain resource
forks, these resource forks are also transferred to the Windows or
Linux computer, irrespective of the setting of the Transfer MacOS Resource Forks
checkbox on the Windows or
Linux computer. Thus, you can correctly and safely backup all your
Macintosh files to a Windows or Linux computer.
Chatting
with remote users
If you are connected to a remote user, you can start a chat session
instantly with them by pressing the Chat
button on the top right side of the Transfer
Files panel. This allows you to send messages to the remote
user, asking them to share particular files with you, telling them
about the great new song they just heard, etc. An example chat session
is shown below in Figure 22.
Figure 22. The Chat window
To send a
message to the user, type it into the textbox and press the Send Message button (or press
'Enter' on the keyboard). The message will be displayed automatically
in your chat window when the remote user has successfully received it.
You username will appear in blue in the chat session, and the remote
user's will appear in green.
To send text in your local clipboard to the remote user (such as web
page URL, email address, etc), copy it to your clipboard and then press
the Send Clipboard button. The
remote user's Copy Clipboard
button will become enabled when they have successfully received the
clipboard text, and they can then copy and paste it into their web
browser or other location. The clipboard is displayed in the chat
window in red, to differentiate it from the chat text.
Note: The Linux version
does
not support colored text in the chat text area. Clipboard transfers are
instead marked with three asterixes at each end of the text eg.
'***This is some transferred clipboard text.***'
To get the
remote user's attention, press the Send
Beep
button. An audible alert
will sound on the remote user's computer, and you will hear it as well.
Remote
media player
Many homes are
now set up with home theatre systems which feature large screen LCD or
plasma TVs and high-powered
multichannel 5.1 surround sound systems. They provide a superb way to
enjoy music and movies in a highly immersive environment.
However, storing and playing music and movies usually involves having
racks of CDs and DVDs, finding and loading disks that you wish to play,
and putting them away after use. Children can also put fingerprints and
scratches on disks (affecting their playback quality), and accidently
put them away in the wrong place (or not at all). It would be much
better to use a hard disk to store the music and movie files, and then
play these media directly from that hard disk.
PC-Mac-Net
FileShare provides the functionality to convert existing computer
hardware (eg. an old Windows or Linux PC) into a media center and file
server. Simply install PC-Mac-Net FileShare on the designated media
computer and place it near a TV and sound system for easy video and
audio connection. Then use another computer, such as a laptop, to
remotely control the playback of music and movies. Typical applications
include piping movies to childrens’ rooms, playing movies and music on
the TV in the lounge, and managing music for a party.
PC-Mac-Net
FileShare works over wired and wireless LANs, as well as over the
Internet. Thus, you can set up your media computer so it is near your
TV and sound system, and there are no wires snaking around your lounge
room. Most people try to set up media computers in this way.
However, you can control media playback with PC-Mac-Net FileShare over the Internet as
well, allowing you to control a movie playing at your home from your
work computer or some other location. Other possibilities include
uploading a new family movie to your grandmother's computer in Florida
using PC-Mac-Net
FileShare
and then playing it for her, or remotely playing sound files (such as
the sounds of people talking) as a burglar deterent. There are many
potential applications.
PC-Mac-Net
FileShare integrates the VLC media player (www.videolan.org) to provide its
media playback functions. This media player can play a very wide
range of media formats, such as MP3, Ogg, AAC, Avi, DivX 5, MPEG4,
Quicktime, WMV2, Sorenson and H264. The only media types that are not
supported by VLC are those protected by DRM (Digital Rights Management)
systems, such as Apple's Fairplay.
Note: Support for the Quicktime
media player on MacOS and Windows is planned for the future. Quicktime works with Apple's Fairplay DRM
system, so will play this type of media as well.
Searching for
files on a remote
computer
You can
search for files and folders contained in the shared folders on a
remote computer by keyword or media type. This allows you to easily
locate files of interest, such as movie or music files, and create
playlists using them. The Media
Playlists
panel is shown in Figure
23 below.
Figure 23. The Media Playlists panel
The search functions are located on the right side of the panel. Here
you can enter the part or parts of a name you wish to search for using
the Search Text textbox, and
select the media type using the Media
Type popup menu. To start a search, press the Search button. To stop a lengthy
search in progress, press the Stop
Search button.
To find files and folders whose names contain particular text, enter
part of the name in the Search Text
textbox and press the Search
button. The remote computer will then search it's shared folders for
files matching that search text, and they will be displayed in the Search Results list.
For example, to search for a movie file called 'Gone with the wind',
you could enter 'wind' and all files whose names contain 'wind' will be
displayed. Alternatively, you could select Movies from the Media Type popup menu (without
search text) and 'Gone with the wind' would also be found.
Searching for folders by name is also easy to do. Select Any Folder from the Media Type popup menu and enter a
part of the name of the folder. The search results will display all
files contained in folders whose name matches your search criteria.
This is particularly useful, for example, if you have organized your
music so that a folder containing all the songs of an album are located
in a folder named after the artist eg. Music -> Alanis Morissette
-> Jagged Little Pill. Alternatively, you may have your movies
organized in folders by genre eg. Action, Horror, Children, etc. To
find all media files of a particular genre, you would simply enter the
genre name, select Any Folder
as the media type and start a search.
The search results are displayed in a tree view, which allows you to
see exactly where a file is located. This tree view is quite similar to
the 'Explorer' view shown for files on the Windows operating system.
You can expand and contract the contents of a folder by clicking the
expand and contract icons shown next to each folder.
If you wish to download files or folders you have found, look at the
the folder containing the file in the tree view and then navigate to
that location using the Remote
File List
on the Transfer
Files
panel.
Setting
up media playlists
Playlists are
simply lists of music or movies which you wish to play in sequence from
the top down.
You can create a new playlist by selecting New Playlist from the File menu - a new playlist will be
created in the Playlists
listbox with an 'Untitled' name, which you can subsequently edit inline
to whatever you like. To remove a playlist, right-click it and select Remove Playlist, or highlight it and
press the delete or backspace key.
Once you have selected a playlist in the Playlists listbox, you can add and
arrange media files in it. To add media files, use the search functions
on the right side of the Media
Playlists panel to find them, then highlight them and press the Add Media button. The files will
then be added to the Media Files
list. You can drag around files shown in the Media Files list to change their
play order, and remove them by right-clicking them and selecting Remote Media File or highlighting
them and pressing the delete or backspace key.
You can
edit any playlists which aren't currently playing.
On most computer systems with reasonable performance, you can also
transfer files to and from the remote computer during playback. Thus,
you can upload a new set of music files or a new movie in the
background whilst playback is occurring, and add them to existing or
new playlists. Building new playlists with new media files during
playback over LANs or the Internet is a very powerful feature in
PC-Mac-Net FileShare.
To create an instant playlist from the results of a search, simply
select some items, right-click the search results and select 'Create
Instant Playlist'. A playlist will be created, named after the first
item selected. You can then play the playlist as usual. This feature is
particularly convenient if you wish to play a movie immediately after
locating it on the remote computer.
Note: You can show and hide media
extensions eg. '.mp3', '.avi', etc. using the Show/Hide Media File Extensions menu
item of the File menu.
Controlling media playback
Media playback
is controlled using the set of controls on the bottom left of the Media
Playlists
panel. With these controls, you can view and change the play position
of the music or movie currently playing, adjust the volume, rewind and
fast forward the play position, and stop playback (see Figure 24 below).
Note: Make sure the Allow Remote Media Control checkbox
on the Preferences panel is
checked on any computers you want to remotely control.
The three time values shown on the top of this area are the amount of
time required to finish playing the current music track, the current
play
position, and the length of the music track respectively.
PC-Mac-Net
FileShare contains an innovative new control system which consists of
composite play/pause, rewind and fast forward controls, called Progressive Media ControlTM. The center
part of the control contains the Play
button. Pressing the Play
button will start media playback, and the Pause button will then appear,
replacing the Play button.
Pressing the Pause button will
pause playback. Pressing it again will continue play.
Figure 24. The Progressive Media ControlTM
The rewind and fast forward controls are progressive - they actually
provide a continuum of rate control from very fine to very fast in both
directions. You use fine control when you are close to the position in
the movie you're interested in, and very fast movement when you need to
move to a new position some way away (of course, you can also drag the Position Slider directly to make
coarse changes to play position).
For example, if you hold the Rewind
button down at the outer end, the rewind rate of the media currently
being played is very fast. As you drag the mouse pointer towards the
center, the rewind rate slows down progressively until you have very
fine control over rewind. If you rewind past the position you wanted,
just drag further across to the Fast
Forward control and the position will slowly increase instead.
Dragging to the outer end of the Fast
Forward button will make the fast forward rate very fast.
Thus, during playback of media files, you can drag across the entire Progressive Media ControlTM to set the exact playback position
you want.
Note: When rewinding and fast
forwarding media (particularly movies), using slow rewind and slow fast
forward rates can cause scenes to appear to be replayed repeatedly.
However, if you hold the control down longer, it will move to new
scenes as it should. This is simply a characteristic of how some types
of compressed movies are encoded (ie. using periodic keyframes).
When playing music, a music playback screen is displayed on the remote
computer (see Figure 25
below). The large graphic at the top shows whether the current song is
playing or paused, and the progress bar at the bottom shows graphically
the current play position. The amount of time required to finish
playing the music track, the current play position, and the length of
the music track are shown at the bottom of the screen. In the center is
displayed the track title, artist and album.
Figure 25. The Music Playback screen
To stop playback at any time, press the Stop Playback button. The media
player will also be closed, showing the Ready For Action... backdrop (shown
below in Figure 26).
Figure 26. The Ready For Action screen
To control media playback on multiple remote computers, simply select
the computer you wish to control from the Connect to popup menu. If media is
currently playing on the selected remote computer, the correct
playlist, media name and media position will be displayed on the Media Playlists panel. You can then
set playback position, fast forward, rewind, change the playlist or
media being played, search for media, create new
playlists, set the volume, etc. as usual. These settings will be
automatically saved if you subsequently choose a different remote
computer to control.
Thus, you could set up media computers at different locations in your
home, and play different movies and/or music on each. For example, you
could play a family movie in the children's room, whilst playing
soothing music in the living area. Or you could remotely control the
music played at a pool party in your backyard (or even next door, if
you have a wireless LAN!) from your study.
In addition, you could control movie or music playback of one or more
remote computers over the Internet.
Media
file compatibility
Some media file formats are not fully supported by the VLC media
player. This limits some features of PC-Mac-Net FileShare
when playing these files.
DivX 5: If a movie encoded in
DivX5 format is played, the seek, rewind
and fast forward functions will not work correctly. In addition, the
position of a paused movie will not be saved correctly between launches
of PC-Mac-Net FileShare (the movie will always start playing at the
beginning again). The duration of the movie is also incorrect, and is
assumed to be 3 hours in length. This issue is due to limited DivX5
support in the VLC v0.8.4 media player.
MP4: When music and sound files
encoded in MP4 format (which use the m4a
file extension) are played, album and
artist information is not displayed on the media backdrop.
The
VLC media player
PC-Mac-Net FileShare
integrates the VLC media player (www.videolan.org)
to provide its media playback functions. This media player can
play a
very wide range of media formats, such as MP3, Ogg, AAC, Avi, DivX 5,
MPEG4, Quicktime, WMV2, Sorenson and H264. The only media types that
are not supported by VLC are those protected by DRM (Digital Rights
Management) systems, such as Apple's Fairplay.
The VLC source
code can be found at: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-sources.html
Note
to Windows users
Windows users generally have to be more mindful of viruses, spyware,
and other malware than MacOS and Linux users, to ensure their computers
work reliably and consistently. To ensure protection from malware,
Windows users generally run anti-virus and anti-spyware programs in the
background while they use their Windows computer to do useful tasks.
The problem with many anti-virus and anti-spyware programs on Windows
is that they slow down the effective computer speed, and introduce
unusual and unpredictable delays when performing operations such as
creating or modifying files (particularly large files eg. 700MB Divx
movies), moving data over networks, launching applications, etc.
Tests have shown that opening large files can effectively lock
up a Windows computer for a short time as anti-virus software scans the
file to ensure if it has not been infected. Folders full of movie files
can cause substantial lockup times when scanned by PC-Mac-Net FileShare
as it gets information about these files for inclusion in the local
file list.
Anti-spyware software (including Microsoft's own anti-spyware product)
can noticably delay the launch of movies opened by PC-Mac-Net FileShare
using the VLC media player.
Unfortunately, there is no way to get around this problem without
disabling anti-virus or anti-spyware products (which is not
recommended). However, if you wish to test if these products are
causing delays, you can disable them for a short time until the tests
are complete.
Note
to MacOS Classic users
There is no MacOS Classic version of the VLC media player available,
nor is one planned in the future. However, Quicktime support will be
incorporated in a future version of PC-Mac-Net FileShare,
and this may make it possible to use your old MacOS Classic computer as
a music center.
It is already possible to use a MacOS Classic computer to control media
playback on multiple remote computers.
Note
to Linux Users
VLC is bundled with PC-Mac-Net FileShare for MacOS and Windows.
However, there are many Linux distributions and it would not be
practical to bundle all the different versions with PC-Mac-Net FileShare
for Linux. Thus, you will need to install VLC on your particular Linux
distribution. You can download the latest builds from www.videolan.org.
The only requirement for PC-Mac-Net FileShare
is that you place the 'vlc' executable file inside a folder named 'vlc'
inside the PC-Mac-Net FileShare
application's folder. PC-Mac-Net FileShare
looks for the executable there when it needs to use VLC's services.
On some Linux distributions (eg. Ubuntu), VLC is available by simply
using the 'add software' function. Of course, you will then need to
copy the executable file from the /usr/bin/ folder (or wherever you
/bin/ folder is) into the 'vlc' folder described above.
You will probably need to install a library which PC-Mac-Net FileShare
depends on, called libstdc++5. If you
are running Ubuntu, you should find that the following command line
will install the correct library by downloading it from the Internet:
sudo apt-get install libstdc++5
For other Linux distributions, you should visit the libstdc++5 resource
page for the correct version for your system.
If PC-Mac-Net
FileShare doesn't launch after about 20 seconds on your Linux computer
(the startup time depends on your setup), you should try running PC-Mac-Net FileShare
from the command line. In that way, you can see if there are any error
messages returned by the operating system.
Building your own
remotely controlled media center
Many
homes are
now set up with home theatre systems which feature large screen LCD or
plasma TVs and high-powered
multichannel 5.1 surround sound systems. They provide a superb way to
enjoy music and movies in a highly immersive environment.
However, storing and playing music and movies usually involves having
racks of CDs and DVDs, finding and loading disks that you wish to play,
and putting them away after use. Children can also put fingerprints and
scratches on disks (affecting their playback quality), and accidently
put them away in the wrong place (or not at all). It would be much
better to use a hard disk to store the music and movie files, and then
play these media directly from that hard disk.
PC-Mac-Net
FileShare provides the functionality to convert existing computer
hardware (eg. an old Windows or Linux PC) into a media center and file
server. Simply install PC-Mac-Net FileShare on the designated media
computer and place it near a TV and sound system for easy video and
audio connection. Then use another computer, such as a laptop, to
remotely control the playback of music and movies. Typical applications
include piping movies to childrens’ rooms, playing movies and music on
the TV in the lounge, and managing music for a party.
PC-Mac-Net
FileShare works over wired and wireless LANs, as well as over the
Internet. Thus, you can set up your media computer so it is near your
TV and sound system, and there are no wires snaking around your lounge
room. Most people try to set up media computers in this way.
Choosing
a suitable computer
Personal
computers have been available for
over a decade now, and many users upgrade every few years to newer and
faster machines. The question is, what useful purpose can those old
computers be put to? Most often, they are passed down to other less
discriminating users in the household, given away to friends or
relatives, or dumped. PC-Mac-Net
FileShare provides a way to use these old computers by converting them
into a media center suitable for playing music and movies.
Most
old
computers can play music, but you generally need a faster computer (> 1GHz in speed) Windows or Linux PC
to
play video well. With Macs, an 800MHz G3 appears to be sufficient. The
best approach to finding out what your old
computer is capable of is to install the Lite Edition of PC-Mac-Net
FileShare on it, along with some music and movie files, and then try
playing them using the remote media controls built into PC-Mac-Net
FileShare.
If the computer plays music well, then it could make a good music
center. If it also plays movies well (ie. without stuttering, freezing
or dropouts), then you have a fully fledged media center on your hands.
Of course, you may also be able to partially refurbish an old PC so it
can play music and movies properly, by purchasing and installing a
budget sound card and/or video card for it. Sound cards with 5.1
channel output can be purchased for as little as USD15.00, and video
cards with TV out capabilities can be had for as little as USD40.00.
You'll also need an Ethernet card or wireless network adaptor in the
old PC to connect to your home network, allowing media playback to be
controlled remotely.
If you
want to
set up your computer as a dedicated media center, you won't need to
connect a mouse or keyboard (see the example setups below for further
information about how to do this). Of course, the TV output at the back
of the computer will be connected directly to your TV, so you won't
need a monitor either.
Rather
than
recycling an old PC, you could build a new media computer using budget
PC components from a local PC store, or purchase a complete low-end
system from a catalogue - only the computer box is required as
PC-Mac-Net FileShare works on computers without a monitor (assuming it
has a TV output), keyboard or
mouse. Since a version of PC-Mac-Net FileShare is also available for
Linux, there is great flexibility when choosing a budget packaged PC to
use as a powerful media center.
If you are technically capable, you may save more money by installing
and using a free operating system, such as Linux. There are many
easy-to-install distributions of Linux available for download from the
Internet, such as Ubuntu. Ubuntu
installs easily, detects most computer hardware, and has a simple
installation system for additional software which works via download
over the Internet. A version of Linux called Xebian is also available for the
XBox games console.
Example
Windows setup
If
you want to make your computer a dedicated media center (ie. no mouse
or keyboard connected to it), you need to set it up so that it boots
and runs PC-Mac-Net
FileShare automatically when it's switched on. The following
description assumes that you are relatively familiar with the BIOS
built into PCs, navigating around the Windows desktop, and creating
shortcuts.
The first task is to set the BIOS so it continues even though it finds
no keyboard connected. This is often selectable in the 'Main' BIOS
menu, which will be displayed when you press the 'Delete' key during
computer startup. You need to set the 'All but Keyboard'
(or similar) option for 'Halt On'.
Once you
get through to booting into Windows, you need to ensure that a username
and password is not requested when it starts up (obviously, without a
keyboard attached, you can't type in any information). When you do a
fresh installation of Windows (which is recommended if you are creating
a media center PC), Windows will boot without asking for a username or
password. However, you can change the
user logon settings in the Windows control panels, if your Windows PC
has been used in the past and has multiple user accounts already on it.
Assuming you now have a Windows PC which you can switch on and which
will then boot fully into Windows without user intervention, you now
need to install PC-Mac-Net
FileShare,
create a shortcut to the PC-Mac-Net
FileShare application, and place that shortcut in the Windows 'Startup'
folder. To create a shortcut, right-click the PC-Mac-Net
FileShare application (it should be in C:\Program Files\PC-Mac-Net
FileShare\) and select 'Create Shortcut' from the displayed contextual
menu.
The 'Startup' folder can be found in different locations, depending on
the type of Windows you are running. On Windows XP, you'll find the
'Startup' folder inside the 'Programs' folder, inside the 'Start Menu'
folder, inside the users folder, inside the 'Documents and Settings'
folder.
For example, if your account name was 'Michael' and you only had one
hard drive (ie. drive C:), the location of the 'Startup' folder would
be:
C:\Documents and Settings\Michael\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
Finally, make sure that PC-Mac-Net FileShare is set up correctly. By
default, it should have the Workgroup
Setup Method on the Network
panel set to Auto-Discovery
(with this setting, it should automatically connect to all computers on
your LAN running PC-Mac-Net
FileShare). In addition, ensure the Allow
Remote Media Control checkbox is checked and that you know the Sharing Password set on it. Also,
set up a writeable shared folder to contain the movies and music you
want to remotely control (by default, a shared folder on the desktop
called 'Shared Folder' is created, but you need to check the Writeable checkbox next to it on the
Shared Folders panel - this
will allow you to upload movies and music to it from a remote computer).
It's also a good idea to disable any screensavers (these are often
switched on by default).
If everything is set up correctly, you'll find that when the PC is
switched on, it boots into Windows and runs PC-Mac-Net
FileShare automatically. You should then
have immediate control of the PC from another computer.
Example
MacOS setup
The Mac Mini is an excellent choice for a media center, as it
is very compact and offers high-resolution video output for widescreen
TVs. However, any type of Mac would be suitable, as long as it runs
MacOS X.
If
you want to make your computer a dedicated media center (ie. no mouse
or keyboard connected to it), you need to set it up so that it boots
and runs PC-Mac-Net
FileShare automatically when it's switched on. On MacOS computers, no
keyboard or mouse needs to be connected for it to boot up correctly, so
you don't need to take any special action to achieve this.
Once you
get through to booting into MacOS X, you need to ensure that a username
and password is not requested when it starts up (obviously, without a
keyboard attached, you can't type in any information). To do this, go
to the Accounts control panel,
select the main Admin account
and click the Login Options
selector. You should see a checkbox which allows you to set your Mac to
automatically log in as a particular user. Check this checkbox.
Assuming you now have a Mac which you can switch on and which
will then boot fully into MacOS without user intervention, you now
need to install PC-Mac-Net
FileShare
and add the PC-Mac-Net
FileShare
application to the login items list on the account you selected above
for automatic login. To do this, go to the
Accounts control panel, select
the main Admin account, select
the Login Items panel and add PC-Mac-Net
FileShare
to the list using the Add button at the bottom of the
panel. Then check the checkbox next to the PC-Mac-Net
FileShare
application in the list.
Finally, make sure that PC-Mac-Net FileShare is set up correctly. By
default, it should have the Workgroup
Setup Method on the Network
panel set to Auto-Discovery
(with this setting, it should automatically connect to all computers on
your LAN running PC-Mac-Net
FileShare). In addition, ensure the Allow
Remote Media Control checkbox is checked and that you know the Sharing Password set on it. Also,
set up a writeable shared folder to contain the movies and music you
want to remotely control (by default, a shared folder on the desktop
called 'Shared Folder' is created, but you need to check the Writeable checkbox next to it on the
Shared Folders panel - this
will allow you to upload movies and music to it from a remote computer).
It's also a good idea to disable any screensavers (these are often
switched on by default).
If everything is set up correctly, you'll find that when the Mac is
switched on, it boots into MacOS X and runs PC-Mac-Net
FileShare automatically. You should then
have immediate control of the PC from another computer.
Example
Linux setup
There are many
easy-to-install
distributions of Linux available for download from the Internet, such
as Ubuntu. Ubuntu installs
easily,
detects most computer hardware, and has a simple installation system
for additional software which works via download over the Internet. The
following discussion assumes that you are using the Ubuntu Linux
distribution.
If you
want to
make your computer a dedicated media center (ie. no mouse or keyboard
connected to it), you need to set it up so that it boots and runs PC-Mac-Net
FileShare automatically when it's switched on. The following
description assumes that you are relatively familiar with the BIOS
built into PCs, and creating
shortcuts.
The first task is to set the BIOS so it continues even though it finds
no keyboard connected. This is often selectable in the 'Main' BIOS
menu, which will be displayed when you press the 'Delete' key during
computer startup. You need to set the 'All but Keyboard'
(or similar) option for 'Halt On'.
Once you
get through to booting into Ubuntu Linux, you need to ensure that a
username
and password is not requested when it starts up
(obviously,
without a keyboard attached, you can't type in any information). After
logging in, select Login Screen Setup
from the Administration item
of the System menu. On this
control panel, select Login a user
automatically on first bootup and close the control panel.
Assuming you now have a Ubuntu Linux PC which you can
switch on and which
will then boot fully into Ubuntu Linux without user
intervention, you now
need to install PC-Mac-Net
FileShare,
and make it so that PC-Mac-Net
FileShare is started automatically.
To make PC-Mac-Net
FileShare start automatically, select Sessions from the Preferences item of the System menu. On this control panel,
move to the Startup Programs
panel, press the Add button
and navigate to and select the PC-Mac-Net FileShare application.
Important Note: the file path
to the PC-Mac-Net
FileShare application can contain no spaces, otherwise Linux won't be
able to launch the application correctly (it always views a space as
the end of a command line, and processes text after the space as
control options). To fix this problem, replace all spaces in the path to the PC-Mac-Net FileShare
application
with underscores, '_'. After changing the path, make sure you update
the path in the Startup Programs
panel as described above.
Finally, make sure that PC-Mac-Net FileShare is set up correctly. By
default, it should have the Workgroup
Setup Method on the Network
panel set to Auto-Discovery
(with this setting, it should automatically connect to all computers on
your LAN running PC-Mac-Net
FileShare). In addition, ensure the Allow
Remote Media Control checkbox is checked and that you know the Sharing Password
set on it. Also, set up a writeable shared folder to contain the movies
and music you want to remotely control (by default, a shared folder on
the desktop called 'Shared Folder' is created, but you need to check
the Writeable checkbox next to
it on the Shared Folders panel
- this will allow you to upload movies and music to it from a remote
computer).
It's also
a good idea to disable any screensavers (these are often switched on by
default).
If everything is
set up correctly, you'll find that when the PC is
switched on, it boots into Ubuntu Linux and runs PC-Mac-Net
FileShare automatically. You should then
have immediate control of the PC from another computer.
Macintosh
file types and creators
You can also modify
the Macintosh files
types and creators assigned to a file which is transferred from a
Windows PC by pressing the MacOS file types
button. This will
bring up the MacOS file types dialog shown in Figure 27 below.
Using the dialog, you can add an entry by putting in the extension of a
file on the Windows PC (eg. 'pdf') and then pressing the Add file's
type... button. This will allow you to select an existing file on
your computer with the type and creator you want mapped to this file
extension.
Figure 27. The MacOS File
Types dialog
Localization
into other languages
PC-Mac-Net FileShare can now be easily localized into any Unicode-based
language eg. German, Japanese, Hebrew, Spanish, Dutch, etc.
The default
language
is English, and the localization process works by enabling you to
easily enter a translation in a target language for all button names,
dymanic help text, tab panel titles, etc. used by PC-Mac-Net FileShare.
Once a
language file has been created, it can then be selected for use (via
the Preferences panel)
and also distributed to other users. Language files are
saved in the Languages folder
in the PC-Mac-Net FileShare application folder.
To create a new
language file or edit an existing one, select Edit... from the Language popup menu in the Preferences panel. The dialog
shown in Figure 28 below will
be displayed.
Figure 28. The Localize Language
dialog for the French language
To create a new
language file, enter the name of the language in the top-right textbox
and press
the Create button. If you
wish to edit an existing language file, select it from the Language popup menu. In the example
dialog above, a 'French' language file has been created.
A unique English Property Name is assigned to
each translatable item to identify
it. For example, 'TabPanelNews' is the name used to identify the title
of the News
panel.
On the left side of
the dialog, the English Property Value
is displayed. This value is built into PC-Mac-Net FileShare and cannot
be changed by the user. However, the Localized
Property Value can be changed. This textbox is where the
translated text is entered and/or edited.
The person
translating simply
works through the list of English
Property Names by selecting each in turn from the English Property Name popup menu and
entering the translation. The translation should be made using the same
style of expression, and the same length of text, as the English
property value. This
is because many buttons, etc. have limited room for text and must look
right after the translation process is complete.
To see which
properties have not yet been translated, check the Only List Properties Not Translated
checkbox. All localized properties which are different to their
equivalent English properties will be eliminated from the popup menu.
This helps translators work through all translations efficiently.
Press the Save button to save your entries
and/or edits to the language file.
Issues relating to the
Linux version
The Linux (i86) version of PC-Mac-Net FileShare is a first release, and
may have some stability issues on particular system configurations.
There are a number of considerations you should keep in mind when using
this version:
- Screensaver activation during transfers may cause PC-Mac-Net
FileShare to lock up. Deactivate your screensaver when using PC-Mac-Net
FileShare.
- Files with path names containing unusual or exotic characters
will probably not transfer correctly. Try changing source file path
names so they don't contain unusual characters.
- Localization into other languages is very limited on the Linux
version,
and may not work correctly on your particular system configuration.
- Up to 3 remote users can download files at the same
time on the Linux version (the MacOS and Windows versions support 5
concurrent users).
- File sizes up to 2GB are supported.
Please report any
problems to service@lavasoftware.com
and include as much detail as possible about the sequence of
operations you performed which led to the problem manifesting itself,
your Linux installation details, and anything else which you believe
may be affecting it.
News
and updates
The News
panel
(shown in Figure
29 below)
displays the latest
news from Lava Software, the edition and version number of the
PC-Mac-Net FileShare application, and the runtime key used in the
installation.
If a news update
was released since you last launched PC-Mac-Net FileShare and your
computer is connected to the Internet, the News
panel will be automatically
selected and an alert sound will be played to inform you of the update.
To change the
runtime key of an existing installation, press the Key button and paste in the new
runtime key. This may be necessary, for example, if you accidently
enter
the same runtime key on two computers running PC-Mac-Net FileShare on
your network, or wish to convert an existing installation of PC-Mac-Net
FileShare from the 'Standard Edition' to the 'Pro Edition'.
Figure 29. The News panel
Additional notes
If you get a message
saying that a computer is unreachable, try again. Sometimes network
packets get lost (especially in congested networks) and simply trying
again can result in success.
If your Internet
connection is
protected by a firewall and you will be transferring files across the
Internet, you may need to enable the port used by PC-Mac-Net FileShare,
so that the software will work correctly on your system. The default
port used is 3300, but you can use another port if you wish. You can
set the base port number on the Preferences
panel
(quit and relaunch for the change to take effect).
A file shown in the
My Local File List listbox or
the Remote File List listbox
with a 'Y'
marked under the 'Mac' heading is a Macintosh file with a resource
fork. When transferring these types of files to another Macintosh, all
file information will be transferred correctly. However, when
transferring these types of files to a PC, only the data
fork will be transferred (thus, the file may become corrupted). You
may wish to use a MacBinary conversion program on the Macintosh to
first convert the file to MacBinary format before transferring it to a
PC.
If a control is
disabled, the dynamic help text associated with it will be displayed in
red. Normally, it is displayed in black.