Saturday, August 11th, 2007

My Top 10 Uses for Remobo

Remobo is a great tool IMHO… and here’s my top 10 uses, in no particular order:

Share Bulk Digital Photos with Friends/Family - I still love using flickr for browsing, but after a night out or a vacation… I always get people asking me to send them all the pictures I took during the trip in their original format. What a nightmare that used to be! Now, I just share the folder on my computer and they can browse that folder directly over Remobo and copy everything over without me lifting a finger

Access My Home Computer from Work - I love having access to my home computer wherever I am… especially at work when I need some files from home, or want to check on a download, or just wanna browse the web from my home computer instead of having everything logged when I browse from work The best thing is, I can use any client I like… such as the built-in one (VNC) or my favorite, which is Windows Remote Desktop since it runs quite a bit faster.

Have a LAN-Party over the Internet - This applies to all LAN-party type games in general… but more specifically, there’s no way to play 1v1 Counter-Strike Source against my buddy unless we are on the same LAN or have an actual CS server of our own. With Remobo, its like we are on the same LAN all the time, even though we are miles away… problem solved. Why 1v1? Well, that’s the only way for me to prove that I’m better, LOL! Of course you can run full LAN parties with multiple players as well…

Secure File Transfer - I hate how file transfers using clients like AIM, YM and MSN never seem to work for me because of firewall and router settings. It seems that everytime I try the seemingly simple task of sending a file to a friend over AIM, it gets rejected with a “could not connect” error. Remobo uses some peer-to-peer technology to make sure you can connect no matter what kind of router or firewall settings you have, so its now my tool of choice for those simple file transfers that never used to be so simple. An added benefit… everything is secure and encrypted so no one except the intended recipient will be able to see that embarassing bachelor party picture you just sent over

Stream Videos/Media from my Friends’ Computers - Some of my friends have tons of videos, tv shows, and other media on their computers… So, rather than burning them onto DVD’s or copying them over for me, they just share the folder containing the media. With Remobo installed, I can then browse the contents of the shared folder (which can be password protected of course) and open video files or music as if it were local, so I can watch it instantly on my own computer.

Printing over the Internet - You may be asking why I would need this?… but it’s actually come in handy more than a few times. Once I wanted to print some flyers on my brother’s expensive color printer while I was at home, and I also print stuff to my work printer while I’m pulling overtime at home. Again, with Remobo installed on both sides, all you have to do is share your printer, and the other side can print as if you were right next to each other or on the same LAN.

Syncing and Backing-Up Files - This one is ultra-useful. No matter where I am… I can sync or back-up files from my laptop to my desktop and vice versa. There are many options for how to do this. The easiest is to simply use a shared folder on both sides, but if you want instant syncing or backup, just use any available third party software. With Remobo installed, you don’t need to be on the same LAN, so I can backup files from my laptop to my home computer even when I’m on business trips to Asia. (I’m very paranoid about losing or people stealing my laptop as you can see.)

Secure Messaging - Sometimes I just want to make sure that nobody (like the office IT department) can log or see what I’m typing to a friend… so I fire up Remobo’s built-in instant messaging client. Since most of my friends also have Remobo installed (after telling them how cool it is, haha), I can send them messages securely and know that anything we chat about will be encrypted and virtually impossible to decipher. Most recently I used it to ask my buddy if there were any job openings at his office while I was still at work Note: It’s pretty basic at the moment, with no smilies etc, but hopefully that will change in the near future.

Instant VPN - If you don’t know what a VPN is, its essentially a private, secure network that businesses use to allow employees to connect back into work no matter where they are. In general, they are difficult and costly to setup and maintain. With Remobo, you can have a VPN up and running instantly (and for free of course). We use it as our VPN within my small startup venture that only has a few people at the moment… however it seems like it can scale up to companies with lots of people just as easily.

Video Conferencing - One of the coolest features of Remobo is the ability to use it with virtually any third-party application. One of favorite applications is NetMeeting… its not the latest and greatest, but it gets the job done, its built right in to Windows and its free! We use it to set up secure video conferences between several people.