Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
There has been a lot of buzz recently about OpenTape, which is an open source project spun off from muxtape after it got into trouble with the RIAA and others. It basically lets you host your own music playlist from a web server, allowing anyone to stream your shared music from the web.
However, this will open you up to the same legal problems that muxtape had… since sharing your music, even by streaming it in real-time, is a touchy subject at the very least.
That being said… since we think OpenTape is such a cool piece of software, we have written a step-by-step tutorial on how to set it up on your own computer for the purpose of sharing your playlist privately and securely with just the people you know and trust. Its also a great way to listen to your own home playlist while you are at work or out on your laptop. Everything you need is free and it takes just a few minutes to get it up and running on top of Remobo:
Securely Share Your Entire Music Collection using OpenTape
It gives you one-click access to all your music from anywhere… and also lets you share music with your buddies securely and privately 
For those totally unfamiliar with OpenTape, here are some links to the recent buzz, to get you up to speed:
techcrunch.com
readwriteweb.com
gigaom.com
Monday, September 15th, 2008
Let’s take a look at how easy it is to create your own private BitTorrent file sharing network using Remobo. With popular services like AllPeers now gone, we see it as an opportunity for this app to step in and fill the void.
The best thing about this method is that Remobo is actually a platform, leaving you free to use any BT client you prefer. Of course, like any other app that runs on top of this platform, it requires no configuration nor networking knowledge to get up and running. This method below works on both Windows and Mac OS X.
Getting Started
Say you want to share the latest and greatest movie trailer, tv show, music video or whatever else you can imagine, with all your buddies. These media files might not contain anything copyrighted or even questionable, but you value your privacy and freedom and want to make sure not even your ISP can see that you are sharing this file. This is where Remobo’s instant private BT sharing comes in.
Step 1: Login to Remobo and Add Your Buddies
If you don’t already have Remobo installed, you can grab it here.
After that just create a new account instantly or login with your existing one. Then, have your buddies do the same and add them to your buddy list. At its core, this app will create an instant VPN between you and your buddies so everything you send and receive from each other over Remobo is encrypted and secure. This is what keeps everything “private”.
Step 2: Choose the Files and/or Folders to Share
This is where the magic happens. From the Remobo app, you can slick on “My Shared Files” and start adding a bunch of files and folders that you want to share. Its best to add each bundle of files separately, though it is also OK to add just one huge parent folder and let your buddies decide what they want exactly. The choice depends on how many files you have and how easy you want your buddies to be able to find stuff.
After choosing the files and folders, Remobo will automatically create torrent files for these in the background and even start seeding them up via a built-in BT process that is used for seeding and tracker purposes only. Its important to note that only people in your Remobo buddy list can connect and download these torrent files from you, so its not as if you are seeding or tracking these files publicly.
Step 3: Your Buddies can Now Browse, Search and Download Your Shared Files Privately
After that initial setup, your buddies will be able to see all your shared files by clicking on you in their buddy list and selecting “View Shared Files”. This will bring up a familiar web interface listing all the torrent files that have been created for you. Remember, Remobo created these files when you decided to share them and is also seeding them for you… so there’s no extra work or BitTorrent knowledge required on your end.
Your buddies can click on any of these torrent files to launch their preferred BT client. It works like any of the public torrent tracker sites out there, except that all data between you and your buddy is securely encrypted by Remobo and no one besides your own buddies can ever see this list of shared files.
Wrapping Up
Now that you know how to create a private BitTorrent file sharing network… go round up a bunch of your trusted buddies and start sharing those files with each other privately and securely!
In fact, ISPs can’t even throttle your bandwidth because it doesn’t look like BT traffic at all… just a bunch of encrypted data packets… kinda like what it would look like if you were working from home via your corporate VPN 
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
We recently fixed some issues with our DNS servers not resolving certain names correctly, and it reminded me about one of the great features built into Remobo.
Instead of remembering IP addresses, you can connect with any of your buddies by using the domain name: [buddyname].remobo.com
If your buddy is logged in at multiple locations and you need to specify it exactly, just use: [location].[buddyname].remobo.com
For example, if “joe” is logged in at at “homePC”, you can reach him using joe.remobo.com or homePC.joe.remobo.com
This will always resolve to his current virtual IP for easy access no matter what application you are using. It’s also great for mobility sine “joe” can login anywhere and still be reachable with that same domain name. It’s like having a free dynamic DNS service built in whenever you are using Remobo!
We hope you enjoy this feature and let us know if you have any comments or feedback!
