Accessing files on a network

[jeremany91]

I'd like to access files on other computers on my home network with my T|X :D, but I don't know how I can do this?

Is that what VPN is for? If so, are there any free VPN clients?

Thanks in advance,
jeremany91

[dmccunney]

I'd like to access files on other computers on my home network with my T|X :D, but I don't know how I can do this?

Is that what VPN is for? If so, are there any free VPN clients?VPN is Virtual Private Network. Files can be shared across one, but it implements the network, not the sharing mechanism. There are VPN clients for PalmOS, but I don't think they are required for this.

There are several options you can look at. For remote access to a PC on your desktop, you can use a Palm version of VNC. VNC (Virtual Network Computing) is a free, open source utility originally written by AT&T's Cambridge Research Labs to allow remote access to GUI on a host machine. A VNC server process on the host does the work, and a VNC client connects to it. I had VNC implemented at the office to provide GUI access the the Unix servers I administered. This would normally have required a commercial X-Server package like Hummingbird installed on the PC, but VNC served instead.

PalmVNC is here: http://palmvnc2.free.fr/

To use this, you will need to run a VNC server process on the PC you wish to access. There are several out there. the original developers of VNC offer a version in free and commercially supported proversions, called RealVNC, here:
http://www.realvnc.com

Because VNC was open source, other developers have picked up on it. You can also look at TightVNC, here: http://www.tightvnc.com/

and UltraVNC, here: http://www.uvnc.com/

Both are free and open source. I use TightVNC, but any of them will do.

For file transfer, there are a couple of possibilities. One is ftp, and the other is Samba. Ftp assumes an FTP server is running on the host. There is a PalmOS ftp client called lftp, written by Laurent Thaler, here: http://lthaler.free.fr/

Microsoft networks use a protocol called SMB to connect devices on the network. There are several SMB clients for Palm OS, that let a Palm device access files on a PC across a network.

A free, open source version is smbclient, here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/palm-smbclient/

A freeware version is SMBMate, here:
http://palm.projekt-base.de/wiki/upload/SmbMate1.0.a.8.zip

There is also a version in the Freeware sections here at 1src
http://www.1src.com/freeware/fileinfo.php?id=336

I believe the link I posted is a more recent version.

This is an older version of what became the shareware WiFile product for HandsHigh Software.

WiFile is here: http://www.handshigh.com/html/wifile.html

I use SMBMate here.
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Dennis

[jeremany91]

I installed WiFile Pro a couple of days ago, but I couldn't get it to work... and I'm not sure why.

Is SMBMate easier to use?

[dmccunney]

I installed WiFile Pro a couple of days ago, but I couldn't get it to work... and I'm not sure why.

Is SMBMate easier to use?Hard to say, since I haven't used WiFile Pro. Since WiFile Pro is basically an enhanced version of SMBMate, I'd expect it to behave in much the same fashion with equivalent ease of use.

I got SMBMate to work fairly easily, but I'm an IT guy and know a little about networking.

At a guess, your issues are on the network side. You need to be sure the files you want to access via the PDA are shared to the network, and you need to make sure your PDA is authorized as a peer on the network.
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Dennis

[jeremany91]

I've just got it to work, I didn't give it enough time to find the workgroup.

It's a little off-topic but... Do you know how to restore the security/sharing defaults for folders in Vista?

[dmccunney]

I've just got it to work, I didn't give it enough time to find the workgroup.Oh, good.

It's a little off-topic but... Do you know how to restore the security/sharing defaults for folders in Vista?Nope. I don't run Vista, and have no plans to do so. I dual boot 2K Pro and XP Pro, and the next OS in the mix is probably Ubuntu Linux.

Sorry...
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Dennis

[BrentDC]

I personally use Resco Explorer for SMB (it also does a slew of other stuff, including FTP), and it is REALLY easy to setup and use. I would recommend it to anybody.

[jeremany91]

Oh, how do you do that then?

I have Resco Explorer 2.61 :)

[BrentDC]

The networking was introduced in version 3+, so you would have to get that :)