Sharing and syncing information with Live Mesh
Trying to transfer and share documents across computers can be really troublesome at times. Although USB sticks are convenient, they have their limitations especially if you plan to share files with a group of friends. Emails work to a certain extent but can get pretty disorganized. It is not uncommon to end up with files of different versions residing all over the place.
Well I found a way to solve all these problems. Microsoft recently launched an online service called Live Mesh. It offers 5 gigabyte of storage space online for free. The first impression is that it is simply an online storage space for your files but I soon discovered that Live Mesh is a really nifty service.
Let me share with you how to setup this service as well as some of the interesting and useful features of Live Mesh.
The first thing you need to do is to visit www.mesh.com and sign in to the service using your Windows Live ID account. You can then connect to the Live Desktop which is your online desktop. Next you need to create a new folder.
Once you have this folder, you can upload files to this folder and access this online storage anywhere as long as you are connected to the Internet. This feature is pretty common and you can find other similar services on the Internet.
Now the next setup step is what make this service really nice to use.
You can click on the Add Device button and install a small application (around 1.4 MB). What this application does is that it creates a folder on your device (my computer in this case) that sync directly with the online folder.
You can open this folder and the service will automatically sync it with the online desktop.
Similarly, you can add new files to this folder just like how you do it with a normal folder and the service will also make sure that the online folder is in sync with it! How cool is that? Now you can add files to your folder on your PC easily and access it elsewhere via a web browser.
The folder also has a special sidebar that notifies you of the recent changes on the folder. You can grant your friends access to the online folder and easily track what are the files that your friends have added. Definitely a great feature to use for group projects.
You may ask, "What happen if I need to access a file but it is not in the sync folder?". No worries, Live Mesh even integrates remote desktop access in the service. Simply select the device that you have added and connect to it.
You can now access the device remotely right on your web browser. No more complicated setup or software required to perform remote access. Everything can be done via the web browser.
That basically wrapped up the introduction on the Live Mesh service. I think this is a really great service. Even though it is currently on beta, it is pretty impressive. Furthermore, I believe most of the services can be accessed on most browsers (for my case, I am using Chrome).
However for the remote device access, you can use this feature only if you are using Internet Explorer as it requires a ActiveX control. The remote access appears to be slight buggy. It seems to slow down the Netbook that I was connected to even after the connection has been disconnected. I am not sure if this is because the service is still in beta or perhaps the hardware of the Netbook is not adequate in supporting remote access.
In general, everything seems to work well though the user interface and syncing can be slow at times.
Overall, Live Mesh is a pretty amazing service that simplifes sharing of information. I hope you find this service useful as well.
