How To Connect Two Laptops

[drum]

how do you connect two laptops,to access each other,files emails so on

[A_Traveller]

Your sub-header says Thai - UK. Does that mean the laptops are in those countries?

Sharing emails may be tricky depending by what you mean.

Please provide the following:-

Operating Systems for each laptop e.g No.1 Windows XP No.2 Vista

Email software e.g Outlook, Thunderbird Bat etc.

Are email accounts web based, such as Hotmail, gmail?

Regards

[drum]

Your sub-header says Thai - UK. Does that mean the laptops are in those countries?

Sharing emails may be tricky depending by what you mean.

Please provide the following:-

Operating Systems for each laptop e.g No.1 Windows XP No.2 Vista

Email software e.g Outlook, Thunderbird Bat etc.

Are email accounts web based, such as Hot mail, gmail?

Regards

i use a laptop, hp outlook windows vista hot mail in UK, i have the same laptop in Thai wanted to know if i can connect the two to access files,so if im in Thai would it be possible to access my UK laptop,and vise versa,or is it not possible unless both laptops are turned on,

[siamect]

If you are using both the laptops regularly you can just leave the emails on the server for a number of days... should be somewhere in the settings in the email client. Make sure you do it on both laptops and on all mail accounts. Then the mails will arrive to both computers.

Sharing files used to be simple before win7 came out... but reports in this forum tells me that there are problems, but there are also solutions.

The easiest way to make two MS boxes talk to each other is to put a Gnu/Linux box in between.... and the truth is you need a backup server anyway...

If you work in project form and the data is important for you I recommend using a distributed version control system (Git is the best) instead of sharing folders or using internet based drop boxes.

There is a learning threshold though, because most such systems were made for programmers so all examples contain stuff that has to do with programming. It makes people think that you need the command line but there are good graphical stuff available "git gui" and "gitk" so the command line is optional.

The Windows version msysGit is good.

The advantages are huge and it solves your backup problems, it makes sharing files easy and safe and secure, it makes it possible to know when a file is changed... otherwise you never know if the file you use are the right one... and you are geographically independent.

I will not give you more details about DVCS here because the subject is better learned elsewhere... don't be overwhelmed...

Martin

[siamect]

i use a laptop, hp outlook windows vista hot mail in UK, i have the same laptop in Thai wanted to know if i can connect the two to access files,so if im in Thai would it be possible to access my UK laptop,and vise versa,or is it not possible unless both laptops are turned on,

Hotmail is no problems you can reach it from the wen anywhere...

If you need to access them directly they need to be on. If they are not on... you need some storage somewhere else. Most such services are crappy...and they are often marketed as online backup services. But the majority of these services are not usable as backup and they are not good for sharing either.

Most of them have this thing that anyone can change a document and that document is copied automatically to the server and when your other computer is turned on the changed files are automatically written to that computer too... Not clever if the change you did was in-deliberate or if it later on turned out to be wrong. ANd in most cases you don't even know it has happened...

That's when you need a DVCS...

[Tywais]

One possibility is setting up a VPN between the two. Another is if you just need to transfer files back and forth then you can use something like FileZilla a ftp server, which is free under GNU license. Normally you would need a static IP but using a service such as no-ip or DynDNS will deal with this issue. More info on Dynamic DNS Services > PC on PCs.

The e-mail issue has been addressed above.

[Tropicalevo]

i use a laptop, hp outlook windows vista hot mail in UK, i have the same laptop in Thai wanted to know if i can connect the two to access files,so if im in Thai would it be possible to access my UK laptop,and vise versa,or is it not possible unless both laptops are turned on,

Difficult to see how you can access a laptop if it is not switched on. No power - no disc movement

There is a lot of software around for accessing remote computers eg http://www.anyplace-control.com/ - just do a search on "accessing one computer from another one", but I am sure that they all need to be switched on and attached to the internet or to a WAN!

[griser]

Google a program called Hamachi. it's a VPN program that is very easy to use.

The two computers will effectively be on ONE network, share files, apps . you can even use the printers on the other box with hamachi.

[siamect]

....using a service such as no-ip or DynDNS will deal with this issue. More info on Dynamic DNS Services > PC on PCs.

I think this, read above, is a good idea in combination with an additional server. Put it where your power and internet connections are stable and keep it on while you are away.

That's how I have done it. I use afraid.org for my ddns records.

The server could be any computer with enough cooling to run 24x7 and there are good server OS editions out there... Or you can go for a "NAS kind of device" that does the job...

Use encrypted protocols....

Martin