Action for Libraries
The Internet Connection
By Michael Sauers
Access Your Files Over the Internet
As someone who travels and is constantly using different computers, one of the biggest issues I run into on a regular basis is making sure
I have the correct files with me wherever I go. Most of the time, copies of the files for my active projects are kept with me on my 1GB
jump drive. However, every once in a while I find myself at home, at work or on the road without the file I need.
In the past six months I've worked out a system that allows me to securely connect to one of my computers over the Internet, run my e- mail program on the remote machine and e-mail the needed file to myself. I then need to log in to my e-mail's Web interface, open the e- mail and download the attachment to the computer I'm currently using. This works, but is hardly an efficient solution. I've been searching for something better, and I've finally found it — Maxthon Access (www.maxthon.com/access/).
Maxthon Access (MA) is a small, free program you download and install onto your computers. (In my case, that's my office laptop, my
TabletPC and my home desktop.) Post installation, you create an MA account with the typical username and password combination. Once
your account has been created, you'll be asked to name this computer, which will associate it with your account. The program is then set to
run automatically and places an icon in your system tray.
Right-click on the MA icon and select Log-In. Your Web browser will open to the MA Log-In page. Once your username and password have been accepted, you'll be presented with the MA interface, listing the names of the computers you've attached to your account.
Select the name of the computer you wish to access, and you will be presented with a list of folders and drives on that computer. Linked is the view of my home desktop computer.
You can select any of these icons to browse the contents of that computer just as though you were sitting at that computer. In the upper right corner of the MA window are two links, Detail and Thumbnail. These are the different views for the items you're currently looking at. The next two screenshots, linked above, show the contents of one of my folders in each of the views.
To transfer a file from the remote computer to the local computer, first click on that file to bring up the file's page. Then, click on the Download link in the upper right corner of the MA window. Just as if you were downloading a file from any other Web site, you will be presented with your browser's open or save dialog box. Pick whichever is appropriate and click OK. (Downloading the complete contents of a folder is also available by clicking on Download Folder while viewing a folder's contents.)
Overall I am impressed with this system and plan on using it in the future. However, there are a few small limitations to the system about which users should be aware.
- First, MA will not allow you to access any network-based resources you may normally have access to if you were actually at that computer. For example, the hard drive on my BCR laptop is rather small, so I have placed my My Documents folder on the BCR network. Therefore, when I view my BCR laptop using MA, this resource is not available to me.
- Second, the transfer times on large files are a bit slow. In one test, I downloaded a 24kb Word file, and it took about one second to transfer. This was a perfectly reasonable download time. However, when I transferred an 18mb mpeg video file, the transfer rate averaged about 12kbps, resulting in a 26-minute download time. That's not as fast as I would have liked, but it did get me the file I needed.
- Third, users should not assume that the transferring of files is secure. I could not find any indication on the Maxthon site that the transfer of files is encrypted, so sensitive data is subject to interception.
- Lastly, and although this may be obvious to many, it is worth mentioning, MA will only work with computers that are currently turned on, connected to the Internet and running the MA program. If you attempt to connect to a computer that is not currently online, you will be unable to browse its contents.
