nylyon-(Admin) 7,120 #1 Posted April 11, 2014 I have e a few Mac's in the house. A Mac Mini which is used as a home server storing pictures, music, movies, documents, backups etc. Then an iMac desktop, and 2 MacBook laptops. Anyone who has more than 1 mac knows that they work very nicely together, allowing to share everything seamlessly like iTunes libraries, photo's etc. We enjoy camping and usually bring along one of the Macbook's, but once you leave your home network you no longer enjoy the seamless sharing of things like iTunes (we have a LOT of music and movies). So this past week I decided to experiment with what's called a VPN (Virtual Private Network) which I was able to easily get running. The problem with Apple's on a VPN is that the "Bonjour" service does not work (for good technical reasons). Bonjour is the thing which makes Mac's seamlessly talk to one another. To find a solution, I stumbled upon Slink. Slink has 2 components, one which gets installed on the "home" computer and one on the laptop or remote computer. Once installed there is almost nothing to do except enter a couple numbers and you're connected. Slink allows Bonjour and subsequently all the nice seamless Apple stuff just works. This is a great option for those of you who have more than one Mac and want to travel and still access everything at home just like you're there. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
leeave96 487 #2 Posted April 11, 2014 I've always had one PC at the house. Now we've got two iPhones and an iPad. I think a Mac mini is next and this Slink looks very good as an addition. Great report! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nylyon-(Admin) 7,120 #3 Posted April 11, 2014 As of now, Slink only works with Mac's. Apparently they've been working on an iOS version (for years!), but as of now it's not available. So.... if you only have 1 Mac, this wouldn't apply. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
leeave96 487 #4 Posted April 11, 2014 As of now, Slink only works with Mac's. Apparently they've been working on an iOS version (for years!), but as of now it's not available. So.... if you only have 1 Mac, this wouldn't apply. Good info - thanks again! I looked at their website and their feature comparison to others and to a hack PC guy like me, it looks impressive - especially for the cost. I've got a fair amount of figuring out what and how I want to set-up things on the Apple side. Always had (showing my age here... ) DOS and Windows PCs. So far the iPad and iPhones are working great and working together great too - very easy. I see that my Wife and I will migrate to 100% Apple stuff, including desktop and laptops. Most likely my Wife will have a tablet sooner than later. The wrinkle is - her interests in content, i.e. pics, videos, programs and iTunes are different than mine. Right now we have her phone set-up separately from my iPhone and tablet. It probably isn't the best way to segregate, but is working for now. I just need more time to dig into this stuff. What I don't know with the Mini Mac is where and when a server is necessary or not. As I get closer to this, I'll likely post a separate thread on Apple "systems" to keep my posts on topic. Great info! Thanks, Bill Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nylyon-(Admin) 7,120 #5 Posted April 11, 2014 In the grand scheme of things, you don't need a "server". Apple has all that cloud stuff, but having a central location to host your pictures, video's music etc comes in handy to reduce keeping that stuff on your iPad's and such. When at home, your iPad's and iPhones can access music, pictures and videos all from the Mac-Mini. Downfall to this is when you're not at home, they're not there unless they're in the cloud. My music and video's are too large to keep on the cloud so keeping things central on the Mac Mini makes a lot of sense to me. Another benefit of this software it allows screen sharing. So, what I intend to do is use it to screen share with my iMac then I can turn on the video camera to check up on the house! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
leeave96 487 #6 Posted April 11, 2014 Yes - what I'm thinking about is a central place to back up separate Mac's, iPhones and iPads- beyond the Cloud. Also pushing files, be it PDFs, videos, pics, etc to a place where they can be re-accessed remotely, free up the portable device's data space and perhaps lower their initial cost. In my work, I have tons of reference files (like PDFs) that eat up a lot of space. I have tons of manuals for everything I've owned from a Wheelhorse to a cordless drill. Lots of "how to" info. It would be nice to be out on a trip or visiting someone and be able to say - "I've got that document or instruction - I'll pull it up from the server." I think???? this is why a server might be beneficial???? Like I said, I've got much reading/learning to do. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nylyon-(Admin) 7,120 #7 Posted April 11, 2014 Sounds like what I am doing too! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nylyon-(Admin) 7,120 #8 Posted April 14, 2014 Went to my mother-in-law's over the weekend and gave it a go. Can't say enough about this it worked stellar (until we lost power at home long enough to drain the UPS). My daughter was watching a Batman movie which is on our home iTunes server (Mac Mini) with zero issues. We even turned on Photo Booth on the iMac to get a view of the house! Very slick stuff for the geek minded like me! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
leeave96 487 #9 Posted April 14, 2014 Very cool!!!!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Influencer88 3 #10 Posted May 25, 2014 Never been much for macs. They are definitely nice but for the money they do the same thing my windows computers do. There is definitely some plus sides, like the easy integration you get across products, that is the benefit of systems built from the ground up to work together. I have a Linux server that serves as a central hub for everything, music, movies, shows, pictures, etc. It connects with our phones (android), tablets, roku in 2 rooms, 2 laptops and 2 desktops. I can access all of my files from anywhere. And it's completely scalable for my needs. Plus if something caps out I can be up and running again in no time for less than $ 50 bucks. All that being said, apple tailors very well to the technologically challenged, and that is what this sub forum is about. It is easy to use and since every mac model has the same hardware it just works. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nylyon-(Admin) 7,120 #11 Posted May 25, 2014 Well, I don't consider myself technically challenged but you're correct, it is generally easier to get up and running on a Mac. PC manufactures install so much bloatware on the computer it's almost unusable out of the box. While easier, the OS is a Unix system which is the same operating system used in many large corporations to handle their complex computing and enterprise systems. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
