Hamachi

Hamachi is yellowfin tuna in a sushi restaurant. It is also the coolest tool yet for private networking.

Hamachi is multi platform, allows totally secure connections to your home or corporate network and allows secure browsing at WiFi hotspots. It is zero-config. I found out about it from Steve Gibson and Leo Laportes 'Security Now" podcast. I had been looking for a solution like this for some time. Connecting to the internet from a free wireless connection is getting ever more risky. Bad guys can sniff out your passwords and keystrokes. One way I used to get around this when I worked for Sherwin Electric was to make a VPN connection to their server in Vermont. That way at least the traffic I was sending over the airwaves was encrypted. Now that I no longer have access to that server, Hamachi fits the bill perfectly.

Installation on the Windows platform could not be easier, just run the wizard, the Hamachi server assigns you a weird 5.15.xxx.xxx IP address. Then , with a couple of keystrokes, you create a network.From that point you just install on any other machines you want (Linux, Mac or Windows) and join them to the network. You can then use Remote Desktop or better yet a VNC server/client to control all of your machines remotely.

Hamachi uses "Mediation servers" to connect users directly through a secure TCP inside of UDP tunnel. The beauty of this is that all users can be behind a NAT firewall and invisible on the internet. You may have to do a little port forwarding but it usually works right out the box. The UDP transport is faster than VPN and I can access my Mac desktop just like I am sitting at home from anywhere with a fast connection.

It has a chat client built in (Windows only, I think). I had my Dad up and running on it last night in an hour. We can browse each others machines, share files, I even set him up an account on the Mac so he can play with Tiger. I have OSXvnc server running on it and we use Real VNC client on his machine and my Sony Vaio laptop.

It is way cool.....check it out