How to use SecureShare in GBridge

Posted on Mar 20, 2009 in Online Storage, Productivity, Remote Connections by dee 2 Comments

As part of a series of how to articles for GBridge, lets look at how to share files across your sessions. There are many ways to keep files stored in a central server (such as Google Docs) to access whenever you wish to, however, this method is slightly different. For newbies like me, its an easy way to get access to your documents stored on one of your computers from another. For example, if you have some nice mp3’s stored at home, instead of putting them onto a USB drive and bringing them into work, you can share your mp3 folder on your home machine and listen to them on the fly at work :)

The types of files that can be accessible is varied and includes popular media files such as mp3, flash video, images and even provides functionality to show the images as a slideshow :) The cool thing about this method of sharing is that because the files are not stored in a central server, you are accessing them directly from your shared PC. This means that your documents/files never stored on machines unless you authorize them :)

Right, so lets begin by creating a simple share that can be accessed from your “work” machine.

Assumptions

1. You have already set up two connections (follow my earlier guide if you need a refresher).
2. You have a folder on your home pc which contains the files you wish to access from work.

Step 1

 In my case, i created a folder called “Shared” on one of my home drives. Now personally, i create subfolders in there to hold the different types of files. This is simply so that its easier to read as well as i can now selectively allow others to get access to my files (eg, I may not want to share my mp3’s with anyone, but share the photos with family members).

Step 2

Open up GBridge by double clicking the icon on your task bar. The GBridge window will open up.

Now, to create the share, simply drag the folder you want to share onto the GBridge window. Its as easy as that :)

Dragging the folder into your GBridge will give you the “Copy” icon.

 

Step 3

When you release the mouse button on the GBridge window, the following window will pop up:

You will see a list of all your friends (so that you can selectively select who can see your files). For now, because I want to be the only one to see these, i select the first checkbox (so that my “other pc” can see my files).

Setting up Secureshares does not require a password as authorization is checked against your friends list. However, it is recommended to put in a password for sensitive secureshares. Sharing a root directory will always require a password.

For our purposes here, we’ll put in a password. If you do choose a password, ensure ITS NOT THE SAME AS YOUR GMAIL OR GBRIDGE PASSWORD!

Hit OK. You may get a message that looks like the following:

But that is ok, in this case, we don’t want to share these photos with the world. Rather, its for my own purposes, so I go ahead and hit Yes to this. If you have selected one or more friends, than you won’t get this dialog box.

Step 4

At this point, two things may happen simultaneously:

1. Your default web browser (eg, Internet Explorer) will open and ask you for a username and password. Hit Cancel here to close the window (we will get to this later :) ). When you hit cancel, you’ll get a HTTP Error 401. That’s because we have not put in a username or password yet. So don’t worry about it :)

2. Your GBridge window will change to the “SecureShares” tab and list your brand new share in there (see image).

Thats pretty much it to create a share for yourself :). Repeat this with the other folders if you wish. At the end, you should have a window with your secureshares listed along with the "sample" one. Personally, i get rid of the "sample" one soon as possible by selecting it and right clicking to get the menu to remove it.

Now for the magic…

 Click back to the “Friends” tab in GBridge.. and right click on your computer.. You’ll see some options in a menu, and select “Browse GBridge SecureShares…” from the options. This will bring up an web browser window.

Its not the prettiest html in the world.. but it should show you the list of shares you have on that pc. When you click on one of the folders, a dialog box as below will appear. Here you put the password you chose for the share

This password is *not* your gbridge or gmail account password. This is the same password you set in Step 4.

Also, the User Name field can be left blank as all we need is the password.

Hit Ok.

And there you have it. An ability to browse to your secure share. Now, you can do exactly the same thing from your work machine and browse to your home machines SecureShares in a similar manner :-)

The interface while slightly confusing is actually quite functional. You can view details about file and folder sizes and most importantly (if you have many files in the folder), you can filter to "search" for files. This is done by starting to type in the textbox under the "Name" column and as you type, the files meeting the name will immediately get filtered and shown. As an example, you may have a range of photos starting with 2008 and others with 2009. By typing 2009, you’ll immediately only show the files that have 2009 in them. Handy when viewing a lot of files and avoiding the "scroll and squint" syndrome :)

Other things include the ability to sort and play media directly from within the browser. If you followed the above exercise and have some mp3′s "shared", now would be a good time to click on one of them and check out what i mean :)

Some more cool things about secure shares:

• If you have all your images in one folder, you and have them play as a slideshow or access individual ones if you like. Thumbnails and previews are sorted by GBridge by default, so there is no need to fiddle with anything. Quick and easy gallery to share amongst your friends :)
  
• Any media files such as MP3′s when clicked on, will play directly within the browser (from work!)  
• You can play with the permissions to allow other people to see your SecureShares. I do this often with photos of my daughter to be shared with her grandparents :)
  
• Lastly, when you are browsing your share, you can copy the URL (address bar on your browser that gives the address of the share) and fire that through to others and as long as they are authorized (via step 4) and know the password, they should be able to see the shares.
  
• Finally, by keeping things organized in multiple folders, the actual interface becomes less confusing and actually looks a little prettier too. Though i must say, the UI could do with a wee bit of a clean up ;)

Last Tip: (promise!).. for those of us who torrent a lot and constantly download music (legally of course!) even when at work, I would suggest adding the folder where the music is being downloaded to as a secure share. That way you can sit at work and have immediate access to the progress of the downloads as well as possibility of playing the music soon as its come in. note: I do not condone downloading copyrighted music, but was trying to illustrate a use for GBridge that others may not have thought of.

Tags: Gbridge, SecureShares, Test Drive

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  Dee Mar 21 2009 - 9:34 pm Reply

  Step 4 has been edited slightly to take into account comments by GBridge developers. They noted:

  “Actually since Gbridge provides
  1. strong user authenticate through gtalk server

  2. strong data encryption and authentication in the data packet level

  3. access control list for ever SecureShare.

  So only the friend you allow can see the SecureShare. If you want to show your friend a SecureShare that is protected by a password, distributing the password to your friend will become a hassle. That’s why we make the password as an option. “

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