Continuing from last week’s blog on owning multiple computers, we will look at a few networking issues that can be annoying.
Email ~ Getting email access on multiple computers
You have your email account setup on one computer, but want to check it on the other. Most email programs grab your email from your email provider and store it on your computer. There are a bunch of solutions for this problem, but I am going to focus on two:
Switch to Webmail: Webmail allows you to check your email using a web browser instead of email software stored on your hard drive. Almost all email providers have a webmail solution. The most notable would be a great solution from Google which is called Gmail. You can access, search and sort email easily using Google’s powerful search features. It is excellent when you need to find that one email amongst the thousand you may have online. It used to be that using Webmail meant that you were out of luck when your internet connection is down. But Gmail offer Gears which is a service that stores your email locally on your computer as well as online which allows you access to your downloaded emails even when there is no internet connection.
IMAP instead of POP: IMAP and POP are two different protocols email providers use to allow access to an email server. If you’re still a fan of your email client like Outlook or Eudora, you will need to choose one of these protocols to get your email from the server for online access.
POP is standard, but limits your ability to access email on several machines.
IMAP is a protocol that will allow you to download your email to your email client, but it will still leave a copy on the server. Using IMAP also tracks when you have read or not read an email. Best of all, since your email is all stored on the email server, you can view your email on multiple computers. To setup IMAP, you will need to contact you email provider for setup instructions.
Pictures, Videos and Music files ~ the art of media streaming
How do you upload your image and music files to the internet for easy access? Online storage of media solves this problem easily. For Pictures, I recommend two different flavors of online picture storage: Flickr or Picasa. Both allow you to upload your pictures online and share them with others.
Flickr is designed more for sharing with others in a photostream; kind of like a photo story book.
Picasa separates your photos into albums. The albums can then be set for public access, or for private viewing. The basic Picasa service is free and additional storage space can been added for an annual fee.
Probably the most commonly used video service is YouTube. Although, YouTube is most famous for displaying the embarrassing moments we all wish would go away! It’s also a great place to upload your video so that you can view them anywhere. YouTube allows you to setup an account, and upload videos which are no more than 10 minutes in length. While so many videos on YouTube are for public viewing, it is possible to select “private viewing” when you upload videos.
Music files are a bit trickier. Apple’s ITunes Shared Library is an awesome solution. The service is built into the more recent version of ITunes. It allows you to share your music from one ITunes library with any other computer on the same network. More information can be found here at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2358.
Access your IPod in a multi-computer environment
IPods don’t like multi-computer environments, but it can be done. Apple has an online article setup for this which can be found at http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1202.
The most important thing to remember is that each computer must be running the same operating system. IPods are formatted according to one operating system. If you try and use it on a computer with another operating system, it will need to be reformatted, thus erasing all music on the IPod.
I hope the information in these two blogs helped those of you in multiple-computer households. Although owning multiple computers can make life a bit more peaceful and easier on the home front, it’s important to iron out the problems it can cause.
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