Laptop Thoughts: iTwin: Your Missing Link Has Been Found

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Monday, August 1, 2011

iTwin: Your Missing Link Has Been Found

Posted by Chris Sacksteder in "Digital Home Hardware & Accessories" @ 08:00 AM

Using It

With both halves plugged into two different computers I have to admit I was then a bit stumped. I didn't see anything come up and didn't see any kind of message. I re-did the pairing a couple more times. Perhaps it was late at night, or perhaps the Viña Borgia Campo de Borja 2010 had clouded my vision. It turned out to be a case of hidden icons and hidden windows. The software does install a notification tray icon, which is your primary way of accessing the remote files, but it defaults to the "Show only notifications" setting rather than "Show icon and notifications". The installer ought to set the latter.

I later read the printed instructions which say "Plug one half of the iTwin into your local online computer. The iTwin window appears". This does not always happen for me and it is often behind other windows when it does open. Let's blame Bill Gates. Often I have to click the notification icon and pick one of the two options (Figure 4).

Screen capture of icon pop-up menu

Figure 4. Pop-up menu from the iTwin notification tray icon. "Local Files" would be better named "Shared Files".

At this point I saw nothing in the Explorer windows that either menu item opened up. Here's where "reading is fundamental". The Local Files window is for selecting folders and files to be shared. Until you do that on the remote computer, nothing will show in the Remote Files window. Ah-ha! So, on the "other" computer, I drag a few folders (it won't allow whole drive letters) to the local folder, and they instantly show up in the "local" computer's "Remote Files" window. So you do have to think ahead and anticipate what files or folders you may want to access. Note: you cannot share a folder that is the same name as one already shared (perhaps from a different drive or parent folder).

Another way to open the Remote Files window is to select the " System Folder" from Windows Explorer when you click on "Computer" (Figure 5).

Windows Explorer with iTwin system folder

Figure 5. Windows Explorer will show the iTwin System Folder which you can double click to see all the files selected (dropped to the Local Files window) on the other computer).

Now things were starting to be clearer. iTwin always uses Windows Explorer to display remote and locally shared files, but they insert a nice clear icon in the window and on every file and folder, so you know it is on the remote (Figure 6). That is very nice if you already use Windows Explorer often since the interface will be familiar.

Windows Explorer Remote Files

Figure 6. iTwin uses Windows Explorer to display local (shared) and remote files in a familiar and convenient way.

A major difference is the context menu for folders contains only "Open", "Copy" and "Delete", and for files it adds "Open With". But files and folders can be dragged to local folders to copy them. In all cases when I selected "Open" for a file, it was copied first to the local computer. This seems to be in conflict with the company's web page which lists "Remote Editing" as a feature. When you open a remote file, say .txt, you will see it has been copied to your local AppData folder, but after it is edited and saved, it is automatically copied back to the remote folder. So, while it is fairly seamless, it isn't quite the same as opening a file on a remote computer via a file share, which admittedly requires all kinds of open ports, authentication and access control between the computers, and thus the reason for iTwin.

A second important thing to know is the two computers are symmetric. One is not a "server" and the other a "client". The "remote" is always the one you aren't sitting at. So, you can have one iTwin half plugged in at work and the other plugged in at home, and be accessing each other files at any time, as long as both are awake and someone is logged in. Oh, yeah. It doesn't run as a service. You have to be logged in to share files. When you log off, the connection is terminated and the other computer gets notified. It does remember which local files were shared when you log back in.

A third thing to know is that either end can be moved at any time. The previously selected local files are remembered, and the connection to the other computer is made automatically.

One nice small touch is that each half has LED's on both sides, so no matter where your USB port is, short of the back of a desktop, an activity light is easy to see.

So It's Like Dropbox?

A little bit, but no, not really. Dropbox and similar services keep your files on one of their servers, then files are synchronized locally, in the background, on any computer (or phone) when you run the client. So you are limited to a small amount of free space, but can pay for more, and you end up with copies of every file on each computer you use. This works well for a small number of small files, but you can run into some synchronization issues when the "same" file is modified on different computers.

The iTwin device makes a connection between two (and only two, but any two) computers. Folders must be "shared" in advance, but are only copied from the remote computer when opened or explicitly copied to a local folder. If you open, for example, a remote Word file, it is copied to the local computer, then Word launched, then it is automatically copied back to the remote computer when saved. So, you have to wait for the copying, but you have no server space limitations and do not have to pay for any subscription services.

If you are still confused, the company's FAQ page is very good at explaining what it does and doesn't do; check that out.


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