I'm not a fan of setting up Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). In fact, I've had so many issues with VPNs in the past that I now subcontract that work to a fellow geek who seems to have a knack for understanding the various settings. That's why I have been following Hamachi with great interest for the past several years.

Hamachi is described in the Wikipedia as "a zero-configuration virtual private network (VPN) shareware application capable of establishing direct links between computers that are behind NAT firewalls without requiring reconfiguration (in most cases); in other words, it establishes a connection over the Internet that very closely emulates the connection that would exist if the computers were connected over a local area network."

LogMeIn, a commercial firm that produces both free and subscription services for controlling other machines, sent out an email to customers on Thursday touting Hamachi², their implementation of Hamachi. LogMeIn has been deeply involved in Hamachi development, so the announcement was expected. What I didn't expect to see was that they've left both Mac and Linux users out in the cold.

I quickly jotted off an email to LogMeIn and received this response: "Mac is not currently supported, we do plan on adding support for other platforms but do not have an ETA at this time." For quite a while, there was an open source project called "Hamachi X," but it's no longer supported. Another developer took on the task of creating a Mac OS X and Linux Hamachi client called Hamachi Sidekick, which is a GUI to a command-line Hamachi tool. Unfortunately, LogMeIn also pulled the Mac OS X command-line interface (CLI) version of Hamachi, so there's no way to even try the CLI tool or Hamachi Sidekick now.

LogMeIn may tout Hamachi² as "a VPN that just works," but for Mac users, it just doesn't work.

It's not a hidden secret, but lots of people simply don't know about it. We mentioned it ourselves more than a year ago in answer to a reader question, but I think it's worth a revisit.

Here's my scenario. People show up at the house with PC laptops and want to print something. A boarding pass, an email, a web page. They screw around with Windows control panels trying to find the printers on my Mac network. In my case, they are both shared on a Mac Pro.

Enter Bonjour. It's the Apple answer to zero configuration networking. All you have to do is download Bonjour for Windows. There's also a 64-bit version if you need it.

Once it is downloaded you'll get a Printer Wizard, which will instantly find the printers available on your network, including the shared ones. (Make sure you are sharing them in the Sharing pane of System Preferences.)

Now when your guests want to print, they will be all set. No other drivers are needed. I now keep the Bonjour for Windows .exe on a thumb drive. I hand it to guests, and they are ready to roll.

Bonjour can do more than discover printers. Per Apple:

Bonjour for Windows includes a plugin to discover advertised HTTP servers using Internet Explorer. Click the Bonjour icon in the Internet Explorer toolbar to enable Bonjour browsing. If you have Bonjour devices on your local network with embedded HTTP (Web) servers, they will appear in the list.

It's possible you have a printer that doesn't support Bonjour, but most do. In my case an Epson and a Brother laser printer worked with no glitches. Bonjour requires Windows 2000/2003, Windows XP or Windows Vista.

If only everything in life was this simple.

We've talked about OpenFeint quite a few times on the site before (and even interviewed the creators), but while they're definitely one of the biggest names in creating gaming communities for the iPhone, they're not alone. A company called Scoreloop has today announced a service called "Scoreloop Community," made up of two different features: a web presence, and a downloadable application for the iPhone that hooks right into other developers' games and apps and allows players to create avatars, view friends and their activities, and share challenges and high scores with others. Just like OpenFeint, Scoreloop says they're offering an easy-to-implement solution for push notifications, letting players send and receive messages (as well as promote and encourage usage of games in the service) and earn achievements and tokens.

Of course, the real test for services like this will be in the implementation -- while OpenFeint claims a nice stable of developers, we still haven't seen too many apps take advantage of the latest and greatest versions (Pocket God is an extremely popular app that has implemented OpenFeint, but they use an older version of the software that doesn't have nearly as many features as the latest). Scoreloop says they've got over 50 game commitments from third-party developers already (it sounds like Zombie Pub Crawl is their biggest title yet), but even then, it remains to be seen exactly how devs will implement their functionality, and how players take to the service.

If you're a developer looking to implement push notifications and social challenges and networking in your app, it seems that there's no shortage of companies willing to step in and help you do exactly that (you can download the free SDK, if interested, on Scoreloop's site). But in terms of how consumers view and will use these networks, it's still a very wide open field.

Recently, we reported on AT&T's push to make it easier for iPhone & iPod touch users to connect to their Wi-Fi Hot Spots. One of our readers, Jamie Phelps, pointed out on his blog that AT&T's Wi-Fi service is not actually a "secure connection," as is advertised in various places on their website; we had overlooked this, and mistakenly reinforced the company's shaky claim in our post.

This brings to light an important point about wireless networks and security, however. It's really easy (and sadly all too common) to hop on to an available wireless signal in your office, at the hotel, or your favorite coffee spot and not even think twice about logging in to your e-mail or checking your bank balance.

What many users don't realize is even though the server you are connecting to (i.e. your bank's website) may employ several layers of security, the connection between your computer and the wireless access point is very likely to be unsecured. Anyone who is within range of your computer can trivially monitor the traffic being sent between your computer and the access point, allowing them to see what websites you may be visiting or capture details about other services that you may be connected to. This isn't because of some gaping vulnerability or software bug, it's just an inherent part of how wireless networks work.

So, what can you do to protect yourself? Read on for a list of simple steps you can take to ensure that your wireless connection is safe and secure.

The Aurora Feint folks are at WWDC with the rest of the Mac development world this week, and while out there, not only are they having a party, but they sent out an announcement: OpenFeint 2.0 is out now, and it has some "social discovery" features now included. Their open platform already supported doing things like leaderboards and profiles from directly within iPhone applications and games, but now the new release will also allow users to bring their friends lists in from Facebook and Twitter, update profile pictures of themselves, and both find their friends and figure out what they're playing. The system is free to integrate into iPhone apps and games, and there's a user-based model that costs more at higher levels.

OpenFeint isn't the only system attempting to do something like this (be a sort of Xbox Live for iPhone games), but they are certainly the biggest, with more developers jumping into their boat every day. And as is the way with social networks, sometimes being the biggest is just as good as being the best. Look for their features in an iPhone game near you.

Apple has released Time Capsule, a NAS (network-attached storage, I'll admit I'm so far from an IT guy that I had to look it up) unit that will wirelessly sync with multiple instances of Time Machine, all the while also working as an 802.11n base station (there are three included ethernet ports as well). Time Capsule has wireless backup, wireless networking, and even a USB port for networked printing, a networked hard drive, or both with a USB hub.

And perhaps most amazing is the sheer size available-- it's $399 for a 500gb hard drive, and $499 for a 1 TB hard drive. Sure, that's a little pricey if you've got only one or two computers at home, but $500 for a complete (and completely wireless) backup solution for a house full of computers is a pretty nice setup. This definitely won't cause as much of a stir as the iPhone updates or the MacBook Air today, but for someone who's been seeking a backup solution for a whole house of computers, Time Capsule has to be pretty good news.

It's available for preorder right now, and will release in February.

There are dozens of little niceties in Leopard: like how Front Row now lives on my iBook (sans remote) and allows me to operate the thing as a sort of thin-client media jukebox (courtesy a Mac mini server). Or how Font Book now prints books of your fonts (especially nice for those non-techies). With the 300+ new features, I still have yet to fully explore this thing, but I'm certainly starting to believe this is the Mac OS Apple really wanted to deliver a few years back. There's no doubt in my mind this is a big turning point for the platform, and I really believe user adoption in 2008 will be unprecedented as a result.

Following is a list of features and specific "cool things" I think you can point out if you are trying to explain to a friend why they should upgrade.

For the record, I installed Leopard on a 1.24 GHz iBook G4, and it runs beautifully, which in itself is a selling point.

1. Finally, a Record button for your actions
Automator now has a UI recorder. Anyone who remembers the good old days of macro recorders before OS 8 will look at this and sigh, but I, for one, welcome my new robot overlord. Automator is finally useful for mortals with UI recording. Oh sure, it isn't perfect, but it really beats trying to explain just the concept of Automator to the average human. Never mind the metaphors and the workflow within Automator itself -- eyes will glaze over. UI recording is absolute heaven when you do a lot of drudge work, like contracts, filling, prepping photos, etc.

2. Mail gets GTD fever
If power users turn up their noses at Stationary in Mail, point out how they can now put their notes, to-do's and RSS into Mail. I haven't really set all this up as I'd like yet (the iBook isn't my primary work machine), but my unfettered hatred of Mail.app is somewhat lessened now by the fact that it is starting to behave like a "real" email client. The notes and to-do's are icing on the cake, but also very important if you like to get things done and stay organized. A few smart folders and you have a truly powerful system. Still, it is disappointing to see Apple take half a decade to figure out the whole "archive mailbox" thing, but pobody's nerfect I guess.

3. Web clipping makes Dashboard relevant again
My wife quit using Dashboard long ago. It simply served no purpose for her. But web clipping, baked right in to Safari? That had her mildly interested. Tracking the top 3 Twitters, or whatever the top story on Perez or TMZ happens to be with a keystroke is a selling point for folks who aren't using RSS. The only downside is that you need a pretty big screen if you want more than a couple of pages to appear.

4. Shared drives finally "just work" and Shared Screens work with other OS'es
Granted, there have been issues with networking in Leopard, but seeing shared Macs in my sidebar? That's pretty sweet. In previous versions of OS X you had to click on Network, now it just shows up. Is a few clicks a big deal? Well, for the average user, yes, this is a big deal. The average user doesn't like to explore. They can be timid, and frankly, don't necessarily know (or care) what the Network thing even is. Displaying networked components directly in Finder will greatly increase the probability that users will at least see everything. It has already saved me time when trying to reconnect and move things around my home LAN. For me, the real fun was seeing how VNC "just worked" when I was able to access my Mac mini (which was already running as a VNC server) via Screen Sharing. Even though the mini runs Tiger, and despite a slightly wonky connection, overall it was super easy to set-up. Think about it another way: average users don't want to run a third-party application like Chicken of the VNC. Average users don't necessarily trust those apps (thank you, Bonzi Buddy) and it is a lot easier to remotely control a machine if the functionality is built into the OS. Oh, and did I mention you can share screens with Linux? I finally have a use for that old Dell laptop and my Ubuntu CD!

Macworld brings news that everyone's favorite tattletale, Little Snitch, has been updated to version 2.0. The new version brings a whole host of updates, including a new Network Monitor, which will let you know about all outgoing and incoming network traffic. There's also support for IPV6, and a better help and traffic filtering system. Oh, and perhaps most importantly, the whole thing's been overhauled and is now compatible with a little thing called Leopard. I haven't upgraded yet, but considering those other "next-gen" operating systems, I'm not sure if I should.

Little Snitch 1 users may be able to upgrade for free (if your version number starts with "32"), if not you pay a discounted rate. If you haven't started using Little Snitch yet, you can try the eval version, or pay $24.95 for the full app. If you have a lot of network traffic coming in and out of your Mac, you might want to consider it-- how else will you know what's coming through there?

The Mac and PC networking challenge is legendary. If you have both on a home or work network, it can be an adventure to get these two machines to see each other, share files or printers. Fortunately, Pure Networks has an app for both Mac and PC called Network Magic which hopes to change all that, as it allows you to easily set up file and printer sharing, diagnose slow networks and more. It offers what looks like a simple interface for managing all this, though I should note that printer sharing only works with the list of printers that Apple officially supports and provides drivers for right in Mac OS X (i.e. - if you can plug a printer in and it works without having to install extra software). While the Windows version is a bit more powerful than the Mac component, folks who need to maintain a mixed network and are after the primary features mentioned here will likely be happy with Network Magic, though licenses are sold at a slight disadvantage for Mac users: packages of licenses begin at $29.99 for 3 PCs (5 PCs for $39.99, etc.), but it's $19.99 for each Mac you want to add to the package. Still, Network Magic looks like one of the easiest networking tools I've seen in a while, and perhaps if its popularity among Mac users grows over time, licensing can become more fair for both operating systems.


[via MacMinute]

It's not quite a native iPhone game, but it's one of the best games I've seen for the iPhone yet-- Roger sent us his version of Battleship (which is actually a pen and paper game that predates Milton Bradley's version-- I did not know that), called Battlefleet.

It's super easy to play, and turns out to be not only a faithful recreation, but includes a lot of little fun graphical touches as well-- the ships look good, and bombs drop and explode or splash into the water. There's also three difficulty options, and you can even track wins and losses over multiple games. Unfortunately, there's no way to play two player (as it would probably require some networking wizardry), but it's as good a game as you could ask of a solo version. And the computer opponent is just plain devious, anyway-- I hate it when he finds my aircraft carrier and then just goes to town.

You sank my battleship!

Apple has released a new version of Bonjour for Windows, 1.0.4, just in case you're zero-configuration networking with any Windows PCs in the area. There's no changelog available, but this version dropped as a preview onto the ADC page last month, and apparently "includes Windows Vista support and various other bug fixes and enhancements."

The release is good, of course, not only for Vista, but also for Windows 2000/2003 and XP. Additionally, Apple's covering their 64-bit bases as well-- they've got a 64-bit compatible release ready too. Like it or not, we can't all be on a Mac all the time, and fortunately, Bonjour makes networking without the hassles possible on both platforms.

[via Ars Technica]

So this past weekend I realized that I still had the great Skyrocket screensaver on my Powerbook from the Fourth of July-- no, not this year's. Last year's. It was time to get a new screensaver.

Fortunately, FreeMacWare was featuring Chemicalburn, a screensaver by Michael Ash (who also created GPULife, a Game of Life screensaver) that not only looks cool, but actually simulates a transportation network. Nodes get created randomly, and little colored packages fly around between them, as frequently used routes get stronger and stronger. When a route is destroyed, the network eventually fixes itself, by creating more routes and nodes. Not only is it aesthetically cool, but it's a great thought experiment, and it's fun to watch a little network get created and destroyed when your own work goes idle for a bit.

Chemicalburn is open source and free. You can get it on Ash's website.

Click To Play

Scott sat down with Martin Bestmann of LANrev to talk about their powerful cross-platform client management application and got a sneak peek at what's coming in the next version.

Apple has just released a new update for AirPort Extreme base stations. The update includes general fixes, security improvements and addresses compatibility for the 802.11n base station. To install this update, you'll need AirPort Utility 5.1 for Mac or Windows.

The first security concerns seem to be the AirPort's ability to allow incoming IPv6 connections, which it does by default. The new update changes those default settings to limit inbound IPv6 connections to the local network only. You can check your settings after installing the update by opening AirPort Utility, selecting an 802.11 Extreme base station, clicking Advanced -> IPv6, and making sure that Block incoming IPv6 connections is checked.

A second security issue allows file names from a password-protected AirPort Disk to be viewed by users on the local network without a password. This is patched to require validation before file names (not file contents) can be seen.