LapLink for Windows 95 Changes the Face of Telecommuting

by

Aaron P. Morris, Esq.

Traveling Software has just released version 7.5 of LapLink for Windows 95. With this latest version, LapLink has not only made it far easier to select files to synchronize, it has added the ability to make the process automatic. This feature, called Xchange Agent, will change the way in which many attorneys do business.

For those unfamiliar with this classic program, LapLink allows the transfer and synchronization of files between computers. Originally it was conceived as a way to keep a notebook computer synchronized with the users' desktop computer. However, the last few versions have permitted desktop to desktop transfers in a number of ways, including by modem, dial-up networking, across a local area network, and even across the Internet. But whether notebook to desktop or desktop to desktop, the programs' greatest strength remains its ability to keep two computers synchronized.

In the first version of LapLink for Windows 95, apparently attempting to keep the program as true to Windows 95 as possible, the program relied on Windows' briefcase system to routinely synchronize the same selected file folders. You would drag the files and folders you wanted to take with you into the "briefcase" on each computer, and then synchronize the briefcases via LapLink. This approach was always somewhat convoluted, especially if you were trying to synchronize more than just two computers. You could easily end up with current files in the briefcase while old files remained in the working directories.

Xchange Agent

With version 7.5, LapLink has added a feature called Xchange Agent that vastly improves the synchronization process. Here is an example of how Xchange Agent can be used. Let's say you have a computer at home that you sometimes use to work on files you started at the office. These would usually be word processing files, but you may also want the ability to look at the files contained in your case management program, or notes and calendar items in your personal information manager. The files could be downloaded to floppies or other media, or to a notebook computer, and taken with you, but that requires time and planning. Alternatively, you could transfer the files via modem once you got home, but this means that every work period must begin with a file transfer session.

There is now a better way. With Xchange Agent, you can simply sit down at your home computer and start working, confident that the specified files are exact duplicates of your office files. You can use your PIM and/or case management programs, and make changes to those files just as though you were sitting at your computer at work, without using some slow remote program or network connection. As an added bonus, you can maintain your home computer as a partial or complete clone of your office computer, ready to take over if your office computer ever fails.

Here is how these feats are accomplished. With Xchange Agent, you begin the file transfer process in the usual way, selecting which files will be synchronized. These files can then be given an Xchange Agent name, and selecting this agent in the future will cause all the selected files to be synchronized. Alternatively, and this is where the real power comes in, you can schedule Xchange Agent to run automatically at whatever time(s) you specify. Since Xchange Agent runs via Windows' own Systems Agent, LapLink does not need to be loaded for a scheduled exchange to occur.

For cloning purposes, you could schedule an Xchange Agent to run every morning at 3:00. Or schedule it during your evening commute time so that you always arrive home to a freshly synchronized computer. Since LapLink does a two way transfer, always replacing old file versions with newer versions (unless you specify otherwise), you do not need to worry about where the newest files reside. At the end of any home work session, select the same Xchange Agent, and any files you changed will be uploaded to the office computer. Lest you think all this synchronizing is going to result in large phone bills, using a feature called SpeedSync, LapLink transfers only that part of a file that has changed since the previous update.

Remote Control

In the event you should ever need to operate your office computer from home, not just transfer files, LapLink also offers that option. If you have ever used a remote access program with Windows, you know that speed is the biggest obstacle. Unlike DOS based programs, which often need only to move lines of text back and forth, in the graphical environment whole images, colors and all, must be transferred. Even simple mouse movements present a challenge.

To minimize the amount of information that must be transferred, LapLink uses a number of tricks. First, it allows you to set the number of colors that will appear on your computer, regardless of the settings of the remote computer. You can even limit the colors to black and white. Similar to web browsers, you can also set the program to save screen shots, so that during future sessions, the program "loads" from your own hard drive instead of over the telephone line. You can also filter out any extensive graphics such as opening splash screens.

Programs such as PCAnywhere and PC Remote have dominated the remote access market, but with version 7.5, LapLink has narrowed the functionality gap by greatly improving the speed of remote sessions

Other Features

Other new features include file encryption for transfers over the Internet, the ability to resume file transfers that were interrupted (a seemingly obvious feature that was not present in earlier versions), and desktop transfer icons that automatically open a connection or run an Xchange Agent. LapLink continues to offer a free WINS ("Windows Internet Naming Service") server to registered LapLink users. The technical aspects of this are too involved to go into here, but suffice to say that if your computers have access to the Internet, this service enables them to find one another. This free service will permit you to do all of your transfers via the Internet, and thereby avoid any telephone charges. Just think -- no matter where you are in the world, so long as you have access to the Internet you could also have toll free access to your office files.

Considerations

To paraphrase the old beer commercial, it doesn't get much better than this. The prior version of LapLink was good, but every session necessitated manually clicking on each of the files you wanted to synchronize. Now the entire process can be virtually transparent once you have set it up. Further, the ability to maintain a clone of your office computer has tremendous value. Backing up data is important, but recovering from a crash can be far more involved than simply restoring the back-up data. If the computer will not boot, for example, how do you plan to restore the files? With the described synchronization process, you could just bring your CPU from home, plug it in, and be back in business.

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Details

LapLink for Windows 95, version 7.5. Street price: $120. Upgrade from version 7.0 is $29.95; upgrades from prior versions are $69.95. Traveling Software, Inc., 18702 North Creek Parkway, Bothell, WA 98011. Phone: (800) 343-8080. Internet: sales@travsoft.com and www.travsoft.com.