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LogMeIn Hamachi: file sharing

Niamh Lynch

Niamh Lynch

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Welcome to part 2 of our beginner’s guide to Hamachi (you can catch part 1 here). Today we’re going to take a look at file sharing, one of the reasons you might want to use the program. If you’ve already taken a look around the options, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it is not a feature, but it is – Hamachi facilitates file sharing, but it doesn’t actually provide it. Let me explain…

File sharing is a feature that you’ll have to enable on your computer. Hamachi then provides the network via which your friend will access your files. Since Hamachi is already set up, you have to turn your attention to Windows’ file sharing. A word of warning –  file sharing is a fairly routine procedure, but there is a degree of risk involved. If you are not totally comfortable with the process, you should probably become better acquainted with it before jumping in to the deep end.

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First of all, go to Control Panel > Network Connections (this tutorial is based on XP). Right-click on the Hamachi connection and choose Properties. In the options that appear, make sure ‘Client for Microsoft Networks‘ and ‘File and Printer Sharing‘ are ticked.

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Now make sure your shared folder is enabled. This should be automatic, but check anyway. Go to My Computer and right-click on Shared Documents  > Properties. In the window that opens, make sure that ‘Share This Folder on the Network‘ is ticked and, if you want, give it a new name. Click Apply and close the window.

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Now open My Computer > Tools > Folder Options >View and select ‘Use Simple File Sharing’. Again, hit Apply and close the window. Finally! You’re ready to share with your friend. Open Hamachi and note down the IP address at the top of the Hamachi window. Your friend needs to type this into the address bar in their My Computer, starting with two backslashes (\\). The file that they will see should be your shared folder. Congratulations! You should now be sharing files through Hamachi! If you want to access files on a friend’s computer, he or she needs to follow the same procedure, and give you their Hamachi IP.

Niamh Lynch

Niamh Lynch

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