Windows Home Server and Live Mesh

Regular readers of my blog will know I've been a fan of Foldershare on Home Server for a while now.  The main reason for this is a simplified version of "Offline Files" that works across the internet.  It also works as a nice backup when remote access fails and I cannot connect normally for some reason, usually on those days when I forget my iPod and have nothing to listen to...

Enter Live Mesh.

I received an invite from a friend and decided to give it a go, as is my want.  To say I was a impressed is an understatement, Mesh does a lot that Foldershare does, namely sharing folders, but it also has online backup of folders to the tune of 5GB and remote desktop capabilities as well!  Apparently a Mac and Windows Mobile client will be coming soon which will be interesting, I assume the Mac client will offer the same functionalities as the PC client though how it will work on Windows Mobile has me truely intrigued.

I think my favourite feature is similar to Foldershare insofar as it works as a backup for those occastions where remote access fails.  Using Mesh on my Home Server I can still get to the server console and my files now rather than just my files.

Mesh will also be exstensible though the SDK is not yet available, apparently it will allow you to add an application to your mesh though which is promising indeed.  I'm thinking that media sharing across clients, remote Home Server notifications and a better remote control guide for MC would be a few likely candidates.  Lets hope someone reads this and gets a few ideas!

Jason