Instant Network!
by Gary Woods

A lot of us are carting our Laptop Computers and PDAs around with us and with all the wireless networks around it's made meetings a lot more interesting. But setting up a quick network on the run so you can share your information with somebody else has been kind of dicey.

To help this quest for an Instant Network I recently found a product called Colligo Workgroup Edition ($99.99 direct www.colligo.com) With Colligo you can quickly and easily set up an ad hoc wireless or wired peer-to-peer connection in a conference room, airport lounge, or among several rooms in the same building. Your Portable Network even provides an effective way to set up a secure IP LAN among far-flung users.

Once you're connected, Colligo provides easy tools for sharing files, printers, Outlook calendars, and instant messages. You also get some rudimentary whiteboard tools, and you can launch Microsoft Net-Meeting sessions for application sharing or video and audio conferencing.

Once you're on the virtual network, you can see all the participants and their available resource, and then use Colligo's multiple functions simply by highlighting a person's name and clicking on one of the items in the action menu. It all works, and it's all very quick.

I just became aware of Colligo, but it's been around for quite a while because this is version 4.0. So this is one of those wonderfully seasoned products where everything works the first time, without much effort.

If you have any suggestions or questions for me please drop me a note at garyandlaury@santabarbaraproperties.com or see my column on the Internet at http://www.santabarbaraproperties.com or call me at (805) 729-0910