Synergy - One of the most useful apps ever for people with two computers

Trippledence

New member
I've known about this program for ages, and recommended it to someone on IRC the other night. Today, rather than read 'the methodology of economics', I figured I would give it a go myself with my laptop and desktop.

It is the most seamless and useful thing! I often use both my pc and laptop together, and been able to just drag the mouse across, and been able to type with no lag at all [that I noticed] is very useful. My PC is networked directly to my laptop via GB LAN, but I don’t think the overheads of kb and mouse would ever be that high.

Here's a simple guide how to show you how easy it is to set up.

Step1. Download the Synergy program from http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/ it's open source and supports windows, some mac and *nix so should work between two diffent OS's if that’s your situation, tho' I have not tested this and would be interested to know if it does.

Step2. Install on both [or all systems if you have more than two]

Step3. Configure one system to be the server, as so.

Synergy.png


In the top box enter the names of your computers, the program reads these automatically from windows, Decadence is my laptop and Accedence the laptop. I would figure with would work with IP's too.

The second options box tells the program where the screens are situated on top of each other. I found if you need both relationships or you wont be able to get the mouse back onto the other computer.

Step4. With the server started tell your clients to connect to the server using the servers screen name [so on my laptop I enter decadence] click okay. The icon gets a lightning bolt in it and then it works. So simple, why did I not do it before!
 
Think i've heard of that before. Nevertheless, reps for the information and guide, i'm sure a lot of people are looking for something like this (including myself shortly)
 
Glad you like it guys. More people seem to have a gaming pc,workpc or server and laptop, so this is really usefull. Now all I need is the gaming pc :D
 
Seems to be like VNC/SSH (only without the security & encryption)

Was just looking thru the site and found this:

Authentication and Encryption

Synergy does not do any authentication or encryption. Any computer can connect to the synergy server if it provides a screen name known to the server, and all data is transferred between the server and the clients unencrypted which means that anyone can, say, extract the key presses used to type a password. Therefore, synergy should not be used on untrusted networks.

It seems you can setup and use SSH as the server and use synergy as the client tho.

However, there are tools that can add authentication and encryption to synergy without modifying either those tools or synergy. One such tool is SSH (which stands for secure shell)

I wrote a howto a few years ago on SSH + X-Windows forwarding for linux & Linux to Windows.
 
I've been using this on and off for about 2 years now too.. it works absolutely flawless with zero lag at all. Honestly, I don't know how they did it.. they could make a KILLING if they sold this program.
 
name='NickS' said:
Honestly, I don't know how they did it.. they could make a KILLING if they sold this program.

I wouldn't use it on a corporate network due to the security and encryption.

I'd also be cautious using it on any network which has wifi access.

Not sure who would pay for it when more secure & free alternatives are out there.

Seems ok for a totally enclosed LAN.

name='NickS' said:
it works absolutely flawless with zero lag at all.

Doubt you would see much lag on a LAN with most apps like this (SSH/VNC etc)
 
Guys, synergy is not "VNC" software in the traditional sense, it only sends keyboard and mouse information. This allows it to use very small amounts of bandwidth and since both computers display video through the monitor attached to that computer you can play games and stuff using it. VNC software over my 100Mb lan cannot handle vidoes, you almost are unable to stop the video because of the lack of bandwidith.
 
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