My newest Software toy: Tonido

Good day all, The Angry System Administrator is at it again, trying out new applications and hardware. Today, I’m going to review a program I located called Tonido.

This application is basically a freeware Cloud Computing app that allows you to set up an run your own Personal Cloud. Tonido allows you to access and share ALL of your desktop’s files, documents, photos, music and videos from any­where through a web browser or your smartphone. No Uploading, No Storage Limits. ((From Tonido’s home page))

Basically, you install this application on a system and other people can access it. It also allows secure communications using the HTTPS protocol. ((HTTP Secure)) Very useful when you’re accessing it from within a corporate environment and they like to monitor just what it is you’re doing.

You can also set up assorted work spaces where you can share documents, address books, tasks, files etc. This is very useful if you want to share things with friends, family and coworkers but want to maintain full control of the files.

Now, I’ve only been fooling with this for about a week and I’m still learning how it all works. At first glance I thought it was a poor man’s version of Microsoft SharePoint. ((Microsoft SharePoint product page)) It isn’t.

SharePoint is a full fledged and highly configurable Content Management System. It’s also quite expensive and a real bear to set up correctly. Tonido is designed to be a simple cloud server for home users or small businesses. They have several plugins that you can purchase for additional functionality.

Besides the lack of real configurability, there is another issue I have. You MUST set up an account with Tonido in order to log into your instance of Tonido. They say that this is the only time you will need to connect with their servers, but I would prefer not to have to do this. You also touch their servers when you initiate a remote connection.

Once you are set up, you are provided a unique URL such as http://username.tonidoid.com. ((Don’t bother trying to follow this link, I made up the username)) According to Tonido all connections are secured using the HTTPS protocol, but I don’t see that. However, you can add the “S” to the http and generate a secure connection. I do this automatically, just to be safe. 🙂

The application comes with other features besides the work space. You can share pictures, there’s an internal blogging mechanism, ((Which I’m still futzing with)), A jukebox feature that lets you play music you’ve loaded, ((This will make the RIAA REAL happy no doubt)) a basic money manager and a torrent download/upload plugin. There is also a screen share plugin but I haven’t really tried working with it yet.

Another thing I like about this program is it doesn’t require an installer. You just unzip it into a directory, create a shortcut to the launcher and away you go! You can then set things like the security, the amount of bandwidth you want to use and whether or you want this program to be accessible over the web.

One of the things I’ve notices is that if you have different people who’ve installed Tonido and you share out files, they will apparently synchronize with each other. This is useful for a backup, however, it also means you will be letting others see your porn collection you accidentally shared out. ((As the Angry Webmaster will attest to *Evil Grin*))

While I can’t recommend this for a business, I think the home user will find this a fun and useful program. Just the picture sharing alone will be great for families that are spread out around the world.

You can download Tonido for free at Tonido.com It will run on Windows, Mac and Linux. There are also apps for various smartphones. (Yech, patooy!)

Let me know what you think. Perhaps we can build out own Angry Cloud.

~The Angry Systems Administrator~

(3 votes, average: 2.33 out of 5)

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