Author Topic: Send link and/or webpage? (Read 21,741 times)

siouxdax · « **on:** February 11, 2008, 01:37 AM »

I'm wondering if there's a program that can do what I want, which is best explained in an example. I have two PCs, one laptop, one desktop. Let's say I find a webpage on my laptop, but want to "send" it to my desktop, or in other words have it display on my desktop PC. Is there some sort of app that I could just press a button and the displayed page is sent to the other PC? I hope this makes sense. Of course, I'd like this to work both ways: if I'm on a page on my desktop and want to send/display it on my laptop, I'd like to just press a button, and voila!

I imagine this would require a home network, which I have...

Any ideas? Is there something that already exists that does this?

Kind Regards,
Daniel in Tulsa
siouxdax@cox.net

mouser · « **Reply #1 on:** February 11, 2008, 01:41 AM »

one thing that definitely exists which would be very close to what you want is a Bookmark Synchronizer.
Basically you would bookmark the web page on one machine.
And on the other machine it would show up in your bookmarks for you to easily click to open.

siouxdax · « **Reply #2 on:** February 11, 2008, 01:48 AM »

Yeah, I use Foxmarks for bookmark sync, but I want something that would just open up Firefox and display the sent page. I don't mean to sound picky, but I've been itching for this sort of app for a while now.

And besides, I'm wanting it for temporary use of webpages; so I don't want to have to delete it from my bookmarks then re-sync...

~Daniel

lanux128 · « **Reply #3 on:** February 11, 2008, 02:08 AM »

are your PC and laptop connected in any way e.g. network? you can use remote computing tools such as CrossLoop or post the links to a online bookmarking service such as Delicious and give them a unique tag so that you can identify them later.

siouxdax · « **Reply #4 on:** February 11, 2008, 02:27 AM »

Both are connected via wireless network. I'm not wanting to use bookmarking services, as I'd have to eventually delete them. What is this CrossLoop that you speak of? FYI I'm talking about links that would be temporary in use.

lanux128 · « **Reply #5 on:** February 11, 2008, 02:35 AM »

CrossLoop is used for accessing remote computers via the Net. it is based on TightVNC and is being promoted as secure enough for tech-support. so this might not send the page to the other PC but you can access it yourself and open the URL there.

here is a DC post about it: CrossLoop – Simple Secure Screen Sharing.

siouxdax · « **Reply #6 on:** February 11, 2008, 04:04 AM »

CrossLoop isn't at all the sort of program I need. Simply, I'm on my laptop reading a Wikipedia article in Firefox. I want to read that same article (same URL) in Firefox on my desktop PC. I'd like to press a button on my laptop that opens Firefox (on my desktop) and that URL on my desktop. That's all.

I feel that CrossLoop is too much effort for such a (seemingly) simple task.

nosh · « **Reply #7 on:** February 11, 2008, 04:50 AM »

Lanux,
Off the top of my head, how about an AHK hotkey that grabs the current URL and ~~fires up the browser on the remote machine (using UNC), passing the URL as an argument?~~ saves it to the remote PC, the remote PC can have another script that looks for this url file, fires up the URL when found & deletes the file.

Edit: It could just pass on the clipboard content, that way the link needn't actually be opened on the machine it's discovered on.

lanux128 · « **Reply #8 on:** February 11, 2008, 06:16 AM »

Quote from: nosh on February 11, 2008, 04:50 AM

Edit: It could just pass on the clipboard content, that way the link needn't actually be opened on the machine it's discovered on.

yes, that could work. i've heard of tools that shares clipboard across the network but haven't used them personally. this is one such program: Copycat.

Hirudin · « **Reply #9 on:** February 11, 2008, 10:56 AM »

Maybe you could have a text file on the net somewhere. Make a small program to update that file with whatever web page you're on. Left click on the "notification area" icon to open the file's website, right click on it to update the file with the current website. Or, maybe have it run in the background at all times and update the file every minute or so. As long as switching machines takes more than a minute it could work.

steeladept · « **Reply #10 on:** March 22, 2008, 12:38 PM »

Is it just me or am I missing something? Couldn't you just write a batch file that you have in the right click menu then it just pass the address to the file that opens the page on the remote PC? I mean you already know the machine name and location of the program...

Something like:
<psudocode>
Get %URL%
Run //MyPC/Program Files/Firefox/Firefox.exe "%URL%"
</psudocode>

Then you add the batch file to the right-click menu. When it is time to use it, just highlight the code, right click and run the program on the other machine.

EDIT - Just noted that this is what NOSH started to suggest before lining it out. Can someone explain why it would be lined out? I could see if you were trying to make it happen on any PC - you need to target it and verify location of software, etc.; but in this case these things are known. Just "hardcode" them into the target. In fact, for windows, most default browsers are defined in the %path% IIRC.

If not with a batch file, I know we could do it with AutoHotKey. In fact, maybe I will look into making it tonight just for practice. Until then, I am off to bed. Rotating midnight shifts are no fun.

nosh · « **Reply #11 on:** March 22, 2008, 01:15 PM »

I lined it out coz I realised that the browser, though loaded from the remote machine, would still run on the local machine where the command was issued.

Curt · « **Reply #12 on:** March 22, 2008, 02:14 PM »

The very idea is strange to me; I can not understand why this feature is being wanted. Whenever I am in (similar?) situation I will simply mail the link to my address. My e-mail client is placed in Start, so I will start every session by checking e-mails and their links.

But of course, I you guys really can write such a thingy, it would be cool, I guess.

cmpm · « **Reply #13 on:** March 22, 2008, 04:50 PM »

There isn't a way to send a link that auto opens on another computer.
If there was, it would be used to infect computers.

Someone at the other computer has to open the link, or not.

If you find a way to do it, please let me know so I can also know how to block such a program as intrusive as that.

PPLandry · « **Reply #14 on:** March 22, 2008, 05:29 PM »

You could use NetMeeting or MSN Messenger (or some other remote control tool) to achieve something like this

Curt · « **Reply #15 on:** March 22, 2008, 05:40 PM »

Quote from: cmpm on March 22, 2008, 04:50 PM

There isn't a way to send a link that auto opens on another computer. ... Someone at the other computer has to open the link, or not. ... If you find a way to do it, please let me know ...

I really must learn to explain myself a lot better in Dangli.. ehh.. English.
I me myself will check the emails, and then open their links. Okay?

Edit: added comma

cmpm · « **Reply #16 on:** March 22, 2008, 05:54 PM »

Yeah, I know, Curt.
I was responding to the first post and the request.

LogMeIn will do what the request is but you have to have control over both computers.

Synergy can do it also.

But to send a link or website that auto opens without control isn't possible I think.

kartal · « **Reply #17 on:** March 22, 2008, 08:19 PM »

I use input director. It has shared clipboard. But my laptop and pc are next to eachother

yksyks · « **Reply #18 on:** March 22, 2008, 09:55 PM »

And I can recommend similar app I'm using for the same task -- Synergy.

kartal · « **Reply #19 on:** March 22, 2008, 11:03 PM »

You can also try using powerfolder, it has a user chat tool and realtime file syncing that you can use for sycning bookmarks as well

Nod5 · « **Reply #20 on:** March 23, 2008, 12:18 PM »

siouxdax, maybe you could use a url shorter site ( http://notlong.com/links/
) or an online clipboard site ( http://cl1p.net/ ) together with a script?

It would do this process: you press a hotkey and a script on the URL sending computer grabs the URL from FF, uploads it onto the url shorter/clipboard site. On the URL receiving computer, you press another hotkey and the script downloads and then launches the URL.

While I have no finished script to give you I have the feeling that it wouldn't be so complex to construct. Note that since you could set the script to recycle the same clipboard page/url shortcut you wouldn't have to worry about deleting old URLs (which was your objection to mousers suggestion about bookmark syncing).

steeladept · « **Reply #21 on:** March 24, 2008, 01:39 AM »

Quote from: nosh on March 22, 2008, 01:15 PM

I lined it out coz I realised that the browser, though loaded from the remote machine, would still run on the local machine where the command was issued.

Well Duh. Hmmm. Maybe I should wait till I am thinking more clearly to respond.

I alway get lost in little details like that. Still, I think it might be possible using something like autohotkey and remote computer access...Not unlike opening the CDRom drawer on a remote machine. I had a co-worker who used to do that to people all the time just to see if they could figure it out. I know the difference between hardware and software with this kind of thing, but it still seems like there should be an easy way to do this.

Anyway, thanks Nosh for the reminder. I guess since that was a no-brainer, that means I have no brain?

$:-\$ $:-\$