Kenbushi®
User Manual

HTML Edition: 7.5.0.0
Release date: 24 September 2008



Basic Operation

Special Notes

Notices

Overview
Detailed Operation
Appendices

Overview

Introduction
Kenbushi® is a powerful Digital Media Jukebox which puts your library of movies, TV shows, music and other media at your fingertips for easy browsing, fast searching and instant playback. It includes a Secure Data Backup system and easy File-Sharing over LAN or Internet. The Kenbushi application must be running on all computers you wish to share files between. It only uses Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) for it's operations, so you don't need other protocols such as NETBEUI, AppleTalk, Windows file sharing, Samba, etc. to successfully share files.

In addition, you don't need file sharing enabled on your computer, nor do you use the Network Neighborhood, My Network Places, the Chooser, or any other networking functions built into your operating system to use Kenbushi.


Why you need your own home media/backup server
There are many compelling reasons why you will come to love having a home server* - it's simply the most convenient, economical and effective way for you and your family to organize your digital life. In the following section, you will probably discover many things about a home server that you may not have considered before, all of which are supported by Kenbushi.

*A 'home server' is really just a normal computer dedicated to serving your needs whilst sitting quietly behind or next to your TV. In fact, most budget computers you see in specials catalogues would be suitable as a home server, as even a budget computer nowadays is quite powerful. You don't even need a computer monitor, as the TV is used for display.

Provides a central location on which to store and organize your movies, music and photos
Most computer users have media files spread all over their laptop and desktop computers, and this chaos generally increases as more media are added. The additional problem is that some of these files are huge (especially movies), and you could unknowingly have multiple copies of the same file wasting valuable space on your hard disk. Putting media onto a central server means you can clear media from your other computers and know the master copies will always be on your media server. Of course, at any time, you can always download any media you want to use locally onto your laptop or desktop computer from the media server.

Is always switched on and ready for action
The most annoying thing about wanting to play media on your normal desktop or laptop computer is having to switch it on and wait for it to boot, do it's anti-virus and anti-spyware scans, and then finally give you control. Sometimes it's switched on already, so playing media is a simple and quick process, but often it's not. A media server, on the other hand, is always on and always ready for immediate action.

Can Play High-Definition video and audio now
High-Definition content is what most mediaphiles want - crisp, smooth, luscious video, where you can see each individual blade of grass sway in the wind. With current wireless technology, you simply can't stream High-Definition (HD) content, and even streaming Standard-Definition (SD) content can be a challenge. Having a movie break up into a pixellated mozaic spoils the whole point of setting up digital movie playback in the first place.

With a home server, you don't have to wait for some new wireless standard to come out, nor buy new networking hardware to support the very high data rates required for video streaming, nor suffer the disappointment of finding your neighbors also want streaming video and the airwaves are clogged. Why stream movies when you can simply store them on some inexpensive, monstrously huge hard drives and play them directly from the hard drive to your beautiful big screen TV and surround sound system? You have to store the movie files somewhere anyway, so why not store them next to your TV on a media server, rather than take up valuable space on your laptop or desktop computer?

Does all the hard work of playing the movies, leaving your main computer free for productive tasks
Playing a movie usually takes a lot of processor (CPU) power and often continuous hard disk use, so streaming a movie from your main computer would leave you with a less responsive and overworked computer when you want to do productive work on it. For example, you might want to play a movie for the kids to keep them entertained whilst you work. Let the media server do all the heavy lifting involved in movie playback, and gain the full productive use your main computer, in addition to complete remote control of media playback. After setting up the media server to play a movie, you could even get into some intensive 3D game action whilst controlling movie playback remotely using your PDA with Wi-Fi.

Allows you to play games (eg. World of Warcraft) in a totally immersive, big screen, surround sound environment
Wireless keyboards and mice are now inexpensive and widely available, and provide an excellent way to control immersive computer games, such as World of Warcraft, Half-Life 2 and Counterstrike. Why play these games on a small computer screen, when you can use your big screen TV and surround sound system to enjoy these games to the max? Thus, connecting a wireless keyboard and mouse to your home server gives you the necessary control to change computer settings, install software, etc., but also allows you to play games from the comfort of your lounge chair.

In contrast, laptops are not designed to play games, but are perfect devices for work productivity and control. Having the combination of a laptop and a home server gives you the best of all worlds: you can conveniently set up and control media playback on the home server from the laptop, easily and regularly backup your laptop files to the home server, and use your laptop for productive work.

In addition, if your family likes to play casual games together on the TV, a home server offers an excellent way to do this is in the comfort of your lounge room.

Gives you 24/7 Skype, so your friends, family and distant relatives can always call you for free
Skype and other free Voice-over-IP (VoIP) services are becoming a powerful benefit of having a broadband Internet connection. These services provide an effective replacement for normal telephones and operate between callers anywhere in the world, for free.

The only problem with Skype is that you need your computer switched on to make and receive calls, but normal laptop and desktop computers are off most of the time. However, if you have Skype installed on a home server, and the home server is always on, you have a Skype service which is always on. That means people can call you at any time on Skype, just like they call you now on a normal telephone, but at no cost ... from anywhere in the world. The value proposition of a home server just moved up a notch.

In addition, there are now many telephone handsets on the market which are designed specifically for use with Skype. There are even dual-use handsets which plug into your existing telephone socket and work as a standard telephone, but also plug into the USB port on your computer and work directly with Skype. When making a call, you push a button to select whether you want to make a normal telephone call, or a call through Skype. When receiving a call, the ringtone indicates whether the call is a normal telephone call, or a Skype call.

Skype is currently introducing video calling to their software, and with an appropriate TV mounted webcam connected to your home server, it would be possible for you to video call your friends and family from the comfort of your lounge chair.

Get a wireless home router for free, with simpler Internet setup, and make your home server accessible from the Internet
Many households now connect a wireless router unit containing a firewall to their broadband modem, and then use that router as the gateway to the Internet for their home computers. The idea is that it provides better security, since NAT (Network Address Translation) is done by the router, as well as firewalling, and this protects the home computers from hacker attacks coming from the Internet. In addition, the router can be on 24/7, so anyone in the household can connect without being dependent on a computer connected to the broadband modem to be on.

In contrast, there are significant benefits in having a home server connected directly to your broadband modem and using that as a wireless home router.
 Note: It's important to keep your home server as secure as possible. If you use MacOS X or Linux on your home server, you need to regularly install any operating system updates released by the vendor. If you use Windows on your home server, in addition to installing operating system updates, make sure you have good anti-virus and anti-spyware software installed, and that you regularly update it. This should ensure smooth operation of your home server.

Can backup your documents and other files, and keep them safe
The key to effective data backup is to have copies of your valuable documents and other files stored on a different disk to the one you work on, in addition to an easy way to restore them from those backups when your originals get lost or deleted. This 'different disk' may be a writeable CD, a USB flashdrive, the hard disk of another computer connected via the network, or a remote server connected via the Internet.

A media server provides an ideal location for you and your family to backup your files. It's conveniently accessible, offers fast transfer of files via LAN, and offers large storage capacity. Generally, the files on a media server don't need to be backed up*, since no progressively edited sole-copy works (such as word processor documents) are routinely stored on it by users (unlike laptops, for instance).

*many prudent users burn movies, music and photos to CD or DVD for archiving.

Home automation and security
A home server is the perfect platform from which to control home automation devices, such as lighting systems, heating, cooling, garden watering systems, etc., whether controlled with a local remote control, via remote control over the Internet, or via an automated control system (eg. a thermostat keeping the room temperature constant).

A home server is also perfect for monitoring purposes, including baby monitoring, home security devices (eg. still and video cameras), as well as logging data from devices such as solar energy and wind power collection systems, etc.

The key to effective implementation of these types of systems is to have a computer always on and always performing it's control and monitoring tasks. Reliability is very important, especially when there may be problems with the supply of mains power. A home server with very minimal energy needs would be optimal, both to be environmentally friendly, and also to allow it to be powered from a backup battery or solar-powered source, when necessary.

Is cheaper than you may think
A 'home server' is really just a normal computer dedicated to serving your needs whilst sitting quietly behind or next to your TV. In fact, most budget computers you see in specials catalogues would be suitable as a home server, as even a budget computer nowadays is quite powerful.* You don't even need a computer monitor, as the TV is used for display.

There are two important things to look for when selecting a media server: the computer must be quiet, and it must have a composite video output if you have an older TV. However, if the computer you like doesn't have composite output, you can install an inexpensive video card with a composite video output, or purchase a composite video output module for it. Quiet computer cases are now more common (some even have ball-bearing fans), as are quiet motherboards. If you want to use your server for home automation and security as well, low power operation is also a must.

If you are technically proficient and want to build your own computer, you might consider installing the Ubuntu version of Linux on it, which is free. The latest version of Ubuntu (codenamed 'Gutsy Gibbon') installs easily, detects most computer hardware (including wireless network cards), and has a simple installation system for additional software which works via download over the Internet. With Kenbushi installed, you can use your new Linux computer as a file server, media server and backup server. You could also use it as a wireless home router and Internet hub. Linux has the substantial added benefit of not requiring anti-virus and anti-spyware software, nor the regular scans required by this software (unlike Windows). Details about how to set up a Ubuntu home server can be found below.

If you wish to purchase or build an inexpensive computer running Windows XP with the intention of playing intensive 3D games on it as well (eg. World of Warcraft), you should look for a motherboard with good integrated graphics. For example, motherboards with integrated GeForce 6150 GPUs make excellent inexpensive games computers. An Intel Core Duo processor coupled with a good video card would also be a good choice.

If you like the Apple Macintosh, the Mac Mini (with Intel Core Duo processor) would make an excellent home server in almost all respects, including very low power consumption. It's only downside is that it won't run intensive 3D games well, if you need that ability (eg. World of Warcraft works, but generally not at high enough framerates).

*most should play Standard Definition movies well, but High Definition movie playback and intensive 3D gaming may require a better quality system.


Summary of what a home server should be:

* Compact, so it can be conveniently located behind or next to your TV
* Low-power, so it is environmentally friendly, and can be powered from a backup battery or solar-powered source, when necessary
* Wireless, to make installation easy and to provide portability
* Offer large storage capacity, so you can store all your media and backup data in one central location
* Silent, to eliminate fan noise, DVD disk grinding, etc. from spoiling the enjoyment of media playback
* Easily connectable, so your current and future TV and sound systems can be plugged straight in
* Give you 24/7 Skype, so you can make and receive free local and international phone calls anytime
* Inexpensive, to save you money


Currently, Kenbushi plays media using the VLC media player, as VLC runs on Windows, MacOS X, and Linux and thus supports all platforms Kenbushi does. However, we plan to introduce support for Apple's Quicktime media player in a future release, which will provide an alternate playback system for media on Windows and MacOS X (including DRM protected media purchased from the iTunes store, such as TV shows and full-length movies). All functionality in Kenbushi is expected to be the same when playing media with Quicktime, but we will be able to take advantage of Quicktime's superior performance in some areas, such as mpeg 4 and H264 movie playback of High-Definition content, whilst retaining VLC's slightly broader media compatibility (Quicktime does not support some types of audio codec).

We also plan to introduce support for Microsoft's Windows Media Player in a future release, which will provide an alternate playback system for media on Windows (including purchased DRM protected media, such as TV shows and full-length movies).


Cross-platform file transfers on a LAN
You can now transfer files easily between any Windows, Macintosh and Linux (i86) computers on your home, school or office network (see example local area network in Figure 1 below). Kenbushi provides a bridge between different computer types without requiring complex installation and set up procedures. Just select the files and folders you wish to share on one computer and they can be requested by and transferred to another computer on the network.

Figure 1. Example LAN connecting different computer types


Conveniently transfer files via the Internet
Friends can now easily, safely and conveniently transfer huge files via the Internet (see Figure 2 below), irrespective of what type of connection is used (eg. dialup modem, ADSL, cable, etc). File access is protected by highly secure 896-bit encryption, so your files are never exposed to anonymous users. Setting up a workgroup for Internet file sharing is as easy as entering a workgroup name and pressing the 'Join' button. All users with that workgroup name will then connect together for file sharing. You can protect your shared files from unauthorized access with a 'Sharing Password'.

Figure 2. Example of connecting computers via the Internet


Cross-platform Internet downloading
Often one computer on a home network is set up to access the Internet, whilst the others are only connected to it via the Local Area Network (see Figure 3 below). Now you can download files using the Internet-connected computer and transfer them across the local area network to the other computers using Kenbushi. This also means you can download PC files from the Internet using a Macintosh or download Macintosh files (in MacBinary or BinHex format) using a PC and then transfer them to the appropriate computer.

Figure 3. Example of cross-platform setup with Internet connected computer


Limitations of Internet connection sharing
Most functions in Kenbushi will work on computers connected indirectly to the Internet via an Internet connection sharing host (see diagram in Figure 4 below). In this case, you will be able to connect to a remote computer via the Internet, view it's file list and get files from it, but the remote computer won't have access to your computer. This is simply a side-effect of how Internet connection sharing works.

All functions in Kenbushi will work on the Internet connection sharing host itself (eg. your home server) when transferring files over the Internet, since it is effectively connected directly to the Internet.

Figure 4. Example of setup with Internet connection sharing


Security considerations
Kenbushi was designed from the ground up with security in mind. All control operations are protected by highly secure 896-bit encryption and no passwords are ever sent across the network or the Internet in clear text (unlike FTP). If the user trying to get access to your shared files doesn't know the password you have set, they cannot access anything, including the list of files you are sharing.

Since you are sharing files with friends via the Internet, rather than with anonymous users who inherently cannot be trusted, you are much less likely to get files carrying viruses, worms or trojan horses.

If you are using wireless networking in your home or office, it is highly recommended that you use a password for access to that network (using 'WEP', an acronym for Wired Equivalent Privacy). This protects your network from intruders and eavesdroppers getting into your network, as well as people using your Internet connection without your knowledge or consent (and possibly causing problems, such as making you go over your monthly download limit).

Detailed Operation

These instructions apply to all platform versions of Kenbushi, though the focus is on the Windows XP version and screenshots come from this version. If there are platform-specific differences in operation or features for Macintosh or Linux, these differences are described in the relevant sections.

The dynamic help system built into Kenbushi displays specific help information for all controls and textboxes. To get information about a particular control, move the cursor over it and help information will be displayed.


Setting up
Select the Preferences panel (see Figure 5 below) and enter a Sharing Password to ensure only authorized users (ie. those people who know your password) can access your shared files and folders. You may also wish to change the default Computer Name - this is the name that other users on the network will see when they connect to your computer.

You can set Kenbushi to start up automatically when your start up your computer (or log in to your computer user account) by checking the Launch on Startup/Login checkbox. This is especially useful if you use Kenbushi frequently for transferring files to other computers or doing data backups. You can also set the Minimize Main Window on Startup checkbox to ensure the main window of Kenbushi doesn't clutter your desktop when it starts up.

On Windows, the Minimize Main Window on Startup function hides the main window (so there is no application item in the taskbar), but leaves the Kenbushi icon in the Windows tray (the area at the bottom right side of the desktop). From the Kenbushi tray button, you can show the main window again, get information about Kenbushi, and quit Kenbushi. If you close the main window, Kenbushi will continue running in the Windows tray - you need to select Quit from the File menu or Quit from the tray menu to quit Kenbushi.

Further information about the other controls on the preferences panel can be found in Transferring files to your computer and Localization into other languages.


Figure 5. The Preferences panel

Now choose the Shared Folders panel (see Figure 6 below) and add all the files and folders on your computer you wish to share by pressing the Add Folder and Add File buttons and selecting them. Alternatively, you can add files and folders by dragging them directly from the desktop and dropping them onto the Files/Folders To Share listbox. You can remove shared items by selecting them in the listbox and then pressing the Remove button.

If you wish to use the media player functions in Kenbushi, add your computer's Music and Movies folders to the Shared Folders listbox. When you subsequently do local or remote searches on the Play Media panel, music and movie files will be returned. From the results of these searches, you can build playlists and use the media player functions. Please see adding media to the media library for more details.

Since the files and folders you selected for sharing on Kenbushi are always listed in one central location (ie. on the Files/Folders To Share listbox), you always know what you are sharing. In contrast, when using Microsoft Windows file sharing, you can have shared files and shared folders scattered all over your hard disks and not know what is currently accessible to others over the network. This presents a security problem in Microsoft Windows file sharing, which is eliminated by Kenbushi.

If you wish to make any folder shown on the list writeable, check the checkbox on the left side of that folder. The icon will change into a folder containing a pencil, indicating it is writeable. These writeable folders can accept uploads, allow new folders to be created in them, and will allow files and folders in them to be renamed (Note: renaming is not available in the Linux version of Kenbushi).

Note: If a file or folder has been added to the Files/Folders To Share listbox, but is no longer available (eg. you are sharing folders on a CDROM, zip disk, floppy disk, etc. and have ejected it), it will be removed automatically from the list. When it is re-inserted, it will automatically appear again in the list.


Figure 6. The Shared Folders panel


Sharing files over the Internet
If you wish to share files with your friends over the Internet, select Internet (Internet Workgroup) from the Workgroup Setup Method popup menu on the Preferences panel (see Figure 7 below). Then enter the Workgroup Name you and your friends have chosen to use, and press the Join button. You should see a number of messages in the Connection Status textbox detailing the network operations in progress, including connections coming in from other remote users in your workgroup. Your friends' computers should appear within a few seconds in the Remote User Connection List as well as the Connect to popup menu on the Transfer Files panel.


Figure 7. Joining an Internet workgroup

See the Transferring files to your computer section below for details about locating and transferring files from remote computers.

When you press the Join button, Kenbushi actually contacts the Lava Software server on the Internet, which will assign you to be the 'workgroup hub' for that named workgroup (if it has not already been assigned to another user getting in before you). Users who subsequently join that named workgroup will then be automatically redirected by the Lava Software server to your computer to get information about all the other users in the workgroup. When they have this information, they will connect directly to these users. Thus, the workgroup hub is like the axle of a wheel, with the other users forming the spokes of the wheel.

If a computer assigned as a workgroup hub goes offline, the first computer in the workgroup to poll the Lava Software server after 90 seconds has elapsed will be assigned as the new workgroup hub. Thus, a workgroup almost always has a central and dynamically assigned workgroup hub to bring all users of the workgroup together.


Solving Internet connection problems
Most Internet workgroup connection problems in Kenbushi are caused by firewalls and NAT devices, such as routers and proxy servers.

Firewalls
Firewalls prevent other computers on the Internet from connecting to your computer without your authorization, by blocking all network ports except the standard ports used by web browsing (port 80), email (port 25), FTP (port 21), etc. They generally also prevent outgoing connections on non-standard ports, to stop malware (eg. spyware, viruses, worms, etc.) which has found its way onto your computer from doing nasty things, such as allowing the remote control of your computer.

However, the problem with blocking all non-standard ports using a firewall is that many online programs, particularly games, use specific non-standard ports for their operation. For example, World of Warcraft requires ports 3724, 6112 and 6881-6999 to be open. Counter-Strike requires port 27015 to be open. If these ports are closed, the software will not work correctly. Thus, users must configure their firewall to be able to play these games.

Similarly, Kenbushi requires port 3300 to be open on your Internet firewall for both incoming and outgoing TCP connections.

Note: If you are only sharing files, etc. using Kenbushi over a LAN (eg. a home or office network connected via Ethernet, wireless, etc.), firewalls should not be causing any problems, as firewalls are designed for controlling Internet network access only. The firewall test system in Kenbushi tests for firewall barriers to the Internet only.

On Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) installed, a basic firewall is included and switched on by default. To check this on your computer, open the Network Connections control panel, double-click the network device connecting your computer to the Internet (usually an Ethernet network card) and press the Properties button. Then select the Advanced panel - you should see a Windows Firewall groupbox similar to Figure 8 below. Click the Settings... button and you will see if the firewall is on.


Figure 8. Checking for a Windows XP firewall

Unfortunately, on Windows XP with Service Pack 2, you can only switch the entire firewall on or off - you can't enable individual ports. With the firewall on, you'll have a more secure computer which won't support non-standard online programs; with the firewall off, you'll have an insecure computer which supports non-standard online programs. Though this is a lot better than older versions of Windows (which have no built-in firewall at all), you really need both security and online program support. Thus, you should purchase a firewall program, or download and install a free firewall program, such as ZoneAlarm (www.zonealarm.com).

After installing ZoneAlarm, you can make Kenbushi work correctly by clicking the Allow button on the dialogs displayed by ZoneAlarm when you run Kenbushi for the first time (see Figure 9 below). You should probably also click the Remember this setting checkbox, to save you having to click the Allow button every time.


Figure 9. Allowing Kenbushi to send and receive Internet data

On MacOS X and Linux, the built-in firewall allows you to enable individual ports. On MacOS X, the firewall settings can be found on the Sharing control panel. Click the Firewall panel, click the New... button and enter the information required for  Kenbushi (see Figure 10 below).


Figure 10. The MacOS X firewall setup

If you have only a software firewall (ie. not one built into a hardware router or proxy server) and can't get Kenbushi working over the Internet, try completely disabling your firewall temporarily and then doing the firewall test (described below in Diagnosing network problems). It it works, you're on the right track and it's a matter of configuring the firewall settings. If it doesn't work, it's probably not the firewall causing the problem.

Proxy servers
Proxy servers funnel Internet traffic from various computers on a home or office network to the computer on the network which is directly connected to the Internet via a dialup or broadband modem.

Proxy servers generally have a built-in firewall, since all Internet traffic comes directly through the proxy server. This built-in firewall usually allows you to enable individual ports. Kenbushi requires port 3300 to be open on your firewall for both incoming and outgoing TCP connections.

On Windows, for example, you may be using WinProxy (www.winproxy.com). To enable port 3300 in WinProxy, select Advanced Settings from the File menu, and then click the Firewall panel. Press the New Application button and enter the port information for Kenbushi (the incoming port information is shown below in Figure 11).


Figure 11. Configuring the WinProxy firewall

Routers
Wired or wireless routers generally connect directly to a broadband modem via a USB or Ethernet connection, and funnel traffic from various computers on the home or office network to the Internet. They also contain a firewall to secure the network from other computers on the Internet.

Some routers can be set to allow ports to 'pass through' to a computer connected to the router, thus allowing that computer to act as a file server (Kenbushi acts as a file server when authorized users get files from your computer over the Internet). Some less expensive routers do not offer this 'pass through' capability. Please read your router documentation for specific information about setting up this 'pass through' capability.

For example, on the D-Link DI-624 wireless router, you can set up a 'Virtual Server' (as shown in Figure 12 below). On this brand of router, the 'Virtual Server' feature performs the 'pass through' function.


Figure 12. Setting up a D-Link router for 'pass-through'

Diagnosing network problems
If you have problems connecting to other users on the Internet, you can diagnose the network using the Network Monitor. To bring up the Network Monitor, press the Diagnostics... button in the Advanced groupbox on the Network panel. The dialog shown below in Figure 13 will be displayed.


Figure 13. The Network Monitor dialog

To test if a firewall is stopping you connecting correctly to other Internet users, press the Firewall Test button. A request will be sent out to the Lava Software Internet server, which will respond by making a test TCP connection to your computer on port 3300 (the default base port number). If the test is successful (as shown in the test message sample in Figure 12 above), your computer can act as a file server ie. users on the Internet can get files from your computer.

If the firewall test fails, either you have a firewall preventing access from the Internet, or your network topology (how the network is connected together) is causing the problem. Please read the sections above on firewalls, proxy servers and routers for more information about what you can do to fix this type of problem.

With the network diagnostic tests, you can check TCP and UDP connectivity to a remote computer, either on a LAN or on the Internet. Simply enter the remote computer's IP address in the IP Address: textbox and click the TCP Test or UDP Test buttons. You can find out the IP address of a remote computer by pressing the Adapter Scan button on the Kenbushi program running on that remote computer.

If you have a router in your network, the IP addresses displayed may only be LAN IP addresses - these type of IP addresses usually are similar to '192.168.xxx.xxx' or '10.0.xxx.xxx'. These are useful for setting up tests for connectivity across a LAN, but are useless for testing connectivity across the Internet. For information about setting up routers so that you can use Kenbushi across the Internet, please refer to the Routers section above.

When a computer is connected directly to the Internet (ie. with no router in the way, and a modem plugged directly into the computer), you should get an IP address displayed which is assigned by your ISP (Internet Service Provider) and which identifies you uniquely on the Internet. You can then do valid network diagnostic tests across the Internet which can be helpful in getting Kenbushi working. All dialup modems offer this type of direct Internet connection, so a dialup modem can come in handy for testing your Internet setup.

Sometimes ISPs (Internet Service Providers) block ports to help prevent the propagation of worms, viruses and other malware (this is a serious problem on Windows computers). If you have tried everything to get Kenbushi working over the Internet, including disabling all your firewalls temporarily (as described in the Firewalls section above), contact your ISP and ensure they are not blocking ports.

For Windows users, an excellent free tool called SG TCP Optimizer is available, which provides an intuitive interface for tuning and optimizing your LAN TCP/IP setup and Internet connection. The description on the developers website: "The program can aid both the novice and the advanced user in tweaking related TCP/IP parameters in the Windows Registry, making it easy to tune your system to the type of Internet connection used. The tool uses advanced algorithms, and the bandwidth*delay product to find the best TCP Window for your specific connection speed. It provides for easy tuning of all related TCP/IP parameters, such as MTU, RWIN, and even advanced ones like QoS and ToS/Diffserv prioritization. The program works with all current versions of Windows, and includes additional tools, such as testing average latency over multiple hosts, and finding the largest possible packet size (MTU)."

For MacOS X users, Apple bundles Network Utility with the operating system. This program "provides information and troubleshooting tools to help you with your network" and can be found in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder.

Of course, if a remote user knows their Internet IP address (displayed when the Adaptor Scan button is pressed), and you have an Internet chat session open with them (eg. via Microsoft Messenger, etc.), they can give you their Internet IP address and you can do a direct TCP Test to that Internet IP address (ie. enter it into the IP Address textbox and then press the TCP Test button). This is the absolute best way to test the direct network path from your computer to their computer over the Internet. They should do the same test to your computer. If both computers pass this test, you should able to share files, etc. using Kenbushi without problems.

Sharing files over a LAN
When sharing files over a LAN, there are a number of workgroup setup options available.

The fastest way to set up a LAN workgroup (eg. a simple home network) is to select Auto-Discovery from the Workgroup Setup Method popup menu on the Preferences panel. All computers on the LAN should then be discovered quickly and automatically. If you have multiple network adapters (eg. Ethernet card, wireless network card, etc.) in your computer, you should select the one connected directly to your LAN. No further setup is required. See Figure 14 below.


Figure 14. Selecting auto-discovery

If you are in an office or school and wish to set up a number of fixed workgroups, select Workgroup Hub from the Workgroup Setup Method popup menu on the Preferences panel (see Figure 15 below). Allocate one computer in each workgroup (one with a fixed IP address and which is switched on all the time) to act as a workgroup hub by checking it's Act as Workgroup Hub checkbox. For all other computers in this particular workgroup, enter the workgroup hub's IP address and sharing password and press the Join button. Once the IP address and password are entered, whenever Kenbushi is launched, the user will automaticaly connect to the workgroup hub and subsequently with all users active in the workgroup.


Figure 15. Using a workgroup hub

If you are in an office, school or university, each computer can access the Internet, and you wish to allow for any number of dynamic named workgroups, select Internet (LAN workgroup) from the Workgroup Setup Method popup menu on the Preferences panel (see Figure 16 below). Then enter a Workgroup Name and select the LAN Network Adapter which is used for LAN access. When you press the Join button, the computer will connect to the Lava Software Internet server and dynamically connect all users in your named LAN workgroup. This process works through firewalls, since only the setting up of the named LAN workgroup is done via the Internet - all subsequent network activity between file sharing users is done on the LAN, which is usually behind the firewall.

For example, if all students in a particular University dormitory wanted to form a workgroup and share files, they might select a name like 'ucla-dorm1'. All users who join this named LAN workgroup will then be able to connect together and share files.


Figure 16. Using the Internet to set up a dynamic or dispersed LAN workgroup

You can also set up a workgroup manually, if all computers have fixed IP addresses. To do this, select Set Manually from the Workgroup Setup Method popup menu. Then, for each workgroup member, enter their fixed IP address into the IP Address textbox and press the Add button. You can also enter IP address ranges by making the last three characters of an IP address "xxx". eg. 192.168.244.xxx (in this case, IP addresses 192.168.244.0 to 192.168.244.254 will be scanned). This may be useful for LANs which have dynamically allocated IP addresses (eg. DHCP).

Alternatively, you can get the 'Workgroup IP Addresses' list from another user on the network. Start by selecting Get From Other User from the Workgroup Setup Method popup menu. Then enter their IP address into the User IP Address textbox, enter their password into the User Password textbox and press the Get button. Their list will then be transferred and placed in the Workgroup IP Addresses listbox. This makes it very easy to set up and maintain workgroups containing a number of users.

Solving LAN connection problems
If you have problems connecting to other users on the LAN, you can now diagnose problems using the Network Monitor. To bring up the Network Monitor, press the Diagnostics... button in the Advanced groupbox on the Network panel. The dialog shown in Figure 13 will be displayed.

Press the Adapter Scan button to display all Network Adapters installed in your computer. This gives you information about their allocated IP addresses, subnet masks and MAC addresses.

To test TCP connectivity to another computer running Kenbushi, enter the target computer's IP address (use the Adapter Scan button on the target computer to find out it's possible IP addresses) and press the TCP Test button. A TCP connection request will be made to the target computer and the results displayed.

If a connection could not be made, the most likely reason is that you entered the IP address of the target computer incorrectly. Go to the target computer, press the Adapter Scan button to check the IP addresses of all the Network Adapters it contains. If you're not sure which Network Adapter is connecting your LAN computers together, try the different IP addresses displayed by the scan until you find one that works.

You may unknowingly have a firewall active on your LAN (firewalls prevent incoming and outgoing network traffic on particular ports, to enhance computer security). If it's a firewall problem, enable the default base port (3300) for both outgoing and incoming TCP and UDP using your computer's Network or TCP/IP Control Panel and try again. See further information about Firewalls above.

Note: If you are only sharing files, etc. using Kenbushi over a LAN (eg. a home or office network connected via Ethernet, wireless, etc.), firewalls should not be causing any problems, as firewalls are designed for controlling Internet network access only. The firewall test system in Kenbushi tests for firewall barriers to the Internet only.

A less likely problem is that you accidently entered different subnet masks on computers on your LAN. The most common subnet mask in home and small office networks is '255.255.255.0'. You can change the subnet mask on a computer on the Network or TCP/IP Control Panel.

A rare scenario is that there is a Network Address Translation (NAT) device, such as a bridge, in your LAN. You should talk to your network administrator about what may be done to change the network topology to fix this.

To test UDP connectivity to another computer running Kenbushi, enter the target computer's IP address (use the Adapter Scan button on the target computer to find out it's IP address) and press the UDP Test button. A UDP connection request will be made to the target computer and the results displayed.

Important note: UDP connections are used for the auto-discovery feature in Kenbushi.

Transferring files to your computer
When you launch Kenbushi, you should see other computers running Kenbushi listed in the Connect to popup menu on the Transfer Files panel after a few seconds. They will also be shown in the Remote User Connection List listbox on the Network panel, and you can see their IP address, their computer name and what they are doing.

Select a computer from the Connect to popup menu to view it's shared files (see Figure 17 below). You may need to enter a Sharing Password to gain access to files on this computer (once entered, the password will be stored and automatically used for subsequent operations).


Figure 17. The Transfer Files panel

All folders are marked with a yellow folder icon, and all files with a grey file icon. In addition, applications (programs) are shown with an orange diamond, and packages as an orange folder. On MacOS, you can check the Use Custom File/Folder Icons checkbox on the Preferences panel. In this case, the correct custom Finder icons will be displayed in the Local File List, though this does slow the refresh time of the list.

All actions available on items in the local file list and remote file list are accessible using the context sensitive menus displayed when you right-click the item.

On the local file list, actions include 'Get Info', 'Get Info (With MD5 Signature)', 'Upload', 'Sync', 'Open With Default Application', 'Delete' and 'Reveal On Desktop'. Of course, actions such as 'Upload' will only be available if the remote file list displays a writeable folder. See Figure 18 below.


Figure 18. The local file list contextual menu

On the remote file list, actions include 'Get Info', 'Get Info (With MD5 Signature)', 'Download' and 'Delete'. Of course, actions such as 'Delete' will only be available if the remote file list displays a writeable folder. See Figure 19 below.


Figure 19. The remote file list contextual menu

Files and folders can also be dragged between the local file list and remote file list to initiate a transfer. If you drag files and folders from the remote file list onto the local file list, those items will be downloaded. If you drag files and folders from the local file list onto the remote file list, those items will be uploaded.

If you hold down the Shift key whilst clicking the Download or Upload buttons, overwrite is automatically chosen (normally, an alert will be displayed if there are existing files and folders at the destination location). In this way, you can conveniently force an overwrite transfer.

If you set the Verify Files After Transfer checkbox on the Preferences panel, an MD5 digital signature will be created from each transferred file's data, and this will be checked against the MD5 digital signature of the source file. If a transmission error corrupts even a single bit in a file, the source and destination file MD5s won't match and the file will be automatically retransmitted. This verification is performed on both uploads and downloads of files, and is especially useful for transfers over the Internet as it ensures file transfer integrity.

Folder navigation
To move into a folder on the remote computer, double-click it in the Remote File List listbox and the contents of the folder will be displayed. To move up the folder hierarchy, select an item from the Remote Folder Navigation popup menu. At the top level of this popup menu, you will find the root list of files and folders shared by this remote user.

To move into a folder on the local computer, double-click it in the Local File List listbox and the contents of the folder will be displayed. To move up the folder hierarchy, select an item from the Local Folder Navigation popup menu. At the top level of this popup menu, you will find the name of your computer and the various hard disks, DVD drives, etc. located on it. If you insert a CD, DVD or other media, these should be displayed in a few seconds at this top level.

The Local Folder Navigation and Remote Folder Navigation popup menus clearly show each of the folders in the path to the folder being displayed, so you can navigate around quickly and consistently.

Note: Some folders on Linux cannot be accessed. Usually these are folders for which you do not have access permission, according to internal Linux OS settings. It's best to only navigate through folders in your home account.

Bookmarks
This easy navigation is further enhanced by the bookmarking system built into Kenbushi. When you are located in a folder you wish to bookmark, select Add Bookmark from the bookmark menu displayed when you press the Bookmark buttons above the local and remote file lists. To quickly go to this location in the future, simply select it from the bookmark menu. To remove a bookmark, hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard whilst selecting the bookmark, or go to the bookmark and select Remove Bookmark using the Bookmark button.

If you bookmark a folder in the Local File List located on ejectable media (eg. CDROM, zip disk, USB flash drive, etc.) and eject the media, the bookmarks will automatically be removed from the local bookmark list. When the media is re-inserted, the bookmarks relating to that media will again become available.

Bookmarks to locations in the Remote File List are linked to the user selected in the Connect to popup menu when the bookmark was added. Thus, you will only see bookmarks relevant to each particular user.

Creating folders
To create a new folder on the local or remote file lists, press the Create Folder button above the list you wish to create the folder in. A new 'untitled' folder will be created and highlighed in the list, so you can easily name it as you wish. If you can't create a folder in the particular folder displayed in the local or remote files lists (ie. the Create Folder button is disabled), it means it's not valid to create it there.

Folders can only be created in the remote file list if the containing folder (ie. the folder whose contents is displayed in the remote file list) is writeable. Setting a remote shared folder to 'writeable' can only be done on the remote computer, in the Shared Folders panel.

Renaming files and folders
To rename a file or folder in the local or remote file lists, simply click on it and edit it directly (see Figure 20 below). When you have finished editing the name, click somewhere else in the listbox for the name to be set. If you decide not to keep the name you are currently entering, hit the Esc key on the keyboard and the changes will be cancelled. If you can't change a name in the list, it means you can't change the name in the list - it may be a folder which is not set to writeable in the remote file list, or a read-only folder on your local hard disk, for example.

Files and folders can only be renamed in the remote file list if the containing folder (ie. the folder whose contents is displayed in the remote file list) is writeable. Setting a remote shared folder to 'writeable' can only be done on the remote computer, in the Shared Folders panel.


Figure 20. Renaming a remote file

Deleting files and folders
To delete a file or folder, select it in either the local file list or remote file list and press the Delete or Backspace key on the keyboard. If you have the Display Delete Confirmation Alert checkbox checked on the Preferences panel, the confirmation alert shown below in Figure 21 is displayed before the deletion is made.

Files and folders can only be deleted from the remote file list if the containing folder (ie. the folder whose contents is displayed in the remote file list) is writeable. Setting a remote shared folder to 'writeable' can only be done on the remote computer, in the Shared Folders panel.


Figure 21. The delete confirmation alert

Downloading files
When you wish to download a file displayed in the remote file list, simply double-click it (or highlight it and press the Download button - the left-pointing arrow) to begin transferring it to your computer. After the file transfer is complete, your local file list will be refreshed automatically and the transferred file displayed in it. A number of files and/or folders can be selected at one time on the remote file list, which will be downloaded when you subsequently press the Download button.

During a transfer, the average transfer speed as well as the instantaneous transfer speed is displayed. The time remaining estimation is calculated using the instantaneous transfer speed.

You can stop a transfer at any time by pressing the Stop button, and later resume it. After resuming, Kenbushi will determine which files already exist on your computer and then display the overwrite dialog (shown in Figure 22 below).


Figure 22. The overwrite dialog

If you press the Overwrite button, any existing files shown in the Local File List will be overwritten with the transferred files.

Pressing Continue will make the transfer continue from where it left off. The Transferred text (on the bottom right side of the Transfer Files panel) shows information about progress, including the amount of new file data transferred, the amount of new file data that needs to be transferred, and the total amount of file data selected. For example, '3.010 gb of 7.050 gb (8.763 gb)' means that 3.010 gb of file data has been transferred of a total of 7.050 gb. The amount of file data selected was 8.763 gb. Thus, the continue on the transfer occurred after 8.763 gb - 7.050 gb = 1.713 gb had already been transferred.

If you are getting a large group of files over the Internet from a remote computer (especially via a dialup modem), then the continue function could save you a lot of time. With Kenbushi, you just need to reconnect and continue the transfer if the modem connection drops out unexpectedly (as they sometimes do) and transfers are not fully completed.

If you are transferring a lot of folders and files over a LAN with Kenbushi, the continue function can be very helpful if there are file access problems. In contrast, if a problem occurs when transferring files and folders using built-in Microsoft Windows file sharing, the transfer is terminated abruptly and you have to start again from the beginning.

In addition, very large files, such as digital home movies, can be reliably transferred over the Internet (even via dialup modem), making it easy for you to share digital movies, photo collections, etc. with your family and friends.

The Update button should be used if you only want to transfer newer files between computers, overwriting older files. This can also be used as a simple one-way data backup function by making a copy of a set of files on another computer.

Note: Holding down the Shift key whilst you click the Download button will force an overwrite and bypass the overwrite dialog.

Uploading files
When you wish to upload a file displayed in the local file list, simply double-click it (or highlight it and press the Upload button - the right-pointing arrow) to begin sending it to the remote computer. After the file transfer is complete, the remote file list will be refreshed automatically and the transferred file displayed in it. A number of files and/or folders can be selected at one time on the local file list, which will be uploaded when you subsequently press the Upload button.

Files and folders can only be uploaded to 'writeable' folders in the remote file list. If the Upload button has a red cross through it, the selected remote folder is not writeable and you cannot upload to it. Setting a remote shared folder to 'writeable' can only be done on the remote computer, in the Shared Folders panel.

Note: Holding down the Shift key whilst you click the Upload button will force an overwrite and bypass the overwrite dialog.
 
Remote folder synchronization
To synchronize two folders with the same name in the local and remote file lists, select the folder in the Local File List and press the Synchronize button (see Figure 20 below). Any files not in both locations will be transferred, and files with newer modification dates will be transferred, until both folders contain the same set of files and folders. For example, this function is particularly good if you wish to work on a set of files at both home and work. You can be at either location, yet be working on the latest set of files. This has the added benefit of maintaining a remote backup of your files as well, in case something happens to one of your computers eg. your laptop is lost, stolen, etc.

Local folders can only be synchronized to 'writeable' folders in the remote file list. If the Sync button has a red cross through it, the selected remote folder is not writeable and you cannot synchronize to it. Setting a remote shared folder to 'writeable' can only be done on the remote computer, in the Shared Folders panel.

Note: You can't synchronize with root shared folders ie. folders at the very top level of the remote file list. You can only synchronize with folders contained within root shared folders. For example, in the setup shown in Figure 23 below, we have already navigated into the writeable 'Chemistry' folder and can now synchronize any local folder to it.


Figure 23. Synchronizing a local with a remote folder

Getting detailed file and folder information
To get detailed information about an item in the local file list or remote file list, right-click that item and choose Get Info or Get Info (With MD5 Signature) from the contextual menu. See the example File Information dialog shown before in Figure 24. You can also select multiple items (up to 3 at a time) and get information about all of them at once.



Figure 24. The File Information dialog

The File Information dialog shows various information about the file or folder. Unusual information includes the sizes of the data and resource forks, the type, the creator, and the MD5 signature. These are labelled Data, Resource, Type, Creator and MD5 respectively.

Only some MacOS files have resource forks - pure Windows and Linux files do not (they only have a data fork). However, since you can transfer both data forks and MacOS resource forks to Windows and Linux computers with Kenbushi (by checking the Transfer MacOS Resource Forks checkbox on the Preferences panel), you may see a non-zero resource fork size. The Type and Creator values (which are generally equivalent to a file name extension on Windows and Linux eg. ".pdf") only exist on MacOS.

The MD5 signature is a very, very unique value generated by a special algorithm using the contents of the file. If even a single bit or byte of a file changes, the MD5 signature created will be completely different. This special ability makes it a superb way to check whether two files are identical - the files are identical only if their MD5 signatures match. This is particular useful if files are located at two different locations, and you want to check that they are the same.

A particularly powerful feature in Kenbushi is the ability to generate an MD5 signature from the contents of a folder. In this case, all the files in the folder and it's subfolders will be scanned and a cumulative MD5 signature created from them. This makes it possible to check that the contents of two folders match exactly.

Since MD5 signatures can be generated from items in both the local file list and remote file list, you can check that a file or folder was transferred correctly (ie. there was no file corruption). This is particularly useful if you sometimes get modem dropouts, powerouts, you can't fully complete a transfer from one location and need to resume it at another, etc. Also, if you are located in New York and are transferring a folder of important documents to London, knowing that all documents were transferred correctly is very helpful.

Note: MD5 signatures are usually 16 bytes in length, resulting in a 32 character hexadecimal value. The MD5 signature displayed in the File Information dialog is calculated to 32 characters, but trimmed to 8 characters to make it easier for users to visually compare two values.

Using the File Information dialog, you can also change the permissions of a file or folder. After making changes, press the Apply button for the changes to be set.

Transfer logs
A log file is created during each transfer you perform, showing which files were uploaded and downloaded, the total amount of data transferred, and other information about the transfer. These logs files are all stored as readable text files in the 'Transfer_Logs' folder in the Kenbushi preferences folder. Transfer logs older than 1 week are automatically deleted, to prevent too many from accumulating.

Note: Hold down Ctrl and Shift on the keyboard whilst clicking the Preferences on the main window and the preferences folder will be displayed on your desktop (this function is not available on the Linux version).

Encrypting data during transfers
If you wish to get files and folders, but keep file data secure during LAN or Internet transfer, check the Encrypt Data checkbox on the Preferences panel. File data will be encrypted by the remote computer (using very strong 896-bit encryption) just before it is sent, preventing hackers from being able to read your file data as it passes over the network. Enabling data encryption slows down the file transfer speed by around 25% over high-speed networks (slowdown is negligible on slower networks).

The encrypt data feature is especially useful for companies wishing to set up a simple-to-use, inexpensive, highly effective Virtual Private Network (VPN). With the continuing proliferation of wireless networking in homes and businesses, the point-to-point protection of sensitive or confidential data from snooping can be critically important. Kenbushi elegantly solves this problem.

MacOS resource forks
MacOS files sometimes have resource forks (indicated by an asterix, '*', in the Size: column of the Local File List and Remote File List listboxes), in addition to the normal data fork. Resource forks store additional information, such as icons, pictures, text, etc. Windows and Linux files traditionally only have a data fork. If you wish to fully download MacOS files with resource forks onto Windows or Linux computers, check the Transfer MacOS Resource Forks checkbox on the Preferences panel. If you leave this checkbox unchecked, downloading any MacOS files with resource forks to Windows or Linux computers will not include their resource forks, possibly corrupting the file.

Each resource fork file name is the same as its data fork file name, except that a '._' prefix is added. The '._' prefix is used to ensure compatibility to other cross-platform file server applications. You may need to view hidden files to see these '._' prefix files on Windows and Linux. On Fedora 4 Linux, for example, check the Show Hidden Files menu item in the View menu on the desktop.

Note: When you upload files from MacOS to Windows or Linux and the Macintosh files contain resource forks, these resource forks are also transferred to the Windows or Linux computer, irrespective of the setting of the Transfer MacOS Resource Forks checkbox on the Windows or Linux computer. Thus, you can correctly and safely backup all your Macintosh files to a Windows or Linux computer.

Chatting with remote users
If you are connected to a remote user, you can start a chat session instantly with them by pressing the Chat button on the top right side of the Transfer Files panel. This allows you to send messages to the remote user, asking them to share particular files with you, telling them about the great new song they just heard, etc. An example chat session is shown below in Figure 25.


Figure 25. The Chat window

To send a message to the user, type it into the textbox and press the Send Message button (or press 'Enter' on the keyboard). The message will be displayed automatically in your chat window when the remote user has successfully received it. You username will appear in blue in the chat session, and the remote user's will appear in green.

To send text in your local clipboard to the remote user (such as web page URL, email address, etc), copy it to your clipboard and then press the Send Clipboard button. The remote user's Copy Clipboard button will become enabled when they have successfully received the clipboard text, and they can then copy and paste it into their web browser or other location. The clipboard is displayed in the chat window in red, to differentiate it from the chat text.

Note: The Linux version does not support colored text in the chat text area. Clipboard transfers are instead marked with three asterixes at each end of the text eg. '***This is some transferred clipboard text.***'

To get the remote user's attention, press the Send Beep button. An audible alert will sound on the remote user's computer, and you will hear it as well.


Kenbushi Media Center
Many homes are now set up with home theatre systems which feature large screen LCD or plasma TVs and high-powered multichannel 5.1 surround sound systems. They provide a superb way to enjoy movies, TV shows, music and other media in a highly immersive environment.

However, storing and playing music and movies usually involves having racks of CDs and DVDs, finding and loading disks that you wish to play, and putting them away after use. Children can also put fingerprints and scratches on disks (affecting their playback quality), and accidently put them away in the wrong place (or not at all). It would be much better to use a hard disk to store the music and movie files, and then play these media directly from that hard disk.

Kenbushi provides the functionality to convert existing computer hardware (eg. an old Windows or Linux PC) into a media center and file server. Simply install Kenbushi on the designated media computer and place it near a TV and sound system for easy video and audio connection. Then use a wireless keyboard, PocketPC or another computer (such as a laptop) to remotely control the playback of music and movies. Typical applications include piping movies to childrens’ rooms, playing movies and music on the TV in the lounge, and managing music for a party.

Kenbushi works over wired and wireless LANs, as well as over the Internet. Thus, you can set up your media computer so it is near your TV and sound system, and there are no wires snaking around your lounge room. Most people try to set up media servers in this way.

However, you can control media playback with Kenbushi over the Internet as well, allowing you to control a movie playing at your home from your work computer or some other location. Other possibilities include uploading a new family movie to your grandmother's computer in Florida using Kenbushi and then playing it for her, or remotely playing sound files (such as the sounds of people talking) as a burglar deterent. There are many potential applications.

Kenbushi integrates the VLC media player (www.videolan.org) to provide its media playback functions.  This media player can play a very wide range of media formats, such as MP3, Ogg, AAC, Avi, DivX 5, MPEG4, Quicktime, WMV2, Sorenson and H264. The only media types that are not supported by VLC are those protected by DRM (Digital Rights Management) systems, such as Apple's Fairplay.

Kenbushi now also supports Apple's Quicktime media player on MacOS X and Windows. Quicktime provides substantial benefits over VLC in some areas, including very fast startup time (especially for music playback), advanced MPEG4 and H264 movie support, and playback of Apple DRM-protected music and audio books purchased from the Apple iTunes store. Playback of movies and TV shows purchased from the iTunes store is not supported at this time.

If you are using a Windows computer containing a video card with a built-in MPEG4 hardware decoder, you should set the 'Use Quicktime For MPEG4 Playback' checkbox on the Preferences panel (see Figure 5 above). Without an MPEG4 hardware decoder, Quicktime playback of MPEG4 movies on Windows can be poor (low framerates, stalls, etc.), so normally VLC will be used to play this type of media (ie. files with extensions: .mp4, .mpg, .mpeg, .mov).

If you have a dual-monitor setup on your computer (ie. one monitor is your TV, and the other is a standard computer monitor), please assign the primary monitor to your TV. Only the primary monitor screen will be captured when you take screenshots with Kenbushi during media playback.

Note: Full support in Kenbushi for Windows Media formats is planned for the future, though some Windows media files (such as Windows Media Player 9 files with '.wma' and '.wmv' file extensions) can already be played using VLC. This should include media protected by Microsoft's DRM (Digital Rights Management) system.


Adding Media to the Media Library
Kenbushi has a very flexible way of dealing with the organization of your music and movie files. Your media files can be stored in any number of different folders (on one hard disk or several), but once they are scanned into the Kenbushi media library, access to them is completely seamless and consistent for search, playlist creation, etc. This allows you to easily build very large media libraries across multiple hard drives, which is especially useful if you have a substantial (or growing) movie or TV show collection. To add storage capacity to your media library, you may need to add more hard drives to your computer, and Kenbushi fully supports this expanded storage of additional media files.

Though it's best to keep your music, movies, TV shows, etc. in separate folders, Kenbushi will support any number of media folders you like. To make Kenbushi aware that a particular folder on your computer is a media folder, add that folder to the listbox on the Shared Folders panel on the main window (see Figure 6 above) and check it's Media-Aware checkbox (on the left side of the listbox). This will initiate a media scan, which will scan through all the files in the folder and extract various details about each media item, including 'Meta information' (such as artist, album name, etc.) and technical information (such as audio sampling rate, codec, etc). See the example in Figure 26 below.

It's good practice to make sure the names of full-length movies are complete and correct ie. as they would appear on a DVD cover. This ensures that when Amazon.com media information is subsequently downloaded for each movie by Kenbushi, that the correct media information is found for the movie. For example, you should rename 'The_Fifth_Element_108539.7062.avi' to 'The Fifth Element.avi' before it is scanned. If you do this, Kenbushi will set up your media library very quickly and effectively, and you will be able to browse your movies and music using gorgeous DVD and CD cover artwork.

Windows Users: it's probably best to start by adding your 'My Music' and 'My Videos' folders to the listbox on the Shared Folders panel (these folders can be found in your 'My Documents' folder). This will also include your iTunes music in the media scanned into the Kenbushi media library.

MacOS X Users: You should probably add your 'Music' and 'Movies' folders to the listbox on the Shared Folders panel (these folders can be found in your 'Home' folder). This will also include your iTunes music in the media scanned into the Kenbushi media library.

Scanning media can take some time - Kenbushi will scan, on average, about one media item every 2 seconds. Thus, scanning a folder containing 300 movies will take about 10 minutes. Scanning in 900 music files (around 80 albums) will take about 30 minutes. However, this only needs to be done once - adding new media files to an existing media library only requires scan time for the new media files.

Special Notes:
 You can stop a media scan at any time by pressing the Close button. To continue the scan at a later time, select the media folder in the Shared Folder listbox and press the Media Folder Scan button (the blue circular arrow on Figure 6 above). Media that has already been added to the library will be bypassed, and only new media will be added.


Figure 26. A media scan in progress

Kenbushi is tenacious when it scans your media. For example, MP3 music files generally contain 'IDE tags' containing information about the artist, album name, track order, etc. If this information is not available, Kenbushi will do everything it can to obtain these details. If your music library was previously organized by iTunes, for example, there may be information stored by iTunes (and Quicktime) which Kenbushi can extract. If this fails, Kenbushi will use information about the folder hierarchy above the music file to deduce the artist and album information. Normally, for example, the folder containing a song file will be the name of the album, and the folder containing the album folder will be the name of the artist.

Since movie type files (movies, TV shows, music videos, vidcasts, etc.) do not contain embedded IDE tags, there is generally not very much 'Meta information' available for these files (movie studio, episode name, etc). In this case, the meta information that can be extracted can only be extracted from the media file name. Kenbushi contains a powerful file name parsing system which will extract every nuance of meta information that is available in a file name, and it is especially good at processing TV show files.

Most TV show files downloaded from the Internet contain a wealth of information in their file names. However, there is no standard format used for these files, and hence when they are added to most other media systems, they retain their cryptic and confusing file names. Some examples are shown below:
 Wouldn't it be great if the episode name, episode number, season number, TV show series name, and studio information could be extracted from these file names? Well, the powerful file name parsing system built into Kenbushi can extract this information for most files, depending on what information is contained in the file name. This makes it easy to import your TV shows, so you can spend more time viewing them and less time getting them set up for use.

It's always a good idea to place a series of TV show episodes into a folder named with the series name. When Kenbushi imports these files into the media library, it may need to use the name of the folder as the series name. For example, the file named '1x03_-_Chinta_the_Baby_Chinchilla.avi' does not contain the series name, and the enclosing folder name (eg. 'Dora The Explorer') would be used in this case.

The simplest and most information-rich format to use for TV shows contains the season and episode numbers, the TV show series name, the episode name (and possibly the uploader credit) in the following format:

TV show series name - Season No - Episode No - Episode name [uploader credit]

An example of this format is:

Seinfeld - S2E13 - The Statue [Repaper].avi

After the media files are scanned in, you can then edit media details, easily add a screenshot to represent each TV show episode (captured by a single key press during playback), and thus set up your media library in the way you like for easy access and control. Screenshots representing episodes are especially helpful for children's shows, as they make it much easier for children to browse and select the TV show they want to watch.

Note: If media files are in any way corrupt or are read as having a zero playback time (even though they may play correctly in other media players), they will not be added to the Kenbushi media library. In this case, you may see them rescanned (and rejected) each time you rescan a media folder.


Where to get movies, TV shows and music for your media library
There are a number of common sources of movies, TV shows and music you can use to build your media library. The media source most users start with are their existing CD and DVD collections, and TV shows recorded directly onto their computer from free-to-air television transmissions.

Ripping CDs (ie. inserting a music CD and converting it into music files stored on your computer) can be done by using iTunes, as well as a range of other software commonly available on the Internet. iTunes, however, is free and is recommended for this purpose.

Ripping DVDs is more difficult (and in some countries illegal), but there are a number of software programs available to do the job. Handbrake is currently available for MacOS X, Windows and various other platforms, and is free. There are a number of commercial products available on the Internet as well, such as those from Xilisoft. When ripping a DVD with these products, it is recommended that you convert them into MPEG4 format (possibly H264, if you have a fast computer) with a bitrate of 1200 kbps. This will ensure the highest picture quality (comparable to the original DVD), and best playback (hardware MPEG4 decoders are often now included on computer video cards). Most movies ripped in this way will average about 1.2GB in size.

Many users now record free-to-air television onto their computers for later viewing. This usually involves special hardware, such as a TV tuner card or USB tuner module. These are available from various vendors, and usually record video into a commonly used format, such as MPEG2, which is playable on Kenbushi through VLC. There are numerous software tools available to convert MPEG2 to MPEG4 format, which will compress the movie file significantly without any loss of picture quality.

Many users also borrow music, movies and recorded TV shows from friends.

More and more television networks are also making their programming available on the Internet as 'Vidcasts' (similar to 'Podcasts', but for video). You can download these directly using your web browser and play them in Kenbushi. A facility is planned for Kenbushi to automatically download Vidcasts and Podcasts through RSS.

Other sources of media include peer-to-peer networks on the Internet, especially ones which uses the BitTorrent protocol. You can find further information about BitTorrent client software on Wikipedia.


Adding New Media Files to an existing Media-Aware Folder
From time-to-time, you may wish to add more files to your media library, or remove some files. All you need to do to add new files is to move the files into a media-aware folder and press the Media Folder Scan button on the Shared Folders panel of the main window (see Figure 27 below). This will make Kenbushi scan the media folder again, ignoring files already in your media library and adding any new files found. Any media files which previously existed but were not found (ie. media files you removed) will also be removed from the media library. In this way, the media library can be kept synchronized with the media files.


Figure 27. Adding new media files by updating a media-aware folder

Downloading Media Details from Amazon.com
A very fast and easy way to obtain media information for your Kenbushi media library, including DVD and CD cover artwork, movie director, cast (list of actors), etc., is to use the extensive repository of data available over the Internet from Amazon.com. Kenbushi can quickly download inform7ation on selected individual media items from Amazon.com.

The type of media information downloaded from Amazon.com varies, depending on whether the item is an album, or movie/TV show. For albums, CD cover artwork, record label, release date, Amazon editorial review, genre and composer information is downloaded. For movies/TV shows, DVD cover artwork, cast (list of actors), movie studio, release date, Amazon editorial review, MPAA rating, genre and director information is downloaded. Of course, you can update this information at any time by downloading it again, or manually edit details in your media library using the media information editing functions in Kenbushi.

Note: If you are trying to download details for classical music CDs, Amazon.com will generally not find very good matches for your CD cover artwork, etc. In this case, you may wish to scan in the cover of your original DVDs or CDs. Alternatively, there are DVD and CD cover artwork repositories on the Internet. Just do a search on Google.com for 'cd cover art' or 'dvd cover art'.

Start by searching in your Kenbushi media library for the album, movie or TV show you want to get information on. When you see the movie, TV show, or a song from the album in the search results, right-click it and select 'Get Album/Movie Artwork' from the context sensitive popup menu. Figure 28 below shows an example of a song whose album will set up in this way.

Note: Only items found by searching the media library can be used in an Amazon.com media information download - downloads are not directly available for items selected in playlists.


Figure 28. Amazon.com media information will be found for the selected item

The Get Amazon.com Information dialog will now be displayed, and a search in the Amazon.com repository for the media item will start immediately (see Figure 29 below). This download will build the Artwork and Item Title popup menus as items are found, and then allow you to select sets of information to use with your media item. The selected information is displayed in the media information area (the area directly below the popup menus), in exactly the same format which will be used on the main window's Play Media panel.

The artwork downloaded will generally be of a higher quality (resolution) than that displayed in the media information area. The cover artwork picture displayed in the media information area is automatically resized to fit. Cover artwork pictures will be shown in larger sizes, for example, when you use the full-screen media control system or play music when the full-screen music backdrop is displayed.

You can set the maximum number of items that will be downloaded from Amazon.com in the Maximum Item Count textbox (ie. 'Download up to x items'). If less than this number of items is found on Amazon.com, then only the available items will be displayed. Increasing the count will increase the time it takes to download all the information, but will provide a wider choice of artwork and media information sets. If you wish to stop a download in progress, press the Stop button.


Figure 29. The Get Amazon Information window

When the details have finished downloading, you can choose the artwork you want from the Artwork popup menu, and the item detail set from the Item Title popup menu.

If you can't find a suitable choice in the results returned, you may need to increase the maximum item count value and search again (by pressing the Search button). Sometimes it can take up to 10 results before you find the appropriate one, but this is unusual unless the media item you are searching for is quite old or out of production. For example, some 'collectors edition' DVD movie information may be harder to find.


Figure 30. Results were found, and an album cover and item detail set were chosen

If you search in Amazon.com and no results are obtained, try modifying the name of the album or movie and search again. For example, there may be a movie in your media library called 'Officespace'. Changing the title to 'Office space' (ie. inserting a space) on the Get Amazon.com Information dialog would result in movie information being found. Similarly, the album titled 'Dark Room' (by 'The Angels') may be listed as 'Darkroom' on Amazon.com. Thus, changing the album name to 'Darkroom' would yield better search results. Kenbushi will always select an exact title match during the automatic download sequence, if it is available. If not, the first downloaded information set will be selected. Kenbushi will always select an exact title match during the automatic download sequence, if it is available. If not, the first downloaded information set will be selected.

When you get information for the song on an album or an episode of a TV show, the cover artwork, description, etc. will be attached to all tracks on the album, or all episodes of the TV show. This makes it very easy to set up the album and TV show information in one quick operation.
Note: Only information on the first selected item in the search results will be downloaded from Amazon.com - if you wish to get information on multiple items, you need to get information on each in turn.


Editing Media Information
There are a number of ways that information for a particular media item can be manually edited. The 'Genre', 'Series', 'Artists/Actors' and 'Description' column entries in the Search Results listbox can be edited directly by double-clicking them (see Figure 31 below). To edit an entry, simply double-click it and a textbox will open, allowing you to edit the entry. When you have finished editing, click somewhere else on the listbox and the change will be saved.


Figure 31. Inline editing of 'Series' information
You can also edit media information using the Media Options Panel (see Figure 32) and the Media Edit Panel (see Figure 33). These panels allow many types of media information to be edited. On the Media Options Panel you can change the rating of the media item (from 0 to 5 stars) by using the My Rating slider. You can also change the relative volume of the media item using the Volume Offset slider. This may be necessary if the volume level of the particular media item is either too low (ie. so you want to boost it) or too high (ie. so you want to attenuate it). This allows you to equalize the volume of media items so they have a similar volume level when they are played - default media volume levels are particularly noticable when items are arranged in a playlist.

Note: This volume offset is applied to the master volume level set on Kenbushi, For example, if you have turned down the Kenbushi volume to half it's maximum level, a volume offset of 75% will produce a total volume of 0.5 x 0.75 = 0.375 of the maximum.


Figure 32. The Media Options Panel

You can edit a range of textual information on a media item using the Media Edit Panel (see Figure 33 below). The type of information which can be edited depends on the type of media selected. For example, TV shows allow you to change the episode and season number, whilst when editing movie information, more space is provided for the list of actors appearing in the movie. To edit information, simply make your changes to the text and then press the Save button (this button only becomes active when a change has been made).

There are a number of special genres used in Kenbushi to categorize media types, so that they can be searched for in your media library under that category. This includes TV shows, music videos, audio books and podcasts. Changing a movie's genre to 'TV Show' using the Media Edit Panel, for example, when saved, will subsequently categorize the media as a TV show for searching, editing, etc. The Sub-Genre textbox allows you to set the genre of TV shows, music videos, etc. The sub-genre is subsequently used for searching your media library for genres of TV shows, etc. For example, selecting 'Sci-Fi' from the genre search control when 'TV Shows' is selected as the media type could display results such as 'Battlestar Galactica'.

Note: If you change the genre of a movie to 'TV show' or 'Music Video', you should save the change, select 'TV Show' in the Media type popup menu, and then locate the media item to continue editing. Some additional textboxes are available when editing TV show information (such as 'Series' name) and information may not be saved correctly if you do further editing of the media item as a movie.
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Figure 33. The Media Edit Panel

You can also attach a .jpg picture file to a media item to represent it, by pressing the Select... button and selecting the picture on your computer. This is usually DVD or CD cover artwork, but can be any picture you like. Kenbushi makes a copy of the selected .jpg file and stores this copy in it's own archive for subsequent use. To remove an already attached picture, simply press the Remove Picture button next to the Select... button. A small picture icon will be displayed next the Artwork title if a picture is attached, and will be blank if one is not.

Many computer users now have scanners, which can capture the cover artwork of a DVD or CD directly. If no other sources of cover artwork are available for particular DVDs or CDs in your collection (which is often the case with classical music), you may wish to scan in the cover of your original DVDs or CDs. Alternatively, there are DVD and CD cover artwork repositories on the Internet. Just do a search on Google.com for 'cd cover art' or 'dvd cover art'.

Sometimes it's convenient to edit an entire album, or TV show series in one operation. For example, if you wish to change the genre of an album, or the name of a TV series. This can be done easily by finding the media in the media library, and then selecting a number of media items in the search results. When you right-click these items, you will have the option to 'Edit All' in the contextual menu that is displayed. This will brings up the Edit All dialog, an example of which is shown below in Figure 34.


Figure 34. The Edit All dialog

Only enter text or select a genre from the popup menu when it applies to ALL media items you selected - leaving a textbox blank will not change it in the media items selected, so is the safest way to ensure you don't overwrite information unique to each media item. For example, entering actors name will change all the actor names in all media items selected. If only some of the media items used this cast, then they will also be changed.


Capturing a Screenshot to Represent a TV Show Episode, Vidcast or Music Video
In the situation where you wish to enrich the information in your Kenbushi media library for TV shows, vidcasts, music videos, and other movie-type media for which there is no available DVD cover artwork or other information available for download, Kenbushi offers a simple and effective way to obtain a representative picture for each TV show episode, or movie - you can simply press a key during playback of the video, and a screenshot will be captured at that precise time and stored in the media library to represent that media item.

To take a screenshot, simply press 'Ctrl-s' during playback. With most movie file formats on most media players supported by Kenbushi, you will see a visual indication that a screenshot was captured by an on-screen indicator. However, you'll always hear the sound of a camera shutter, confirming that the screenshot was taken.

Note: Please allow a movie to play for 5 seconds before taking a screenshot, and allow it to continue playing for 5 seconds after taking a screenshot. This allows Kenbushi time to fully process screenshots taken when playing movies with VLC. Otherwise, in some circumstances screenshots may not be stored with the correct movie, or may not be stored at all.

Next time you browse that particular TV show, vidcast, movie, etc. in your media library, it will contain the screenshot as well. This is especially helpful for children, as they may not be able to read (or read confidently), and they can then use the pictures to select the TV show or movie they wish to watch.

For example, a screenshot was captured for the TV series 'Scooby Doo, Where Are You' for the episode, 'Hassle In The Castle'. The detailed information shown when browsing this episode (in the 'TV shows' section in the media library) would display a screen which looks like Figure 35. Notice that the series and episode numbers for TV shows is shown before the episode name, on the upper right side of the screen. This provides users with a clear idea of where the episode is placed in the series, and, in the case where distinct episode names were not available (not all downloaded TV show file names contain episode information), would provide sufficient information to make a choice of an episode for viewing.

In the case shown below, '[S01E02]' means 'season 1, episode 2'.


Figure 35. An example TV show episode, showing a screenshot representing the episode

Another type of media for which screenshot representations are very useful are music videos. In Figure 36 below, a range of music videos have been set up with a screenshot to provide a clearer indication of the content of each item. This makes it easy to browse and select music videos from your media library.


Figure 36. Browsing music videos

Note: A copy of all the screenshots taken is also stored automatically in a dated folder in your computer's default 'Pictures' folder (on MacOS X, this will be the 'Pictures' folder. On Windows, this will be the 'My Pictures' folder inside the 'My Documents' folder). Thus, you can capture a selection of screenshots from any movies, TV shows, music videos, home movies, etc. you like for later viewing. These pictures are in .jpg format, so can be transferred to other computers, placed on your PDA to show your friends at work, added to your photo library, used with the wireless slideshow viewer built into Kenbushi, etc, etc.


Syncing media to your multimedia player, mobile phone or USB stick
Kenbushi can help you quickly and easily load your MP3 player, multimedia player, mobile phone, USB stick, SD card (for playback on a PSP) or portable hard disk with media from the Kenbushi media library. All types of MP3 player, movie player, PMP, mobile phone, USB stick, etc. are supported, except for iPods (iPods use Apple proprietary formats). Multiple media players are supported, so all members of your family can easily load their media players from the same computer with their own unique music and movies.

Media players containing multiple storage devices are fully supported, so if you have a media player or mobile phone with internal memory as well as a micro or mini SD card, Kenbushi can work with it. The media synced to each storage device can also be uniquely controlled. For example, you could load music onto the internal memory and movies and TV shows onto an inserted SD card, if you wanted to organize your media that way.

Kenbushi can also load media onto USB sticks, for subsequent insertion into digitial picture frames (these can often play movies and music). It can also be used to load media onto portable hard drives and similar storage devices - you might find this useful if you wish to bring movie and music files with you to a friend's house, or to work, etc.

Each media player storage device can have one (or more) playlist lists associated with it. To create a new playlist list for a storage device, select New Device... from the Playlist List popup menu (see Figure 37 below).


Figure 37. Selecting a playlist list for a computer or media storage device

The Media Player Settings dialog will then be displayed, so you can set up information about the media player, such as it's playlist list name, the media types it supports, the location where music and movies are stored, etc.

If the manufacturer of your media player has a 'Quick Player Setup' for it, you can simply select the Manufacturer, Model and Color of your media player from the popup menus. A picture of your media player will be displayed, and all technical settings of your media player will already be known and set up. All you need to do then is simply enter the Name of Playlist List, select the media player's storage device from the Media Disk popup menu, and enter a Media Space Limit (if you don't want your media to take up all space on the storage device).



Figure 38. The Media Player Settings dialog

Name of Playlist List is simply an identifying name for this playlist list. If you like, you can have more than one playlist list associated with the same media player - you might do this if a media player is shared between users, each with different tastes in music and movies. Alternatively, you could have one set of albums you enjoy more when you're out hiking, and another set when you're commuting to work.

If your media player is generic, select 'Generic' from the Manufacturer popup menu and make a selection from the Model popup menu that most closely resembles your media player.

Select the resolution of the screen, in pixels, of your media player. You can leave it as the default value (or any value) if the resolution is not relevant to the type of movies that can be played on the media player. However, if your media player only supports a particular movie resolution (eg. 320x240 avi movies), you should use that resolution.

Select the media player's storage device from the Media Disk popup menu. This links the media player's storage device to the playlist list, such that when you subsquently sync it, the media shown on the playlist list will be loaded onto this storage device.

If you don't want your media to take up all space on the media storage device, you can specify a Media Space Limit. When syncing media files onto the media storage device, this is the maximum amount of space that will be used. If the playlist list includes more media than can fit into the available space, the surplus media will not be loaded on.

Some media players require music and movies to be located in specific folders on the media storage device. With the Movie Folder and Music Folder textboxes, you can ensure the media files are stored in the right places. Note that folders in the directory path should be separated using the '/' character on all platforms (Windows and MacOS X).

Select all of the media formats supported by your media player by checking the appropriate checkboxes on the Supported Media Formats listbox. Normally, the formats supported by your media player will be listed in the media player's user manual.

When you have completed setting up your media player, press the Save button and the settings will be saved.

Note: A small information file (called 'MediaDiskID.xml') will be stored on the media storage device (to uniquely identify this device) when you press the Save button. This is used to automatically identify it when it is next connected. Changing the name of the media storage device will not affect the ability of Kenbushi to automatically detect and identify it.

You should now see the name of the media player's playlist list in the Playlist List popup menu (see Figure 39 below). Select it and you will see the Media Player Settings button, the Sync Media Player button and Delete Playlist List button. In the example below, we are looking at the 'Snoopy' device playlist list created in Figure 38 above. Notice that when a media player playlist list is selected, the playlist list area and media search results are highlighted in an aqua color.


Figure 39. A device playlist list

Once you have the new device playlist list selected, you can create playlists in the usual way by searching for music and movies in your media library, highlighting selected media and then adding them to a playlist. Media which are not compatible to your media player will be highlighted in red in the media search results. Thus, you should only build playlists containing media shown in black. In the example in Figure 39 above, 3 albums were added to the 'Snoopy' playlist list, for a total of 244MB of media files.

When the media storage device associated with this playlist list is connected to the computer, the Sync Media Player button will go green and become active. If the storage device is not connected, the Sync Media Player button will be brown (and thus inactive). Pressing the Sync Media Player button will start the media synchronization process, clearing old media from the media player and loading on new media (see Figure 40 below). If no new media exist, the sync process finishes quickly.


Figure 40. Synchronizing media to the media player

There is no need to have a media player's storage device connected to your computer to be able to add or remove items from it's playlist list - you can do this at any time. Of course, you can only sync the media player when it is subsequently connected to the computer.

MacOS X users will see an Eject Media Player button located next to the Sync Media Player button. You can use this to eject storage devices associated with a media player. If you hold down the 'Shift' key whilst pressing this button, all storage devices less than 20GB in size will be ejected. This may be useful if a media player has more than one storage device on it (eg. an internal memory as well as an SD card). Of course, you can also eject media via the eject volume buttons in the Finder.

Windows users should always eject storage devices (USB sticks, portable hard drives, etc.) using the Safely Remove Hardware button in the tray on the bottom right of the task bar.

The local computer can have only one playlist list associated with it. The local computer represents your Kenbushi media library, whose media is stored on your local hard disk(s). When it is selected, the playlist list area is highlighted in blue, and a label at the bottom of the playlist list area will show the name of your computer (see the example in Figure 41 below). When you play media on your local computer, the music and movies will play on your local computer screen.


Figure 41. Managing media on a local computer

Each remote computer can also have only one playlist list associated with it. When you connect to a remote computer (using the Connect To: popup menu at the top of the main window), the playlist list area will be highlighted in purple and media searches will show the media stored on that remote computer. A label at the bottom of the playlist list area will show the name of the remote computer (see the example in Figure 42 below). When you play media on the remote computer, the music and movies will play on the remote computer - this allows you to remotely control media playback on any computer on your network.


Figure 42. Managing media on a remote computer

To change the playlist list from the local computer to the remote computer (and vice versa), use the Connect To: popup menu at the top of the main window. You can only set up playlist lists for a media storage device using media from the local computer (ie. your local Kenbushi media library).


Media control options
Kenbushi supports control of media playback via a variety of methods, including local control using Kenbushi's 'Play Media' panel, remote control using any networked computer running Kenbushi, local control using a wired or wireless keyboard (with the full-screen media control system), and local control using a Wi-Fi capable PocketPC.


Using the 'Play Media' panel
The Kenbushi 'Play Media' panel allows you to set up playlists and play media whilst sitting in front of a computer. This is the normal way in which many users use media players when playing media locally in their study, bedroom, or workplace. This methods gives users full control over media searching, playlist management, editing of media information (eg. DVD coverart, CD artwork, TV show episode screenshots, descriptions, etc.), downloading information from the Amazon.com archives, and various other facets of setting up and controlling their media libraries. See Figure 43 below.


Figure 43. The Play Media panel

The groupbox at the top left side of the panel shows the media currently being played, or the media which will be played when the play button is pressed. When playing a movie, the movie title is displayed in the center of the Media Playing Area. When playing a TV show, the episode name is shown in the center and the TV series name is shown at the bottom. When playing music, the song name is displayed at the top, the artist's name in the center, and the album name 11at the bottom.

Various play controls are located around the Media Playing Area. These include the play, rewind, fast forward, next item, previous item, stop, bookmark and Skipmark buttons. For more details about these buttons, please see Local control of media playback below. The Full-Screen Media Control Screen button (the green arrows pointing outwards) will bring up the full-screen media control screen, allowing you to easily control media playback remotely using a wireless keyboard. For more information about full-screen media control, please see Full-screen media control below.

The controls directly below the groupbox are used for searching for media, and for creating and managing playlists. On the right side of the Playlist List is the Search Results listbox. The Search Results listbox shows all the media found which match the search criteria. Details about each media item are shown in this listbox, including the name of the item, the play time, genre, album/series name, rating, the number of plays of the item (audio media types only), the last time the item was played, etc. Some column entries in the Search Results listbox can be edited directly by double-clicking them. Please see editing media information for further details about ways to change information stored for a particular media item.

Note: If more than 1000 items are found during a local search, only the first 1000 items will be displayed (for remote searches, this limit is 500 items). However, aggregated results (such as albums, item counts, total playing time, etc.) will always include all results.

If a TV show episode is displayed, then the season number and episode number are included in the item name. For example, season 2 ('S02'), episode 8 ('E08') of 'Battlestar Galactica' would be shown as 'Final Cut [S02E08]'. This provides a quick way to determine the position of the current episode in the season, as well as the name of the episode. If an episode does not have a unique name, then the season and episode number may be the only way to determine the position of the episode in the series.

If a media item has artwork attached, a small blue triangle will be displayed on the top right side of the search results column containing the media item name. In the example above in Figure 37, 'Rojo, The Fire Truck' has artwork attached.

Above the Search Results listbox, there are buttons which control the display of the Media Information Panel (the blue dot button), the Media Options Panel (the cog button) and the Media Edit Panel (the write button). Pressing one of these buttons once will display the panel, and pressing it again will hide it (thus showing more of the search results). Pressing one of the other panel buttons will display it's specific information. Further information about editing media information can be found below.

The other two buttons control the download of media information from Amazon.com. Selecting a media item in the search results and then pressing the Download Media Item Details button will search Amazon.com for the specific media item selected (or the first item, if you have a number selected). The button with the asterix in it is the Download Media Type Details. Pressing this button will allow you to download all details for all media of the particular type selected in the Media popup menu. Further information about downloading media details from Amazon.com can be found below.

At the very bottom of panel, below the search results listbox, you will see the Info message and the Status messsage. The Info message shows the number of media items in the search results, their total cumulative play time, and the amount of storage space they use. The Status message shows a wide range of status messages to keep you informed on the progress of searches, the total number it items displayed, etc.

On the left side of these messages is the Shuffle Playlist button. When you have a playlist displayed, pressing this button will randomize the media items in the playlist.

The Media Information Panel shows various information about the media item selected in the search results. In the example in Figure 37 above, a TV show episode is displayed. Here, the episode name is displayed at the top, then the series name and play time. A screenshot has been captured for this episode, and this is shown on the left side. Technical video and audio information is then shown at the bottom, such as video resolution (640x480), frame rate (23.97 fps), video codec (XVID), file type (.avi), number of audio channels (2), audio sampling rate (48 kHz), and audio codec (mpga).

In the example below in Figure 44, the details of a song are displayed. The song name is shown in bold above the artist name and album name. Next to the album name is the Amazon.com Web Link button. This button highlights in blue when the cursor is above it. Pressing this button will open the Amazon.com web page for this specific album, showing you further information about it and giving you the opportunity to purchase it. Other information on the panel includes the play time, release date, composer, music label, and technical information about the number of audio channels (2), audio sampling rate (44.1 kHz), audio codec (mpga) and file type (.mp3).


Figure 44. The Media Information Panel, showing the Amazon.com web page link arrow


Searching for Media
The media search functions in Kenbushi are simple, but incredibly powerful. You can search by the usual methods, such as the name of the movie, song or episode name (for TV shows), the artist or actors performing in it, the genre, etc., but you can also combine a range of search criteria to more easily locate the media you want. In addition, once you have found matching media, you can then refine your search further by selecting albums, artists, series names, etc. generated by the search.

For example, to find the music of a new artist you recently added to your media library, select 'Music' from the Media popup menu and type a few letters of the artist's name in the Artist textbox, then select 'Recently Added' from the Special popup menu. All songs will be ordered by the date they were added to your media library, and even the albums listed in the Album/Series Listbox will be ordered by the date they were added.

The Artist/Actor Listbox and Album/Series Listbox on the left side of the window shows music artist/movie actor and music album/TV show series information, respectively. These listboxes aggregate information displayed in the Search Results Listbox on the right side of the window. When these additional listboxes contain entries, you can simply click an entry and the search results will be refined based on your selection. For example, if the TV show series 'Dora Season 2' is displayed in the Album/Series Listbox, clicking this will show all episodes in this series in the Search Results Listbox (this is illustrated in Figure 37 above).

The Home button (the top left button in Figure 45, shown as a little house) resets all search controls to their default setting, and also does a full media search for the media type selected in the Media popup menu. For the example in Figure 45, if 'TV Shows' is selected as the media type, all TV show series will be displayed, as well as all actors listed in all TV shows displayed. If you subsequently click one of the TV show series shown in the Album/Series Listbox on the bottom left, only episodes of that series will be displayed in the search results.16

The Special popup menu allows you to have search results filtered or sorted by additional criteria. Results can be sorted by the date they were added to your media library (using the 'Recently Added' item), the number of times an item has been played ('Most Played' and 'Least Played'), the personal rating you have set for that media item (0 to 5 stars), and the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) rating or OFLC (The Office of Film and Literature Classification) rating.


Figure 45. The media search controls, showing the contents of the Special popup menu

The textbox used to enter Artist and Actor information can be also be used for other types of search, depending on the setting of the Auxiliary popup menu. Normally the Auxiliary popup menu searches for actor or artist, but it can also be set to 'Composer' (when searching for music), 'Director' (when searching for movies), 'Narrator' (when searching for audio books), and collection tags. When the same tag is stored for different media items, these items can be then be found as a group at a later time by searching using this tag.

The Genre popup menu allows you to select a genre of the music, movie, TV show, etc. For example, music genres include Funk, Electronic, Country, Rock, Hip-Hop, etc. Genres for TV shows include Comedy, Animation, Romance, Sci-Fi, etc. To include all media genres to be included during a search, select the 'All' item in the Genre popup menu.

The Source label identifies the source of the media library (in the example above in Figure 45, it's the 'Local). You can just as easily search and locate media on a remote computer as you can on the local computer. You can also create playlists for both remote or local playback. To change the source media library used for a search, simply select another networked computer also running Kenbushi. This network computer can have an icon set for it, to clearly identify it when you search. An example is shown below in Figure 46, where an icon representing a remote computer is set as a 'ladybird'.


Figure 46. A 'ladybird' icon used to represent a remote computer, and icon options

The remote computer's identifying icon will also replace the normal Home button (use this button to reset all search controls to their default setting and trigger a global search in the same way). This makes it clear which computer you are actually doing your search on.


Creating and Managing Playlists
Playlists are simply lists of music or movies which you wish to play in order from the top down. Setting up playlists involves searching for media in the media library, and then using the search results to fill the playlist with media.

The Playlists listbox shows the name of all playlists which have been created, and on the right side of each playlist name is the number of media items contained in that playlist (See Figure 47 below). Below the listbox are controls to add, edit and delete playlists, as well as controls for selecting a media player to use for a particular playlist, and Playlist Loop Enable and Playlist Skipmark Enable controls.

A playlist can be created instantly by right-clicking an item (or items) in the search results and selecting 'Create Instant Playlist' from the resulting contextual menu. In this case, the first media item selected in the search results will be used to create the playlist name. You can also manually create playlists by pressing the Add Playlist button, or by simply double-clicking the name of a media item you wish to play in the search results.

Double-clicking a media item in the search results is the simplest way to play media. When browsing music, double-clicking an item will create a special playlist named 'On-The-Fly Music'. This is a normal playlist in most senses: you can rename it (do this, for example, if you wish to keep a particular on-the-fly music playlist), and you can continue playing the music on that playlist by going back to it at any later time. When browsing movies, TV shows and similar media, double-clicking an item will automatically create a playlist whose name is derived from the first item selected.

Note: The special playlist named 'On-The-Fly Music' is used to minimize the number of playlists created when you browse your music collection. If a fresh playlist name was created each time you sampled a song whilst browsing, the number of playlists created would quickly become unmanageable.


Figure 47. The Playlist list and playlist controls

You can manually create a new playlist by pressing the Add Playlist button (the green plus button at the bottom of the playlist list) - a new playlist will be created in the Playlists listbox with an 'Untitled' name. You can edit a playlist's name by selecting it and pressing the Edit Playlist Name button (the star button). A textbox will then replace the text, allowing you to make any changes. To save changes, simply press the 'Return' key or click somewhere else on the listbox. To remove a playlist, select it and press the Remove Playlist button (the red cross button).

To add media to a playlist, you can select the media in the search results (all the usual multiple selection controls work in the search results listbox), and drag it directly across onto a playlist. Alternatively, you can right-click the selected media and add the items to a playlist using the 'Add To Playlist' menu items on the resulting popup menu.

Special Note: You can only edit playlists which aren't currently playing.

The Media Player popup menu allows you to set Kenbushi to automatically choose the optimal media player to play the media on the playlist (the 'Auto' option, represented by a heart), but you can manually set a playlist to play using either VLC or Quicktime. Each of these media players are represented by it's icon in this popup menu. Kenbushi currently supports the playback of media using VLC and Quicktime. Full support for Windows Media formats is planned for the future, though some Windows media files (such as Windows Media Player 9 files with '.wma' and '.wmv' file extensions) will be playable using VLC.

It is highly recommended that you leave the media player choice as 'Auto', as this will provide you with the best playback experience for all the media in your media library.

The Playlist Loop button is a press-on/press-off toggle button, and will loop a playlist when pressed in (ie. playback will continue again from the top of the playlist after it finishes playing the last item on the playlist).

The Enable Skipmarks button is a press-on/press-off toggle button, and provides Skipmark on/off control for the playlist. Further details about skipping segments during playback using Skipmarks can be found below. Skipmarks allow you to automatically bypass commercials, credits, etc. when playing media such as TV shows and movies.

Note: Playlists shown in the Playlists listbox are regularly sorted by the last play date when playing media using full-screen media control. Thus, playlists you play regularly will always stay at the top of the Playlists listbox, and older (or unplayed) playlists will sink down in the list until they are eliminated. The playlist listbox generally keeps up to 50 active playlists and automatically removes playlists which are too old. For example, if you are watching a movie, but your viewing is broken into two or more sessions, the playlist for that movie will remain near the top of the list until you have finished watching it (the position within the movie is always saved automatically when you stop play, and it will resume playing from this location). Similarly, if you are watching a series of TV shows, the episode you are currently watching as well as the play position will be saved automatically.


Using iTunes Music With Kenbushi
Kenbushi can play all music files stored in your iTunes media library (including music purchased from the iTunes music store) because it uses Apple's Quicktime media player for music playback. Thus, if you have music which can be played with iTunes, Kenbushi can play it too.

The key thing to keep in mind if you plan on playing purchased iTunes music on a computer, is to ensure that that computer is 'Authorized' to play your purchased music. If it's not authorized, iTunes can't play it, nor can Kenbushi. To authorize a computer, make sure you have iTunes installed and select 'Authorize Computer...' from the 'Store' menu when running iTunes. After this process is complete, you can add the iTunes music folder (ie. the folder actually containing all the music files) to the shared folders list on the Shared Folders panel of Kenbushi and then scan the files into the Kenbushi media library (by checking the Media-Aware checkbox on the left side of the shared folders listbox).

Of course, once this is done, you can control playback of music on this computer in any way supported by Kenbushi, including controlling it over the network using another computer running Kenbushi, via full-screen media control with a wireless keyboard, or via a Wi-Fi enabled PDA (such as a PocketPC).


Local control of media playback
Media playback can be controlled, on both the local computer or a remote computer, using the set of controls on the top left of the Play Media panel. With these controls, you can view and change the play position of the music or movie currently playing, adjust the volume, rewind and fast forward the play position, and stop playback (see Figure 48 below).

Note: To allow the remote control of media playback from another computer, make sure the Allow Remote Media Control checkbox on the Preferences panel is checked. This setting is usually made on a computer used as a media server.

The three time values shown on the top of this area are the amount of time required to finish playing the current media item, the current play position, and the length of the media item respectively. You can drag the position slider to move directly to a particular play position in the media item.

Kenbushi contains an innovative new control system which consists of composite play/pause, rewind and fast forward controls, called Progressive Media ControlTM. The center part of the control contains the Play button. Pressing the Play button will start media playback, and the Pause button will then appear, replacing the Play button. Pressing the Pause button will pause playback. Pressing it again will continue play.



Figure 48. The Progressive Media ControlTM

The rewind and fast forward controls are progressive - they actually provide a continuum of rate control from very fine to very fast in both directions. You use fine control when you are close to the position in the movie you're interested in, and very fast movement when you need to move to a new position some way away (of course, you can also drag the Position Slider directly to make coarse changes to play position).

For example, if you hold the Rewind button down at the outer end, the rewind rate of the media currently being played is very fast. As you drag the mouse pointer towards the center, the rewind rate slows down progressively until you have very fine control over rewind. If you rewind past the position you wanted, just drag further across to the Fast Forward control and the position will slowly increase instead. Dragging to the outer end of the Fast Forward button will make the fast forward rate very fast.

Thus, during playback of media files, you can drag across the entire Progressive Media ControlTM to set the exact playback position you want.

Note: When rewinding and fast forwarding media (particularly movies), using slow rewind and slow fast forward rates can cause scenes to appear to be replayed repeatedly. However, if you hold the control down longer, it will move to new scenes as it should. This is simply a characteristic of how some types of compressed movies are encoded (ie. using periodic keyframes).

Underneath the vertical sliding volume control is the Mute button, which is used to immediately silence the media currently playing. Pressing the Mute button a second time will return the volume to it's previous level. The mute control is used when you need to immediately silence a playing movie without stopping or pausing it, such as when you need to take a telephone call.

On the bottom right side, you will find the Stop button. Pressing the Stop button immediately stops the media playing and closes down the media player. However, an automatic continue bookmark is placed at the position at which the media was stopped - this is indicated by a 'Pause Icon' next to the media item which had been playing. If you subsequently press the Play button again, the media will begin playing from where it left off. Pressing the Stop button twice clears the automatic continue bookmark - this is a good way to force playback to begin again from the first item on the playlist.

On the right side of the Progressive Media ControlTM are controls to set bookmarks and Skipmarks(TM) - these controls are only active when media is currently playing.

The top right button is the Bookmark button, and pressing this brings up the Bookmark popup menu, allowing you to jump to, set and remove bookmarks. Bookmarks allow you to move quickly to locations you previously set, such as the beginning of an important scene, your last playback position, etc., as well as save your position in a movie if you wish to play something else first (eg. music) and then go back to it. Bookmarks are each linked to a specific media file, so if you set a bookmark on a particular movie and then subsequently add that movie to another playlist, your bookmarks will be available in that new playlist as well.

The next button down is the Skipmark button, and pressing this brings up the Skipmark popup menu, allowing you to jump to, set, edit and remove Skipmarks. A Skipmark is a section of a movie which will be skipped during playback, and it thus provides a very powerful way to control how a movie is played back without actually modifying the movie file itself. Skipmarks allow you to easily set up a movie so that credits, advertisements, sections unsuitable for children, etc. are automatically and seamlessly bypassed. Skipmarks are each linked to a specific media file, so if you set a Skipmark on a particular movie and then subsequently add that movie to another playlist, your Skipmarks will be available in that new playlist as well.

For parents of young children, Kenbushi provides a perfect way to manage the children's movie entertainment. Children enjoy watching DVD movies, and many like to insert DVDs into DVD players themselves, with the result that DVDs become coated with fingermarks, scratched, and sometimes get jammed in the DVD player. With Kenbushi, all movies are stored on the computer hard disk, so no DVD disk swapping is required. In addition, Skipmarks allow parents to bypass movie credits, preventing children getting bored watching several minutes of movie credits roll by. Searching for and setting up movies for playback is also very easy, which is especially useful because children often want to watch the same movie many times.

Skipmarks also allow parents to non-destructively control exactly which parts of the movie their children see, allowing children to watch movies they normally could not watch because of certain embedded violent or adult-oriented scenes. For example, Jurassic Park III is an excellent dinosaur adventure movie, but it contains some violent/scary/bloody scenes which are unsuitable for children (eg. the skeleton hanging on the parachute).

For video material recorded off TV, advertisements can also be skipped using Skipmarks, if desired. Skipmarks make it easy to modify the playback of video without actually modifying the movie file itself, saving you a great deal of time and effort compared to using a movie editor to effectively do the same job.

When playing a movie on a local computer (without setting it to full-screen display), you can change the movie size using the number keys when the movie window is the front window on the desktop:
Key
 Window size
1
 1/2 size
2
 3/4 size
3
 Normal size
4
 Double size
5
 Triple size

Table 3. Setting the (not full-screen) window size of a locally playing movie


Skipping Segments During Playback With Skipmarks
You can enable and disable Skipmark operation using the Enable Skipmarks checkbox, thus giving you control over whether you see the full movie, or the movie played with skipmarks.

To set a Skipmark start position, simply select Add Skipmark from the Skipmark popup menu when movie playback is at the position you want to set. To set the end position, select the open Skipmark item from the Skipmark popup menu when movie playback is at the position you want to set. You will then see a range displayed in the Skipmark popup menu eg. 00:34:23-00:36:04. Selecting this Skipmark from the Skipmark popup menu will jump to a position 15 seconds before the Skipmark start position, so you can view how well the Skipmark skips the section you wish to cut. Make sure you have the Enable Skipmarks checkbox checked so that Skipmarks are actually enabled (otherwise the marked section won't be skipped, but will play through as usual).

The best way to set Skipmarks is to first set a rough start and end position, and then edit the Skipmark to tweak it so it exactly skips the section you want. To tweak a rough Skipmark, select it from the Skipmark popup menu and pay careful attention to the displayed play position as it plays the movie. Note the play position of the start and end you want, and then edit the Skipmark to these values. Selecting Edit Skipmarks... from the Skipmark popup menu will bring up the Edit Skipmarks dialog, shown in Figure 49 below.


Figure 49. The Edit Skipmarks dialog

The start and end position of each Skipmark in the currently playing movie will be displayed in the list. Select the Skipmark you wish to edit and then move the sliders to make the necessary adjustments. If you set a Skipmark start position from 0 to 15 seconds from the beginning of a movie, the movie will always start playing from the end of the first Skipmark - this allows you to bypass a section at the beginning of the movie. Likewise, if you set a Skipmark end position within 10 seconds of the the end of a movie, movie playback will only run until that Skipmark's start position.

Press the Save button when you are finished making changes and wish to save them.

Usually, you would only jump to a skipmark when checking that the exact desired section of the movie has been correctly marked. You may need to do this a few times when editing skipmarks (ie. modifying the start and end positions of a Skipmark) to ensure the results work as you expect. One thing to keep in mind is that some types of compressed movies are encoded using periodic keyframes, so making small adjustments to Skipmark start and end positions may not produce exact results.

You can also use Skipmarks to set up a movie to only play certain segments. For example, if you had a large home movie and you only wanted to play certain parts for a visiting friend or relative, you could set up Skipmarks so that only the segments you wanted would be played, in sequence. In this case, you would probably set a Skipmark to bypass the beginning and skip directly to the first segment of interest. After that segment played, a skipmark would move playback to the next segment of interest, and so on. You could set the last Skipmark to bypass the end of the movie by setting the last Skipmark's end position to the end of the movie.

With looping, you can repeatedly play only the selected segments of a movie you are interested in. For example, if you had a home movie containing some scattered footage of your son when he was a child, and you wanted to play that footage repeatedly during his 21st birthday party on your big screen TV, then Skipmarks with looping would offer a superb solution. No movie editing is required, but simply setting up appropriate Skipmarks for the segments of the movie you want played.

Note: You can transfer files to and from a media server (using the controls on the Transfer Files panel) during media searches, playlist creation and media playback.


Remote control using a PDA with Wi-Fi
In addition to controlling media playback from a media control computer, such as a laptop, you can now remotely control media playback using a web browser on any PDA with Wi-Fi, such as Pocket PC, Nintendo DS, PSP (PlayStation Portable), PalmPilot, mobile phone, etc. Of course, all these PDAs have backlit screens, making it easy to remotely control movie playback in a darkened viewing room. You can even remotely control multiple media servers using the same PDA, since each media server has a unique wireless IP address and Wi-Fi works well through walls. In fact, most users should be able to remotely control media playback from anywhere in their homes with the PDA (possibly in the back garden as well).

The web browsers available on the different PDA platforms vary substantially in terms of their features and functionality. To get the optimal remote control experience with your PDA (eg. display of playback position, currently playing media, status information, etc), it is recommended that you use a web browser with excellent Javascript support. Currently, the best PDA Web browser which supports Javascript is the Opera mobile browser, available from www.opera.com. Non-Javascript browsers are also supported by Kenbushi, but they only support simple remote control.

To setup to use a PDA with Wi-Fi for remote media control, you need to activate the Wi-Fi on your PDA. Then check the Allow Remote Media Control and Enable Web Server checkboxes on the Preferences panel of the main window. Underneath the Enable Web Server checkbox, you should see the URL you need to enter into your PDA web browser eg. '192.168.0.100:3300/'. Once you enter this URL, you should see the PDA remote control interface come up in the web browser (see Figure 50 below). The picture shows the screen of an HP IPaq rx1950 Pocket PC.


Figure 50. Remote control interface on a PDA with Javascript (portrait)

The playlist title is shown at the top of the Web page, and then the media item name. The third line shows the status of media playback (eg. playing, stopped, paused, etc). When media playback is stopped, playing or paused, dots eminate from the status to show an active Wi-Fi connection to the media server. Thus, if dots aren't continually being updated, you may need to wait until a Wi-Fi network connection is made (this may occur if your PDA was switched off, and you switched it on again to control media playback on the server). If dots aren't being updated for a while (or you get a 'Could not establish network connection' message, or similar), try refreshing the page by pushing the browser's Refresh button.

The Rewind, Play and Fast Forward buttons are displayed below the status line. The Play button starts playing the media if no media is currently playing, and pauses playback if media is playing - press the Play button again to unpause (continue playing) the media, etc. Pressing the Fast Forward button once will start fast forwarding at 8x the normal play speed. Pressing it repeatedly will fast forward 16x, 64x, to the maximum of 256x. Pressing Play at any time during a fast forward will play from that position. Rewind control is similar to fast forward, but will rewind the play position. Pressing the Rewind button during a fast forward will slow the fast forward rate, and vice versa.

The three time values shown below these buttons are the amount of time required to finish playing the current media item, the current play position, and the length of the media item respectively. The next set of buttons are the Mute button, and the Decrease Volume and Increase Volume buttons (the volume change with each button press is smaller at lower volumes, giving you greater incremental control at low volumes). Finally, the bottom row of buttons are the Previous, Stop and Next buttons. The Previous and Next buttons allow you to move easily to the previous and next playable items on the playlist.

You can only control media playback with a PDA after you have set up a playlist with the media control computer, and started the playlist playing. At this time, the media control computer sends the playlist and other information to the media server, and the media server can then be fully and independently controlled with the PDA. You can switch off the media control computer, quit Kenbushi on the media control computer, etc. and the media server will retain all the playlist information, and give you full PDA control.

For example, if you are watching a movie and decide to stop the movie, pressing the Stop button the PDA will stop the movie. If you decide later that you want to continue watching the movie again, simply press the Play button on the PDA and the movie will automatically start playing from the position at which it was stopped. When the movie is playing again, you once again have full control over volume, rewind and fast forward, going to the next and previous media items in the playlist, etc. To provide more information about which item in the playlist is playing (this is especially useful if you are playing music), the item number and the total number of items in the playlist is shown on the PDA display.

On many PDAs, you can also change from a protrait button layout to a landscape button layout (see Figure 51 below) - simply refresh the Web page and you will find the button layout will change automatically.


Figure 51. Remote control interface on a PDA with Javascript (landscape, 'Full Screen' mode)

 The basic information shown on the landscape button layout is the same, but a wider arrangement of buttons is used to better accommodate the dimensions of the PDA display. The picture above also shows the Opera browser in 'Full Screen' mode, which eliminates some browser controls to make more active area available.

Buttons on the PDA can be pressed using the PDA stylus, but they are large enough for you to press directly with your finger or a finger nail.

Note: If you normally switch off your PDA when not actively controlling media playback, it could take a few seconds for the Wi-Fi connection to the Kenbushi server to be established after you switch it on again. Most PDAs have a Wi-Fi connection indicator, which will show you when the Wi-Fi connection has been re-established and you can control media playback again. If you press a button before the Wi-Fi connection has been re-established (for example, you press the Play button to pause a playing movie), the button press will be queued and sent as soon as the Wi-Fi connection is active. Dots eminating from the status on the PDA also indicate an active Wi-Fi connection to the Kenbushi server (eg. the dots on the left and right sides of the 'Stopped' status message above in Figure 57).

For Web browsers which do not have Javascript support (or which offer poor Javascript support), such as Internet Explorer, you still have all the usual media playback controls, but no dynamic real-time display of play progress. See Figure 52 below.


Figure 52. Remote control interface on a PDA without Javascript (portrait)

With these type of browsers, when you press a button, the entire web page is refreshed. For superior remote media control experience, please use a Javascript-enabled browser, such as Opera.

Note: Kenbushi will try to automatically detect if your PDA's Web browser is Javascript-enabled, as well as your PDA's screen orientation (portrait or landscape). However, sometimes this detection doesn't work properly, and you may need to override the automatic detection. There are a number of URLs you can use which force Kenbushi to use a particular page format. Some sample URLs are shown below in Table 4:
Type of PDA remote control Web page
 Sample URL (the IP address shown is for illustration purposes only)
Automatic Javascript and layout detection
 http://192.168.0.100:3300
Javascript-enabled, horizontal button layout http://192.168.0.100:3300/jshindex.html
Javascript-enabled, vertical button layout http://192.168.0.100:3300/jsvindex.html
No Javascript, horizontal button layout http://192.168.0.100:3300/nojshindex.html
No Javascript, vertical button layout http://192.168.0.100:3300/nojsvindex.html

Table 4. Kenbushi web server URLs

If you are using wireless networking in your home or office, it is highly recommended that you use a password for access to that network (using 'WEP', an acronym for Wired Equivalent Privacy). This protects your network from intruders and eavesdroppers getting into your network, as well as people using your Internet connection without your knowledge or consent (and possibly causing problems, such as making you go over your monthly download limit).


Creating your own PDA remote control 'Skins'
Advanced users may wish to create their own PDA remote control Web pages to control media playback on Kenbushi ie. create your own PDA remote control 'Skins' with custom buttons. You can then change the background picture, button layout, button graphics, button size, etc. This may be necessary, for example, if you wish to tweak the button layout to fit the screensize of the PDA you have.

All the master PDA remote control Javascript and non-Javascript web pages are located in the 'HTML' folder inside the main Kenbushi application folder. The button graphics for the horizontal layout buttons are located in the 'hori' folder, and the button graphics for the vertical layout buttons are located in the 'vert' folder. You'll need to modify the HTML code of the Web pages if you change the button sizes, but all other functions (such as playback position, etc.) should work if you use the master PDA remote control web pages as a template (make sure you backup the masters before making any changes, so you can revert back to them if you need to!!!).


PDA trouble-shooting
* Make sure you have Wi-Fi wireless networking enabled on your PDA. Most PDAs allow you to switch off Wi-Fi to save battery power.

* If you can't get any web pages to load on your PDA Web browser, trying using one of the other IP addresses shown on the list below the Enable Web Server checkbox on the Preferences panel on Kenbushi. Maybe you are not using the IP address of the wireless network adaptor on your server.

* If Web pages are not displaying properly, try using a different Web browser on your PDA. We highly recommend Opera for the remote control function, due primarily to it's excellent Javascript support. For the best wireless slideshows, use a Web browser which eliminates all controls when set to 'Full Screen' mode.

* If you find a Web page on your PDA doesn't refresh (eg. it simply sits there and does nothing) after switching on your PDA again after it automatically powers off, try clearing the browser cache and then refreshing again. On Opera 8.x, clear the cache by selecting Tools -> Settings from the Menu, then selecting the History tab and pressing the Clear cache button. On Internet Explorer, select Tools -> Options... from the Menu, then select the Memory tab and press the Delete Files button.

* On some PDAs, browser cache memory may be quite limited. A low-memory problem may exhibit itself as instability, failure to load menus or pictures, etc. A soft reset may be required under some circumstances (see your PDA user manual for more details).

* Try to avoid exotic characters in the URLs you use - the web server in Kenbushi is quite simple and can't deal with unusual characters in URLs.


Media file compatibility
Some media file formats are not fully supported by the VLC media player. This limits some features of Kenbushi when playing these files.

DivX 5: If a movie encoded in DivX5 format is played, the seek, rewind and fast forward functions will not work correctly. In addition, the position of a paused movie will not be saved correctly between launches of Kenbushi (the movie will always start playing at the beginning again). The duration of the movie is also incorrect, and is assumed to be 3 hours in length. This issue is due to limited DivX5 support in the VLC v0.8.4 media player.

MP4: When music and sound files encoded in MP4 format (which use the m4a file extension) are played, album and artist information is not displayed on the media backdrop.


The VLC media player
Kenbushi integrates the VLC media player (www.videolan.org) to provide its media playback functions.  This media player can play a very wide range of media formats, such as MP3, Ogg, AAC, Avi, DivX 5, MPEG4, Quicktime, WMV2, Sorenson and H264. The only media types that are not supported by VLC are those protected by DRM (Digital Rights Management) systems, such as Apple's Fairplay.

The VLC source code can be found at: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-sources.html


Note to MacOS X users
VLC v0.8.6 (the version bundled with Kenbushi) only supports MacOS X 10.3.9 and up.


Note to Windows users
Windows users generally have to be more mindful of viruses, spyware, and other malware than MacOS and Linux users, to ensure their computers work reliably and consistently. To ensure protection from malware, Windows users generally run anti-virus and anti-spyware programs in the background while they use their Windows computer to do useful tasks.

The problem with many anti-virus and anti-spyware programs on Windows is that they slow down the effective computer speed, and introduce unusual and unpredictable delays when performing operations such as creating or modifying files (particularly large files eg. 700MB Divx movies), moving data over networks, launching applications, etc.

Tests have shown that opening large files can effectively lock up a Windows computer for a short time as anti-virus software scans the file to ensure if it has not been infected. Folders full of movie files can cause substantial lockup times when scanned by Kenbushi as it gets information about these files for inclusion in the local file list.

Anti-spyware software (including Microsoft's own anti-spyware product) can noticably delay the launch of movies opened by Kenbushi using the VLC media player.

Unfortunately, there is no way to get around this problem without disabling anti-virus or anti-spyware products (which is not recommended). However, if you wish to test if these products are causing delays, you can disable them for a short time until the tests are complete.


Note to Linux Users
VLC is bundled with Kenbushi for MacOS and Windows. However, there are many Linux distributions and it would not be practical to bundle all the different versions with Kenbushi for Linux. Thus, you will need to install VLC on your particular Linux distribution. You can download the latest builds from www.videolan.org.

The discussion below assumes you are using the 'Gutsy Gibbon' version of Ubuntu Linux. This distribution is highly recommended, especially for users new to Linux - it is a very solid build and installation is very easy. On some other Linux distributions (and older versions of Ubuntu), you will need to install a library which Kenbushi depends on, called libstdc++5. You should visit the libstdc++5 resource page to locate the correct version for your system.

On the 'Gutsy Gibbon' version of Ubuntu Linux, if you have a 'Universe' repository already activated, VLC will be available simply by using the 'Add/Remove...' applications function (the menu item at the bottom of the Applications menu). You should use VLC v0.8.6 with Kenbushi.

To activate a 'Universe' repository, open Synaptic (System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager). In Settings -> Repositories, check the checkbox for 'Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Binary) - Community maintained (Universe)' and then close this window (see Figure 53 below). This 'Universe' is what most home users would want to activate, as it contains a list of all the additional software you'll probably ever need on your Linux computer.


Figure 53. The Ubuntu 'Universe' repository

Then on the Synaptic Package Manager window, search for 'vlc' (use the Search button) - you should then see the following 'vlc' entries (see Figure 54 below). Right-click 'vlc' and select it for installation. Then press the Apply button to actually download and install VLC v0.8.4.


Figure 54. Selecting the 'vlc' media player for installation

Kenbushi also requires libssl0.9.7 to be installed, otherwise it will bring up an error when you run it. Search for and install libssl0.9.7 in a similar way to VLC (see Figure 55 below).


Figure 55. Selecting 'libssl0.9.7' for installation

You should now find that you can run Kenbushi, and all the media playback functions work.


Web server
A simple web server is integrated into Kenbushi, which allows you to easily set up a folder of HTML documents for viewing using any Web browser. This is especially useful over a LAN, where you may need to make Web-based materials available to a number of users, but don't want to go to the trouble of setting up a fully fledged Web server, such as Apache. Of course, Web servers can also be used for functions other than HTML document serving, such as simple data distribution.

To 'Web-enable' a folder of HTML documents, simply add the folder to the Shared Folder listbox (on the Shared Folders panel), check the Web-enable checkbox on the left side of the folder, and ensure the Enable Web Server checkbox is checked on the Preferences panel.

You will then be able to access documents in this folder from any web browser using a URL made up of the shared folder name and the name of the document to load (if you only specify the shared folder name, and not the name of the document, the server will attempt to load the default file called 'index.html'). For example, if you Web-enabled the 'Shared' folder and your computer's local IP address is '192.168.0.100', the 'index.html' document could be accessed using the following URLs:

http://192.168.0.100:3300/shared/
http://192.168.0.100:3300/shared/index.html

To view the folders that are currently Web-enabled on Kenbushi (and thus accessible using a web browser), use the main index URL eg. 'http://192.168.0.100:3300/index.html'. This will bring up a web page similar to that shown in Figure 56 below. This page also shows the IP addresses from which this server page is accessible (in the example below, a wireless network adaptor [192.168.0.100] and an Ethernet adaptor [169.254.74.225] are available, as well as an Internet IP address [58.160.131.80]).

Notice also that the state of the Allow Remote Media Control checkbox on the media server is shown on the Web page.


Figure 56. The main index page of Kenbushi

Note: the default IP address of the server is always shown below the Enable Web Server checkbox (though, if you have more than one network adaptor in your computer eg. Ethernet, Wi-Fi wireless, dialup modem, etc., you should be able to access the Web server using the IP address of any of the installed network adaptors) - the port number used is the Base Port Number set on the Network panel, not the usual HTTP ports 80 or 8080.

You can access the Kenbushi server over the Internet. However, you need to ensure the Kenbushi default base port (usually 3300) is open ie. no firewalls exist between the web browser and the server. You can check that the server is not blocked by an Internet firewall by using the firewall diagnostic test built into Kenbushi. In addition, you need to have a static IP address for your server's Internet connection (static IP addresses can often be assigned to you by your ISP on request), and use this IP address when trying to remotely access the server.

Advanced users can add additional MIME types to the Kenbushi Web server by adding them to the 'MIMETypes.txt' file, located in the 'Data' folder. Simply add the file extension followed by a space, and then the MIME type. If a file is requested which has a file extension not in the MIME type list, the server will return a '404 Not Found' HTTP error.

A range of common document MIME types can be served by Kenbushi by default, including:

jpg, gif and png: graphics files
htm, html: HTML files
js: Javascript files
txt, rtf: text document files
xml: XML files

Files up to 10MB will be served by the Kenbushi server. Any files larger than 10MB will return a '404 Not Found' HTTP error.

If you set a 'Web-enabled' folder as 'write-enabled' (by checking it's 'write-enabled' checkbox on the Shared Folders listbox), you will also be able to upload HTML documents, etc. at any time to the shared folder using a remote computer running Kenbushi. This allows you to update and delete files in a HTML document set remotely.

If you are using wireless networking in your home or office, it is highly recommended that you use a password for access to that network (using 'WEP', an acronym for Wired Equivalent Privacy). This protects your network from intruders and eavesdroppers getting into your network, as well as people using your Internet connection without your knowledge or consent (and possibly causing problems, such as making you go over your monthly download limit).


Web slideshows
This powerful feature of Kenbushi allows you to easily set up a JPEG photo slideshow for viewing on all Web browsers on laptops with Wi-Fi wireless networking, as well as all web browsers on PDAs with Wi-Fi wireless networking, such as the Pocket PC, Nintendo DS, PSP (PlayStation Portable), PalmPilot, mobile phone, etc. You can remotely view the slideshows anywhere within wireless range, without ever actually storing the photos on these devices. Photos are auto-scaled to fit any screensize from 30x20 pixels up to 1920x1200 pixels, with superb quality provided by automatic anti-aliasing, and update regularly at the set interval.

Simply place the JPEG photos you wish to view as a slideshow into a folder, add the folder to the Shared Folder listbox and check the folder's 'Web-enabled' checkbox (on the left side of the Shared Folder listbox). Then check the Enable Web Slideshows checkbox on the Preferences panel, and set the interval and screensize you want. If you wish to have the photos automatically rotated (this is best on a PDA, since it maximizes viewing area if you have a mixture of vertical and horizontal photos), check the Auto-Rotate checkbox. You can start the slideshow by entering the special 'kb.ss.html' document name into your web browser. For example, if the folder you've prepared and added to the Shared Folders listbox is called 'snaps' and your server's wireless IP address is 192.168.0.100:3300, the URL you need to enter on your web browser to run the slideshow is:

http://192.168.0.100:3300/snaps/kb.ss.html

To list all the available slideshows on the Kenbushi server, enter a URL made up of your server's wireless IP address followed by the 'kb.ss.html' web page name. To start a slideshow on the list, simply click it's link. To go to the next picture, hit your web browser's Refresh button. To go back to the list of available slideshows, hit your web browser's Back button. For example, if your server's wireless IP address is 192.168.0.100:3300, the URL you need to enter on your web browser for the slideshow list is:

http://192.168.0.100:3300/kb.ss.html

Of course, once you have entered a particular URL, you can set a bookmark on the Web browser to conveniently access it again in the future. In fact, you can set up any number of slideshows for remote viewing, each with their own bookmark for easy access. See the example PDA slideshow below, in Figure 57 (viewed with the Internet Explorer Web browser on an iPaq rx1950. The iPaq is in portrait mode, but the slideshow has auto-rotate enabled, so the pictures are both scaled to the screen size and rotated appropriately).


Figure 57. An example PDA slideshow (portrait with auto-rotate, 'Full Screen' mode)

Viewing slideshows remotely via a Wi-Fi enabled PDA web browser has significant advantages compared to storing them in the PDA memory: pictures don't use up the available storage space on your PDA, setting up a slideshow folder is very easy compared to resizing all pictures for your particular PDA screensize and uploading them to the PDA, any number of slideshows can be made available for convenient viewing, and any PDA device or desktop computer with a web browser can be used for viewing.

Slideshows have the following additional features:
If you are using wireless networking in your home or office, it is highly recommended that you use a password for access to that network (using 'WEP', an acronym for Wired Equivalent Privacy). This protects your network from intruders and eavesdroppers getting into your network, as well as people using your Internet connection without your knowledge or consent (and possibly causing problems, such as making you go over your monthly download limit).

Note: When viewing photos on a PDA, please keep in mind that browser cache memory may be quite limited. A low-memory problem may exhibit itself as instability, failure to load menus or pictures, etc. A soft reset may be required under some circumstances (see your PDA user manual for more details).


Building your own remotely controlled media center
Many homes are now set up with home theatre systems which feature large screen LCD or plasma TVs and high-powered multichannel 5.1 surround sound systems. They provide a superb way to enjoy music and movies in a highly immersive environment.

However, storing and playing music and movies usually involves having racks of CDs and DVDs, finding and loading disks that you wish to play, and putting them away after use. Children can also put fingerprints and scratches on disks (affecting their playback quality), and accidently put them away in the wrong place (or not at all). It would be much better to use a hard disk to store the music and movie files, and then play these media directly from that hard disk.

Kenbushi provides the functionality to convert existing computer hardware (eg. an old Windows or Linux PC) into a media center and file server. Simply install Kenbushi on the designated media computer and place it near a TV and sound system for easy video and audio connection. Then use another computer, such as a laptop, to remotely control the playback of music and movies. Typical applications include piping movies to childrens’ rooms, playing movies and music on the TV in the lounge, and managing music for a party.

Kenbushi works over wired and wireless LANs, as well as over the Internet. Thus, you can set up your media computer so it is near your TV and sound system, and there are no wires snaking around your lounge room. Most people try to set up media computers in this way.


Choosing a suitable computer
Personal computers have been available for over two decades now, and many users upgrade every few years to newer and faster machines. The question is, what useful purpose can those old computers be put to? Most often, they are passed down to other less discriminating users in the household, given away to friends or relatives, or dumped. Kenbushi provides a way to use these old computers by converting them into a media center suitable for playing music and movies.

Most old computers can play music, but you generally need a faster computer (> 1GHz in speed) Windows or Linux PC to play video well. With Macs, an 800MHz G3 appears to be sufficient. The best approach to finding out what your old computer is capable of is to install Kenbushi on it, along with some music and movie files, and then try playing them using the remote media controls built into Kenbushi. If the computer plays music well, then it could make a good music center. If it also plays movies well (ie. without stuttering, freezing or dropouts), then you have a fully fledged media center on your hands.

Of course, you may also be able to partially refurbish an old PC so it can play music and movies properly, by purchasing and installing a budget sound card and/or video card for it. Sound cards with 5.1 channel output can be purchased for as little as USD15.00, and video cards with TV out capabilities can be had for as little as USD40.00. You'll also need an Ethernet card or wireless network adaptor in the old PC to connect to your home network, allowing media playback to be controlled remotely.

If you want to set up your computer as a dedicated media center, you won't need to connect a mouse or keyboard (see the example setups below for further information about how to do this). Of course, the TV output at the back of the computer will be connected directly to your TV, so you won't need a monitor either.

Rather than recycling an old PC, you could build a new media computer using budget PC components from a local PC store, or purchase a complete low-end system from a catalog - only the computer box is required as Kenbushi works on computers without a monitor (assuming it has a TV output), keyboard or mouse. Since a version of Kenbushi is also available for Linux, there is great flexibility when choosing a budget packaged PC to use as a powerful media center.

If you are technically capable, you may save more money by installing and using a free operating system, such as Linux. There are many easy-to-install distributions of Linux available for download from the Internet, such as Ubuntu. Ubuntu installs easily, detects most computer hardware, and has a simple installation system for additional software which works via download over the Internet.


Example Windows setup
If you want to make your computer a dedicated media center (ie. no mouse or keyboard connected to it), you need to set it up so that it boots and runs Kenbushi automatically when it's switched on. The following description assumes that you are relatively familiar with the BIOS built into PCs, navigating around the Windows desktop, and creating shortcuts.

The first task is to set the BIOS so it continues even though it finds no keyboard connected. This is often selectable in the 'Main' BIOS menu, which will be displayed when you press the 'Delete' key during computer startup. You need to set the 'All but Keyboard' (or similar) option for 'Halt On'.

Once you get through to booting into Windows, you need to ensure that a username and password is not requested when it starts up (obviously, without a keyboard attached, you can't type in any information). When you do a fresh installation of Windows (which is recommended if you are creating a media center PC), Windows will boot without asking for a username or password. However, you can change the user logon settings in the Windows control panels, if your Windows PC has been used in the past and has multiple user accounts already on it.

Assuming you now have a Windows PC which you can switch on and which will then boot fully into Windows without user intervention, you now need to install Kenbushi, create a shortcut to the Kenbushi application, and place that shortcut in the Windows 'Startup' folder. To create a shortcut, right-click the Kenbushi application (it should be in C:\Program Files\Kenbushi\) and select 'Create Shortcut' from the displayed contextual menu.

The 'Startup' folder can be found in different locations, depending on the type of Windows you are running. On Windows XP, you'll find the 'Startup' folder inside the 'Programs' folder, inside the 'Start Menu' folder, inside the users folder, inside the 'Documents and Settings' folder.

For example, if your account name was 'Michael' and you only had one hard drive (ie. drive C:), the location of the 'Startup' folder would be:

C:\Documents and Settings\Michael\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Finally, make sure that Kenbushi is set up correctly. By default, it should have the Workgroup Setup Method on the Network panel set to Auto-Discovery (with this setting, it should automatically connect to all computers on your LAN running Kenbushi). In addition, ensure the Allow Remote Media Control checkbox is checked and that you know the Sharing Password set on it. Also, set up a writeable shared folder to contain the movies and music you want to remotely control (by default, a shared folder on the desktop called 'Shared Folder' is created, but you need to check the Writeable checkbox next to it on the Shared Folders panel - this will allow you to upload movies and music to it from a remote computer).

It's also a good idea to disable any screensavers (these are often switched on by default).

If everything is set up correctly, you'll find that when the PC is switched on, it boots into Windows and runs Kenbushi automatically. You should then have immediate control of the PC from another computer.


Example MacOS setup
The Mac Mini is an excellent choice for a media center, as it is very compact and offers high-resolution video output for widescreen TVs. However, any type of Mac would be suitable, as long as it runs MacOS X.

If you want to make your computer a dedicated media center (ie. no mouse or keyboard connected to it), you need to set it up so that it boots and runs Kenbushi automatically when it's switched on. On MacOS computers, no keyboard or mouse needs to be connected for it to boot up correctly, so you don't need to take any special action to achieve this.

Once you get through to booting into MacOS X, you need to ensure that a username and password is not requested when it starts up (obviously, without a keyboard attached, you can't type in any information). To do this, go to the Accounts control panel, select the main Admin account and click the Login Options selector. You should see a checkbox which allows you to set your Mac to automatically log in as a particular user. Check this checkbox.

Assuming you now have a Mac which you can switch on and which will then boot fully into MacOS without user intervention, you now need to install Kenbushi and add the Kenbushi application to the login items list on the account you selected above for automatic login. To do this, go to the Accounts control panel, select the main Admin account, select the Login Items panel and add Kenbushi to the list using the Add button at the bottom of the panel. Then check the checkbox next to the Kenbushi application in the list.

Finally, make sure that Kenbushi is set up correctly. By default, it should have the Workgroup Setup Method on the Network panel set to Auto-Discovery (with this setting, it should automatically connect to all computers on your LAN running Kenbushi). In addition, ensure the Allow Remote Media Control checkbox is checked and that you know the Sharing Password set on it. Also, set up a writeable shared folder to contain the movies and music you want to remotely control (by default, a shared folder on the desktop called 'Shared Folder' is created, but you need to check the Writeable checkbox next to it on the Shared Folders panel - this will allow you to upload movies and music to it from a remote computer).

It's also a good idea to disable any screensavers (these are often switched on by default).

If everything is set up correctly, you'll find that when the Mac is switched on, it boots into MacOS X and runs Kenbushi automatically. You should then have immediate control of the PC from another computer.


Example Ubuntu Linux setup
There are many easy-to-install distributions of Linux available for download from the Internet, such as Ubuntu. Ubuntu installs easily, detects most computer hardware, and has a simple installation system for additional software which works via download over the Internet. The following discussion assumes that you wish to use the 'Dapper Drake' Ubuntu Linux distribution.

The first step is to go to the Ubuntu website and download the 'Dapper Drake' version of Ubuntu (most users get the PC (Intel x86) desktop CD .iso file). You then need to burn the .iso file to CD, and use that CD to install Ubuntu on your computer.

After installing the 'Dapper Drake' version of Ubuntu, please follow the instructions shown in Notes for Linux users above. This section explains in detail how to install the VLC media player and a library you need to run Kenbushi. After working through this section, you should find that you can run Kenbushi, and all the media playback functions work.

If you want to make your computer a dedicated media center (ie. no mouse or keyboard connected to it), you need to set it up so that it boots and runs Kenbushi automatically when it's switched on. The following description assumes that you are relatively familiar with the BIOS built into PCs, and creating shortcuts.

The first task is to set the BIOS so it continues even though it finds no keyboard connected. This is often selectable in the 'Main' BIOS menu, which will be displayed when you press the 'Delete' key during computer startup. You need to set the 'All but Keyboard' (or similar) option for 'Halt On'.

Once you get through to booting into Ubuntu Linux, you need to ensure that a username and password is not requested when it starts up (obviously, without a keyboard attached, you can't type in any information). After logging in, select Login Screen Setup from the Administration item of the System menu. On this control panel, select Login a user automatically on first bootup and close the control panel.

Assuming you now have a Ubuntu Linux PC which you can switch on and which will then boot fully into Ubuntu Linux without user intervention, you now need to install Kenbushi, and make it so that Kenbushi is started automatically.

To make Kenbushi start automatically, select Sessions from the Preferences item of the System menu. On this control panel, move to the Startup Programs panel, press the Add button and navigate to and select the Kenbushi application.

Important Note: the file path to the Kenbushi application can contain no spaces, otherwise Linux won't be able to launch the application correctly (it always views a space as the end of a command line, and processes text after the space as control options). To fix this problem, replace all spaces in the path to the Kenbushi application with underscores, '_'. After changing the path, make sure you update the path in the Startup Programs panel as described above.

Finally, make sure that Kenbushi is set up correctly. By default, it should have the Workgroup Setup Method on the Network panel set to Auto-Discovery (with this setting, it should automatically connect to all computers on your LAN running Kenbushi). In addition, ensure the Allow Remote Media Control checkbox is checked and that you know the Sharing Password set on it. Also, set up a writeable shared folder to contain the movies and music you want to remotely control (by default, a shared folder on the desktop called 'Shared Folder' is created, but you need to check the Writeable checkbox next to it on the Shared Folders panel - this will allow you to upload movies and music to it from a remote computer).

It's also a good idea to disable any screensavers (these are often switched on by default).

If everything is set up correctly, you'll find that when the PC is switched on, it boots into Ubuntu Linux and runs Kenbushi automatically. You should then have immediate control of the PC from another computer.


Data Backup
Kenbushi provides powerful data backup and recovery functions to help protect users from losing important files. During a backup, it scans selected folders and adds recently modified files to the backup store. Older versions of each file are also retained. To recover a file, the user simply selects the date on which the desired file was current and a file explorer interface (which accepts search criteria) shows all files available at that date. Files and folders can then be selected and restored to their original locations, or saved to a new location. File data integrity is verified during storage and recovery using MD5 digital signatures. Backup logs and restore logs provide detailed information about all file transfers.

Backups can be scheduled to be performed monthly, weekly, daily or hourly. When a backup schedule triggers, the backup operation can be performed automatically, or optionally an alert displayed allowing the user to start the backup when ready. This ‘Alert Only’ mode is perfect for protecting users’ work whilst they are editing an important document (eg. a thesis), or series of documents (eg. software source code modules). Every hour, the backup alert will obediently pop up reminding the user to save their work and start the incremental backup process. At this time, the user can also enter a short note describing the backup eg. ‘Just completed thesis abstract’. In this way, with minimal effort, the user has a rolling series of versions of their valuable documents backed up. Later, if they need to, they can easily access any previous version of their files.

Notes:
Using the Backup Plan Wizard
The easiest way to set up a backup plan suitable for most users is to use the Backup Plan Wizard. This wizard can be displayed by selecting Backup Plan Wizard... from the Wizard menu (see Figure 58 below). Simply pressing the Backup Now button will backup your data onto the local hard disk. The instructions on the Backup Plan Wizard dialog describe the key information you need to do a basic but effective backup.

If you currently have other users on the network running Kenbushi, these users should be displayed in the Remote User popup menu on the Backup Plan Wizard dialog. If you wish to backup to a remote user, simply check the Backup To 'Remote User' checkbox and select a remote user to backup to, and the backup data will be stored on the remote computer as well (this is safer than just backing up to your local hard disk). This remote user may be your home media/backup server, or another computer in your home which is connected via LAN or wireless networking.


Figure 58. The Backup Plan Wizard dialog

Desktop Documents includes all documents on your desktop itself, as well as files within any folders on the desktop. Many users typically create folders on the desktop, named after the person the folder belongs to. They then use this folder to store their PDFs, Word documents, spreadsheets, Powerpoint presentations, etc. Thus, this Desktop Documents item will backup all these folders correctly by default, which is what most users want.

Note: The 'Backups' and 'Shared' folders created and used by Kenbushi (and usually located on the desktop) are never included in backups.

The Local Settings item on Windows will include application settings and data from Outlook Express (eg. mailboxes, etc) and various other installed applications. It's very prudent to backup this information as well.

After you have used the Backup Plan Wizard, you will find a backup plan called 'Standard' in the backup plan listbox on the Backup Data panel of the main window. You can edit this backup plan by double-clicking it. Additional files and folders can then be added to the backup plan, as well as additional remote destinations. You may also like to change the backup schedule for a destination.


Deciding what files and folders to backup
The key to appreciating what files and folders to backup up is to consider how you would feel if you lost the data forever. Please take a moment to think about this...

There is also an important distinction between public and private files. Public files are those which were produced by someone else and which are quite widely available and accessible, such as software installers (eg. Microsoft Office, Half-Life 2, Mozilla, etc). Generally, the only reason to backup public files is to ensure convenient access. Private files are those which are unique to yourself or your organization, usually because you produced them. Thus, they are totally unique and have intrinsic value to you.

For most users, there are three levels of private file value: critical files, important files, and files which are vaguely needed but you're not really sure why (eg. last years essay on Aristotle's 'Nicomachean Ethics'). You should use the most robust backup strategy for critical files, and the least robust backup strategy for vaguely needed files.

Robustness is an ability to recover gracefully from a whole range of exceptional adverse situations. This may simply be your computer's hard disk failing - a common problem when hard disks reach 3+ years in service. Other examples of adverse situations include your home being flooded, a power spike burning out your computer, your computer being stolen (particularly common for laptops), a virus corrupting your operating system and/or data files, a trojan horse being surrupticiously installed on your computer and subsequently encrypting your Word documents so a remote hacker can demand a ransom to recover them (this occurred recently), your teenage daughter deleting files to make more room for downloaded music, the local computer repair shop accidently clearing your hard drive when you bring your computer in for servicing, a hurricane, etc, etc.

Robustness can be increased in several ways:
  1. make multiple redundant copies of files, so if the original file is lost, another copy can be used in its place.
  2. storing copies in different geographical locations, so a localized exceptional adverse situation, such as your house burning down, doesn't destroy all copies.
  3. use a scheme to ensure the integrity of each backup copy - copies should be exact duplicates of the original, and if one is corrupted, we should be able to detect this and use a different copy.
For critical files, consider storing AT LEAST two additional copies of each file. In this way, when you lose the original file, even if one backup copy is corrupted or inaccessible, you still have one good copy. For important files, you need AT LEAST one additional copy of each file. For vaguely needed files, you should aim for one additional copy. With Kenbushi, you can store additional redundant copies of critical and important files by simply using multiple destinations with each backup plan.

Kenbushi can backup files to the local hard disk, as well as to multiple remote destinations via the inbuilt file transfer system, whether the computers in your workgroup are on your LAN or connected over the Internet. This allows you to backup all your Windows PCs, Macs and Linux computers to your home server, for example, or even a computer on the other side of the world. Thus, it is now very easy to set up a multiple redundant backup system for your valuable files.


Choosing an appropriate schedule
The key to selecting a good backup schedule is to consider how you would feel if you had to revert to your last backup...

It's great having a backup strategy, but if you did the last backup a week ago and you lose your original file (for example, your thesis), the file you revert to will be a week old! You could have done a lot of work on the document in that week, which you have now lost.

For important files, such as purchased iTunes music, a daily or weekly backup is sufficient. For critical files which are modified often (ie. an important document you are actively working on), an hourly backup may be required. For vaguely needed files, a weekly or monthly backup may be sufficient.

Kenbushi implements a powerful incremental backup system, so only files modified since the last backup are copied. In other words, if that Alanis Morissette music you purchased from iTunes has already been backed up, it won't be copied again into the backup store - only new music will be backed up. This clever scheme minimizes the amount of storage needed for your backup data and reduces the time needed to perform a backup.


Setting up a backup plan
There are a number of available backup plan templates which make it easy to create backup plans to suit your needs. They include templates to backup music, photos and home folders (the default location where users store their documents) on most platforms.

To use a template, simply select it from the Backup Plan Templates popup menu on the Backup Data tab panel and press the Add Backup Plan button (the large green cross). The Backup Plan dialog will be displayed (shown in Figure 59 below), allowing you select an appropriate schedule for the backup. When you are finished editing the backup plan schedule, press the Save button to save the plan.

Each backup plan includes a list of files and folders to backup, the backup destinations (eg. the 'local backup destination folder' selected on the Backup Data panel, or a remote user connected via your LAN or the Internet) and it's backup schedule.

The Name of the backup plan is shown at the top. The Files/Folders to Backup shows the list of files and folders which will be included in the backup when this backup plan is executed. Items can be added to this list by dragging and dropping them onto the listbox from the desktop, or by selecting them using the Add File and Add Folder buttons below the listbox. Items can be removed using the Remove Item button.


Figure 59. The Backup Plan Dialog

Backup destinations and schedules
Backup destinations (each with their own custom schedule) can be added to a backup plan using the Add Destination button (see Figure 28 above), and removed using the Remove Destination button, located on the right side of the Backup Destinations listbox. You can set a backup destination to be 'Local' (eg. the 'local backup destination folder' selected on the Backup Data panel) or 'Remote'. Remote users who have connected to your computer (and are thus shown in the Connect To popup menu) will be available as 'Remote' destinations for your backup files (Figure 39 below which shows an example Computer Name popup menu with a list of remote users).

Note: Only remote users who have checked the Allow Remote User Backups checkbox on their Preferences panel will actually accept backup files from your computer, so you need to ensure the remote computer has this checkbox set. If it is not set, an error will be logged into the activity list when a backup it attempted to that user.

Destinations each have a custom schedule, which can be set to Automatic, Alert Only or Manual. An automatic schedule will execute even if you aren't at the computer at the time the backup is scheduled. An 'Alert Only' schedule will display an alert and wait for you to press the Ignore or Backup button on the alert before starting the backup (see Figure 40 below), and the manual mode is triggered only when you highlight a backup plan on the Backup Plan listbox and press the Execute Backup button on the Backup Data panel on the main window.

For each backup plan, any combination of hourly, daily, weekly and monthly schedules is allowed. For example, you could back up at two particular times daily, or backup weekly each Tuesday at 5.00pm and each Thursday at 9.00am. If two backup schedules trigger at the same time (eg. a weekly backup on Thursday at 9.00am, and a daily backup at 9.00am which occurs on a Thursday), then only one backup will be executed.

Note: If 'Alert Only' backup plans are triggered at the same time as automatic backup plans, the automatic backup plans will execute first.

If the schedules of two or more different backup plans trigger at the same time, they will each be listed on the Backup Alert (see Figure 60 below). You can skip executing any backup plan on the list by unchecking the checkbox associated with the plan before it starts executing. Automatic backups give you a 120 second (2 minute) countdown before executing, during which time you can ignore them by pressing the Ignore button, make them wait by pressing the Wait button, or start them executing immediately by pressing the Backup button.

Note: New local or remote backup destinations can be added to a backup plan at any time. Subsequently, the next time that backup plan is executed, all the backup files will be copied to the new destination and it will become up-to-date in terms of the backup files stored there.

If you click any of the backup plans in the list during an automatic backup countdown, the backup will wait (ie. it's as if you pressed the Wait button), and you can then enter a note to go with that backup. This note will be included in the backup log, so you can read it if you ever need to restore a file. For example, if you are working on a thesis and you had just completed the abstract when the backup alert was displayed, you could enter 'Just completed thesis abstract' in the Backup Note textbox. This note provides valuable guidance about the contents of a backed up document, giving you information helpful in deciding which version to restore. After you have entered any notes you like for each backup plan, press the Backup button to start the backup.


Figure 60. An 'Automatic' Backup Alert

If a backup plan is set to backup automatically to a remote user, and that remote user is not currently connected, then the backup will be ignored unless you have the Queue Automatic Backups When Offline checkbox set (this checkbox is located on the Backup Data panel on the main window). In this case, as soon as the remote user is detected on the network, the automatic backup plan will execute. This advanced function makes it very easy to automatically backup your laptop to a home server when you get home from your office or school.

Any backup plan (whether it is automatic, 'Alert Only' or manual) can be triggered manually by highlighting the backup plan on the Backup Plan listbox on the main window's Backup Data panel and pressing the Execute Backup button.

If any backup plans trigger whilst another backup plan is currently executing, they will be queued until it is finished or stopped. If any files are being transferred when a backup plan triggers, the backup plan will be queued until the transfer is completed or stopped.

After you have set up a backup plan, you will see it listed on the Backup Data panel on the main window (shown in Figure 61 below). The name of the backup plan is highlighted in bold at the top, and an icon indicates whether each backup destination listed below the name is a remote user or the 'local backup destination folder'. A short description of the backup schedule is also shown, in addition to whether the backup data is encrypted on remote destinations.


Figure 61. The Backup Data panel

To edit a backup plan in the Backup Plan Listbox, double-click it or select it and press the Edit Backup Plan button (the star). To remove a backup plan and all its stored backup data, press the Remove Backup Plan button (the red cross).


Automatically backing up your laptop to a home server when you get home
Many working people and students now bring their work with them everywhere on their laptop computers. They leave home in the morning with their laptops, do work during the day and then return home with their laptops. Wouldn't it be great if you could get home, open your laptop and have it automatically backup to your home server, or any other desktop computer located at home? Kenbushi lets you easily set up such a scheme, thereby ensuring your valuable work and school documents are protected on a daily basis.

To implement this scheme, simply set up a backup plan on your laptop containing the files and folders you wish to backup every day. Then set an automatic schedule which triggers a few hours before you return home, and which specifies your home server as the remote backup destination (the server may be connected via wireless network to your laptop for even greater convenience). Also, make sure you have the Queue Automatic Backups When Offline checkbox set (this checkbox is located on the Backup Data panel on the main window), and leave the Kenbushi software running on both your laptop and the home server. That's it!

Now, when you return home with your laptop, as soon as Kenbushi detects the home server, it will start executing the backup plan. You will thus have a fully automatic daily backup scheme for your laptop with almost no effort!

Of course, you might also like to remotely control movie or music playback on your home media server with your laptop, whilst you have the laptop open... to help you relax after a hard day at work.

Note: If you switch off your laptop when you travel, make sure you check the Launch on Startup/Login checkbox on the Preferences panel. In this way, when you start up your laptop when you get home, Kenbushi will start automatically and then do the automatic backup to your home server.

Alternatively, your company IT administrator might like you to automatically back up your laptop when you get to work every morning, thus storing those important document updates you worked on overnight. An additional automatic backup at 5pm every day would also back up all the files you updated during the day, giving you even greater protection.

If backup data from multiple users is stored on the same backup server, that backup data itself can be archived onto tape or other high-capacity media, if required, to provide an additional level of file protection.


'Alert Only' backups
This is a special type of backup scheme midway between fully automatic backups and manual backups, which is a unique and powerful feature of Kenbushi. This scheme provides a profoundly effective way of systematically backing up a valuable document or set of documents you are currently working on, so that the progress of your work is protected. For example, with an hourly 'Alert Only' backup schedule, you can only ever lose an hour of work if something goes wrong with your document file.

However, in addition to providing the peace of mind of having a rolling backup of your work, you can also easily access any previous version of your work. Sometimes during document editing, paragraphs, sections or other parts of a document are edited out or changed. With the 'Alert Only' backup scheme, you can easily recover any of these deleted sections of work, or move back completely to a previous version.

When the 'Alert Only' backup alert is displayed when a backup plan schedule triggers (see Figure 62 below), you can enter a note to go with that backup. This note will be included in the backup log, so you can read it if you ever need to restore a file. For example, if you are working on a thesis and you had just completed the abstract when the backup alert was displayed, you could enter 'Just completed thesis abstract' in the Backup Note textbox. This note provides valuable guidance about the contents of a backed up document, giving you information helpful in deciding which version to restore. After you have entered any notes you like for each backup plan, press the Backup button to start the backup.


Figure 62. An 'Alert Only' Backup Alert

Of course, you can also execute a backup plan immediately by highlighting the backup plan on the Backup Plan listbox on the main window's Backup Data panel and pressing the Execute Backup button. You might wish to do this after you have completed a major milestone in your development of a document, to ensure you have an exact copy of that version of the document in the backup store.


File extension filters
For each folder, you can set a File Extension Filter to Only Include files with a particular extension, or to Exclude files with a particular extension. This could be used, for example, to only include purchased iTunes music (which has a '.m4p' extension) in the backed up files even though the iTunes Music folder contains MP3 music as well. Just enter the file extensions in the appropriate textbox on the Backup Plan Dialog eg. 'm4p m4v'.


Advanced backup plan controls
Some additional controls are available for advanced users, including the ability to send notification emails when a backup is performed, encryption of remote backup data, and running pre-backup and post-backup scripts or batch files. The additional controls are shown at the bottom of the backup dialog by clicking the Advanced Options disclosure triangle. A dialog similar to that shown in Figure 63 will be displayed.


Figure 63. Advanced backup plan controls

Data encryption keys can be set using the Encryption Keys controls on the Preferences panel (see Figure 58 below). Once an encryption key is created, it can be selected for use on the Backup Plan dialog. All backup data sent to remote computers during backups using this backup plan will then be stored in encrypted form, making it effectively unreadable in any way on the remote computer. Thus, you can safely backup to any computer on a LAN or over the Internet and know the data is secure.

You can change the encryption key used for a backup plan at any time, or choose no encryption, even if you have already backed up files with it. All files already backed up will retain their encryption characteristics (since these characteristics are stored with the backup data itself). All new backup files will use the new key you've selected Thus, if you have backed up files to a remote computer using no encryption, you can simply enter and/or select an encryption key to ensure all future backup data will be encrypted. Of course, it's not a good idea to continually change encryption keys for a backup plan, since it could increase the complexity when performing a future restore.

Note: Files up to 2GB in size can be backed up in encrypted form. If you need to backup files larger than 2GB, you must switch off encryption for that particular backup plan.

Backup data stored locally (ie. in the 'local backup destination folder') is not encrypted, as any selected encryption key is used only for remotely backed up data.

Email accounts can be set up using the Email Accounts controls on the Preferences panel (see Figure 60 below). Once an email account is created, it can be selected for use on the Backup Plan dialog. Email accounts can be used to send notification emails after backup plans have finished executing. These notification emails provide information about the backup plan that was executed, the time of execution, a list of files backed up, etc. See the example in Listing 1 below.

In this example, a GMail email account was used for sending the notification email. The backup plan was called 'News Backup', and the backup data was sent to remote user 'SopranoXP' from a computer named 'SuzieQ' at 10.31am (the email itself shows detailed timestamp information). In addition, the user 'SopranoXP' is running on a Windows (Win32) computer at IP address 192.168.2.10 with a Kenbushi runtime key serial number of 3226587218 (thus, you can verify the identity of the remote user by their computer type, IP address and unique runtime key). The data was encrypted using the 'Normal' encryption key. The list of files and their modification dates are then shown, as well as the time of completion of the backup.

Envelope-to: service@lavasoftware.com
Subject: Backup 'News Backup' to user 'SopranoXP' on 'SuzieQ' at 10:31am
From: suzieq@gmail.com
To: service@lavasoftware.com

Real Name: Suzie Quigley
Content-type: text/plain;
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2006 18:01:22 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <44b83e62.291a9031.4a4a.ffff8336@mx.gmail.com>

Backup 'News Backup' started at 10:30:58am 15Jul2006

Destination is user 'SopranoXP' (192.168.2.10, Win32, 3226587218)
Backup data encrypted with 'Normal' encryption key

Copied new file: (8:53am 7Jun2006) Firefly:Documents:News:Apple pushing Intel in new directions.pdf
Copied new file: (7:30am 23Jun2006) Firefly:Documents:News:How to burn ISO disc images.pdf
Copied new file: (6:22pm 21Jun2006) Firefly:Documents:News:iMac G5 - Technical Specifications M9249X/A.pdf
Copied new file: (9:19am 15Jul2006) Firefly:Documents:News:Symantec Says No Viruses Exist for Apple OS X.pdf
Copied new file: (8:47am 8Jun2006) Firefly:Documents:News:Video goggles turn iPod into TV.pdf

Backup finished at 10:31:01am 15Jul2006
Listing 1. An example backup notification email

The pre-backup script is executed before the data backup itself is started, so you can perform any necessary special operations to prepare files used for the backup. The Timeout (secs) value can be used to cap how long Kenbushi will wait until the script is aborted (this ensures a script never stops the backup process completely).

The post-backup script is executed after the data backup is finished, so you can perform any necessary special operations to post-process files used for the backup. The Timeout (secs) value can be used to cap how long Kenbushi will wait until the script is aborted (this ensures a script never stops the backup process completely).

To delete a script, press the appropriate Remove Script button.

The PlanID is the identification number of the backup plan, and is used (amongst other things) to specify where the backup data is stored on remote computers. The main enclosing folder on the remote computer for the backup data is named using the runtime key serial number of the user doing the backup, and folders for the various plans (by PlanID) are contained within it. For example, if the 'local backup destination folder' on a remote computer is set to 'G:\Backups', the user doing the backup has a serial number of '3222545456' and the PlanID is '3228575872', the data for this plan will be stored at: 'G:\Backups\3222545456\3228575872'.


Setting up encryption keys
Encrypting a file with an encryption key makes it an unreadable mash of numbers, thus providing file data security. These encrypted files can be safely stored on a remote computer, and can be later decrypted and converted back to their normal readable form by using the same encryption key originally used for encryption. Encryption keys thus control the encryption and decryption process, which is performed only on the computer backing up and restoring files.

To create an encryption key, press the Add Encryption Key button on the Preferences panel. The Encryption Key dialog shown in Figure 64 will be displayed. This dialog allows you to set up encryption keys using a simple 'Clues2Key'(TM) system, or by using standard 'Literal Keys' represented by a long number in hexadecimal format.

The innovative Clues2Key(TM) system allows you to enter a series of clues made up of matching questions and answers, with the encryption key generated automatically from the answers. The more clues you add, the longer the encryption key becomes and the stronger the security of the encryption process. You should aim for encryption key lengths between 128 and 256 bits, though shorter key lengths will work well too (keys shorter than 128 bits are automatically padded out to 128 bits).

You should use clues which have very exact, explicit answers, which will never change. For example, 'What was my puppy's name when I was 6?' is a good clue, because it is something you will probably never forget and which very few people would know. An example of a poor clue is, 'Who is my best friend?'. The answer may change over time, thus affecting successful recovery (ie. you may enter what you think is the correct answer, but it may not be what you originally entered).

In the Clues2Key(TM) system, the encryption key is generated from the answers, using only the alphabetic characters (a-z) in the answers - uppercase characters are converted to lowercase, numbers and punctation marks are excluded, etc. This system minimizes possible user entry errors when key recovery is necessary. Most people can remember words very well, but fine details such as punctuation marks or numeric values in answers are often forgotten over time. For example, an answer to a question like, "What was my address in 1986?" may be like "2/549 Smythe Street" - you may have forgotten the apartment number or street number, but clearly recall the street name, and so the encryption key will be recoverable.

Encryption key recovery is one of the major benefits of the Clues2Key(TM) system, since the encryption key is derived from your answers, which are stored in your memory. Your questions and answers are also stored by Kenbushi on the computer whose data is being backed up, to make backup and restore simple and streamlined. However, only the questions are stored with the backup data on the remote computer, so if you ever lose the encryption key, it's still possible to recover your data.

Losing the encryption key for backed up files might  seem like an unimportant issue when you perform the actual backup, but backup data often needs to be recoverable for months or years afterwards. It also needs to be secure during that period, hence the need to encrypt it in the first place. Over those months or years, you may have bought a new computer, changed computer platforms, changed offices, or done a thousand other things which could result in loss of the original encryption key information. With the Clues2Key(TM) system, your encryption key is effectively securely stored with your backup data, so it simply cannot be lost. This is a profound benefit in using the Clues2Key(TM) system.

In contrast, 'Literal Keys' are represented by a long, confusing number in hexadecimal format. If you ever lose the literal key, your backup data is no longer recoverable. In other words, the encrypted backup files may still exist, but you can never convert them back to its normal readable form, rendering them useless. The best way to store literal keys, if you wish to use them, is to use a password manager product, such as PC-Mac PasswordVault. This product can also generate long random hexadecimal passwords, which is a very useful function for this purpose.


Figure 64. The Encryption Key dialog showing the Clues2Key(TM) system

To enter a new clue, enter it in the Question and Answer textboxes and press the Add Clue button. The clue will then be added to the bottom of the list. If you wish to edit a clue, select it in the Clues listbox and it will be placed in the Question and Answer textboxes. Edit the question and answer and then press the Update Clue button to update the clue in the listbox. To remove a clue, select it in the Clues listbox and press the Remove Clue button.

Standard 'Literal Keys' are represented by a long number in hexadecimal format. Keys of this type can be entered manually, or pasted in from any password manager with a random hexadecimal password generator function, such as PC-Mac PasswordVault. An example showing entry of a literal key in the Encryption Key dialog is shown below in Figure 65.


Figure 65. The Encryption Key dialog show a literal hexadecimal key


Setting up email accounts
Email accounts can be used to send notification emails after backup plans have finished executing. To create an email account, press the Add Email Account button on the Preferences panel. The Email Account dialog shown in Figure 66 will be displayed.


Figure 66. The Email Account dialog

There are a number of templates available to simplify the setting up of email accounts for users of GMail, Yahoo Mail and .Mac. The 'Custom' type gives you full freedom to set all characteristics of an email account.

Once you have entered your account information, you should send a test email using this account by pressing the Test button. This will ensure that email sending works before you use the account for sending real backup email notifications. If all goes well, you will receive an email similar to that shown below in Listing 2 at the default email address for the account (ie. the email's 'From' address). You should check that this email arrives in your email account inbox before proceeding to use the email account for any backup plans.

From: suzieq@gmail.com <suzieq@gmail.com>    Mailed-By: gmail.com
To: suzieq@gmail.com
Date: Jul 15, 2006 10:54 AM
Subject: Kenbushi Test Email (10:53am)

This is a test email sent to the 'GMail (suzieq)' email account by user 'SuzieQ'.

Settings used:

Type: GMail
Incoming Mail Server: pop.gmail.com
Outgoing SMTP Server: smtp.gmail.com
Email Address: suzieq@gmail.com
Username: suzieq
Password: ************
Real Name: Suzie Quigley
Use Submission Port (465) = On
Allow Authorization = On

The test email lists the settings used to send the email, so you can refer back to them at any later time.


Enabling, disabling and suspending backup plan execution
You can control the execution of backup plans using the Backup Plan Control popup menu at the top left of the Backup Data tab panel (see Figure 67 below).


Figure 67. Backup plan execution control

Normally, this will be set to 'Enabled' so that automatic backups can be performed. If you wish to disable backup plan execution, select 'Disabled' from this menu. If a backup plan trigger occurs when backup execution is disabled, only a status message will be displayed. This message helps ensure you are informed that execution of backup plans has been disabled.

However, backup plan execution can also be 'Suspended'. This is a good choice if you are doing something on your computer which should not be disturbed by a backup, such as watching a full screen movie. Any backup triggers which occur whilst execution is suspended are simply queued and will immediately start when control is again set to 'Enabled'. Thus, your data backup should not be affected, only delayed.


Checking backups and restores via the activity list
The activity list shows all backups and restores which have been performed (and the results of those activities), and provides easy access to all backup and restore logs. For example, if you wish to get a list of files which were copied during the last backup executed, simply display the Activity List dialog by pressing the Activity List button on the Backup Data panel (shown in Figure 63 above) and then double-click the entry at the bottom of the list. An example Activity List dialog is shown below in Figure 68, with backups colored green and restores colored purple.

A Log Icon in the first column indicates that a backup or restore log is available for viewing. To view a log, double-click the entry in the activity listbox, or highlight the item and press the Show Log button. If there is a red-colored oval in the first column, an error occurred during the backup or restore operation. Any logs with errors will include the error in the correct location at which it occurred in the log relative to other file transfers, as well as reproducing it again at the end of the log. Thus, to see any errors immediately, scroll down to the end of the log.


Figure 68. The Activity List dialog

The example Activity List dialog above shows a number of successful backups (marked in green) as well as a successful restore (marked in purple). A Log Icon is shown in the first column for backups and restores which actually transferred files, and these can be opened using the Show Log button. A manual backup was also attempted to a remote user named 'SuzieQ', but this failed because 'SuzieQ' was not connected via the network at the time of the backup.


Restoring files from a backup
Kenbushi has a unique and powerful data restore system which makes it very easy to find and select files to restore. It uses a file explorer interface which most computer users are familiar with, in addition to a simple way to select the date on which the files of interest were current. To display the Restore Dialog (shown in Figure 69 below), select the backup plan containing the data you wish to restore and press the Restore Button on the Backup Data tab panel.


Figure 69. The Restore dialog

On the Restore dialog, there are a number of simple controls which will help you locate the files you want to restore.

The Source allows you to select where the backup files should be restored from: backup files may be stored locally and/or on one or more remote computers, depending on how the backup plan is set up. To restore from the local backup store, select Local as the source. To restore from a remote computer, first make sure it is connected (and thus listed in the Connect To popup menu) - otherwise it won't be available as a source. Then select Remote as the source and the remote Computer Name you wish to restore from. If a remote computer has no backup files for the backup plan selected, no files will be displayed in the file list.

Note: When choosing a restore source, keep in mind that the incremental backup process is controlled individually for each destination. For example, if a remote destination could not be reached during the last automatic weekly backup, then the backup store at that destination would not include any newer files. Those newer files may have been successfully stored locally, however. When you subsequently try to restore files, that remote destination would be a poor choice as a restore source unless you could do nothing else. Of course, Kenbushi tries very hard to keep all destinations up-to-date and synchronized, and if a remote destination comes online after an absence, it will be detected, and data will be backed up to it immediately.

The Backup Date is the date on which the files you are interested in were current. For example, if you wish to get last Tuesday's version of a document you are working on, you simply select last Tuesday's date using the Backup Date popup menus. The files displayed in the file explorer interface were current at that date. If there was a specific time on that date the backup was performed, the Backup Time popup menu will show all the times of backups. Select the time of the backup you are interested in.

If no backups were performed on the selected date, the Backup Time popup menu will not be visible. You could try selecting an earlier date to find the closest actual backup date.

If there are a lot of files displayed, you can search for specific files or folders by entering text into the Search Text textbox. For example, if there is a folder called 'Assignments', you could enter 'Assignments' in this textbox and only that folder (and any files with the text 'Assignments' somewhere in their name) will be displayed. This makes it very easy to pinpoint the files you want. The search is triggered automatically a second after you finish entering the search text.

You can further reduce the number of files displayed by checking the Only Show Files Copied At This Time checkbox. This will show only the files which were actually backed up at the selected time. All other files would have been backed up earlier, so won't be displayed in this case.

Now click files and folders on the file explorer interface you wish to restore. They will be highlighted in green when they are selected for a restore, and displayed in black when they are deselected. If you select a folder, all files and subfolders in that folder will be included in the restore selection. You can deselect individual files and subfolders inside the folder, if you wish. To deselect a folder and all its contents, click it again.

Important Note: When performing a restore, it's best to quit all applications to ensure files being restored are not in use. If they are in use, it is very likely they will not be restored correctly.

When you have finalized the selection of files you wish to restore, press the Restore button to have them restored to their original locations, overwriting any files already at these locations. This type of restore is often used for restoring application data, such as web browser bookmarks and email data. Please be careful with this type of restore, as it will write over existing files on your hard disk!!!!

A safer way to restore files (especially your own documents) is to press the Save To... button. You can then select a location on your hard disk to which the restored files will be copied. You can then examine the files at your leisure and drag files around the desktop, replacing the originals if you wish.

If the encryption key used to encrypt remote backup data is not already amongst the encryption keys stored in Kenbushi, the Restore Dialog will expand and show the questions of the Clues2Key(TM) clues (shown in Figure 70 below) linked to the file being restored. These questions are stored with the encrypted backup data, and provide a way to securely recover the encryption key. Enter the answers to each question in it's listbox answer cell and then press the Submit button to continue. If you can't enter the correct answers, you can skip all files which use these Clues2Key(TM) clues by pressing the Skip button, or cancel the restore by pressing the Stop button.

When you enter the answers correctly, a new key (called 'Restore Key') will be added to your list of encryption keys. This will be used to decrypt any other restored files which used the same encryption key when they were backed up. It's quite OK to have multiple and different encryption keys (or no encryption) for different backed up files, since each backed up file knows it's own encryption characteristics. Kenbushi will handle these restore file differences transparently for you.


Figure 70. The Restore Dialog with the Clues2Key(TM) questions displayed (and partially entered answers)

The information shown on the Restore Dialog can be changed by pressing the Information Mode button on the top left (the large picture button). Pressing it once when the file explorer interface is displayed will change it to display the Backup Log associated with the selected backup date and time (see Figure 71 below). If no log exists for this particular backup date and time, the log text area will be blank.

The backup log shows the name of the backup plan, the execution start time, the location where the files were backed up, a list of all files which were copied and their file modification dates, and the execution finish time. If there were any problems with the backup, these are also shown on the log.


Figure 71. A sample Backup Log

Pressing the Information Mode button again will display the Restore Log associated with the selected restore date and time (see Figure 72 below). If you restored files on this date, there will be restore times shown on the popup menu, and you will be able to select a specific restore time.

If no restores were performed on the selected date, the Time popup menu will not be visible. You could try selecting an earlier date to find the closest actual restore date.

The restore log shows the name of the backup plan, the execution start time, the location where the files were restored to (eg. to their original locations or to a particular Save To... folder), a list of all files which were copied and their file modification dates, and the execution finish time. If there were any problems with the restore (such as an MD5 digital signature error), these are also shown on the log. Errors are included both in the body of the file listing, so you can see where the file was in the restore sequence, as well as at the end of the log, for convenient viewing (ie. so you won't have to carefully scan the entire restore log to know if there was a file restore error).


Figure 72. A sample Restore Log

The backup and restore logs provide a full audit trail of file transfers to keep you informed of what has been done.


Advanced techniques
You can do some clever things by combining the remote folder synchronization function with automatic scheduled backups.

Backing up files remotely
Your home computer could be set up to perform an automated backup each evening at 8.00pm. Before this backup occurs, you could connect to this computer using Kenbushi from anywhere in the world and perform a remote folder synchronization to a folder included in the backup. Thus, when the home computer does it's backup, it would include the new files you just uploaded.

Redundant backup of critical and important files
With Kenbushi, you can easily store redundant copies of critical and important files by simply including them on a backup plan with multiple destinations.

Using both a local destination and at least one remote destination is a good choice, since then you have immediate access to your backup data without requiring a network connection, and you also have one or more additional copies of your files on a remote computer (which may even be offsite). If one of the backup copies is lost (due to a failed hard disk, for example) or becomes corrupted (as detected by an incorrect MD5 digitial signature during restore), you can restore a redundant copy instead.


Macintosh file types and creators
You can also modify the Macintosh files types and creators assigned to a file which is transferred from a Windows PC by pressing the MacOS file types button. This will bring up the MacOS file types dialog shown in Figure 73 below. Using the dialog, you can add an entry by putting in the extension of a file on the Windows PC (eg. 'pdf') and then pressing the Add file's type... button. This will allow you to select an existing file on your computer with the type and creator you want mapped to this file extension.


Figure 73. The MacOS File Types dialog


Localization into other languages
Kenbushi can now be easily localized into any Unicode-based language eg. German, Japanese, Hebrew, Spanish, Dutch, etc.

The default language is English, and the localization process works by enabling you to easily enter a translation in a target language for all button names, dymanic help text, tab panel titles, etc. used by Kenbushi. Once a language file has been created, it can then be selected for use (via the Preferences panel) and also distributed to other users. Language files are saved in the Languages folder in the Kenbushi application folder.

To create a new language file or edit an existing one, select Edit... from the Language popup menu in the Preferences panel. The dialog shown in Figure 74 below will be displayed.


Figure 74. The Localize Language dialog for the French language

To create a new language file, enter the name of the language in the top-right textbox and press the Create button. If you wish to edit an existing language file, select it from the Language popup menu. In the example dialog above, a 'French' language file has been created.

A unique English Property Name is assigned to each translatable item to identify it. For example, 'TabPanelNews' is the name used to identify the title of the News panel.

On the left side of the dialog, the English Property Value is displayed. This value is built into Kenbushi and cannot be changed by the user. However, the Localized Property Value can be changed. This textbox is where the translated text is entered and/or edited.

The person translating simply works through the list of English Property Names by selecting each in turn from the English Property Name popup menu and entering the translation. The translation should be made using the same style of expression, and the same length of text, as the English property value. This is because many buttons, etc. have limited room for text and must look right after the translation process is complete.

To see which properties have not yet been translated, check the Only List Properties Not Translated checkbox. All localized properties which are different to their equivalent English properties will be eliminated from the popup menu. This helps translators work through all translations efficiently.

Press the Save button to save your entries and/or edits to the language file.

News and updates
The News panel (shown in Figure 75 below) displays the latest news from Lava Software, the edition and version number of the Kenbushi application, and the runtime key used in the installation.

If a news update was released since you last launched Kenbushi and your computer is connected to the Internet, the News panel will be automatically selected and an alert sound will be played to inform you of the update.

To change the runtime key of an existing installation, press the Key button and paste in the new runtime key. This may be necessary, for example, if you accidently enter the same runtime key on two computers running Kenbushi on your network, or wish to convert an existing installation of Kenbushi from the 'Standard Edition' to the 'Pro Edition'.


Figure 75. The News panel


Additional notes
If you get a message saying that a computer is unreachable, try again. Sometimes network packets get lost (especially in congested networks) and simply trying again can result in success.

If your Internet connection is protected by a firewall and you will be transferring files across the Internet, you may need to enable the port used by Kenbushi, so that the software will work correctly on your system. The default port used is 3300, but you can use another port if you wish. You can set the base port number on the Preferences panel (quit and relaunch for the change to take effect).

If a control is disabled, the dynamic help text associated with it will be displayed in red. Normally, it is displayed in black.