HamachiX Beta (build 1A12)



This is the English online help for HamachiX. There is also an Italian version. For help on the hamachi command line tool please visit hamachi, a secure mediated VPN client.


HowTos

1. Connecting two peers walk through
2. System Requirements
3. Installing HamachiX
4. Uninstalling HamachiX
5. Connecting to the hamachi root server
6. Creating a network
7. Deleting a network
8. Inviting others to your networks
9. Evicting peers from your network
10. Availability of other peers
11. Connecting to peers directly from HamachiX
12. Changing HamachiX Preferences
13. Further questions, support feedback

• Connecting two peers walk through
In this section I'll walk you through the process of connecting two peers with one another who have not yet installed HamachiX. For convenience I'm going to assume two Apple G4s, Mac A and Mac B, running Mac OS X 10.4, both with a connection to the internet verified and known to be working.

1. We will set up Mac B at a later time and work on Mac A first. On Mac A launch HamachiX, and you will either find yourself up and running in case you already have the underlying command line tools installed, or you need to install them. HamachiX will check if your installation works correctly, and if that test fails it will suggest to install the necessary components. But if it does not but you still have reason to doubt that it's working correctly, you can overinstall the bundled software by selecting the menu item Install System Components...
   
   
   You will be prompted to authenticate your identity to the OS with your password. That is the same password you need for any system update. After that HamachiX will install all the components required, for a detailed outline check the section Installing HamachiX.
   
   
2. You should now have HamachiX running on Mac A. Now make sure that you are connected to the hamachi root server. If you are you should find the Login button to look like this:
   
   But click it once only if it looks like this:
   
   
   
   
3. Next open the preferences panel from the HamachiX main menu:
   
   
   The nickname field in the preferences window is only enabled while you are online and connected to the hamachi root server. Given previous steps it should be and look like this:
   
   
   Enter a nickname without spaces in the field Nickname and hit return, you can then close the preferences window if you like to.
   
   
4. Next we create a network. To do so hit the Add button in the main windows toolbar as shown below, and you should find a new entry being added, selected and the settings pane being shown:
   
   
   
5. Next enter a name and password into the appropriate fields, something like this:
   
   
   
6. As shown in the screenshot there is a checkbox which says create on demand. That checkbox is there so that in case a network with that name does not exist when trying to log on to it, it will be created. With many peers having the same network setup and using this flag it is easy to ensure that this network is always kept alive whenver one of the peers logs on to hamachi. At this stage and for this tutorial it's not important and we just ignore it for now.
   
   
7. Next we are going to take the new network online. To do this activate the checkbox labeled Network currently online like this:
   
   Note that as soon as you take a network online its name and password field are being disabled to prevent from making changes to the network while it's in use. If you want to make changes first take the network offline. However the name of a network is a unique identifier and once taken online is being registered with the hamachi root server. To change it you can only delete the network and create a new one.
   
   
8. Ahead of Mac B being setup create an invitation. To do this select your new network and hit the Invite button:
   
   Mail.app will be opened if it is not running already and a new email created with a standard text and a file attached that contains the details of the new network. If you do not want to use Mail.app, or if you want to share your network information by other means than mail, such as iChat or the like, you can also select to Save Selected Networks...:
   
   Now you can either send the email to an email account the other mac has access to or get the network file to Mac B in some other way.
   
   
9. Now to set up the other peer repeat Step 1 to Step 3 for Mac B, and then open the file that you should have acquired in previous step. You should now see under the peer tab on Mac A the nickname you gave to Mac B and vice versa.
   
   
10. Finally in the system preferences activate whichever services you like to use between Mac A and Mac B, under sharing:
    
    NOTE: If you are using the Mac OS X own firewall, make sure to also have your firewall settings so to not block any of the services you want to use, including any Bonjour services:
    
    
11. If you are having difficulties connecting both peers at first try, after having gone through the whole setup to this point, hit the refresh button. If that does not help try to disconnect and reconnect with the Login/Logout button.
    
    

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• System Requirements
HamachiX has the following requirements:

• Apple Macintosh G4 or G5 computer
• Mac OS X 10.4.x or later
• About 30 MB of RAM
Running hamachi on Intel Mac OS X based systems causes trouble at this time, for more information check out the hamachi homepage. The transition is in progress. HamachiX itself is universal binary though.
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• Installing HamachiX
To install HamachiX simply launch it. It can reside anywhere your file system, it does neither care about whether the device on which it lives is write-protected or not. When you launch it for the first time it will verify that the underlying system components are available, such as tuncfg, hamachi and tun.kext and tap.kext drivers. If anything is missing the user is being asked whether or not to install the necessary components. If the user agrees HamachiX takes the following steps to ensure hamachi is fully functional:

• Installing /Library/Extensions/tun.kext
• Installing /Library/Extensions/tap.kext
• Installing /usr/bin/hamachi
• Installing /usr/bin/tuncfg
• Load kernel extension tun.kext
• Load kernel extension tap.kext
• Installing and loading through launchctl of /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/tuncfgd.plist to make sure for tuncfg to be running at all times
• Create a soft link to hamachi at /usr/bin/hamachi-init
• Initializing key-pair through hamachi-init if necessary

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• Uninstalling HamachiX
You can either run the Uninstall system resources menu item under the help menu or remove all of the aforementioned files manually through Terminal, and then move the HamachiX applicaiotn to the trash.
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• Connecting to the hamachi root server
In order to connect with other peers hamachi first needs to connect to and register with the hamachi root server. To do so hit the Connect button in case you are not logged on to the server at the time.

While you are connected to the hamachi root server the connect button will appear like this:


While you are disconnected from the hamachi root server the connect button will appear like this:


You may also select to be connected automatically when you launch HamachiX in the preferences panel.
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• Creating a network
In the main window hit the Button labeled Add. A new entry will be added to the list of your current networks; select it by clicking it once. In the right part of the main window click on the settings tab. Then change name and password to your likes. When you are satisfied click the checkbox that says Network currently online. To take a network online you have to be logged in at the time, otherwise the checkbox will be disabled and greyed out. NOTE: Once a network has been created and been online for the first time its name cannot be changed anymore. To change a name of a network the network has to be deleted and a new network be created with the new name.
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• Deleting a network
To delete a network first make sure you are logged in to the hamachi root server, otherwise the delete-function remains unavailable and its button disabled and greyed out. Then select the networks you like to delete. Next hit the button labeled Remove. When prompted you can confirm to go ahead and delete the network. If you confirm to remove the network it should disappear form the list of your current networks shortly afterwards.
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• Changing HamachiX Preferences
To make changes to the preferences of HamachiX choose the Preferences menu item from the HamachiX main menu item to open the preferences panel.
To make changes to your nickname simply enter a nickname and hit return.
Note: Only while you are online and connected to the hamachi root server you can change your nickname, otherwise this field will be disabled and greyed out.

You can also change the amount of login attempts made to connect ot the hamachi root server when you hit the connect button. The default number is 50.

You can select to shut down the hamachi process whenever you quit HamachiX. If you want to allow others to connect to your computer regardless of whether you are currently making any changes to your networks run hamachi the checkbox to Shut down Hamachi process when quitting needs to be unchecked.

If you want to log on to the hamachi root server upon app launch, the checkbox to Connect to Hamachi Rootserver at startup needs to be checked.

If you want to make sure that the hamachi process is being launched automatically whenever your computer restarts you need to make sure your user account logs in when restarting an add HamachiX to the startup items, and activate aforementioned checkbox.

If you want to make changes to the connection methods offered to conveniently connect to other peers from HamachiX, add a new entry by hitting the square button with the +-character and double click the last entry in the list to change name and use-line. Note that in the useline there should be a %@, which in turn will be replaced with the identity of the peer you choose to connect to at time of connection. For example, if the use-line is space://%@/share/, and if you double click peer 5.32.103.45, HamachiX tries to connect you to space://5.32.103.45/share/.
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• Inviting others to your networks
You can invite others to your network in one of two ways. If you are a user of Mac OS X' Mail.app you can simply select the networks you want to invite others to and hit the Invite button. In turn this will create an email with an attachment. The email has the standard invitation text, the attachment is an encrypted file that contains the necessary information of your networks.
You can also select the networks you want to to invite to and from the main menu select Save Selected Networks.... You can then save a file that you may attach to any email or share in whichever way you find convenient.

The other party to join your networks is assumed to use HamachiX as well, and can then open same file. This in turn will automatically add the networks to the others' current network settings.
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• Evicting peers from your network
To evict a peer from your network select the peer and click the evict button. You have to be online for this operation.
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• Availability of other peers
As soon as a peer is connected to a network it is assigned one of three state values. A peer can be available, and be marked by a green dot. A peer can be offline which is indicated by a greyish circle. or a peer can be online but unavailable and be displayed with a red cross. To connect to another peer that peer has to be in the available state.
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• Connecting to peers directly from HamachiX
You can connect to other peers from HamachiX directly by using the Connect Using... menu item under the main menu. You can also make changes to the menu in case you are using protocols not specified per default in the preferences panel.

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• Further questions, support feedback
For further questions, support, feedback, please check the support page.
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