Late last year LogMeIn released version 2 of the popular Hamachi Zero Configuration VPN Client. But something was wrong, nobody could find the Linux download.

Nobody could find it because it didn’t exist. LogMeIn decided to move on with Hamachi as a Windows Only product. Up to this point they still have their Linux “support” forum found here. However everyone coming there either looking for the “new 2.0″ Linux Hamachi binaries or for help trying to figure out why the old client keeps dropping is basically told “They have already stated in another post that we are indeed working on it, but I have no time frame available at this time.”

Thanks LogMeIn! It’s now (as of writing this) been 8 months and there is still no news, no updates, and no road map. As far as I’m concerned it’s horrible how LogMeIn is handling the issue.

When LogMeIn aquired Hamachi back in August of 2006 it was thought to be a good thing. Everyone was excited that it happened because it was going to resolve the issues of having to make a peer connection outside of the country. At the time there were approximately 3 million people using the beta zero configuration vpn service. Adding more than 400k new computers a month, the service was already a wildly successful product.

They did keep it free and is still free to this day. But the after effects are now clear and apparent, they don’t care much for the free part of it. They’ve chosen to continue and update the Windows portion, but have pretty much left Linux and Apple users in the dust waiting and hoping something will be out soon. Well “soon” has come and gone.

Ok, enough of my rant. As you can see this bothers me a bit. Back on July 31st of 2009 I wrote a how to tutorial demonstrating how to Install Hamachi on Ubuntu 9.04 and to this very day it is easily the top source of traffic for Sucka.net. Probably because so many people find it doesn’t work well anymore.

Well, there have been some work arounds here and there. Using old versions allows you to peer with non v2.* versions. But that’s not a solution to the problem. What made Hamachi so great aside from being easy to setup in minutes was the cross platform support that LogMeIn has completely obliterated.

So I’m here writing this blog post because I want to help my user’s find a replacement. No, not just a replacement an upgrade! Something that has similar functionality, is free, better support and all around not a product of LogMeIn. And I think I’ve found it, NeoRouter.

NeoRouter is pretty much the exact same thing as Hamachi was pre-LogMeIn on crack. Lets see here, let me count the ways.

Native cross platform support, 32bit, 64bit, all major distros, direct peer to peer (P2P), site 2 site VPN, zeroconf, router firmware modules for openwrt and tomato, unattended servers, roaming user profiles, user management and access control, highly portable, support for customization, 256 clients, file sharing via CIFS, Samba and FTP, printer sharing, add ons, Wake on LAN, embedded system support, AES256 encryption, proxy, Mesh networking, centralized with your own server for both user management and access control.

And that’s only the stuff from the free version of NeoRouter! All just as easy, if not easier than Hamachi!

Check out NeoRouter’s Feature Matrix here if you wanna know more.

So instead of limiting yourself with Hamachi’s sorry little limit to 16 free clients, you can fill an entire subnet with NeoRouter with 256 nodes including your server. On top of that you have an upgrade path to add multiple subnet’s. Also, NeoRouter doesn’t charge you annually like LogMeIn does. NeoRouter’s license is for life if you ever upgrade to the pay version, no annual contract required.

Seriously, should I go on? Well, I won’t because I could probably write another couple pages. The point here is that Hamachi is not what it used to be, and won’t ever be again as far as I’m concerned. LogMeIn has really shot themselves in the foot with what I think is just pure greed. You be the judge.

So if you’re coming here looking for help setting up Hamachi on your Ubuntu Linux box, stop now. Save yourself the time and effort because there’s better options for you. Over the next few days I’ll be publishing my instructions on How to Setup NeoRouter Server and How to Setup Clients for Windows, Linux and OS X.

LogMeIn has some cool and useful products like Ignition and LogMeIn Free and I use some of these products consistently. But what bothers me the most is how they just seem to have put Linux support on the back burner. I know it’s not a issue of lacking development because their current lineup is quite extensive and growing with new releases and features.

So, I dunno. This is all just what I see, because LogMeIn hasn’t really told us otherwise. I’d love to eat my words on this because competition stems innovation. And at this point NeoRouter has produced that innovation, where are you LogMeIn? I’d love to take it all back and write something good about Hamachi because I’ve been a fan and avid user of their software for so long. I’m just tired of waiting and watching people come read my guides promoting your broken software.

Tags: hamachi logmein neorouter openvpn vpn