iMatch Anywhere for idiots

[pmcabinet]

I am an amateur photographer and dendrologist; I use iMatch for all my cataloguing and referencing, but would like to be able to view my catalogue on my laptop in my workshop. I do not have a server network, just a Windows PC and a normal (domestic) router. An ethernet cable connects my office router to my workshop access point (in a separate building).

Is IMA for me, or just 'professionals' with greater technical knowledge?

(Full disclosure: I tried setting up a trial of IMA about a year ago. I could never get it to work.)

Or maybe there is a simpler way?

[Mario]

IMA is designed to be used in "internal" networks like your Wi-Fi at home or in a corporate network.
It's setup in minutes, requires minimal maintenance and is cheap.

To access IMA from outside your local network (aka the Internet) would require you to open a port on your firewall and to allow traffic through this port. And this would be a VERY BAD idea. Opening a port from a secure (local/corporate) network to the bad internet is how hackers get in, abuse your computers as mail SPAM relays, encrypt all your data and demand ransom.

In a corporate scenario experienced Admins would setup a "reverse proxy" that filters incoming traffic before it is routed to IMA. This ensures safety, especially when used in conjunction with a VPN.

For a normal person like us, hosting images on dedicated photo web sites where their staff has to take care for security is better.
Or you setup an account with one of the big DAM cloud vendors like CANTO,Widen, AssetBank, Bynder and whatnot and pay a subscription for hosting your photos in their cloud. Again, security is then their problem, not yours.

As so many incidents recently have shown, even big cloud vendors get hacked frequently. Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe and recently Dell...the internet has become a very dangerous place and normal people like us should stay safe and protected behind the firewalls in our local networks.

[pmcabinet]

Thanks for your comments Mario; It's precisely that scenario I'm looking for - just internal use with my Wi Fi. 

I'm really keen to try again, but I'm wondering if my earlier free trial will block a second attempt at downloading? I'm happy to pay for a licence but my previous failure suggests it would not be a good idea to jump straight in.

[Mario]

The trial expires after 30 days and you cannot reactivate it.
You can contact me via email and send me the information copied to the clipboard when you click the "Copy Service Info into the clipboard". I can then unblock your trial for another 30 days.

Getting IMA to run in a Wi-Fi usually takes only a few minutes. The defaults work out of the box in 95% of all cases.
Unless you have Apple devices, which don't support standard Windows name resolution and require the use of the IP address.
See IMA FAQ.