LogMeIn to Mac users: No Hamachi² for you!

I'm not a fan of setting up Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). In fact, I've had so many issues with VPNs in the past that I now subcontract that work to a fellow geek who seems to have a knack for understanding the various settings. That's why I have been following Hamachi with great interest for the past several years.

Hamachi is described in the Wikipedia as "a zero-configuration virtual private network (VPN) shareware application capable of establishing direct links between computers that are behind NAT firewalls without requiring reconfiguration (in most cases); in other words, it establishes a connection over the Internet that very closely emulates the connection that would exist if the computers were connected over a local area network."

LogMeIn, a commercial firm that produces both free and subscription services for controlling other machines, sent out an email to customers on Thursday touting Hamachi², their implementation of Hamachi. LogMeIn has been deeply involved in Hamachi development, so the announcement was expected. What I didn't expect to see was that they've left both Mac and Linux users out in the cold.

I quickly jotted off an email to LogMeIn and received this response: "Mac is not currently supported, we do plan on adding support for other platforms but do not have an ETA at this time." For quite a while, there was an open source project called "Hamachi X," but it's no longer supported. Another developer took on the task of creating a Mac OS X and Linux Hamachi client called Hamachi Sidekick, which is a GUI to a command-line Hamachi tool. Unfortunately, LogMeIn also pulled the Mac OS X command-line interface (CLI) version of Hamachi, so there's no way to even try the CLI tool or Hamachi Sidekick now.

LogMeIn may tout Hamachi² as "a VPN that just works," but for Mac users, it just doesn't work.