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What the exchange server is for

Media Exchange Server

An exchange server connects your own devices when they are on different networks. It gives all of them one account and one list of folders and broadcasts. Nothing is opened in a router on the devices’ side, because every device dials out to the server.

To run one, see Deploy your own exchange server. How it works, what it sees and what it keeps: Exchange server.

When you need it

Your provider gives you no public address (carrier NAT), so no forwarded port can work.
You are on a hotel Wi-Fi or a mobile network and want a folder from home.
You want one account for the phone, the tablet, the TV, the watch and the PC.
You want to give a relative or a friend a folder or a broadcast without opening your home network.

Everything you can do

Folders

Open the folders of a phone on another device. A phone shares a folder, and any other device of the account opens it from any network. See Folders through the exchange server.
Open the shared folders of a home PC from anywhere. A Windows PC publishes the folders it shares, and the phone opens them from mobile data with no port forwarded. See Windows servers.
Run a schedule over folders of other devices. A phone fetches every new photo of another one overnight, by copy or by move. See A schedule over folders of other devices.
Give a folder to a guest. The guest registers with an invitation of the kind Guest and sees only that folder. See People outside your account.
Give a folder to a person with no account. Send a link with a password and tell the password another way. See People outside your account.

Broadcasts

Go on air from a phone. Broadcast sound, the camera, the screen or a ready file. Listeners on the same Wi-Fi connect directly, and listeners on any other network connect through the server. See Going on air.
Go on air from a watch. The watch broadcasts its microphone to up to four listeners at once. See Going on air.
Open a broadcast of another of your devices. It is listed under Broadcasts of my devices and plays in Streams. See Receiving a broadcast.
Cast a broadcast to your own device. One device asks another to play it, and the receiving device asks before it plays. See Receiving a broadcast.
Give a broadcast to someone outside your account. The same two ways as for a folder: a guest or a link with a password. See People outside your account.

The watch

Put a watch on your account. The phone hands the watch a one-use code, and the watch then works on its own Wi-Fi or LTE. See The watch on your account.
Send files from the watch. Send to.. puts a recording or a picture into the folders of the account, with no phone involved. See The watch on your account.

The clipboard

Move what you copied to another device. Press Send the clipboard to the server on one device and Get the clipboard from the server on another. See Clipboard on the server.

Accounts and devices

Let relatives and friends use your server. You make an invitation for each person and choose its kind: own device or family, or guest. See Accounts, invitations and passwords.
Add a new device. Paste the connection string, scan its QR code or choose its file, then sign in. A pairing code replaces the password on a device where typing one is hard. See Adding your exchange server in My devices.
Cut off a lost or sold device. Change the password from another device and revoke the lost one. See A lost or sold device.
Leave an account. Sign out on one device, or delete the account and everything it holds on the server. See How to delete an account.

What the server is not for

It is not storage. Your files pass through a tunnel and never touch the server’s disk.
It cannot read what goes through it. Folders, broadcasts and the clipboard are encrypted on your device.
It is not a public service. Nobody runs a server for everybody: you run your own, or you join the one of a person you know.
It is not needed on one Wi-Fi network. Your devices connect to each other directly there.

Ways that need no server

Home network - a forwarded port and a public address or a dynamic DNS name.
Files and folders via Google Drive - between your own devices, with no server and no address.
Clouds - Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive as a shared box.
Windows servers - the Server edition shares a PC’s folders around the clock with no exchange server.

Back to the exchange server or to the portal start page.