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November 6, 2005
Network Magic 2.0 good, but waiting for 3.0
For the last month I have been using Network Magic 2.0 from the Ignition Partners portfolio company Pure Networks. Today my trial expires and I have to decide to buy or not. It is with much regret (since I am investor in the company) that I am not buying this version but am going to wait for the next.
Here is a high level overview of my home LAN.
Cable modem with Comcast going into a
Linksys WRT54GX firewall/router
going into a DLINK gigabit router for the WIRED lan.
1 iMAC connected wireless on 802.11b
1 dual Pentium server with 4TB RAID connected gigabit wired Windows XPpro
1 HP desktop Pentium Windows Home gigabit wired
1 Dell laptop connected 802.11b
1 IBM x40 laptop connected 802.11g
1 MAC mini connected wired gigabit
I installed the Network Magic 2.0 trial on the ibm x40 laptop and the HP desktop.
Here is what I like about the software:
1. Home networking is a pain in the butt. I am the Sys Admin at home as many of you probably are. Network management was designed for sysadmins not humans. There is a HUGE need for software that makes it easier for humans to run small LANS at home. Network Magic 2.0 has made a good whack at this category and is the best I have found.
2. The automatic public sharing of files and folders through a Network Magic proxy server. Why pay for third party hosting for FTP or even web site when there is extra capacity on my home computers in both CPU, memory and bandwidth? Because my ISP changes the IP address all the time and resolving the DNS is a problem. This is all solved by Network Magic's proxy server fixing an IP address and routing it to my home computer even as the ISP monkey's with the IP address. Great feature.
3. Auto discovery of devices worked will on the MS portion of my LAN.
Here is what I don't like and why I am waiting for 3.0
1. The auto install did not recognize my firmware on the Linksys Wifi Router. I got a message "router not recognized". When I went to their site it said the router was supported and gave a firmware version 1.02.06. My router had version 1.01.10. I had to go to the Linksys page, download a firmware upgrade and intall it then re-run the Network Magic wizard. This time it recognized it. Strike #1, my mother won't do a firmware upgrade to use your product! The message was wrong as well. It should have said firmware version not supported and offered to upgrade it for me. I already gave the wizard my admin password for the router. I know this is more programming, but this is the level of integration that will get my mother to use it.
2. Network Magic found all my devices in MSHome domain but did not discover my MACs. I don't know why and I don't want to know why. Network management software that is supposed to mask technical problems for me is supposed to figure things out like how to see MACS on a Windows network. Strike #2, not finding the MACs.
3.. It is not abundantly clear how to make public on the network my shared folders. First the folders have to be shared in windows, Network Magic doesn't offer to share folders that are not already shared in window. Then for the folders that are shared it offers me to "convert" the folder. That is not a very comfortable word. Why convert? Will it now not be usable on Windows? "Convert" is a scary word. Find another one. So I "convert" My Docs on the HP desktop and go to the IBM X40 to do the same and receive a message "folder already exists". Now if you are targeting average home users, they are probably just letting Windows put things where the default is. This means more than one PC will have the same folder name that is to be shared. Network magic should recognize this and cover for it. If I rename the folder on one PC then Windows won't know where to put things, etc. Strike #3, sharing folders is hard.
4. Like many people my main computer is a laptop. Network MAgic 2.0 was obviously designed only for desktops that never leave the LAN they were set up on. When I took my IBM x40 to Boston on a business trip and connected it to the WIFI network in my hotel, Network MAgic gave me a message saying it was "protecting" my files since I was on an "unknown network". Now all my shared folders don't work. I know why they are doing this because they don't have management of the new WIFI hub. But this is not an elegant failure. They should maybe have some lower level of functionality that DOES work on public networks. Strike #4, inelegant failure on public Wifi networks for portable devices.
5. Node versus LAN management. Let me explain. Each copy of Network MAgic only manages the files and folders on that PC. I can't manage Network Magic folders on another PC. This is a problem. It means I have to go to each PC and manage the properties of NM on that PC. Hell, in Windows I can manage PCs using remote terminal. NM gives me a network view of all the resources but doesn't let me manage any but those on my own PC. Strike #5, single node management versus LAN resource managment.
There are a couple of other nits, but those are the big ones. I love the product category. The Pure Networks people are going in the right direction. I am confident that 3.0 will be the version that gets me to whip out my credit card. I am looking forward to it.
Posted by Martin at November 6, 2005 2:37 PM
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