Network Magic 4.0
by Avanquest
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List Price: Category: Software See more product details and other editions |
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Software Reviews of Network Magic 4.0
Customer Review: Unless they mean black magic...
Summary: 1 Stars
After switching routers with no increase in speed, I decided to try Network Magic in an attempt to increase in-network copy times. What a terrible mistake!
At least before NM, the network was working. I've been involved in computer networking for about 15 years, so it's not new to me. That said, once I added a Vista and a Suse Linux box to the mix, plus a Dlink 634 router, network copy times increased dramatically. In order to complicate things even more, I ensured that I was using no less than three different AV products, each with their own firewalls and quirks.
I could download from the internet at up to 800kbps - perhaps faster, but that's the fastest I had seen. But from machine to machine within my own network, I couldn't get above about 200. After trying everything, from disabling firewalls to the aforementioned router change, there was simply no increase in speed. That's when I made the mistake of adding NM.
Initially, I did get a bump in speed - for the first several minutes. Then, my dlink router decided to shut down. Not power off, just stop routing. Over and over. It had never done this before and hasn't since the removal of NM - but I'm getting ahead of myself. I bounced the router and continued. Now my Vista laptop on wireless began dropping the connection to the network. Again, new behavior. Copy speeds, which had peaked at around 500kbps, were now running at around 160. In an effort to clear up things, I shutdown every box in the network. Bringing them up slowly, according to NM's instructions, I got the network back up. For about five minutes.
I started the project at about 8am on a Saturday morning. By 2pm I was uninstalling. By 5pm, I had my network back. Network Magic is - at least for me - nothing but problems. From what I was able to determine, it seems to do no more than automate the sharing of items. It seems that all it does is automate network tasks using windows networking. If that's true, all is well and good - or should be. However, I did have the router and connection issues. So it seems that somewhere, somehow, NM introduces it's own problems.
Will it work for others? Don't know. Was my combination of OS's and AV products part of the problem? Not sure - but I did shutdown all the AV products to no positive effect. I even took the time to send NM a complete list of all my products and versions in an effort to give them a chance to diagnose the problems. They sent me an email thanking me for installing NM and asking if I wanted to buy it for a discounted price. WOW. Thanks.
All in all, I wasted an entire day installing a product which, in the end, created more problems than it solved. It offered zero in the way of increased functionality. If you take the time to learn this product, you can take the same time and learn windows networking - and get better results. Can't and wouldn't recommend it.
Customer Review: Doesn't play nice with Vista
Summary: 2 Stars
If you've got a wired all XP professional network, then it works fine, however don't add a vista laptop with a wireless connection to the mix it is just one big headache. Went back & forth with tech support and when I finally gave up and said that when I didn't use NM to manage the connection, everything went fine...their response was Great glad that things are working for you.Customer Review: Fixed my laptop wireless connection woes!
Summary: 4 Stars
XP Pro cabled network + Vista wireless laptop woes.
I recently bought a Toshiba Satellite laptop and thought it would be cool to actually use it with my home network. I broke out my wireless D-Link DI-624 router and was able to use my wireless laptop connection for oh...1/2 hour. And then I tried to secure the laptop connection and got lost in Vista-land (thanks Microsoft!). After some research online & investigating every setting on my laptop (eh - still didn't work) I finally wandered back to the D-Link site only to find that the DI-624 wireless router was no longer supported (ya think?). Out of desperation I finally broke down and stared at the Network Magic icon that reinstalling the D-Link cd had put on my desktop. A cautious initialization of the Network Magic software + booting up the laptop and BAM - the laptop is back online. Network Magic - I think I love you. 4 star rating due to incomplete exploration of features on my part & some lack of documentation with the demo of NM 4.1.
Note: I don't know if the DI-624 was rated for use with Vista but Network Magic took care of any little issues like that:)
Customer Review: Not exactly magic.
Summary: 3 Stars
This program installed easily and it looks nice, but the instructions get complicated. I still haven't figured out how to make it share files between computers. Customer Review: Fantastic software!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the easiest and best way to network your computers. After going through all the hassle of microsoft windows, I finally wised up and bought this. It's a must have for everyone who wants to network computers to share files. I love it!!