Great product. But why is winxp ..the standard ? I am using win2k and so net2go has no value for me. So when is win2k added ? But, statement remains, great ! Did the config of my printershares and mapshares in 1 hour, ...and spent 6 hrs without NM and 0result, so ...:-)

Palm repair returned to me a different TX with a different MAC ID. No luck so far "adding a new device" following the usual menu option to do so. An alternate way would be to simply change the MAC ID listed in NM for the old PDA. No luck. I have logged on to other networks with my "new" TX, but just cannot do it at home. Clues to "resetting" NM to see my PDA?

I just embarked on my second evaluation of Network Magic, after having just upgraded my OS to Windows Vista. One observation is that Network Magic 4.1 does not recognize my router, or rather, its firmware, and so I am unable to access all features of Network Magic. I am running Alchemy firmware on my WRT54G. Any plans to extend full support to those of us running third party router firmware?

David Gilmour

=========================

This is a tough one, as there are no standards for accessing a router. We now handle over 1000 different router and firmware permutations and are constantly adding new ones. Unfortunately, third-party router software and open-source router firmware present unusual challenges to us as there is no way for our drivers to know what is different.

There are several ways to help this. If you are rolling your own firmware from some of the open source options, get our HNAP prototol implemented. We can provide you plenty of information on how to get this and how to put it into your firmware. The inclusion of HNAP provides us a standard way to deal with your router.

The secoud would be to get a very solid implementation of UPnP in your firmware. I suspect this is not easy, given that very few routers seem to do it well, or at all, but it is an option.

Outstanding job, Network Magic mades life in general more relaxing. Please keep up the good work. Recommendation if I my; Network Magic will be nice if it could permit me to access any of the PCs to provide support. Running updates for the family will be easier than going to each PC to update. If possible can you put this recommendation on the list and see what can be done without using another application like VNC.

Thank you for the awesome Network Magic.

Respectfully,

Ruben

I recently purchased NM at my local offic supply store & so far have been quite pleased with it. I've just updated it to V4.0 without difficulty.

The one problem I would like NM to solve is managing permissions for shared folders. I want to be able to change, modify or delete the contents of some shared folders on my other PC and vice versa. Instead of having to do this for every folder and subfolder via Windows XP - (which must be done from the PC on which the shared folder resides), I would like to use Network Magic to do it more quickly and easily from any PC on my network. I am still having trouble getting XP to apply changes to permissions, especially as it applies to subfolders within main shared folders.

Any thoughts on whether this is something NM could do?

thanks,
Dave

it is what i am looking for. Thanx

I'd appreciate a LAN chat built in too. I'm a medical transcriptionist who also homeschools 2 teens. Most of their school work is done via computer.

Before NM, we were running a utility for chat called Network Chat - after NM, Network Chat will work only in private message mode using IP addresses, which gets a little old.

We're networking 2 WinXP systems and 1 Win2K system. NM did a great job of getting everything to work.

======================

We have had requests like this in the past. We will make sure it is on our list of future features to consider.

Jeff Erwin

Hello,
...Great product!
I was wondering whether Network Magic could set my shared folders to be accessed only by certain computers (.. like setting permissions...).
Also, I would like Internet access only to select computers on my network. Can this be done through Network Magic, or do I have to manually disable internet properties for each computer. If so, will doing this have any effect on normal network activities?

=======================

These are all features that we are considering. Thanks for your feedback!

Jeff Erwin

Between dlink and network magic I've spent 6hours trying to get the wireless router installed and files shared. Now the shop is closed, the site doesn't read as instructed, there seems to be no "About Network Magic" under the Help menu. I can't even complete filling in forms without technical assistance.

Lord, I'm praying for the big EMP to put an end to all of this.

NetworkMagic is indeed really powerful. It did recognize my network structure (being an IT professional, it is not really a simple network).

However, it did not help to fix a printer sharing issue.
In short I have a printer attached to WinXP box, and a Win98box attaching to the printer share. This worked until I installed WinXP SP2. Suddenly the Win98 box is not able to attach to the WinXP shares.

NM can still find everything, and even confirms that the printer is shared on the WinXP. However when trying to attach the printer from Win98, NM actually tells something about 'failed printer installation'. One of the detailed comments refers to firewall issues, but the WinXP is configured without a FW (I know this is not good, but let's first get things working...)

So, in terms of improvement: if NM could also verify access rights, connection rights and such because I suspect the problem is in there somewhere. I have read something about problems with accounts without a password.

I've been meaning to comment for some time now, so here it goes. I purchased network magic back when it was 2.something. Its been the best piece of software I bought. I've had some config. issues here and there, but FAQ, internet and phone support have been better than any produt arround!! Using this product has even taught me alot about networking. I use a d-link DLG4300, which is not fully supported. The walkthrough on how to edit the config file to use Net2Go worked perfectly. I actually made a shortcut to the file to my quick launch for easyier access. Other than not being able to hide my ssid, and having to configure UPNP and Net2Go manually, this product is exceptional, and should be on evry computer. In the future I hope you will support my router. Thanks for the AWESOME cust. serv., we consumers don't get much of that these days. The fact that phone support actually new the product, and could teach you something is a godsent. THANK YOU! xxBrianxx

Hi

Just bought NM.
Impossible to set up with Sygate Personal Firewall. Keep telling me that I have no connection with internet. Any suggestions ??

I'd still like to see a chat across LAN feature where i could double click on a computer on Network Magic and have a chat pop up to send messages across the house.

I've been programming computers for years (albeit mainframes and minis rather than PCs). I'm pretty good with technology but never did get my home PCs to work as a proper network. Maybe I should have tried harder. The point is though, that 30 minutes after downloading Network Magic my laptop was printing via wifi to my printer and all the PCs were able to see files on all of the other PCs.

I like the interface. It's just totally intuitive . . .

. . . except for Net2Go. My router is a BT Home Hub. In the UK these things will be in millions of households as they are supplied by the biggest telecoms provider. Network Magic did not recognise the BT Home Hub. It would have been nice to have been taken immediately to a manual configuration tutorial. I have found some info on this site today and I'll try that later. That's my only gripe - couldn't be 100% positive !

============================

Steve,

Thanks for the great comments! We are definitely looking at Net2Go and exploring ways to make this whole process easier.

Jeff Erwin

A couple of things:

I bought a D-Link router 6 months ago and with it came a demo of Network Magic. Based on the claims in the demo, I purchased version 3.xxxx with 5 licenses for my home office in Key West Florida. The idea being that I would use 4 of those licenses there (all Windows XP devices) and one at my place in Vancouver, Canada so that I could easily trade files between my 2 home offices (I'm in the TV/Video business freelance). My wife works mainly in Key West and the idea was to give her a simple grapical interface to move files around as needed as she hates technology and is a confirmed "drag and drop" person.

After much frustration, I have completely removed Network Magic from all systems in Key West as it reduced my network speed by 90% and actually resulted in a system failure (blue screen ) which required a complete rebuild.

I was pretty ticked at the time since I didn't realize that version 3.xx was essentially Beta-ware (and regardless of claims by the marketing department to the contrary - it simply did NOT do what it claimed to do and by my definition that is beta-ware).

Since then I have downloaded version 4 to my computer in Vancouver(though it doesn't seem to recognize the fact that I own a 3.x license and is telling me it's only good for 30 days - a very minor issue that is not bothering me).

My current problem is that I use an Apple Airport as my router and Network Magic doesn't like that. I am not trying to network anything at this location, I just want to be able to share files from this XP machine with the XP network in Key West. I am loathe to try Network Magic again in Key West due to the previous problems, however, since version 3.xx wouldn't even load in Vancouver (as it couldn't find a compatible router) and version 4 does load and even sees the Mac editing station that happened to be connected to the router (it's not usually networked - I was transferring some files) I am hopeful that this is a better product and will in fact work as advertised.

So - kudos for acknowledging the 3.xx problems and making some effective reparations to frustrated users such as myself - this is as welcome as it is unusual and keeps me on board. I am hopeful that version 4.x will address most of the issues that made 3.xx such a pain and that I will be installing it when I get back to Key West.

My only remaining issue is how to I log on to that network through Net2Go using my Apple airport as a router (given that I'm not actually trying to network any Apple computers, just access Net2Go.

I will leave that to your tech support folks to solve (or not) through a separate e-mail.

I just installed NetworkMagic (yesterday) to connect my daughter's laptop to my desktop so she could use my printer. It worked great. I have tried for a couple of years, off and on, to connect our household PC's (3 desktop's, 3 laptops), 8 port router, with no success. I have read everything I could find about networking and could NEVER get anything to work. I'm no dumbie....I built my last 2 PC's and my son's. THIS works!
But.....how do I access a program across my network? Can I access a scanner? I'm not much concerned with file sharing or is that the same thing?
Thanks for a so far great program and for any suggestions you may have.

===========================

Unfortunately you can't necessarily access any device across the network like you can a printer or folder full of files. It is possible to share a CD drive in some cases, but Windows doesn't really support sharing things like scanners. Meny times the applications that use those devices do not have support for remote access either.

Jeff Erwin

I have installed a VOIP telephone (Vonage) and I am stuck with their Router (DLinkVWR). But Vonage is doing the service on it and DLink doesn't offer this router to the general public so no software updates and difficulty with my network. Ninety % of my network problems are with the router! I can hook up my two computers (desktop and laptop) and run them together w/o much trouble as long as they are both operating off the ethernet wires. If I put the laptop on wireless (which I really want to do) then they cannot communicate. They are shown as connected to the network but "inactive" and will not share folders or the printer. Somewhere in the router, I believe, there must be a firewall separating the ethernet and the wireless network and I haven't been able to find it. I have not been able to activate Net2Go either, because of the router. Still I use it all the time (NWM) because the functions that it performs are outstanding! It will automatically repair my network when I lose a connection when nothing else will - including the MS software that comes with the OPSYS (WinXP). Great product and sorely needed!!

========================

What?? You mean you aren't a trained IT professional? How can you possibly expect your simple home network to work if you don't have the years of training? ;>)

This, I am afraid, is what we have to look forward to as more and more complex devices are plugged into the home LAN. You can't solve the problem, and the vendors involved point fingers.

I would be curious about what the Network Magic 4.0 map looks like. My suspicion, raised because I had a Vonage phone for a while, is that the Vonage router has segmented your network into two IP segments and is actually routing between them. What this means is that anything you plug into one segment cannot be seen on the other. This is what VOIP did to my home network and it took me three days to sort it out.

I would go back to Vonage support and see if this assumption is true. If it is, there are ways to fix it, and they may be the only ones that know how.

Let me know.

Jeff Erwin

Hi Jeff,
Thank you for the wonderful product. The only problem I have so far is that the new version (3.xx) on Window 98 Se will not allow folder sharing (not working). Only old version is OK.
Hope to see new version can work on MAC OS.
Thanks.

=======================

Chang,

As of last week, the new version is Network Magic 4.0!

Your issue sounds like a firewall issue. The new 4.0 version can detect firewall issues and work with you to resolve them. Give it a try!

Jeff Erwin

Hi, Jeff. Really appreciate the personal touch you are providing.

I would like NM to be able to unplug and replug ("Reset") my router/AP when a client (this or that PC on the network) gets cut off.

Obviously, the solution to a dropped signal is to unplug/reset the router/AP.

So can this "failure" be detected at the router/AP and a reset be generated automatically?

Or is that all internal to the router/AP and beyond the reach of NM? If so, is this another one of those "the HW is so cheap" problems? ;-)

~Ike in Virginia

========================

For some reason, the router vendors, for the most part, do not include an on/off switch (perhaps for cost reasons) on their consumer routers, and powering the router down and back on is the primary method for clearing issues with the device. Go figure.

When there is a programatic way for us to reset the router we do so, but with the huge number of device our there, the power cycle is the default method for clearing problems.

We are working with the largest consumer router vendors in the world to solve these types of situations. This will eventually get better.

Jeff Erwin

Hi Jeff,

I cannot find a category for suggestions so thought I would post here. I cannothelp but think that if you are working on an OS X version of NM perhaps a Linux version could also be a possibility? I run all 3 main OSes, Windows, OS X and Suse Linux 10, it woul d be amazing to be able to "NM" in all three and I would be happy to pay handsomely for the privelege !!

========================

The Mac version is on its way and we will hopefully have it in beta by the end of the year.

As for Linux, the one thing we are looking at is the fact that a lot of DVR's and Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices are running Linux. Hmmm. Perhaps an opportunity...

Jeff Erwin

Hi Jon,
I only have one issue. I consider myself and expert in the IT field. I had to use network magic to make it quicker setting up so many computers in my home (over 6). All the computer except my favorite ones Win 98 and a Linux box are running Win XP SP2 with updates. I would open network magic and see a newer version is available. Go to that computer and select check for updates yet NM responds with no updates available. I would have to download and install NM all over in order for the update to work. This has been done countless times. Why is this necessary? I really like the product and promote it for families like mine who have children needing resources on other computers. My kids set up network magic themselves because I am not always around to help out networking using just the Windows features.
Mi

======================

It sounds like you may have downloaded the 4.0 preview version, or possibly the beta. Give our support team a call and see if they can make it all work for you.

Jeff Erwin

Jeff,

I believe I fit your target audience pretty well - I know little about networks nothing about setting them up. The proof of this was that I had tried to set up a home network and had failed to get it working - finally I just gave up on it, it was not a "necessity" but would have been a nice thing to have, making life easier for the users. After finding and downloading Network Magic 3.0 I was able to get the network going, we are now sharing three printers and files between three computers. Thanks a million for a great product - you can expect me to order the full product before the 30 day trial ends!

When I get a little more experience using the 3.0 version I will then try 4.0. I am hopeful I do not run into any issues, as seen in the blogs, that take away my enthusiasm for the product!

Thanks again,

Jon

===================

Jon,

Thanks for the great feedback. I assure you, 4.0 is a much richer and capable product and I would encourage you to upgrade as soon as you are ready.

We have already had many thousands of customers upgrade (since Friday!). The feedback is amazingly positive.

Jeff Erwin

An installable product would nice, for a start.

Just downloaded 4.0 in the hopes it would resolve some of my currrent problems.

It located the previous install, upgraded, and now cheeerfuly reports that I am no longer connected to my home network (which of course I am), that I don't own a licensed copy, and that it's having a snit and can't start in any case, yadda, yadda, yadda.

The good news, I guess, is that Ver 5 will include a a corn-husking attachmnent.

The bad news, I suspect, is that in probably won't work with my router beacuse home Networking is - you know - HARD.

===========================

Michael,

Home networking is a frustrating issue, for many of the reasons I have stated in other posts and blogs.

In this case, depending on which version you were upgrading from, what the existing problems on your network are that you refered to and why your license code isn't being picked up, the problem could be one or several.

Please give our customer support team a crack at this. They can get your license code for you, and are excellent at figuring out these kinds of issues.

As far as the corn-husking attachment, I am afraid it will have to wait, our research shows a much larger demand for the apple-coring function. ;>)

Jeff Erwin

When I first bought Network Magic at the beginning of this year, I was pleased with the way it worked. Then I purchased a new Wireless router a D-link DI624M. Things still worked pretty well then I updated Network Magic and started to have lots of problems. Now I have upgraded to Version 4.0. It is a slick interface but my router is now not working with net2go. Everytime I have anything to do with DLink they are pushing your product. One question. Why doesn't my router work?

=======================

Tom,

Without knowing more about your network, these are impossible questions to answer. Can you give our support team a crack at this? Give them a call, or email, and they will figure this out for you.

Jeff Erwin

I am disappointed in my use of Network Magic. It is very user-friendly in appearance, but it does not seem to cope with my home network in a realistic way. For example, it shows each computer on the system twice with at least one of the icons "inactive". Another baffling characteristic is that it often shows computers that are on, and in active use on the network as "inactive". In short, it is in variance with reality! Windows Network Neighborhood, klutzy as it is, is better as showing what is really going on & facilitating network use.

My network is a little on the complex side, it has 4 computers in hard-wired network with a wireless access point that serves a sixth (laptop). 3 of the computers use WinXP, 1 uses WinME & 1 uses either Win98SE or WinXP (dual-boot). Cute as your program is, I am at the point of having to un-install it because I can't do with it all the functions that I can with Network Neighborhood.

Bob

===========================

Bob,

Thanks for your feedback. Your network somehow must fall into that category that I suspect will always exist due to the chaotic nature of the home networking market.

You don't mention which version of Network Magic you are using. Give our JUST RELEASED TODAY version 4.0 a try. We have spent a ton of effort working to improve our ability to deal with the chaos. WHile I can't promise it will work in every environment, I do know it works in a much larger field of unknown configurations.

In addition, you are using several versions of Windows that are no longer supported by anyone, which is going to continue to cause problems for you as the world moves on. I do understand the issues behind wanting to continue to use old hardware, and a certain amount of 'not giving Microsoft the satisfaction...' reactions, but when you find that trying to get new stuff to work on the very old versions is taking a lot of your valuable time, it might be more economical to just upgrade. Your time has value.

Jeff Erwin

I really love the product. It solved a problem that I spent hours on the phone playing phone tag between my ISP and Belkin. (the maker of my USB wireless adapter) Anyway, one thing that really bugs me is the fact that I simply cannot seem to get a easy to setup firewall to work on my network. ZoneAlarm worked great on my old dial-up connection, but once I went wireless, it blocked my connection no matter what. So did Sygate. Also finding a easy to use, free firewall is hard when your using Windows 98, since most everything is now for XP. What I would like is a firewall that was designed for wireless users, with an easy, point and click interface, that would find my settings for me so I could just "set it and forget it." That would be much better than what I'm doing now, running with no firewall whatsoever

========================

I feel your pain regarding firewalls. The firewall on the typical PC is hard to deal with. We find that the majority of our support calls have to do with firewall configuration so our Network Magic features work.

The firewall concept is a great one, and if configured correctly they do a great job. There are several issues that cause issues: Many applications need to get out to the internet through open 'ports', which requires configuring your firewall to open those ports. This is hard to do. The second issue is that there are so many different firewalls, and there are no standards regarding using them. We see many customers with more than one firewall installed. They open a port in one, and the second one blocks access.

This seems to be caused by the fact that there are so many sources of firewall technology these days, it is easy to accidently install one over one you might already have.

Of course, we would love to be able to automatically configure your firewalls for you, but since they are 'firewalls', this is not possible. If we could do it, so could the bad guys.

We are adding technology in each release to get smarter about firewalls, and how we can help the less-technical customer delete duplicates and actually configure them correctly. We are also getting a lot better at identifying when the firewall is causing the problem, and helping you fix it.

If life was perfect, we wouldn't need them.

Jeff Erwin

I am trying out NM 3.0 after purchasing D-link WBR2310. After considerable efforts things seem to be running fairly smoothly, except one thing.

At least once or twice a day, the downstairs computer with wireless USB adapter can see the network but can get a network address. The only thing that will work is powering off the router (pulling out the plug) and powering it back up again. Usually within 5-10 minutes everything is connected again including the computer with the wireless adapter.

I understand this is not an uncommon problem with wireless networks. Is there anything NM can do to assist this scenario? Even if there had been a "tip" suggesting this power cycling solution to me, it would have saved time and much trial and error.

============================

I believe the problem you are seeing falls into two camps. First, wireless in the 802.11 range is very vulnerable to external influences such as microwave ovens, house plants, cordless phones and any other device that either shares the public spectrum or absorbs it. Plants and people are full of water, which absorbs the 2.4Ghz spectrum. This is what makes microwave ovens work.

The other is the equipment itself. Because home networking equipment is at the lower end of the price range, it is tough for manufacturers to provide the same robustness that the higher-end equipment used in the enterprise markets enjoy.

This combination of factors makes diagnosing a wireless issue hard. You might see if the time that the computer is knocked off coincides with microwave oven usage, cordless phone usage, baby monitors or anything else that might want to share the spectrum.

Jeff Erwin

I am fairly impressed with your product, it has helped me a great deal.

1) I'm concerned about system resources the NM takes up. In the Task Manager why are there multipal instances of rotatelogs.exe running along with 2 or 3 nmraapache.exe programs running. What are they for ?
2) Why are various folders restricted from file shareing access? Such as program files and other system propritary folders?

Thanks

Don

============================

It sounds like you invoked Net2Go, which explains some of what you are seeing. You should call our support team, they are the best people to figure this out.

jbe

I was disappointed that your product would not map my entire home network.
I have a WRT54GS as a first router and its WAN connected to the internet.
I have a second WRT54G downstairs but this one has been set as an Access Point by using DD-WRT firmware. It was not even seen.

It seems to me that I can map the standard network without too much help. I need your product to help me when things are wierd... to help me make sense of it.

Thanx for listening.

Jim

==========================

Jim,

Thanks for taking the time to give us your feedback.

Discovery of all of the 'stuff' on your home network is something we are focusing a lot of resources on as we move forward. The task is made more difficult by the fact that there are no standards for discovery that are supported by the manufacturers. The primary issue, as I have mentioned, is cost. The home market simply cannot support the costs of faster processors and more memory that standards like SNMP require. The net result is equipment that is hard to discover and manage in a standard way.

Pure Networks has a discovery and manage protocol we call HNAP that we offer to the equipment manufacturers for free. It is a very small and lightweight protocol that gives us the ability to do SNMP-like things without the overhead. We have a number of very significant manufacturers that have embraced HNAP and many more in the pipeline. This makes the task easier.

In the case of your wireless access point, the problem is that an access point by itself is really a bridge, which is a device that doesn't really occupy a space on the network in the way a router or PC does. A bridge tends to be transparent, it does not have an IP address so it won't respond to any external stimulus.

It isn't impossible to discover, just takes a little more time to get right. We will get better at this in future releases.

Jeff Erwin

Network Magic does a great job helping me visualize my home network. The Network Map view is great and I really like the ability from one PC to be able to see what's going on other network devices in my network.

While I always have Network Magic running, I don't interact with it on a daily basis. I would like to see Network Magic take on a more task orientation, helping me get more out of my home network. For example, Network Magic allows me to share folders, why can't it also help me manage my music collection by configuring my Windows Media Player. I could have playlists which pointed to a shared music location that worked on any PC. How about caching my shared music on my laptop so I can take it on the road? How about a remote control for Windows Media accessible from Network Magic? I could skip a song playing on my home theater PC from the PC in my office.

Another task I do often is upload digital photos. I'd like to see Network Magic help me publish photos from connecting the camera or media card to hosting them in Net2Go.

Network Magic is a great program. I'm very excited to see what comes next. Thanks for listening.

==================

All great thoughts! Thanks.

Jeff Erwin

I am working with Version 4 Beta and after installing it and sharing folders on the Web, I found that I had made some of the folders "Public". I tried to fix that with my laptop but found that I could not change the folders from Public to Private. After some searching, I was able to change the folders to Private from my desktop computer. Apparently, I needed to do that with the machine which was used to setup the Web folders. I suggest that it be made more difficult or at least make it a default that folders set for Web sharing first go in as Private. It appears that for me, my folders defaulted to Public. It took me about 20 minutes to correct the situation, possibly due to my panic condition.

===========================

Well, you think THAT was fun, wait til you see Vista... ;>) (it is WAY harder to share with Vista, not easier)

What isn't apparent to me from your comments is whether you were using Network magic to do this or using the Windows interface. If you were trying to correct something you did in Network magic through the Windows interface, that might have caused your difficulty.

Perhaps you could clarify?

Jeff Erwin

What is the most frustrating thing about my home network Jeff?
It's connected to the internet, a necessary evil, as it were. By that I mean the 'necessary' HUGE footprint that 'security' has, 'stomping' on the overall system's efficiency/effectiveness.

Jeff, if you were to solve ONE thing perfectly, what would it be?
NM would have the ability to 'handshake' with the above mentioned 'security stuff' that we "need" for the internet. Hopefully, that would negate the need to 'manually' check and tweak that 'stuff' until we have a smoothly functioning network. Hope that makes sense.
My highest regards to your team. This 'network stuff' is VERY complicated. Glad that someone has grabbed the horns. Bye for now.

============================

We are working at getting better and better about how we interact with and understand the 'other' security (firewall, anti-virus, ad-ware etc) technologies that you have to have these days.

Jeff Erwin

I recently bought and setup a home network using D-link wireless products. Network Magic made the process painless for this networking newbie.

However, when I visit my parents, I end up doing network administration tasks there too. Network Magic is great for that work, but I have to switch to make my parents' network my home network. It would be great if I could have more than one "home network."

If I take my laptop to work, that's a third "home network."

Some way to separate which networks are safe for me to share folders and even administrate from those networks at the local pizza shop would really help.

=========================

Laptops and network hopping are a problem we are working on here at Pure Networks. It is actually a lot more complex than you might think at first blush, which is why it is taking us a little time to solve it.

To us, solving it means making it amazingly easy to deal with. The easier we make it for you, the more complex the underlying code has to be.

Jeff Erwin

Jeff,

I actually have something that -bugs- me about Network Magic, something that I -wish- about NM, and finally something I -suggest- for NM, (taking into consideration I have used NM V3 for about a month, and V4 for a week or so now).

1. What -bugs- me is that my main computer is a laptop that I am constantly moving from my home network to my small office network, and finally to second home network in another location. For some reason, for each of these networks, I have picked a wireless router that is not fully supported by Pure. Fortunately, most of the functionality works, so its still worth having, but I really would like more routers to be supported.

2. I -wish- that Network Magic could deal with mobile PCs and PDA's including the ability to know and understand more that one network that they might communicate with. Don't get me wrong, NM does seem to retain the data from each network, so its not difficult to switch to the other network when you've moved, its just that I would like it to know which network is which automatically, and more importantly be able to automatically setup file, print and Net2Go sharing between these networks.

3. It seems to me that Pure has righlty decide to place its product on the home networking marketplace and not move into the commercial business space. This is a good way to focus on your clients and give the best product possible. It's just that I am already using this product for a small organization that has a peer-to-peer network, and there doesn't seem to be support for small businesss network devices/routers from such manufacturers as Linksys (WRV200), NetGear and others. I would love to use the same tools to manage the VoIP, VPN and VLAN aspects of Small Businesses that I provide consulting services for, I would love to have NM as a product offering I can offer my small business clients (like I am recommending to some of my home user clients). This would include larger numbers of user licenses and/or site licenses than you are currently supporting. The problem is that small business cannot afford cost or complexity of other network management tools that larger busisness use.

There are probably more things that I sould complain, wish or suggest for, but these are the important ones.

I believe that Pure has a world call product, and I can wait to see where they go next. Since you have now taken the helm, I hope that I may get lucky and see some of what I desire and need.

Best Regards, Kyle

p.s. Have you guys considered using SNMP in some cases for routers that would not mormally be supported otherwise?

=======================

Great suggestions! Thanks.

The one thing I would address directly is the small business market. We are very intereted in this space, and your suggestions are spot on with some of our thinking.

Jeff Erwin

Hi Jeff and The team!
I am one the 5%... or 95%... I bought Network magic about a year ago and a few months later I deinstall it. Way too much problems, strange errors, crashed system... even with fresh install, version 3 is better, now I'm testing ver.4. So far no problem, and I like that.
And on the other hand... great idea, nice GUI, almost user friendly...:-), but implementation... really not so good. But I understand...:-)
I believe you can make it better... much better! And I really like the product.
My wish list... or should I say Needful things... SECURITY, SECURITY, SECURITY... some real privacy protection, shared drives and not only folders for each category of users / access rights, reports... defined by network administrator. There is always one responsible for all problems, and usually he/she don't sleep much!
Different category for each user, accessibility rights, policies... and save as... profile, for even easier implementation with other users.
Absolutely needed... some real bandwith managment, different rules /save as profile/ per user, per IP, per application, with real reports, with timeline, some graphs, not kids stuff like Speedmeter..., this was a joke, right?. Check Cymphonix for some great ideas... but I agree, they are expensive!
User defined map - graphic layer /administrator rights/ for the network, and perhaps user defined icons with picture of each user... people like fun stuff!
When installed on a PC, this PC is not accessible from other computers /without Network magic installed/ on the network.
And really annoying... why automatic folder and printer sharing...please make it optional, make it secure. Imagine 8 users with 2-5 printers and 3 folders per user. I really don't want them all, just some of them...
And as far as I know, users always press YES to default printer... so basically you print your sensitive data on some other guys printer who knows where...
Now ideas... but this will cost you...:-) I would be really happy with a small private internal network messenger, like NetNotes for each group or individual user... people like to talk, they even like to see each other. OK, not always... And yes, you can use my name for it... NetNotes...:-)
You can even expand your WLAN security options with a message to potential intruder... like "You are connecting to a private network... we don't want you, please get lost..." or something like this, and they are watching... you know!
But then you'll need a firewall option /at least a very basic one with allowed IPs, applications.../ with possibility to isolate the intruder, but that's another story.
Double WAN connection, with load managment, multi AP's control, with separate local NETWORK map per AP.
One more... we all know users usually don't change default access name and password on the router or AP... Why is this option with all info about hardware with brand, type, IP, system info, etc. available to anyone...? I don't get it.
It's very easy to break the network security, if there are doors open to everyone, not just the administrator, and with exact information about the hardware, someone could shut down the network in about 45 seconds.
And finally, make a bigger version available for 25 user, or so... with a big PRO title on it, and a "hefty" price tag...:-) I'll buy a working version immediately. And with your new price policy, even easier. Thank you for your efforts.
If you really need more fresh ideas, please let me know, I'll do my best to help you, because I know I'll be happy to sleep more.
Best regards from The Sunny side of the Alps.
Dusan Levstek

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Wow, that's quite a list! Thanks for taking the time!

That said, I have to admit this doesn't sound like a 'home' network, which is what Network Magic was designed to help with.

We are looking at the small business markets, and a lot of the features and suggestions seem to fall firmly into that area. We are taking your suggestions seriously for this space.

Keep them coming!

Jeff Erwin

I'd like to get help keeping up the connection to my HP 7210 All-in-One. It has an Ethernet connection, but because my Linksys router uses DHCP for internal network addresses, the IP address for the printer changes every day and printing fails.

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While the whole subject of DHCP is beyond this blog, there should be a way to set your router's DHCP function to issue addresses with a much longer expiration date. In some cases you can set the function so the issued addresses do not expire.

Even when they do expire and are reissued, it surprises me that any of then would change. Typically in a small home network devices end up with the same address each time.

Jeff Erwin

My biggest complaint is,after getting a LAN to run "OK", troubleshooting when things go wrong. Such as frequent dropped connections on a wireless notebook.

How do I find, and prove to the vendor, which part of the network is causing the problem?

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You have hit upon the most difficult aspect of home networking, and the primary reason for Network Magic's very existence!

In the commercial enterprise networking space, billions of dollars have been spent to make networking equipment interoperate reliably, to make the equipment managable and to train IT professionals in the art of networking.

This is why an enterprise scale router will cost you many thousands of dollars.

In the home market, we have a very different set of circumstances at play. First, nobody is going to spend thousands of dollars on a home router. (Well, I do know one guy...) To be commercially viable in the home networking space, the pain point seems to be somewhere between $50 and $100. This price point dictates how much a networking hardware manufacturer can invest in a piece of equipment and still make a profit.

The result is that home networking equipment isn't as robust (although it also doesn't have to deal with the masive traffic an enterprise router does) and isn't quite as managable.

Lastly, you aren't likely to run out and spend a few thousand dollars on IT training so you can have a home network.

The result is a more fragile networking environment in your home, and a much less technical 'staff' to keep it running.

Your home network consists of a number of moving parts. You likely have a cable or DSL modem, a router of some sort, a wireless transmitter that may or may not be a part of your router, and a bunch of computers and computer-like things attached to the network both wired and wireless.

Getting it to work right is hard when you have the right training. When you do something more fun for a living, it can be a nightmare, especially when something goes wrong.

Your network is only as solid as its weakest link. In the home, this is probably the wireless portion. Science-wise, this is also the most complex. I am not going to get into a wireless tutorial right now (maybe in future blogs) but you need to know that almost everything you do in your home, from talking on a wireless telephone to cooking something in your microwave to just walking around the house affects your wireless connection. It isn't necessarily your equipment. It is the laws of physics.

When your internet connection seems slow, the problem can be anywhere from your wireless connection to your router to your ISP to a router in Cleveland. Pinpointing this is nasty business.

Network Magic 4.0 launches a huge effort on our part to isolate the weakest link in your network and help you isolate the issue. While it is certainly not a complete work (which will take a few more releases), we can tell you if your ISP is slow or if a part of your home connectivity is the culprit.

With each future release, we will get smarter and smarter about isolating and proving that a specific part of your overall LAN/WAN empire is causing your performance problems, and we will be able to suggest specific actions you can take to solve the issue.

I know this isn't the best answer, but we are working hard to solve a very tough problem for you and not require that you know what IP subnet masks and bi-directional ports are.

Give our 4.0 preview a try and give me your feedback.

Jeff Erwin

This may fall in the category of "I wish NM would solve all my problems and do the laundry too". I once used NM to share printers and folders between my desktop and laptops, but after crashing the desktop I now have purchased a networked printer. I primarily use NM now to keep tabs on the status of my network, but not sharing folders or priners. When I take my laptop out to public hotspots, I've noticed that NM says it is protecting my folders, but after a minute it will go back to normal state, acting like it is at home--this typically happens on hotspots I have previously connected to. Anyway, that not necessarily being the issue here, I am curious if NM plans to offer a secure public wifi solution such as VPN like some other companies offer? Would be nice to have NM be my all-in-one solution rather than a hodgepodge of different software eating up vaulable resources. I understand that would require some investments on your end, but I'd be willing to pay (a fair price) for the added capability.

Bryce

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It sounds like you may have had a NM 3.0 experience. You owe it to yourself to download the 4.0 preview (available now!) and give us another look. You will find the product is vastly improved in a number of ways.

We have several initiatives underway here to improve the 'laptop lockdown' that needs to occur when you leave the home. We don't want your shares exposed at the local coffee house. We are also working on our net2go technology to improve your ability to get to your shares from anywhere.

The issue with VPN is the huge performance hit you have to take when using it.

When washing machines have a standard management interface and are discoverable on the home network, Network Magic will indeed do your laundry! (grin)

Jeff Erwin

What really annoys me is that there is no way of password protecting shared folders - There are folders on my network that I want my partner to be able to access but NOT the children.

Regards Richard

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An excellent idea! Security on an account by account basis might be possible with Windows, but it certainly isn't for the faint-of-heart. It's hard!

Jeff Erwin

Hi great product.My gripe not being able to see shared network drives, only folders. My daughters pc has no cd rom drive and I used to install software to her pc from a shared cd drive, so whats the story when will this be part of your software. i believe it is critical.Thanks from ireland.

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Regarding a shared CD over the network, sometimes the actual install software will not run in this fashion. I have seen situations where it works, and other situations where it doesn't, and the difference seems to be what is being installed.

I think it has to do with the way a shared CD drive is represented in the operating system and what the install software is willing to deal with. Some of the 'copy protection' techniques still being used will only allow install in a limited range of environments.

Jeff Erwin

hi - i am one the 5%...i bought network magic a year ago (hmm...maybe more...anyway..) - and a couple of months later i (very reluctantly) "packed" it away.
I may be speaking about a product that has moved on, but certainly at the time my correspondence with you folks indicated that was the state of play for the forseeable future.
OK - here's the thing....
It drove me crazy that NM sat there and prattled away non-stop on the network. it was just too intrusive and hungry of bandwidth on my home network! It's quite disconcerting to see the router, switches etc flashing their lights non-stop when NM is active - with no way of limiting or shutting it up other than to end the service, etc. With the then limit of - I think it was - 5 participating hosts, it just wound up being that most frustrating of products - a really wonderful idea - a really awkward and cumbersome implementation. I just happened to stumble on your blog and it awakened all that dormant frustration because I find it amazing that there are no other comparable products for a home network - none that do as well anyway.... so...sigh...have you guys improved this thing at all?

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Thanks for asking! What you are referring to is the method by which Network Magic equipped computers communicate with each other. We have a proprietary protocol that allows every computer in the home to communicate status to all other computers in the home.

In the past, this protocol tended to be a bit 'chatty', erring on the side of overcommunicating.

In the 4.0 release, we have dramatically reduced the amount of chatter that takes place.

I would caution you about reading to much into the blinking lights on your network equipment. The lights blink if a single packet is placed on the wire. Windows computers are constantly communicating with each other, and you likely have other applications that are chatting. The fact that the lights are blinking is not any sort of indicator as to the amount of traffic, the type of traffic or any other issue, they just blink because something is on the network.

Jeff Erwin

The one thing I'd like Network Magic to solve for me is to find out why my Internet bandwidth isn't available.

Sometimes, streaming video doesn't work. When this happens, we have to run all over the place trying to pin down the cause, which ranges from crashed modem to incoming connections to bad WiFi signal to another PC downloading stuff.

If Network Magic could let me figure out what's using up my Internet bandwidth, and whether that bandwidth is even available, I would save a lot of time and frustration.

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This is a very high priority item with us. Once we have solved your router configuration issues and locked your network down, this typically becomes important to you.

We wanrt to be able to identify which computers on your home network are using the most bandwidth during the day (or late at night, in the case of your child's Xbox...) and keep you appraised as to the overall health of your home network and your internet connection.

You also mentioned streaming video. Are you trying to do this over wireless? I would be interested in hearing about your experiences with this.

Jeff Erwin

Are you testing on Windows Vista, and what release(s) of your product will run on Windows Vista?

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Windows Vista! We certainly get a lot of questions about Vista, given its pending release in January (ish).

Questions seem to come from two camps. People that have only seen the marketing claims about Vista usually start with comments like "Vista will do everything you do. It even has a map! You are going out of business."

The comments from people who have used the RC1 and RC2 versiona of Vista phrase their questions more like "WHEN WILL NETWORK MAGIC WORK ON VISTA?????"

Notice the difference?

To be blunt, Vista was created with the Profesional Enterprise IT manager in mind. For them, Vista may be a dream come true, as it allows them complete control to lock the user desktop down, set user mode rights, control the private/public access rights of the networking software and generally secure the enterprise to the point where nobody will get anything done. But they will be secure.

They then took this version and dumbed it down a bit for the home market.

Sharing a folder just got a little bit trickier, to say the least.

Lest you think I am being overly harsh, let's hear from those who have actually used RC1 or RC2 and successfully shared a folder or printer so an XP machine could access it. I want to see how others feel about the experience.

We have been doing a TON of testing with Vista.

Rest assured, when Vista ships to the consumer market in January (ish) 2007, we will have a version that performs all of the great magic our current version does on XP. Sharing a folder or printer will be the same simple and mindless process it is today using Network Magic.

And this will make you happy.

Jeff Erwin

Hello
Responding to your blog post about feedback, I would like to see a lighter application. I don't mean less functionality, but that it should take fewer resources when running. It greatly slows boot time and the two services/programs that remain memory-resident occupy too much room. However, I live with the drawbacks because I love the product!

That's my two cents.

Charles

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Charles,

This might actually fall under the category of 'What bugs me about Network Magic", but what the heck.

I would be interested in knowing more about your computer system. In this day and age of extremely inexpensive RAM and swapping operating systems, we don't hear much about this kind of limit very often.

How much RAM do you have in your system? What are you using your computer for?

Jeff Erwin