Network Magic 4.7

jobeard, I don't think this is such a good product. It crashes and can't detect every device on your network in it's network mapping display. NetworkView does a better job. This program is good for those who don't have Vista and gives XP those features. I had ran these for a test on my entire network for a few weeks. Finally had to remove the software off.

hum; You have XP/Media and I have XP/Pro/Sp2. There have been issues unique to both.

My XP/Pro SP2 runs quite well and NM finds my Linux, OS X, two routers and an Xbox.

I've been running it for 3 days now on an XP Pro SP2 machine - it's been very stable (no crashes or unexpected behavior.) My only problem with it is how it draws the map. I have to scroll right and left to see all the devices it locates. Also, it doesn't see any of my switches and I could have sworn I've seen some applications out there that could.

hum; unless the device has an ip-address, I would not expect it to be found, as
how can it be seen via ping, smnp, or other protocol?

jobeard said:

hum; You have XP/Media and I have XP/Pro/Sp2. There have been issues unique to both.

My XP/Pro SP2 runs quite well and NM finds my Linux, OS X, two routers and an Xbox.

Click to expand...

No I have: Windows 2003 Server managing: SMTP Server / Web Mail Client, Web Server to manage intranet Web Site, Print Server ...

Clients OS: 4x XP Pro SP2 wireless (laptops) and 4x XP MCE 2005 SP2 wired (desktops)

Media Streaming: 7x Hauppauge Media MVP (1x wireless bridge MVP)

Everything works here stable.. I wanted to try this talk about tool and there was mention about it a while back here I had reported. But I had both version Free and Pro. After a few weeks I started to notice a slowness in the wireless laptops and then the network mapping tool couldn't find my devices it would drop them.

But in any case this network tool you already have it with XP just makes it easier for non administrators to use it. Otherwise technically you really don't need it. Except for Network Monitor or you could use NetworkView it will map out the entire network and also monitor what's off and on around the clock.

tipstir said:

No I have: Windows 2003 Server managing: SMTP Server / Web Mail Client, Web Server to manage intranet Web Site, Print Server ...

Click to expand...

Sorry. I got that from your System Specs. Guess you have other (several ) systems.

Nice screen shot

jobeard said:

Sorry. I got that from your System Specs. Guess you have other (several ) systems.

Nice screen shot

Click to expand...

It's okay you didn't know what's going on here.. Just for fun I've installed this newer version to see if they have made improvements. Well I did find all my network devices well some it didn't know what the heck it was. None of the wireless access points and wireless drop bridge nor the media streaming devices did get ID! But looks like it can be a manual process. Stil they need to fix the mapping screen for those of use who have more than 15 devices on the network to discover. As you see with NetworkView about it pans downs the list from network nodes after you do a discovery range. By-the-way that NV can be printer out on your laser or color printer.

Gone back with NM 4.1xxx that's seem stable than 4.7 NM. So far.. I'll give it until april to see how it goes..

We agree with you Jobeard. Network Magic is a good program. We have it on a large number of client machines where they need the tools it provides. We have not seen crashes or problems. It is handy, also, for dealing with user issues over the phone... allowing us to speak a common language.

Well gone this working with Master Browser and everything I have on the network.

Best way to install this software is start with the Master Browser Server. Once that is loaded and all shared printers and shared folders are set. Then add the software to each PC. Just finished took a while and found two systems on the network can't share. I'll fix those later.. Well since there really isn't anything else that can monitor the network and display a mapping view, and fix the network well somewhat. Still you got to know what you're doing still. But the software is pretty smart to monitor everything got wired and wireless and plus keep and eye on the Router and modem.

In options then click on advanced

change:

normal

5

to

slower

10

since this software is like having server or home server 2003 this is the best setting so far.

Going to be testing this on Windows 2003 Server and tie everything into that machine as the main master browser. So far NM working great..

I used it.. it wasn't that great for me..
it was missing a few network features I needed.

What "few network features" were missing?

I've removed it and just go a new router that came with it on CD.. But not needed, if you assigned the main PC on our network as the Master Browser and turn off the feature on the rest on the PCs on the network. I have Server 200e as the Master Browser and the Workstations have Computer Browser not started. I can see all PCs on the network now. Plus replacing main router has also fixed some issues. Network Magic is always running discoveries and if you got more than 8 network devices it can blog down the network.

tipstir said:

Network Magic is always running discoveries and if you got more than 8 network devices it can blog down the network.

Click to expand...

Did you restrict the IP range to a reasonable number of systems or did you just
cover the entire subnet x.1-x.254?

jobeard said:

Did you restrict the IP range to a reasonable number of systems or did you just
cover the entire subnet x.1-x.254?

Click to expand...

My network range is set IP and subnet not problem their.. Well it did pickup everything even the server. I didn't like the fact everything is running like so much activity with going though every second. Yes that is normal for that software to keep monitoring the network and all attached devices if one goes down it will report so. Are you running this software? For guys like us we don't need it for new users who have small networks yeah in a way is should help them know what's going on.

Dlink is dropping Network Magic from it line up of routers this year for this:



Like Network Magic is another one you have to pay for also... Although this software will be integrated within the Web GUI..

easy

i recently switched all of my pcs on my home network (5) over to DLINK 802.11 n equipment the main reason was to play my sons backed up dvd collection over my wireless network i found network easy to setup and use with some simple one click security settings such as mac address filtering.

Welcome to TechSpot
You didn't if you're using NM? Which Dlink router are using for N?

router

i am using a DLINK extreme N router and i have a linux box with a wireless n pci card my wife has a lenovo ideapad y710 with onboard 802.11n and the media center pc i am building is going to have a wireless n card as well i saved most of my dvd collection to external hard drives using dvd shrink i saved them as ISO images with no compression (hey hard drives are cheap ) and i playback the ISOs with VLC media player. they play perfectly over the N network

ISPEED said:

i am using a DLINK extreme N router and i have a linux box with a wireless n pci card my wife has a lenovo ideapad y710 with onboard 802.11n and the media center pc i am building is going to have a wireless n card as well i saved most of my dvd collection to external hard drives using dvd shrink i saved them as ISO images with no compression (hey hard drives are cheap ) and i playback the ISOs with VLC media player. they play perfectly over the N network

Click to expand...

I have the same router now A3 hardware version with WPS button on the right side, after going through some bad N routers best to get this one. Smart move to save your DVD collection and it will all work.. I've post some info about HTPC in the Audio Video thread here it's in what they call a sticky area where it doesn't move. So it's ontop.

I am doing what you doing first with my VHS collection trying to save them before they are no more..

VCR (hi-fi stereo) to DVD Recorder using DVDRW 1x-4x media
Take the VOB files and rename them to myvideo.mpg
Use Womble MPEG-VCR to edit and save in real-time.
Erase DVDRW and start the process again.
Everything so far has come out perfect.

Next I'll do what you're doing... I'll need 3 TB drives though or more. LOL