Network Magic now packs a chunk of network beef

NETWORK MAGIC, c (www.networkmagic.com) written by a bunch of Microsoft defectors, has been significantly beefed up in release 3.0. The home network monitoring/file & print sharing software has now incorporated much more extensive support for wireless networks and a feature to provide single-point monitoring of software updates for Windows XP, antivirus, and firewalls. The company is also releasing unsupported add-ins to the basic software that provides some other interesting widgets to play with above and beyond the baseline functionality of the package. The pricing model has also been adjusted.

When Network Magic first came out last year, it provided a lot of cool features to anyone running a small LAN in the house/office, including a nifty graphic "map" documenting all devices on the network and providing network status reports. It allows you to inspect the status of your broadband connection and network remotely, and do one-click file sharing and print sharing; none of this multi-click permissions mumbo-jumbo as under Windows XP. It also keeps a running log of new shared folders and network changes as well as notifies you when a new unknown device appears on your network, with the option to lock it out. So if the guy next door is trying to poach in on your unsecured Wi-Fi LAN, you can use Network Magic to lock him out.

Release 2.0 beefs up wireless network security, adding on a free "Wireless Network Manager" that is a much prettier and useful version of XP's wireless connection status. Network Magic's wireless client sits in the task bar represented by four signal bars, so you get signal strength straight up, rather than having to open up the on/off radiating XP wireless icon and then look at the signal bars. Once you open up wireless network manager, it also tells you what wireless networks are available and if they are running encryption; XP provides this support, but you have to click a few more times to get everything you want. It's a much cleaner way of working with a wireless network than XP's jumble. Even if you don't pay for a Network Magic subscription, it's worth the download to review the Wireless Network Manager.

I have mixed feelings about the "Network Health and Security Alerts" function. It provides instant notification if you are missing a critical Windows update, so I feel compelled to get it as soon as possible rather than waiting for Windows Update to automagically do its thing in the background. If you have three or four machines on your network, you may be running around quite a bit so you can get rid of the red "critical" notification. With two more mouse clicks, Network Magic will go out and get the update without having to fire up IE and Windowsupdate.com, but doesn't install the update directly. You are left having to click on the yellow shield, red "!" to go the final setup for it to be installed. For a company keen to cut down on mouse clicks, I'm surprised they didn't figure out a way to cut out that one extra. It's nice to know that Network Magic will let me know the antivirus software is out of date on one of my computers, but it also makes me wonder how easy it is for some random hacker to determine that info by probing in a similar fashion.

The "Network Health and Security Alerts" screen also allows you to quickly and easily tighten up wireless security on a single screen, allowing you to configure things such as no SSID broadcast, setup a network name, and MAC address filtering through a single screen. It's all very powerful and useful stuff and seems to work more smoothly than directly logging into the router and doing this one web page at a time.

Finally, the developers at Network Magic throw out various "cool ideas" as prototype plug-ins for people to play with and work with, coming with a healthy disclaimer: "Please note: These prototypes are still in the early stages of development, they may disappear without warning or perform erratically." Three of the plug-ins are support features for the company's Net2Go online website/storage service (A story for a different day), but I've become fond of the Speed Meter Pro plug-in. It allows you to monitor network traffic generated by all devices on the LAN, gives you max data rates for uploading and downloading, and even keeps historic snapshots.

These days Network Magic costs $29.99 per year if you have 3 PCs; 5 is going to cost you $49.95 and 8 will cost you $59.99. Initially, the company was charging $69.99 for everything, but it looks like they've been beaten up a bit. You can also get the $49.99 version over the counter. If you don't want to pay for a license, the "Free" version supports the network map, network monitoring & repair, and the ability to lockout wireless intruders. If you want the easy file and print sharing, plus the ability to access your files remotely from anywhere, you're going to have to pay. µ