NetSwitcher makes network-hopping easy

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PRODUCT REVIEW
NetSwitcher makes network-hopping easy
By Mick Moignard

We Notes people have always used Locations to tell Notes where we are. You know what that means. You tell Notes once about a location setup, apply it whenever you need it, and it works great. I can arrive at a hotel and have dial-up connection to my Notes home server working almost as fast as I can get the phone plug out of the wall. But networking setups on PCs were never that simple.

"I rate it as the best nine bucks I've ever spent on software."

In my work as a Notes consultant in the UK and Europe, I wanted to be able to connect my laptop to customer networks and to my Ethernet at home, as well as to my employer's Token Ring network. But to do that means, at the very least, remembering whether to use a fixed Internet Protocol address or DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), the addresses of gateways and Domain Name Servers, and Internet proxy server settings - for each location. It also means about ten to fifteen minutes tinkering work and a reboot.

Then I heard about NetSwitcher, a nine dollar piece of shareware from http://www.netswitcher.com. I downloaded it and tried it out. It's so good, I paid for it about ten minutes later. Even the ordering and payment process was completely painless, as was following the instructions for installing the license ID after payment. Since paying for it, I have downloaded a couple of revisions, and it gets better.

This tool is like Locations for networks. After using it at Lotusphere to get me onto the house network in about a minute, I felt I had to share my experiences with this program with all you DominoPower readers. I rate it as the best nine bucks I've ever spent on software.

While NetSwitcher will make your Notes life easier, it's a general purpose network utility. No matter how you use networking on the go, NetSwitcher can make your day go more smoothly.

So what's the deal?
When you install it, you get two things. First you get the main NetSwitcher program. I'll tell you more about that in a moment. Second, you also get an optional System Tray icon. This enables you to do network location switches, as well as to run the full NetSwitcher program. Figure A shows what this little icon will do.

FIGURE A

The System Tray tells you the name of the current setup and gives you your options. Roll over picture for a larger image.

First, it tells you the name of the current setup. Then you get an option to run the full NetSwitcher program, followed by a list of other setups. In the above example, my Lotusphere 2001 setup is highlighted.