 | By Becky Waring The free and fee-based versions of two easy-to-use utilities can take the pain out of troubleshooting and securing your home or small-office network. You can control who’s on your network, find the source of connection problems, and share files and printers securely — even over the Internet. |
The three things every home network should do
If you’ve ever thrown up your hands while trying to get Windows’ finicky file- and printer-sharing features to work — or worried about the security of your files when sharing is turned on — this column is for you.
In today’s review, I won’t discuss network firewalls and port-scanning tools, which were ably covered in Ian “Gizmo” Richards’ July 31 Best Software column. Instead, I’ll focus on utilities that help you take control of such essential networking functions as sharing and remote access.
Many people avoid sharing files over a network or the Web at large for two simple reasons: complex setup issues and anxiety about security. There’s absolutely no need to avoid sharing if you have one of these two excellent networking utilities: Cisco Systems’ Network Magic (formerly offered by a company named Pure Networks) and LogMeIn’s Hamachi.
Every home network should be able to share files and printers and provide secure remote access. Network Magic and Hamachi take the headaches out of providing remote access and sharing files and printers, plus they do a whole lot more in the bargain.
#1: CISCO SYSTEMS NETWORK MAGIC
| $50 version 90 $30 version 84 Free version 75 More info |
When friends and relatives bombard me with questions about their networks, I recommend two things: Make sure your router’s firmware is up-to-date (and that the router and broadband modem hardware are of fairly recent vintage) and install Network Magic on each computer on the network.
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