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- Average user rating: stars out of 199 votes Back to product review
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User reviews
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1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
5 stars
Version: Network Magic 4.2.7
"Everyone?s Entitled to Their Own Opinion, Even When?"
Pros: My daddy said everyone was entitled to their own opinion, even when they didn?t know what they were talking about. When you see half the Network Magic reviews singing NM?s praises and half heaving bricks, that?s a BIG clue that daddy was right on. Okay, which half and why?
Just because you bought a car and a driver?s license, that doesn?t mean you can race at the track the next day. Just like car racing, there are a lot of wrinkles in networking and there is no substitute for sweat and hands-on experience. If it were so easy, Microsoft wouldn?t have made such a mess so that Network Magic (NM) and Home Networking Manager (HNM) have to be around. I found both to be excellent programs, but my choice was Network Magic. I?ve tried hundreds of shareware programs? NM is only the second for which I?ve ever opened my wallet!
No software is going to fix hardware that isn?t installed and configured properly. If you?ve got two routers in series that?s going to be trouble. One has to be configured in bridge mode. Move from the simple to the complex. Get one computer set up right and then add another and get it right. We have a sixteen-node network sharing a single Internet connection. That?s how it is done.
I started with a Dell-branded trial of HNM. Afterwards, NM, when it had a 30-day trial. I intended to give the latest version of HNM a full trial before making my choice, but the NM people decided to offer a 20% sweetener. So I made my choice about half way through the final trial.
Cons: The NM people who cut the trial to 7-days should be fired. Any manager worth his salt should want his customers fully certain. I?d say they should have made it a 45-day trial. Reason alone says NM will always be paid, because NM is the lowest cost solution for easy file and printer sharing. It does those things with no trouble.
I rarely use dial-up support, so I cannot comment on that service. However, I have been fully satisfied with the online help and information available. Those get high marks.
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1 out of 2 people found this review helpful
1 stars
Version: Network Magic 4.2.7
Pros: Well, I've used this program before and it worked okay. So, when I bought a new laptop I wanted to have it networked with my other PC and the internet. But NOT with this new version! It is just a 7 day trial and then that's all you get! If you're looking for a FREE networking software, keep searching!
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3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
1 stars
Version: Network Magic 4.2.7
"Experience did not leave me smiling..."
Pros: Comments are applicable to Network Magic 4.1.7039
I installed on both a WinXP Pro machine and on a Win98SE machine. Both installs seemed to go fine.
As a conservative software installer, I read all of the Network Magic (NM) copy on just how good things are after NM installation. I just wish that all of their copy persons words were be true. I even read several reviews, all of which were glowing or better*. I would gladly pay the price of the software if it did all that it is claimed to do by the NM folks.
However,.....!!
* I'll bet that the reviewers made their glowing reports from the NM claims.
Cons: I attempted to get the NM file sharing options setup. The drives on both machines are setup somewhat similar, i.e., C: has operating system and applications, D: has page files and email, E: and F: are storage drives. After setting up the file sharing, I attempted to clean up and defrag the W98SE machine which seemed to be under the absolute control of Network Magic.
After two days of problems, I decided to uninstall NM. The W98SE machine seemed to still be under control of NM even after running a registry cleaner. Fortunately, I had imaged the C: partition prior to the NM installation; the C: partition was returned to its imaged configuration.
The uninstall program doesn't do a good job of returning the machine to its pre-NM configuration.
Last comment, from the outside - the users view - the ability to talk, email, or communicate with the Network Magic folks appears somewhat remote; this fact is mentioned in several of the CNet User Reviews. They have FAQ's, but.
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4 stars
Version: Network Magic 4.2.7
"I have Network Magic now for about 3 months and find it helpful with my 4 pc's"
Pros: I shows me when someone connects and alerts. I have the option of making someone an intruder if I do not know who they are.
Cons: Sometimes I feel that it is not as user friendly as it could be. Some how my husbands printer ended up under my pc and his and I couldn't delete the one under mine without removing all the programs from all the pc's and reinstalling.
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4 stars
Version: Network Magic 4.2.7
"The free version isn't that hot put the paid version is good"
Pros: It makes setting up sharing between computers on the network fairly simple and it has remote access functionality.
Cons: It is suppose to tell you when a new version is available but it hasn't for me and I have it on 3 different computers but none of them report new versions.
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