Things To Download

I've taken the liberty of combining together a number of different submissions we've received. First off, Network Magic recently came out with a new version of their software (tour on link). It's Windows-based primarily, but having tested it out on Mac/Linux/Windows-mixed network, it's worth checking out. Another individual pointed out that SourceForge Enterprise is now a 15 seat free download; you can also grab the ISO in Torrent form. (SourceForge is made by the other arm of the company that owns Slashdot, VA Software). Lastly, a couple of folks seem to have rediscovered the joy of Audioscrobbler and sharing the stuff via last.fm. Fun stuff.

Comments

sourceforge?

[doti]

bleargh!

trac is much better. way cleaner and simpler interface, and _excelent_ integration with subversion.
also, it's free.

http://trac.edgewall.com/

Re:sourceforge?

[Super Dave Osbourne]

I agree, I wouldn't use anything else but TRAC, and nobody is going to try and upsell me when I use it. One thing that bothers me about posts like this one is I get the feeling it isn't just about what is available, but also someone has a vested interest in seeing this stuff pushed on the /. community.

Re:sourceforge?

[un1xl0ser]

How is this a troll?

Re:sourceforge?

[tomknight]

TRAC's good, I'll agree. For single projects, at least.... TRAC's problem is that it's not great for more than one project.

I've had better milage with tying Mantis in with Subversion, works well for large quantities of development projects. Okay there's no wiki included with such a setup but it's not hard to set one up. As always YMMV.

Re:sourceforge?

[Blakey Rat]

Given, I haven't tried Sourceforge, but Trac is a HUGE pain to install. Mega-huge. In that the odds your server already has the dependencies taken care of are pretty much 0%. If I recall, it takes 4 different libraries (which have to be EXACT VERSIONS) or it won't do nothing.

They really need to streamline the installation so the standard (say) Dreamhost domain can run it before they can take over a lot of this market.

Re:sourceforge?

[Anonymous Coward]

Try disconnecting your winmodem. That did it for me.

Re:sourceforge?

[IIEFreeMan]

I too thinks that trac is a really great piece of software.
However I have tried the sfee free edition a couple of weeks ago and I was quite impressed :

• First it has nothing to do with the sourceforge that we are used to (heck it's even a Java application !). It is far more beautiful and seemed to allow a lot more of micromanagement of tasks/responsibilities/workload/etc. (not that I like that but it can appeal to its target market).
• the integration of SVN (or CVS) is quite good with, like trac, linking of commits to tasks (you can even force commits to be linked to tasks/tickets)
• the distribution method of this free edition is really a great idea : it's a VMWare image and VMWare player is included in the download. This makes it really easy to test it and the performance is very nice. I think it could run in production this way without a problem. Trac should copy this and distribute a VMWare image too (and a DamnSmallLinux distribution too) including everything needed to run it.

Re:sourceforge?

[biglig2]

Because "SourceForge is made by the other arm of the company that owns Slashdot, VA Software", I imagine. though it seems to me that no moderator could be sure that the poster didn't just really not like SourceForge.

Re:sourceforge?

[masklinn]

heck it's even a Java application

Is that supposed to be a good thing?

Re:sourceforge?

[Anonymous Coward]

It wasn't a troll. I've counter mod-ded. It was an honest opinion, and the Trac site looks promising despite what non-trac fans have posted below. Please meta-moderate people with the trigger-happy-troll-reflex completely out of moderation process.

Re:sourceforge?

[Anonymous Coward]

apt-get install trac

Re:sourceforge?

[PietjeJantje]

Good point. Another one is that it is crippleware which should be avoided like a plaque. Really, which project of volunteers is gonna pay for this kind of software. Now I'm not gonna judge anyone's business model or deny anyone an income, but preferring to leech volunteers over making their offering, JUST LIKE ANYONE ELSE, an unlimited open source licenced download.

One thing going for them is that with a 504MB download for what can't be more than a few MBs in code if you try really hard, surely pr0n is included to use as wallpapers for your project management. Cute!

Re:sourceforge?

[mikaelhg]

trac is much better...

Except that Trac does something completely different from Sourceforge EE. I'm currently evaluating options for setting up a common "intra-Sourceforge" to cut academic application development costs, and SFEE is currently on the top of the list while Trac isn't on the list at all. Too bad that the sales people at SF don't seem to want our money at all, they don't seem to be very good at answering email.

I'm of the opinion, though, that open sourcing SFEE would quadruple their sales pipeline permanently, and they could push higher-margin products through that pipeline.

Re:sourceforge?

[mikaelhg]

Java apps have a fraction of the operating costs of PHP, Python, Perl and Ruby apps. That's good for people who look at how operating budgets get spent, because they can then produce more bang for the buck.

Re:sourceforge?

[nigel_atkinson]

Have you got data to back up this statement? I would be very interested to see a report on the operating costs of applications by development language/platform.

Re:sourceforge?

[michrech]

Given, I haven't tried Sourceforge, but Trac is a HUGE pain to install. Mega-huge. In that the odds your server already has the dependencies taken care of are pretty much 0%. If I recall, it takes 4 different libraries (which have to be EXACT VERSIONS) or it won't do nothing.

They really need to streamline the installation so the standard (say) Dreamhost domain can run it before they can take over a lot of this market.

#emerge trac

Then do whatever configuration. Done.

Another poster mentioned "app-get trac" (or something close), but was modded at 0 or less (I didn't pay attention to that).

Re:sourceforge?

[shish]

I'm running the latest version of trac (manual download & install) supported by all it's libraries (apt-got)...

That's on a server I have root access to though -- If you can't install the one or two packages it depends on via apt (eg, you aren't root) you need to build everythiong from python up for yourself :-/

I do wonder why it isn't in the one-click install list though, surely it can't be that hard for DH to push the necessary support libraries to all their servers? As said, it's painless once they're done...

Re:sourceforge?

[Anonymous Coward]

it won't do nothing

That's good. Something is what it's supposed to do.

Re:sourceforge?

[mycall]

The problem with VMware is trusting the source who compiled the image. Rootkits on a [closed]source-code machine is a big no-no.

Re:sourceforge?

[lorcha]

# apt-get install trac

New Amanda (backup software) release download

[amanda-backup]

I would also recommend checking out the packaged Amanda backup software at:

http://www.zmanda.com/downloads.html

Network Magic

[Anonymous Coward]

Using this software may cause your alignment to change and your robe to darken. Beware. The cool part is you get sweet yellow eyes and pupils shaped like hour glasses.

Oglepoly.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Another individual pointed out that SourceForge Enterprise is now a 15 seat free download; you can also grab the ISO in Torrent form. (SourceForge is made by the other arm of the company that owns Slashdot, VA Software)"

Two more and you'll be an octopus.

Audioscrobbler = last.fm

[yoasif]

Submitter is a dolt... Audioscrobbler started off as a school project, but after a while, they went commercial, and are now last.fm.

It's the same technology, it's just a new marketing name for it.

Things To Download - Try imeem

[Anonymous Coward]

While there's a website which gives you lots of stuff to do there's a client which gives you a ton of extra features and really highlights the fact that this was designed and built by a lot of the developers of the original (and best) Napster. Only available for Mac and Windows, but the Mac version gets a huge amount of geek cred for the application bridge they built to make mono work efficiently with Cocoa, apparently they decided Cocoa# wasn't up to speed so they built their own and released it as open source. They're also patching mono so that a linux port will eventually be releasable, the GUI is the main blocker because they claim that the servers are all running linux already.

Re:Things To Download - Try imeem

[szyzyg]

URL To download the client and The source code. The CocoaMono bridge is named Dumbarton after the bridge from Fremont to Palo Alto which crosses stinky salt marshes crossing it can sometimes be a case of holding your nose, kind of like crossing from C# to Objective C.

Say it ain't so Joe!

[PhreakinPenguin]

Just out of curiousity, is this story a paid advertisement for specific software?

Re:Say it ain't so Joe!

[im_mac]

No this is just what happens on those horribly slow days before a Tuesday holiday (for us in the US). Most of the people are on vacation already, making it a 4 day weekend, and the rest are just wasting time until they can skip out early (to watch the new Superman movie).

Re:Say it ain't so Joe!

[blugu64]

(thinks to himself...have I been thinking out loud???)

Re:Say it ain't so Joe!

[joe 155]

it ain't so.

Re:Say it ain't so Joe!

[Monster_Juice]

I hope you two turn off your cell phones, I don't want to hear them ringing while I am watching Superman.

Network Magic?

[NineNine]

What's the point of "Network Magic"? Windows XP really couldn't make networking all that much easier.

Re:Network Magic?

[cfulmer]

In theory you're right. In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice they're different.

    I currently have three computers all running XP, all in the same workgroup and they can only access each other by IP address. It's a PITA to share files and printers. I'm very computer literate and could probably do some research to figure out what's going wrong. Iit's not exactly on the top of my list, and it might be worth the price for network magic to solve the problem for me.

    However, I don't understand why they use a subscription model. If you don't pay $30 every year, their service cuts off. When I'm dealing with a company that may not be around in a year, I want a flat price.

Re:Network Magic?

[Com2Kid]

Windows XP could make it WORK.

Windows XP has horrible networking. If you are on Domain, you get to offload the pain to a domain admin (unless you ARE the domain admin...) but for workgroups, the suffering is all yours.

Right now I have a network with the following characteristics:

• Three machines
• All machines have the same workgroup name and different IP addresses
• All machines plugged in to the same hub.
• All machines have a "shared items" folder that has been clicked on at listed as shared.
• All machines have File Sharing enabled

The current situation is this:

Machine A can see Machine B, and can look at, upload to, and download from B's folders.

Machine B CANNOT see Machine A at all.

Machine B can see Machine C.

Machine A can see Machine C.

Machine C cannot see ANY machine.

Another form:

A-->B

B-->C

A-->C ....

So to get a file from A to B or from B to A is easy, go to A, copy to or from B.

Getting a file to C is also easy, just go to A or B and put the file on or take the file off of C.

So technically I can "do" any possible transfer.

Damned if it isn't STUPID and MESSED UP though.

Oh and don't even go to printer sharing. The original idea was to have A act as a print server for B and C. Of course nobody can actually see A, so that didn't really go over that well.

Mind you I have NEVER seen a Windows network setup as eloquently as a *nix network. On *nix, I just go to any machine and lo and behold, I can see every other machine on the network, use any printer, and if I login to multiple machines at the same time (most often using SSH) any changes I make to a file in my home directory on machine A is almost instantly transferred to ALL other machines that I am logged on to. This is incredibly convenient for testing network client/server apps.

Windows, in comparison, has this entire synch on login/logoff thing going on, and the login process can take upwards of 2-3 minutes per machine! (Depending on the stupidity of how the domain was setup, some domains work better than others...)

Now when it comes to network printing, Windows domains have got *nix beat.

"Well what you do on *nix is you memorize the printers magic number, no, there is no searching GUI listing of printers setup, then you drop to the command line and pipe the file you want to print to the printer."

Okay....

Yes, I have seen *nix networks setup better than that, but I have encountered that level of stupidity too many times. Thankfully I have never needed to print a file with graphics in it (or any file that is not in plain text) on such a network!

In conclusion, we, Computer Scientists, are complete and utter idiots who cannot program a decent system for the life of us.

Something so simple, so very very simple....

What the heck is wrong with us? It should NOT be complicated. I have had times where, when on a LAN, it was faster to BURN A CDR than to try and get networking up and running. Some times networking works, some times it doesn't. When it does, great, when it doesn't, oh well.

Computers should not be non-deterministic.

I really love those situations when two identical machines in identical states have the same operations applied to them in the same order, and two different results end up happening. That is cute folks, really cute[1].

[1]By cute I mean "Somebody should be pounded in the head with a sledgehammer".

Re:Network Magic?

[wiredpasture]

Just bought a new wireless router from D-Link and it came with Network Magic in the box. Nowhere, not anywhere, did it say the product was not neccessary for the network. Instructions were seamless in their incorporation of Network Magic. As I'm installing, it pops up with the "free trial" offer. I immediately uninstalled it and am fine using Windows XP on 3 PCs and a storage device. No problemo...except for the sneaky marketing.

Re:Network Magic?

[Anonymous Coward]

I can see where you would be frustrated. Before I learned more about properly networking windows boxes, I saw similar situations. Of course, that was before getting involved with starting the cyber cafe in New Orleans (Realm of Delirium, first in the French Quarter, above Kaldi's). All the machines ran windows, all the networking was perfect, and it was all done with workgroups. No Domain or central server was used. Of course, having friends who were programmers made things easier when it came to security... we just had a separate program written for us to handle locking the machines down between customers, and keeping track of individual time on each machine.

There are a couple of possible solutions for your networking troubles... right off the bat, I noticed that in the short list of your network characteristics, you said nothing about what protocols you are using, aside from the assumption of TCP/IP. You do not mention either turning off or ignoring the XP firewall. You did not mention the make of your NICs or if your "hub" is a simple switch or a router... which could institute a whole host of other problems.

Let me enlighten you for a moment. Did you know that using certain 3com NICs can cause some linksys switches to shut down? Just by booting the computer with that 3com card, while it is connected to the linksys switch, ALL the computers connected to that switch will drop connectivity, regardless of THEIR individual NIC brands. I am talking about the 3com 905-tx line of cards, and simple linksys switches (not hubs). This example is to show you that your networking issues could be simply HARDWARE issues that you are unaware of.

Your tale of woe lacks too many specific details, and your failure to mention some of those details only servs to show that you need to spend a lot more time up to your elbows in NICs, Cables, and protocols, before you can make any sweeping claims as to how well Windows Networking works.

Re:Network Magic?

[cyberfunk2]

You left out Mac OS X, with it's Zero-Conf based system, which Just-Works(TM). Easiest system to network, I find OSX boxes are the most plug-n-play networking devices around.

Re:Network Magic?

[Com2Kid]

Your tale of woe lacks too many specific details, and your failure to mention some of those details only servs to show that you need to spend a lot more time up to your elbows in NICs, Cables, and protocols, before you can make any sweeping claims as to how well Windows Networking works.

Microsoft likes to advertise how "simple" it is to setup a Windows XP network.

If I need to spend that much time learning, then it isn't simple.

Anyways, I have spent oodles of time setting up networks, in my experience, when dealing with Windows, domains are a more reliable solution. This is not TOO surprising, given that Microsoft sells domain systems for money, while workgroups are just a convinenence feature for users who are not willing to fork over the cash for a DC.

Windows Firewall is set to allow Windows Filesharing to pass through on all machines, naturally enough. The protocol is whatever the little checkbox for "Enable Windows File Sharing" uses. Not NetBEUI anymore thankfully. :)

You did not mention the make of your NICs

Every machine is a laptop, so whatever Intel felt like. Not really configurable!

if your "hub" is a simple switch or a router...

No, it is a 10mb/s HUB. When I said hub I meant HUB. The damn thing costs $40 new TODAY, and I have no clue why. (I bought it back in 1997 or so)

I want to get a nice router, wireless preferabbly. My Machine C is operating as a Wireless Router for the network right now, and THAT works perfectly. Go figure. Windows makes it PRETTY easy (but not inntuitive, since some amount of stupidity is required...) to turn a machine into a wireless router. (Linux, in comparison, loses out HORRIBLY here. Windows has a checkbox you select that makes a machine into a wireless router, linux has 2 or 3 packages you download, install, and edit text based configuration files for...)

And yes, all my machines are set to disable WiFi when their NIC is plugged in. (well except for machine C of course, which just doesn't connect to anything since all the other machines, when their NICs are plugged in, just do not connect to it!)

Did you know that using certain 3com NICs can cause some linksys switches to shut down?

Yah, I had to fix that once. Drove me freaking nuts trying to diagnoise it. Very weird issue.

This example is to show you that your networking issues could be simply HARDWARE issues that you are unaware of.

Except that, as stated above, I have a hub. Hubs barely above electrical repeaters in level of complexity.

I have the world's second most simple network layout. 3 machines, plugged into HUB.

Unless one of the machines is horribly mangling Ethernet frames, I have a software issue.

Re:Network Magic?

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a similar setup at home (with about 6 more machines; in total, 3 windows, 5 linux, and an XBox 360), and I have no trouble networking them together. The Windows machines can all talk to each other and SMB ties the Linux boxes to Windows perfectly fine. The 360 is the only flaky part...

Re:Network Magic?

[MrNougat]

I currently have three computers all running XP, all in the same workgroup and they can only access each other by IP address.

This is because NetBIOS browsing is (ahem) t3h suXX0r. It's never been dependable. If you want to browse by NetBIOS name (computername), you need to resolve that to an IP address. A WINS server can handle that for you. If you want to browse by hostname (FQDN), you'll need to resolve that to an IP address. An internal DNS server can handle that for you. But network browse lists on Windows machines are next to useless.

What's even worse is that neither WINS server nor DNS server are available in WinXP. So ... what you do instead on a small network is add entries to the LMHOSTS file (for NetBIOS resolution) for each computername and IP address, which can be found in %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc

Once that's done, when you try to lookup a NetBIOS name to IP address, the machine will check the LMHOSTS file before broadcasting. If it finds an entry, resolved, done and done.

Re:Network Magic?

[kailoran]

Ah yes, the ease of sharing an internet connection using an IP other than 192.168.0.1. No to mention sharing it to two other NICs. I currently have 3 PCs in my home and I would really like to be able to use the second ethernet card, especially since all I want is getting the internet connection to the third PC.
Unsurprisingly, getting that in Linux took me under a minute, gui-only. I don't want to sound like a linux fanboy, but Windows networking will never be really easy if anything but the basic features are purposefully disabled to force people to buy the "server" versions.

Re:Network Magic?

[nutrock69]

- No, it is a 10mb/s HUB. When I said hub I meant HUB. The damn thing costs $40 new TODAY, and I have no clue why. (I bought it back in 1997 or so)

Your hub is from '97? Wow. Are you sure it's not a hub issue? You've swapped/replaced the hub to verify this?

My home network consists of:
1 XP desktop
1 XP desktop (wireless)
1 XP laptop (occasionally wireless)
1 98 desktop
1 linux desktop (acting as web server)
1 w2k desktop (acting as firewall/router - don't ask, it was NOT my first choice :)

All are connected to a single hub, the wireless via a simple secure WAP attached to said hub. All of my machines can see and access shares on each other (including Samba on the web server) without any problems at all - with the exception of my firewall, which has all network connectivity disabled barring firewall/routing functions.

How? It all just works. I used hardcoded addresses with DHCP disabled and no DHCP server. The only time the network ever "broke" (loosely defined: more than one machine having iffy problems losing other machines/shares) was when the hub went bad. Replaced it and the network magically started working again with no networking changes on any machine.

Re:Network Magic?

[Lost Race]

Same here, except no Xbox. I've run Windows networks at home since 1993, with dozens of PCs running all versions of Windows from 3.11 to 2000 and Samba, and never had a problem like GP's. As far as I can tell, simple Windows networking (sharing files and printers in a workgroup) "just works". Or rather, "just worked" in pre-XP Windows. I haven't tried running XP on my LAN yet; maybe MS borked its workgroup handling badly.

Re:Network Magic?

[Anonymous Coward]

You're an idiot... and every single one of you that complains about Windows XP's "Workgroup" network is an idiot too.

I just get tired of stupid people going on (and on and on and on... see parent post) about this stuff.

No, I don't like Windows either, but blaming networking is just stupid.

Set up a DNS server/DHCP server, it takes all of two minutes... and POOF all your problems go away.

No, it isn't complicated so don't even try that. The little network devices now almost all include the right functions and all you have to do is READ THE FREAKIN' MANUAL.

This jerk probably left the firewall turned on and thus cannot "see" the machines.

Idiot.

Oh the pain... I... cannot bear... the load... of this... reeeaaading!!!!!!! Please *pant*pant* can't *gasp* you help * me!

Re:Network Magic?

[Com2Kid]

Your hub is from '97? Wow. Are you sure it's not a hub issue?

You do realize that hubs are simple electrical repeaters, and unless my old hub violates the laws of physics that it should work just fine?

Re:Network Magic?

[Com2Kid]

Set up a DNS server/DHCP server, it takes all of two minutes... and POOF all your problems go away.

Now why the HELL would I go and setup a SECOND DHCP server and a SECOND DNS on top of the ones that already exists on the other end of my hub?

Also, maybe you didn't realize this, the software linked to in the article is for HOME NETWORKS. Why the hell should someone need a DNS/DHCP server to send a file from Computer A to Computer B when both computers are ALREADY on the same network?

This jerk probably left the firewall turned on and thus cannot "see" the machines.

Funny thing, in Windows, when you enable file sharing, Windows offers to disable those ports on the firewall for you. I clicked "yes". I even verified afterwards that the ports were disabled.

I have had troubles setting up file sharing in Windows before there even WAS a built in Windows firewall.

Once again, I reiterate, Microsoft would prefer that people buy a domain controller. In terms of network resource sharing, organizations that can afford to purchase/support a DC are the majority audience. Nobody really cares about the tiny home user.

Also, you can rule out Firewall issues if A can see B but B cannot see A. Both A and B obviously have a hole poked in their firewall for file sharing, but B is just acting STUPID.

This is not to mention that on SOME DAYS it is possible for B to see A, depending on what order computers are booted in, amongst other variables.

The other point is that this entire situation is STUPID. There is a big "ENABLE FILE SHARING" button in Windows. If I click it on each machine, and file sharing only halfway works, then obviously the big button is NOT doing its job.

Indeed, setting up a wireless network in your house using a Windows XP machine as a router is a similar situation. There is the official glossy MS pamphlet way of doing it, which doesn't work, and then if you dig a bit deeper you find out the REAL instructions. Once again, stupidity, if there is a button that SAYS it does something, it should darn well do that something, not secretly require that I do 5 other steps that are not officially documented.

If I want to mess around with undocumented configuration options I always have my Linux box!

Re:Network Magic?

[Anonymous Coward]

You do realize that hardware can be partially functioning, right?
Ever seen a light flicker at the office mere minutes/hours/days before it dies (although usually it's a balast (sp?)).

I have personally experianced your problem and it was a hardware problem.
Mine was a little different though in the sense that it invovled about 30 computers and an eletrical storm.
Strange how some worked and others partly worked.
But yeah, hardware problem.

All it takes is a single device spewing crap into the ether and weird shit happens. In our network we had three cards spewing crap. That was *really* hard to figure out which ones worked and which ones didn't. Ee gad. I hope I never have to go through that shit again.

Re:Network Magic?

[Anonymous Coward]

Now why the HELL would I go and setup a SECOND DHCP server and a SECOND DNS on top of the ones that already exists on the other end of my hub?

Also, maybe you didn't realize this, the software linked to in the article is for HOME NETWORKS. Why the hell should someone need a DNS/DHCP server to send a file from Computer A to Computer B when both computers are ALREADY on the same network?

Wow, you are a fucking idiot.

Under TCP/IP based sharing, the only way to resolve a "name" to an IP address is through either a HOSTS file or through DNS. Which means you need a DHCP server and a DNS server to keep track of who is at which address, or configure the HOSTS file on each machine with the addresses of the other machines.

(Unfortunately for you, your router that's handing out DHCP addresses doesn't bother to do DNS resolving for you as well. So you've got the one half but not he other.)

Alternately, you can try using NETBIOS for name resolution, but that has it's own share of problems (master browser conflicts, keeping track of who is where). Basically, in a NETBIOS system, one of the machines on the network volunteers to be the name resolver for the segment. The machines on the segment even vote on who does the job.

But no matter what, without a name resolver-type service, you're going to run into issues.

Re:Network Magic?

[exKingZog]

Whilst I agree with you that it should Just Work, without faffing around setting up WINS/DHCP/DNS servers, I can attest to the fact that my workgroup Windows network speeded up and actually started Just Working as soon as I added a Linux box onto it running WINS (a WIndows Server box would do just as well, but if you have that, go Domain).

The situation is better now than it used to be - when I held LAN parties in the late 90s, at least 2 hours would be spent each time yelling "My computer can see yours, can you see me?" and "Which protocols do we need enabled again?". I also remember the DOS days, where we had boot disks to run NetBIOS and IPX/SPX. I don't miss THOSE days at all.

Re:Network Magic?

[Anonymous Coward]

I want to help you troubleshoot this. Windows networking *can* work reliably, I swear.

* Sometimes network browsing can be fragile if you don't have a domain controller, even though the computers *can* actually talk to each other. Have you tried manually typing the computer's name (or IP address) into Explorer's address bar? ie: "\\WorkstationB\" or "\\10.0.0.2" (or whatever the IP address is, double-check by running "ipconfig" at the command line).

* If that still doesn't work, I'd suggest a minor rebuild. Run Windows Update and make sure you have ALL the latest patches (if you have pirate copies of Windows that don't have service pack 2 installed - this could be the cause of the problem). Reinstall the network drivers, re-do the entire network configuration (don't forget firewalls) to make sure there's not a single lone setting somewhere that's messing things up for you.

If you're still out of luck, there are two alternatives - at least for file transfers:

* The simplest would be FolderShare - which is private file sharing that works over a LAN or the internet. Although you have to open a port for best performance when running over the internet, it is intelligent enough to figure out when two machines are on the same subnet and does direct transfers over the LAN instead. You set up a shared folder, and anything you drop in there is automagically replicated on the other computers. I have three computers using Foldershare (my XP machine at home, my XP machine at work, and my Mac notebook which roams) - and it works brilliantly.

* You can also try going the Unix route, with Windows Services For Unix. In short: try NFS. I have a FreeBSD server at home which I connect to from my XP desktop using NFS - and it works fine. I'm assuming that if you installed NFS server software that it would also work well when used Windows to Windows.

Best of luck getting this figured out - I know it's a pain sometimes...

Re:Network Magic?

[Com2Kid]

All it takes is a single device spewing crap into the ether and weird shit happens. In our network we had three cards spewing crap. That was *really* hard to figure out which ones worked and which ones didn't. Ee gad. I hope I never have to go through that shit again.

Now I have had that type of thing happen. One time there was a power surge through my cable tv line that managed to blow my network gear. I had a cable modem, which is plugged into the cable line. Damned if that wasn't the ONLY wire that wasn't behind some sort of surge protector. Heck every other part of the network is behind a UPS. I would never have guessed at a surge coming through the coax[1]...

[1] Thus belying my youth, as I am sure many out there who worked with previous generation networking kit do indeed remember surges over coax. :)

But yah, I do need a new hub. Well what I need is a wireless switch, but I am cheap. I almost got one for free, but no power adapter.

I still would put a broken hub on my low list of likely causes though, as I can establish connections in various ways, the odds of the hub mangling frames in JUST the right way so that A can see B but B cannot see A (but can do anything else just fine) is realllly small.

Re:Network Magic?

[Com2Kid]

(Unfortunately for you, your router that's handing out DHCP addresses doesn't bother to do DNS resolving for you as well. So you've got the one half but not he other.)

If that was true, then none of my machines would be able to access any of the other machines, but some of my machines CAN access other machines.

And I do have DNS resolving set up, just fine.

Maybe I should explain the (overly retarded) network layout a bit better:

I am in an apartment complex. The entire apartment is on a stupid switch[1] (it doesn't perform packet filtering at all).

I can actually browse around all the different workgroups and shares of (almost?) EVERYBODY in my apartment.

Except for the machines that are on my own local workgroup. :-p

Somewhere there is a machine that assigns us internal IP addresses and internal use DNS names.

The entire thing is a giant security hole. It would be semi-useful, but now that Windows XP doesn't share entire HDs out of the box, things are less fun than they used to be on @Home.

[1] I HOPE it is a switch.... But they wired the thing with 10BaseT (last year!) so who knows... I do wonder where they found 10BaseT though, hehe. Maybe they crimped it all themselves?

Re:Network Magic?

[Com2Kid]

Well the entire network is currently disassembled in my closet until I go back to college, so no feedback for awhile. :)

Sometimes network browsing can be fragile if you don't have a domain controller, even though the computers *can* actually talk to each other. Have you tried manually typing the computer's name (or IP address) into Explorer's address bar? ie: "\\WorkstationB\" or "\\10.0.0.2" (or whatever the IP address is, double-check by running "ipconfig" at the command line).

Oh, typing IP addresses in works.

Packets get routed out over the INTERNET first, but it works.

This is the fault of the ISP who apparently has the world's dumbest routers. The ISP also blocks Firefox automatic updates, EXEs inside of ZIP files, and users from downloading Thunderbird....

If anyone wants to direct flames somewhere, direct them at the stupid ISP for listing Thunderbird as a potential virus! Or as a threat or whatever. Actualy it just got caught by their stupid "download whitelist", if something isn't white listed, you can't download it. For a while Firefox 1.5 was not even allowed.... Once again, hilarious in some sad sad sense, since I am allowed to waltz all around the network looking at people's shared files. No, I won't give the ISPs name, as they are already nazis, I am afraid of what they would do to me if I showed any sign of overt resistence. I just SSH into a remote BSD machine and wget anything I need.

Actually the entire thing is dog slow since it is running 10baseT, I hope to get a Wireless G router up soon and fix the entire dang mess.

Do you know how slow VNC is over a 10baseT connection? It is just ridicules.

Re:Network Magic?

[Jesus_666]

Heh. Windows networking is, and always has been, a joke. The only really solid Windows networks I have ever seen are the virtual networks between my host OSes (Linux and OS X) and the Windows VMs.

The strangest thing that has happened to me so far: Ever since the last reinstallation of my parents' Windows (on a clean hard drive, no less) NTLOGON refuses to accept any login from the network. No configuration issue, no nothing. All requests get denied with a "wrong password", even for the passwordless, permissionless guest user (which I re-enabled for testing purposes) or entirely nonexistant users. That, of course, makes getting files onto that computer (which is the one connected to the printer) pretty much impossible; using the thing as a print server is beyond all feasibility.
Replacing NTLOGON or other possibly related system files doesn't change a thing, of course.

In my experience, Windows networking has always been a game of chance and I don't think that will ever change.

Re:Network Magic?

[nutrock69]

I hope I didn't come across with any attitude in my reply, so I apologize if it came off that way. Having a degree in Computer Engineering, I am (unfortunately) very aware that even the simplest electronic/electric circuit can go bad - especially from age and use. Since most physics models choose to ignore it, wear-and-tear does not violate any law of physics that I know of.

What I was trying to show in my orig post is that I have a system that is in some ways similar to yours (multi-XP), and in other ways more complex (plus assorteds), and that it "just works" without special effort. I have actually had a hub go bad and seen the very same problems you're describing. The hub was about 5 years old and had been in near constant use since first plugged in. Logic tells me that if the software worked before the problem and the settings remained unchanged, then something must have changed outside of the software. After swapping NIC's and cables with no success replacing the hub fixed the problem. YMMV - just telling you what fixed a problem I had that was similar to yours.

Re:Network Magic?

[Com2Kid]

I hope I didn't come across with any attitude in my reply, so I apologize if it came off that way. Having a degree in Computer Engineering, I am (unfortunately) very aware that even the simplest electronic/electric circuit can go bad - especially from age and use. Since most physics models choose to ignore it, wear-and-tear does not violate any law of physics that I know of.

Ah, now, I am in Computer Science, so my tendency is to think that one of my kind messed up somewhere. :)

I have actually had a hub go bad and seen the very same problems you're describing. The hub was about 5 years old and had been in near constant use since first plugged in. Logic tells me that if the software worked before the problem and the settings remained unchanged, then something must have changed outside of the software.

Yah, but this software never worked at all. :)

What I was trying to show in my orig post is that I have a system that is in some ways similar to yours (multi-XP),

I have had many XP based networks that did indeed, "just work".

They just never tend to be MY XP based networks.

I have the "car mechanic's car" problem. All the stuff I setup for others works grand, my own kit ain't pulling through though.

Re:Network Magic?

[Dolda2000]

Now when it comes to network printing, Windows domains have got *nix beat.

"Well what you do on *nix is you memorize the printers magic number, no, there is no searching GUI listing of printers setup, then you drop to the command line and pipe the file you want to print to the printer."

That's weird. Last I checked, CUPS has automatic printer sharing (using UDP broadcast). When I set up a LaserJet on my sister's computer, it could instantaneously be used on all other computers on the same link (of course, it's a bit harder when sharing a printer between two links, but all I had to do was to set up cupsd on the router to forward the discovery packets between the links, so it wasn't that bad -- most people probably don't have two subnets anyway). On newer distros, you may have to check a checkbox to enable network discovery, though (for security reasons).

What the heck is wrong with us? It should NOT be complicated.

Actually, it isn't that strange, since IPv4 was designed to be used on large, managed networks of minicomputers and mainframes... IPv6 has much better provisions for unmanaged networks.

Computers should not be non-deterministic.

Actually, it has proven that computer systems that involve simultaneous execution of several threads (such as SMP machines or networks of several UP machines) are non-deterministic.

Re:Network Magic?

[glesga_kiss]

Why the hell should someone need a DNS/DHCP server to send a file from Computer A to Computer B when both computers are ALREADY on the same network?

Because that's how TCP/IP works. Why the hell should I use the steering wheel on my car when I want to drive to the shops? Oh wait, you have to.

Windows does automatically assign a 169.x.x.x IP if you cannot get a DHCP server. This is a hack designed to help you get up and running, not run a network on a permament basis. For one, it only occurs after a lengthly timeout on the propper DHCP system. Not user friendly.

I have had troubles setting up file sharing in Windows before there even WAS a built in Windows firewall.

Let me guess, permission problems? It's working as designed; if you share out something in Documents and Settings, only you can read them. And by "you", I mean your specific GUID for your user, which will be different on each box. The same username on both machines is not the same user. Try sharing out C:\Temp for a test.

This is EXACTLY the same issue on NFS that resolves you to "nobody" on machine B when on A you are "root". It makes sense when you realise why it was done; anyone could install windows, create a user "bigBossManWithFullCompanyAccess" matching the current boss, then you can browse his machine.

Also, you can rule out Firewall issues if A can see B but B cannot see A. Both A and B obviously have a hole poked in their firewall for file sharing, but B is just acting STUPID.

Your first point is wrong. Firewalls are inbound and outbound. What you have is a perfectly valid scenario. Think of it this way, your PC can see google.com, but it can't see your PC.

B isn't acting stupid. It's just not set up right.

There is the official glossy MS pamphlet way of doing it, which doesn't work, and then if you dig a bit deeper you find out the REAL instructions. Once again, stupidity, if there is a button that SAYS it does something, it should darn well do that something, not secretly require that I do 5 other steps that are not officially documented.

What non-obvious magic do you need to do? I've had windows file sharing on my home network for seven years without any issues. The only ones I can recall was the early days of firewalls where you had to open ports by hand, then when XP tightened down home shares (which was good).

Re:Network Magic?

[mycall]

I agree. Add a WINS server. Windows 2000/NT4, it doesn't matter (those can be found cheap or free :-)

And this does what for me?

[Chris Pimlott]

A little context on why I might be interested in these programs would be nice.

Re:And this does what for me?

[mtenhagen]

It uses up your bandwith.

What if you payed for your big fat pipe but already have 10 porn movies in the "to wank" queue. You could still do something to prevent your isp from benefiting from their overbooking.

Re:And this does what for me?

[Chris Pimlott]

Er, I'm confused. Could you explain that with an analogy involving tubes?

Re:And this does what for me?

[Sage Gaspar]

No sweat. I'll just have my secretary send me over the internet and I'll forward it on.

Sourceforge

[Umbral Blot]

Here's something I never got: why isn't sourceforge free and open source itself? It seems like it should be.

Re:Sourceforge

[tcopeland]

A fork of SourceForge - GForge - is indeed free and open source. It's a bit painful to set up, but there are commercial support options. And there are lots of sites out there that are using it...

Re:Sourceforge

[Coneasfast]

Here's something I never got: why isn't sourceforge free and open source itself? It seems like it should be.

They have operating costs, my guess is they have pay for this somehow, perhaps advertising isn't enough. (and the last i checked, VA Software definitely isn't the most profitable company out there)

Re:Sourceforge

[ivoras]

Um, because money doesn't grow on trees?

Re:Sourceforge

[Anonymous Coward]

B-b-b-b-but you can still eke out a profit with open source! The GPL doesn't forbid you from charging! And, and, and you can make money on support! Besides, open source software is HIGHER quality--people should be MORE willing to pay, really they should! Sourceforge is shooting itself in the foot by keeping its software closed. Everyone on Slashdot knows that!

Re:Sourceforge

[Cal Paterson]

Yes, exactly.

Open Source is totally unprofitable

Re:Sourceforge

[nacturation]

And how much of that profit would be left if they distributed the profits to the thousands of volunteers who actually slaved away coding the projects? It would certainly be an interesting result regardless of how it turns out.

Re:Sourceforge

[just fiddling around]

Better yet, does anybody know how much the enterprise edition costs past the 15th seat? The whole site seems to be designed to go around the price question...

Re:Sourceforge

[killjoe]

The entire sourceforge/gforge paradigm is not that useful to people trying to install it in a company. In a company all development efforts are seen as parts of a whole so it's really important to have a big picture view of things. Sourceforge is about managing hundreds or thousands of unrelated projects by people who don't belong to the same organization.

Re:Sourceforge

[Cal Paterson]

It's probably not a result that would interest me.

The volunteers aren't directly rewarded financially (as if that was our motivator!). I write software because I enjoy writing software (though I don't call my software "Open Source" - it's Free Software).

Just because the relationship isn't directly finnacial doesn't mean that the relationship is exploitive (though some companies do actively exploit our communities - Microsoft and Apple in particular have used code without returning improvements).

These companies employ many hackers and fund many hacker project. I think Red Hat and IBM especially are a net gain.

Better for Slashdot.

[George Beech]

If you are as bored at work as I and havn't looked over the Top 100 Security Tools your time will be much better spent with those downloads than these.

o/t: Is this a porly concieved Slashvertisement???

Re:Better for Slashdot.

[rcamans]

Please point out to me a not poorly conceived slashvertisement. I want to see this rare bird. If it isn't extinct, it is because it never happened.
heh heh

Can you say more Non-Free than cheap beer?

[hackel]

Um...and just WHY would anyone be interested in downloading any of this non-free garbage? Especially Sourceforge. That was one shameful decision. One shouldn't even consider using it over free projects like Savane, GForge, or as someone already mentioned, Trac.

This is Slashdot, after all, did we forget?

Okay, sorry, Last.fm is kind of free, but still they need to restore the ability to play an mp3 stream with the player of your choice, not just their clunky custom software.

Re:Can you say more Non-Free than cheap beer?

[Sinryc]

Its also Taco's site.
What he says goes, goes.

Re:Can you say more Non-Free than cheap beer?

[generic-man]

1. Load clunky custom software
2. Click wrench icon
3. Click "Use external player"
4. ???
5. Profit!

This is not perfect, of course, but it still gives you the Last.fm player's controls like "I love this song," "Ban this song from my personal radio station," and "Skip to the next song."

Re:Can you say more Non-Free than cheap beer?

[Kunta Kinte]

Um...and just WHY would anyone be interested in downloading any of this non-free garbage? Especially Sourceforge.

Um... for support?

This may not appeal to the hobbyist, but some people here are in the business of developing software.

Paying a few hundred dollars per month so to have someone accountable for your support applications may work out to be a lot cheaper than spending your valuable time doing it, or hiring someone for that task.

Re:Can you say more Non-Free than cheap beer?

[Anonymous Coward]

No. It's a site owned by a publicly traded company. What the sharedholders say goes.

Re:Can you say more Non-Free than cheap beer?

[Anonymous Coward]

I am looking for some free desktop wallpaper to dress up my admin's machine since he has to work on tomorrow's holiday. He didn't log off his desktop yesterday and it looks so boring.

Since he was on this webpage about free software I thought maybe it was a good place to start, and maybe get a recommendation of good sites to get some free screensavers too.

Won't he be surprised tomorrow, and it won't cost the company a thing. We like free around here ... I'm even working here for free today.

Re:Can you say more Non-Free than cheap beer?

[westlake]

Um...and just WHY would anyone be interested in downloading any of this non-free garbage?
This is Slashdot, after all, did we forget?

I'll not mind pointers to any interesting program, "free" or "non-free," however you choose to define it.

I haven't the faintest trace of ideological purity or political correctness when it comes to the use of my personal computer, which is why, I suppose, I am a likely candidate for migration to Vista.

That said.

I have been frustrated more than once in trying to find free and open source software which might be of use to me, other than the marquee projects like Firefox and OpenOffice.org and the usual suspects to be found on any compilation CD.

Navigarting Sourceforge is not my idea of fun.

Re:Can you say more Non-Free than cheap beer?

[Martz]

Um... and open source software can't be supported by the company that wrote it? Or a third party support company?

If anything, open source support should be cheaper for the customer due to FOSS support companies competing to support a variety of open products, rather than the customer getting stuck with a single vendor for each piece of proprietary software they buy.

You seem to be under the illusion that all FOSS software is only suitable for hobbyists and won't work in a business because nobody will support it. You couldn't be more wrong to be honest.

Paying a few hundred dollars per month may leave your business data in the hands of a software company who can completely control you, restrict your business potential and waste all of your time and money chasing them trying to resolve a problem.

At least with FOSS you can switch support providers if they start to take the piss.

Re:Can you say more Non-Free than cheap beer?

[fuzzybunny]

Um... and open source software can't be supported by the company that wrote it? Or a third party support company?

Of course it can. Which is why, when making a purchasing decision for software, you need to consider _all_ the alternatives and pick whatever's best. Including both FOSS and commercial/proprietary stuff.

Ideology should have, at best, a secondary place in the decision. I've seen as many companies get bogged down with open source stuff that was chosen for poor reasons (i.e. because it was free rather than because it was better) as I've witnessed organizations held hostage by evil proprietary vendors.

Just because it's not FOSS doesn't automagically make it some sort of demon-spawn.

Re:Can you say more Non-Free than cheap beer?

[Anonymous Coward]

Comments:
* The last.fm player is BSD-licensed, so you are free to integrate it with anything you like.
* Several[1, 2, 3] people have already done this.
* If you played it in your usual player, the advanced features wouldn't work (skip, tag, etc).

[1] http://www.mylastfm.com/
[2] http://www.o-hand.com/~iain/last-exit/
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last.fm

SourceForge prices...

[Kunta Kinte]

I think, Sourceforge should lower their prices, or provide an entry level product, rather than release for free.

The On-Demand product is $100 per developer per month ( $50 for first project ).

For the MicroISV type companies, the firms SF.net would appeal to most, that might be a bit steep. Especially compared to downloading the open source components and configuring them for themselves.

How about a bare-bones offering for about $10-20 per developer per month, and charges additional based on usage? Eg. Diskspace, Bandwidth, CPU, additional features?

Regarding Player of Choice

[TheStonepedo]

You still have to use their clunky custom software but you can stream their stream from their player to another player which accepts streaming mp3 audio. It's a roundabout way, but it lets you keep their minimally functional player minimized or on another desktop out of the way.

Network Magic?

[dohcvtec]

Give me a break... Slashdot is supposed to be News for Nerds, not News for Newbs.

Hamachi

[CoolVibe]

Seriously, you guys should give Hamachi a try. You can build LAN's over the internet with it in a reasonably secure manner. Great for multiplayer games. Also comes in a yummy Linux flavour.

Re:Hamachi

[/dev/trash]

Doesn't that use Routable but unused IP allocations? 5.0.x.x?

Re:Hamachi

[MacJedi]

Doesn't that use Routable but unused IP allocations? 5.0.x.x?

That's correct. It looks like it uses all of 5.x.x.x. In linux and Mac it achieves this through the tap/tun kernel module.

Re:Hamachi

[moosesocks]

As a minor correction -- Hamachi builds VPNs, not LANs, and is damn good at it too.

I thought that a zero-configuration VPN was too good to be true, but after successfully using it behind a few very restrictive firewalls, I'm willing to believe it's true. As a nice bonus, the security is very good. It's definitely the coolest bit of technology I've used this year.

Re:Hamachi

[/dev/trash]

Soooo what happens when/if 5.x.x.x starts to get allocated and used?

Re:Hamachi

[apankrat]

Soooo what happens when/if 5.x.x.x starts to get allocated and used?

Hamachi'd computers will not be able to communicate with 5.x.x.x I-net peers if Hamachi is running.

Audioscrobbler != last.fm

[Lord Kano]

Audioscrobbler started off as a school project, but after a while, they went commercial, and are now last.fm.

Last fm is a standalone player that implements the Audioscrobbler functionality. Audioscrobbler is STILL available in plugin form for Winamp, iTunes and Windows Media Player.

Perhaps the submitter is a dolt but at least he read the fucking page.

(Last fm == Standalone player) && (Audioscrobbler == plugin)

LK

Re:Audioscrobbler != last.fm

[yoasif]

Comment is not very insightful, as it merely says the same exact thing as I was saying; the change is in marketing names, not anything else.

Audioscrobbler effectively became last.fm (try going to ; it simply redirects to last.fm.

So while the plugin is still called Audioscrobbler, it's not like it's a separate product; in fact, before the site and plugin used to be called Audioscrobbler, and now just the plugin is. But again, it's just a name change.

I suppose you can say that when they went commercial, they added a new feature to the site (the radio). Submitter is still a dolt for phrasing it as "a couple of folks seem to have rediscovered the joy of Audioscrobbler and sharing the stuff via last.fm".

It's the same guys, it's the same underlying technology and methods (Audioscrobbler) and they've simply made a pretty page and a radio player that has some Audioscrobbler "smarts" in the backend.

They didn't need to "discover" the joy of Audioscrobbler, they literally invented it!

Re:Audioscrobbler != last.fm

[Lord Kano]

Comment is not very insightful, as it merely says the same exact thing as I was saying; the change is in marketing names, not anything else.

No, I didn't repeat you. You are incorrect. Last fm is a standalone player. Audioscrobbler is a plugin for myriad players.

LK

Re:Audioscrobbler != last.fm

[xtracto]

Both are right in some way.

Audioscrobbler and Last.fm have existed for quite some time. Last.fm is the "commercial" side of the company, while audioscrobbler was (as you state) the name of the plugin that lets you update your online profile.

Now, they have been two very related things since the beggining, (when there was NOT a stand alone player).

There was a time when the two pages where completely different. Now they are just the same.

"last.fm" in a sense is nothing more than a name. The "stand alone player" is just called "last.fm player" yeah, with the "player" word in it.

The reason they made the "player" when they became mainstream was because of the fear of being sued by the record cartels as people could easly streamreap from winamp or other players. Of course a lot of people complained, and there player has now the ability to function as a proxy for other players (stupid if you ask me). There is also a python script that will do the same.

so there is no change in marketing names and no Last.fm is not the name of the player.

Re:Audioscrobbler != last.fm

[yoasif]

No, Last.fm is a company and website.

Last.fm Player is the player application that they produce.

Audioscrobbler is the brains behind both the player and the website.

They are all owned and developed by last.fm, and the last.fm website effectively subsumed the original Audioscrobbler site.

Audioscrobbler wasn't always just the name of the plugin, it was the whole website and tracking system as well!

Not exactly what you were saying.

Re:Audioscrobbler != last.fm

[MagnumChaos]

Actually, you all are kind of right. Audioscrobbler is the development end of the company, whereas, Last.FM is the front-end/software side.

http://www.audioscrobbler.net/

Check it out.

Things to download?

[saboola]

I dont see anything about pron in that list. It must be a bad list.

But...

[tehcyder]

...do they run on BSD?

Yes

[ArchieBunker]

And its not the first. Anyone remember the fastest most "extreme" thumbdrive they reviewed?

Clog the tubes....

[Himring]

/. editor is going to clog the tubes with so many submissions at once....

I have to say this to that senator btw: "you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means...."

Re:What the heck

[Mitchell Mebane]

Indeed. There are two things I would like to see added to Windows XP's wireless networking tools, and "Network Magic" seems to do neither:

1) Have a separate TCP/IP configuration for each network (I hear this will be added in Vista. Blah.)
2) Manually choose which AP I wish to connect to, if there are more than one around.

I'm surprised....

[Rendo]

No one has said porn yet. Porn is a MUST download for /.ers

Re:What the heck

[Anonymous Coward]

#2 breaks the spec for Wireless

Any alternatives to Network Magic?

[loose electron]

My system is 3 PC's all running XP, a Red-Hat Linux box, and a WiFi port. After F***ing around with Windows XP network, reading a lot of IT help sites on the subject, I got it to work.

Then I went through auto-update land and it all came tumbling down. ^%%!!!!*****! (and then the "wizards" that "auto-muck" without checking if they have permission added in their damage) Attempts to re-configure and return to functionality failed. (Even did system restores on everything to back when it was all healthy and working.)

At that point I threw up my hands and installed Network Magic. That got it to plug and play. The annoying thing with NM is that they do an annual lease, and I am now an addict to their lease.

Anybody know an alternative to Network Magic?

tnx...

Audioscrobbler == last.fm

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually it should be

Audioscrobbler == last.fm

Because last.fm won't be assigned to Audioscrobbler.

no problem, it will not be "used"

[frovingslosh]

There doesn't seem to be much problem of that, since as far as I can tell the software doesn't even claim to be very useful, at least not the "free" version that this article suggests downloading. It requires, at a minumum, a AMD Athlon® 3200+ (ouch, what the hell are they doing with all that CPU that a AMD 3000 isn't quite enough for???), and looking over the list of feature for the free version there seems to be nothing there - The "network map" can't be enough to justify this thing, the "network monitoring and repair" is a vague unexplained term, and the wireless protection doesn't seem to work with all routers (the web site says it doesn't work with mine, although it doesn't actually explain what router feature it requires to make it work). I looked it over, but there seems to be no merit all all to this software, and I'm hard pressed to understand why it is promoted on the front page of Slashdot (aimed at Geeks), unless there was some sort of undisclosed financial arangement to promote it.

Mod Parent Up

[Jesapoo]

I love it when, just occasionally, someone on /. actually gives up some useful information. It's a shame that posts like this that, although not directly related to the story or such, clearly deserve at least an extra +1 or +2 end up stuck at their starting score, whilst bad "does it run linux", chair-throwing and "I for one welcome our new [blah] overlords" re-hashes end up with +5's. /. moderation sucks.

I Thank you, Mr. Nougat, for your post. I fear no one else will :P

Re:What the heck

[Mitchell Mebane]

What spec, if you don't mind? All I want is something like "If multiple APs for network A are available, and X is one of them, use X". It's not too important, but I would use it occasionally.

it's called Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

The alternative you are looking for is called linux available for free without any anual fee for a lease...

enjoy it!!! ;-)

Network Magic could be great....

[Kernel Kurtz]

.....but it sadly lacks a couple important features. We use HP Openview - Network Node Manager at work, and I've been looking for something similar (but simpler and cheaper) for SOHO use.

If they could add adjustable polling intervals/schedules and (the single biggest ommision) notification on failure options (page, email, SMS, etc) it would be really useful for monitoring in small shops.

Re:What the heck

[The Cisco Kid]

Personally I dont give a flying fig what gets added (or not) to any version of Microsoft anything.

Network Magic is specifically *FOR* Windows uses, in as much as it is *FOR* morons. I generally consider that to be the same thing.

More to download.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Hell of a freeware game in Win/Mac and Linux flavors !!

http://icculus.org/neverball/