14 DAY TRIAL // Network information and system information are topics that I won't ever get enough, and I am sure that new programs that take care of this task won't cease appearing any time soon... Today is the time for another network information tool, and I hope that my choice will help you, despite its small limitations, but let's see what we have here, shall we?
The program I have here is simply called NetInfo, its latest version is 6.0 and what I have here is a slightly feature limited shareware version. The price of the full program is 39.95$, which sounds excellent, considering the fact that I have seen similar tools that take at least two or three times more money out of your pockets...
The software setup package has 1.7MB in size and comes inside a 1.56MB ZIP archive. I don't have to tell you how to unpack and install it, because I am sure you already know that, but I have to let you know that the installation of this program was a piece of cake, and you shouldn't have any problems...at least until you get to the main window, and that's the place where I'll take you now. The purpose is the usual one, to explore the program's interface and features, of course.
NetInfo's interface is not something I would be proud of, if this program would be my creation, but it wouldn't make me blush either. What we have here is just an ordinary Windows interface with a lot of tabs and a main menu that has four menus inside it, so there's no glow to be seen here, but I don't see this as a problem. This interface is well organized and very easy to use, making this program an excellent choice for beginners into this field. These being said, I guess the time to explore the network tools available here has come...
There are exactly fifteen areas to be explored today, and the first one is called Local Info. Here, you can get information about local host and currently active version of the Windows Sockets, as well as all that can be found out about your network adapter.
The next tool available is an excellent connection monitor that lets you obtain information about current TCP/IP connections and also gives you the chance to terminate them.
The next five tools here should be well known to people that use *nix operating systems, but not only to them. Ping, Trace, Lookup, Finger and Whois are tools that you should encounter in every good network tool. They allow you to check connectivity to a device on your network or from the Internet, obtain a list of gateways between your computer and a remote device, obtain information on host names and IP addresses, including possible aliases, and finally, using the Ping and Whois tool, you can obtain information about all users on a network host and the names from the Network Information Center associated to a certain website.
You don't have to be a network specialist to use all these tools, because all you have to know is the address, IP or user name from a server that you want to query. If there's something that you don't know, just check the built in documentation, I am sure it's going to clear things out. Now that you know this, there are some more tools to discover, so let's get back to them!
The next two areas are related, their names being Daytime and Time. The first one lets you obtain local time of the day at another network host's location, while the second returns the precise time value from a remote Time server and synchronizes your local system clock.
The Quote tool lets you view quotations from a remote Quote server that displays a "quote of the day" and allows you to connect to it. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find such a server today, but I can only hope that you'll get lucky.
The HTML tool is used for obtaining full header information and page data from a Web server, including possible cookies.
The Scanner tool should be well known to most of you, its purpose being to scan a given IP addresses range and verify the host status for each of them.
Services is a tool that can be used to find hidden network services like Web or FTP servers. All you have to do is enter the host name or address, press the Verify button and then check the active ports and services associated to them that are displayed.
The E-mail tool can prove extremely useful these days, when spam has become a real problem and checking addresses fast and easy can spare a lot of your time. The information returned by this tool includes user and domain names and mail exchanger information.
At last, the Web Center is a tool reserved for the users of the full program and can be used to find the most useful tools, tips & tricks, as well as latest news available online.
I think that what we have found out here today sounds really good, and there's only one more thing to do before letting you enjoy this program: draw the conclusions.
The Good
NetInfo is a useful program that's very easy to use for beginners and experts alike, but that doesn't mean the advanced features are sacrificed to make it easier to understand. If you have any problem, you can use the comprehensive Help file that comes with the program.
The Bad
In the future I hope to see a good looking interface and maybe some additional features, like a firewall.
The Truth
NetInfo is a good choice for getting information about your network and also remote locations, being very easy to use, well featured and having a good price. The only thing left to do for me is to move on, and for you, to get this program and check it out as soon as possible. Have fun!
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
