Free LAN Software Recommendations?

July 16, 2006 12:26 PM

Any free 2000/XP networking software the hive mind can recommend?

Having just got the home lan working, I'm looking for networking software that people find cool, handy and maybe even innovative. Oh, and it's got to be free.

Thanks!

posted by raydexter to computers & internet (4 answers total)

Network Magic. My mother and sister both use that and from what I see it is fairly simple and straight forward (sharing printers and files across networks, WEP encryption, tracking intruders on your wireless network) and is free to try. I believe it can be had for 40 bucks though, for a full featured version.

http://www.networkmagic.com/

Outside of that, i'm not familar with anything that can be used for networking to add features.
posted by richter_x at 12:36 PM on July 16, 2006

Yeah, I'm looking to add features to an already operational network.
posted by raydexter at 1:24 PM on July 16, 2006

What sort of features are you looking for? Home LAN doesn't really require much at all. The most useful tools I've found are tracert/traceroute & ping, honestly. Home network topology really isn't that big of a problem, and 2000/XP Pro will include all the Windows networking you need, as well as interfaces to unix & (I think mac) networking as well. Printer sharing, file sharing is all straight forward.

If you have a large number of computers, and you need to be constantly sharing files, or want to be able to log onto any computer & have your files there, think about using Active Directory, although I'm not sure if either Pro version will support being a server.
posted by devilsbrigade at 2:17 PM on July 16, 2006

maybe i misunderstand your question but lemme give it a shot.

i have a machine running windows 2000, a fast machine running XPpro and a laptop thats running xp. originally i simply did the window-share thing. it was handy. my two printers are networked.

to play multiplayer computer games and share files with my buddies, i've set up a VPN with Hamachi. you can set one up without the program, but this program is free, encrypted and zero-configure. just install it and it works. i added HFS as a simple fileshare for the idiot friends of mine who refuse to use hamachi. the web interface is bare but serviceable.

google puTTy

hope i helped.
posted by Davaal at 2:27 PM on July 16, 2006 [1 favorite]