NetBook from developer StaS Bandol is an iPhone/iPod Touch application meant to store records, and configuration settings for a variety of networks. In a sense, it has the ability of becoming the network administrator’s best friend by storing valuable data in their pocket. However, NetBook’s developers claim that this app is not only meant for network administrators, but for anyone “who has a lot of computers to manage.” Since, I fall in the latter category; as a reviewer I looked at the application to see how if it would benefit a regular person.
Interface
NetBook’s interface fits the same theme that most iPhone applications use, which is simplicity. The menu is clearly defined into several main categories: users, systems and settings. Each menu is then filtered into three different tabs in order to make the app’s search function easier to use. For the user menu the tabs where name, user and email. For the system menu the tabs were labeled IP, MAC and Netbios. NetBook does a good job of storing data. The developers specifically structured data to be found in this manner so that it was also easy to correlate user information associated with a specific network or computer, which was another advantage of this app. Thus this was one of the many features that NetBook had to offer.
Features:
- Keeps records/data of user information: email, username, password, etc.
- Keeps records for system info: IP address, MAC address, Netbios name, admin username & password
- Filters search function by menu category
- PING and HTTP functions
- Email user data
- Can detect conflicts in IP address, username, name and email information
Functionality
The functionality of NetBook is deeply seeded within the app’s ability to store data successfully otherwise it would be useless. The HTTP and PING functions associated with the systems menu also worked for me. I actually had a problem with my router, and was able to use NetBook to see if my internet connection was still active by using the ping function. The HTTP function worked as well and was used to access an IP address that I had administrative privileges to. Though the PING and HTTP functions are meant for much complex operations, it did prove to be very useful especially in my time of need.
Conclusion
As I set out to write this short review, my purpose was to see how useful NetBook really was. And I came to the conclusion that it met my needs despite how small they were. Overall, in my experience NetBook did not disappoint. However a major downfall with the app was lack of support for it on the main website. It would’ve have been nice to have some sort of short guide or FAQ/help section associated with the program. I give this app a 3.0/5.0, and recommend you at least give NetBook a try. It’s available in the iTunes store for $1.99.
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Categories: The Feed, TheMacFeed Reviews:, iPhone Apps
