WinProxy: not so good
Written: May 31 '00 (Updated May 31 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Free trial available from their web site
Cons: Hard to use, never did work right for me
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| rag47's Full Review: Ositis WinProxy 3.0 Full Version for PC (25 User/s... |
After struggling with WinProxy 3.0 for about six weeks, I finally un-installed it. I just could never get it to work right. Even the un-install didn’t work right; I had to manually delete the menu entries for it from Start Programs.
WinProxy is supposed to allow you to connect to the Internet with one computer on your local area network, and to share that connection with all the other computers on your LAN. The more I used this program, the lower my opinion became of it. You can start, as I did, by downloading a free functioning version (expires in a month) from their website, www.winproxy.com. I got it to work after a fashion and then ordered the CD-ROM from them.
My experience was that I would manage to get most everything to work for a while and then it would stop working. I'd reboot all the machines and fiddle with the settings and then it would work for a while again, before I had to go through the process again. I have a lot of experience connecting PCs to the Internet, and that let me get it working to some extent, but the result was never satisfactory.
For example, I went to use FTP to send updated files to my website. At the SEND command, it just stopped and did nothing. No dialog box, no warning or info of any kind. I figured that since it used to work, it must be Winproxy. I fooled with the advanced settings and finally got it working. During setup there was never any mention of FTP - you just have to figure these problems out on your own.
I never did get Telnet to work right. Both of the local library systems here in Seattle have their catalogs online, but you have to use Telnet to access them. As near as I could tell from the WinProxy documentation, you have to configure each telnet link you want to use separately. I never was able to get Telnet to work (except from the host computer).
Network setups are hard to debug. Winproxy provides very little in the way of help. You just have to try different settings until it starts working. You would think that when it is configured to block access to something and you try to access that, it would pop up a dialog box. But noooo.
The documentation is just awful. The CD-ROM comes with a Quick Start Guide. Here are the first two steps from it:
1. Right-click on "Network Neighborhood" on your desktop.
2. Click Configuration, ...
Go ahead; try this yourself, right now. You'll notice that the menu you get when you right click Network Neighborhood does NOT contain a "Configuration" entry, at least not on Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 98. Now how much testing can WinProxy have had if the second step of the Quick Start Guide is wrong? Sheesh. There are other problems with the Quick Start Guide, too. For instance, it says, "Your serial number can be found on the back cover of this Quick Start Guide." Not so.
Overall, my feeling is that Winproxy is just a second rate product. It's hard to use, poorly designed, documented and tested. I'm sorry I bought it. I'm going to try, instead, Windows 98 Second Edition, which has this sharing capability built in.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
rag47
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Location: Issaquah, WA
Reviews written: 21
Trusted by: 12 members
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