Network Profile Management Software

Auser

My shiny new Windows 7 machine has one drawback. Sadly, the old faithful application I've been using for years to manage my network settings as I roamed around client sites doesn't work (http://code.google.com/p/netprofiles/).

What are you guys using under Windows 7?

ericmedley

Isn't it sorta built in with the 'Locations' functionality? I have dozens of network projiles. Hmm... now I'll have to go see what's going on.

Auser

Kind of.

Many of our client sites have statically assigned networks with no DHCP server (for better or worse). I'm after a program that allows me to store profiles for different network adaptors (wired/wireless) allowing me to quickly configure my IP settings to connect to the network at the site I'm at.

NetProfiles was perfect for this; unfortunately the open source replacements that I've tried that work under Windows 7 have been a bit, well, crap.

There are lots of better programs out there, I'm just not sure which are the best...

nicholasjames

Are you much of a batch script writer? For the last few years I've just been using NETSH and a batch script.

travis

a few people here use mobile net switch

champ

I used to use NetProfiles too and never found anything nice after it stopped working so I now put a shortcut in each project folder that changes my IP address using NETSH (like nicholasjames said).

To set your network adaptor to DHCP enter the following in the target field of a shortcut:

C:\Windows\System32\netsh.exe interface ip set address "Local Area Connection" dhcp

To set a static address of 192.168.1.100 use the following shortcut:

C:\Windows\System32\netsh.exe interface ip set address "Local Area Connection" static 192.168.1.100 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.1 1

I have the DHCP shortcut and a couple of very commonly used shortcuts on my desktop.

There couldn't be any less overhead on your PC and I severely doubt you will get hit with the "Microsoft has decided to depracate that technology in favour of something more bloaty" stick.

vining

In win7 have you tried "Control Panel\Network and Internet\Manage Wireless Networks" add a network, set it's wireless security and key and then set the adapter's properties to what ever static address you need. It 's then added to the list.

svTech

Champ - the suggestion to use netsh works great.

One comment to anyone who decides to use this: You must run the BAT as an administrator for the change to take effect. It is incredibly fast.

pdabrowski

just a thought on the netsh command, we have a utility that changes computernames, IP's etc built with VisualBasic, so it leverages vbScript commands to do the work. I have found that in Windows 7 with regards to hardwired interfaces the change will not be made unless the network interface is connected to a device or switch.

Not sure whether this is the same with netsh from a batchfile.

Was a bit of a b**ch to find and try to troubleshoot!

jimmyw

Is there a general interest in something like this?

If there is I will finish and polish up a little project that this made me work on(yes, you made me work on it)

I have done some research and I have a functional(but ugly looking) program that will associate .nqc (Network Quick Config)(I cant find anything else that uses that extension so there should be no conflicts)

I have made its default action to load the NQC file, apply changes, and exit
If UAC is enabled it will ask to be authorized
It can add an SSID to wlan autoconfig with the proper authorization mode and key
I am having problems forcing it to connect right away to a wireless network

Is there anything else a useful network manager should do?

Auser

Thanks for all the answers guys - there's some good ideas in there.

None did quite what I wanted so I've knocked out an application of my own that sits in the system tray similar to NetProfiles. I'll release it on the forums once I address a couple of minor issues.

I'd originally thought I'd knock out a UI for netsh, but it proved so easy to implement the IP setting functionality in code that I went down the path of writing a self contained executable.

jimmyw wrote: »

If there is I will finish and polish up a little project that this made me work on(yes, you made me work on it)

Sounds like a good little utility. In my case I'm only really interested in changing IP settings on an adaptor, not so much in managing wireless networks, so I'm fairly happy with my little NetProfiles replacement.

jimmyw

Are you using WMI Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration ?
Also, talking about utilities, does anyone else use JustAddPower HDMI video distribution?


Jimmy

vining

I've used JAP and may again, why?

jimmyw

Well, we have a job with 28 tx and 36 rx, firmware updates are a nightmare, so I made a little tool to grab the addresses with mDNS, and can update all the tx, and all the rx at one time, instead of having to open 1 tab per JAP and manually updating them.

Jimmy

champ

I decided to try using manage wireless network in Windows 7 but the networks disappear and I have to re-enter them every time I reconnect.
I hope the next version of Windows is not called Windows 8 because googling "Windows 7" specific problems sucks.

Can anyone with better googling skills than I tell me how I fix this?


This reinforces the reason I like using third party (not Windows) solutions that don't use Microsoft created technologies like dotNet (or ActiveX or Silverlight or Microsoft Java or IE or Windows Live or any of their operating systems in the first year of release or ...) because the only guarantee you have that the current version will work in 2 years time is that it won't!

Auser

Auser wrote: »

None did quite what I wanted so I've knocked out an application of my own that sits in the system tray similar to NetProfiles. I'll release it on the forums once I address a couple of minor issues.

I never did get around to addressing those issues as they haven't caused me any problems. I've attached an installer which may be of benefit to some of you.

Bear in mind that this program is far more limited in what it can do than NetProfiles; at the moment all it allows you to do is change IP addresses on a particular interface. I may add functionality at a later date if I ever get around to it, so feel free to send suggestions.

jimmyw wrote:

Are you using WMI Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration ?

Yes.