What's Hot: Products From Phonex Broadband, dbNetLink, and Araxis

Wirelessly Connect Remote Users

Phonex Broadband, Phonex NeverWire 14, http://www.phonex.com, 801-566-0100, 800-437-0101

Randy Wallin of Jupiter, Florida, was working in an environment in which network cabling seemed impractical for connecting remote users to the server, and a wireless solution seemed to be a better choice. He fiddled with a wireless solution that provided unsatisfactory results. Then, he purchased the Phonex NeverWire 14, a wireless networking bridge device from Phonex Broadband that uses existing home AC wiring to pass digital signals between Ethernet-enabled devices. The bridge lets you share a high-speed modem between multiple computers.

"When I got the NeverWire, I simply plugged it in and was up and running—great product. A big bonus was that I was also able to add another NeverWire to an iMac, and it was ready to join the remote network," said Wallin.

Features include a data transfer rate of 14Mbps, an Ethernet interface, support for 16 nodes per network, and 56-bit Data Encryption Standard (DES). Pricing starts at $129.99.

Generate Grids

dbNetLink, DbNetGrid, http://www.dbnetgrid.com, [email protected]

DbNetGrid from dbNetLink is an HTML grid component for Internet and intranet development. The solution serves as a grid component integrated with your applications, as a Web reporting tool, or as a Web application. You can use the DbNetGrid::Designer interface to generate grids. Grids contain built-in functionality, including the ability to update, insert, and delete records, point-and-click reordering capability, a search dialog, and the ability to save results in HTML, XML, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel formats. You can link grids to create drilldown Web reports.

Robin Collins of Bristol, England, recommends the product and has found it to be very flexible and a big time saver. Collins said of the product, "We've used the product very extensively in the last few months. If you're looking for an innovative Web-based product, then I would have to say that based on our experience, this one is definitely worth a look."

You can license DbNetGrid on a processor rather than client basis. A license must cover the total number of processors in the servers on which you install DbNetGrid. Pricing starts at $499 for a single-processor license. DbNetGrid requires Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 5.0 or later on the client system and Microsoft IIS on the server. The software supports Microsoft SQL Server.

Keep Multiple Folder Hierarchies in Sync

Araxis, Araxis Merge 6.0, http://www.araxis.com, [email protected]

Windows & .NET Magazine reader Steve Runyon of Cedar Knolls, New Jersey, recommends Araxis Merge 6.0 from Araxis. Runyon said of Araxis Merge, "It's awesome. I haven't seen a better folder and file comparison or file merge tool."

Araxis Merge Standard is a visual file comparison, merging, and folder synchronization application that lets you compare and work with different revisions of text files. Color-coded, side-by-side comparisons let you see differences between files at a glance. The application draws linking lines between the documents to show how they're related. Product managers can use the software to compare entire source code branches to make sure that they understand every change they introduce in a product release.

Araxis Merge Professional features three-way visual file comparison and merging capability, which works when more than one person is working on the same file set. Automatic Merging lets you reconcile large files. Araxis Merge 6.0 runs on Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows Me, and Windows 9x systems. Pricing starts at $124.

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Have you used a product that changed your IT experience by saving you time or easing your daily burden? Tell us about it! We want to write about the product in a future What's Hot column. Send your product nominations for What's Hot, including information about how the product helped you, to [email protected].