What's Hot: Products from APconnections, Vaita, and EFD Software

Sync Outlook Content Between Multiple Computers

Vaita's Outlook Sharing Add-in and Synchronizer (OsaSync) is software that lets you synchronize Microsoft Outlook content between multiple computers. You can share or sync Outlook contacts, appointments, and tasks via LAN or FTP server through the Internet. You can sync email folders by storing received email messages of common interest in a sync folder and the messages will show up in the same folder on your coworkers' computers. OsaSync PRO is shareware and costs $59.95 to register. If you only want to work with contacts, you can download OsaSync Lite for free. OsaSync Lite lets you sync Outlook contacts in peer-to-peer (P2P) mode on up to four computers.

Paul Proefrock of Chesterfield, Missouri, recommends OsaSync to Windows IT Pro readers. He says, "More and more people are carrying laptops and maintaining a home computer. Trying to get Outlook to 'play nice' between the two has always been a hassle. PST files don't share very easily. Workarounds using Briefcase are taxing. OsaSync lets you sync email, contacts, and tasks between two or more computers that are using Outlook. OsaSync supports all versions of Outlook, including Microsoft Office Outlook 2003. Once you set it up, it's virtually error-free and pretty much maintenance free. Microsoft Exchange Server is expensive, and, for individual use, also becomes a major maintenance item when trying to sync as many as three machines. OsaSync easily performs such actions at one-tenth the cost. The program also includes support for PDAs, so you can easily keep multiple machines and platforms in sync. OsaSync is a great product. For those of us who are trying to share personal files over multiple systems, OsaSync is a godsend."

Product: OsaSync
Company: Vaita
Contact:
http://www.vaita.com, sales@vaita.com

Control Bandwidth

APconnections' NetEqualizer appliances are bandwidth-shaping systems designed for voice and data networks. You can deploy the scalable bandwidth control products in both corporate and service provider networks. NetEqualizer appliances automatically shape traffic based on built-in rules, which lets network administrators and operators quickly and easily balance network traffic without having to build and manage extensive policy libraries and without requiring changes to the existing network infrastructure. The appliance provides bandwidth-limiting capability through fairness rules, which favor bandwidth for Web browsing and email. NetEqualizer provides detection, reporting, and bandwidth restriction for certain applications such as POP3, Musicmatch, Kazaa, and LimeWire.

Nathan Smith of Des Moines nominated NetEqualizer as a product that has helped him do his job better. He says, "NetEqualizer has really helped my company with bandwidth problems. The appliance is a small (daresay, cute) bridge-based box that goes between your network and the Internet. The product applies a slowing to applications that hog bandwidth so that all applications get an equal share. NetEqualizer doesn't break your wallet like one of the high-end priority or compression products. NetEqualizer helps me do large FTP transfers without interrupting normal Web usage and email flow."

Product: NetEqualizer
Company: APconnections
Contact:
http://www.netequalizer.com, 888-287-2492

Tune Your PC

Mark McGee of Okemos, Michigan, uses EFD Software's HD Tune and provides high praise for the product. He says, "I discovered one of our servers had three drives running at UDMA 2 (33MBps) when the drive potential was actually UDMA 5 (100MBps). After I did a little poking around, I was able to get the drives to UDMA 5 and increase the server performance. I wouldn't have known how to check the drive performance if I didn't have HD Tune!"

HD Tune is a freeware, hard disk utility that can benchmark raw performance and look at transfer rate, access time, CPU usage, and burst rate. You can view partition information, supported features, firmware version, serial numbers, disk capacity, buffer size, and transfer mode. The utility lets you check the health of your hard disk, check the temperature display, and features Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART).

Product: HD Tune
Company: EFD Software
Contact:
http://www.hdtune.com, support@hdtune.com