Network Unplugged v.5.1

By Bryan Sims

Bryan Sims is an attorney with James, Gustafson and Thompson in Naperville, Ill.
He specializes in commercial litigation and considers himself hopelessly addicted to technology.

I have used a laptop as my primary computer for about 18 months. I love its portability and would never consider going back to a desktop model. My only complaint is I always have to keep track of whether the most current version of a file resides on my laptop’s hard drive or on the server. Now, with Network Unplugged by Mobiliti Inc., I no longer have that concern. I know any local file I work on automatically will be synchronized with the network file when I return to the office.

Network Unplugged creates a virtual network on your laptop, allowing you to access designated network files, regardless of whether you are connected to the network while preserving all of the file path names. When you are away from the office, you can work on the file stored in the virtual network. When you return to the office, simply synchronize the files.

Installing the program was easy and only took a few minutes. Once the program was installed, it was just as easy to select the folders I wanted the program to synchronize. I began by creating a project (e.g., a group of related files). You can define a project as broadly or as narrowly as you like. Additionally, you can have as many projects as you want. I created a single project for my network files.

After creating the project, I designated the folders I wanted available to me when I no longer was connected to my network. Using the “Windows Explorer” function, I dragged and dropped the folders I wanted into my project. Once I did this, I told the program to synchronize them.

I selected several folders for synchronization, which made the first synchronization take several minutes. After that, my subsequent synchronizations took less than one minute. Also, it was easy to add an additional folder to my project simply by dragging that folder and dropping it into the project. With Network Unplugged’s virtual network, the number of files available offline are limited only by your hard drive space. If your hard drive is big enough, you could take all of your network files with you.

The program monitors your connection and automatically switches between the real and virtual networks through its “Virtual Network” feature. The only problem I encountered while using Network Unplugged occurred with this feature. I was in the habit of simply closing the lid on my computer when I left work. Network Unplugged didn’t like this and often would not recognize the “Virtual Network” when I opened my computer. However, if I properly logged off the network, I didn’t have any problems.

The program also allowed me to easily back up the data on my laptop. Establishing a backup project was no different from establishing a synchronization project. I simply named the project and selected the data folders I wanted to back up. In addition to backing up data files, Network Unplugged also can back up your registry and synchronize any two folders you designate.

You can tell the program to synchronize all projects at the same time and you can select different synchronization properties for each project. Also, you can set the program to automatically synchronize at a particular time every day, such as every time you reconnect to the network and also when you shut down. In short, the program lets you customize your synchronization schedule to best suit your needs.

The best thing about Network Unplugged is it lets you use CaseMap and TextMap by CaseSoft with minimal problems. I didn’t have to worry about making sure I had a local copy of my linked files. Instead, I knew the file paths for all of my files were the same, even when I was not connected to the network. Thus, CaseMap or any other similar program doesn’t need to search for linked files. Instead, the files can reside on your virtual network in the exact same location they reside on your real network.

Network Unplugged does its job exceptionally well. Everyone who uses a laptop as his or her primary computer should own this program.

Entire contents copyright © 2005 James Publishing, Inc.

All Rights Reserved.

You can set Network Unplugged to automatically synchronize.