Road warriors consume a disproportionate amount of IT support seeking help for the complex challenges of getting connected. Actions like selecting DHCP or assigning an IP gateway can stymie a laptop-carrying traveler or commuter. MultiNetwork Manager 6.1b, from Globesoft, a great tool for network managers and end users, lets travelers select a configuration based on location or type of connection.

The software works in every current version of Windows and properly sets up more than a dozen items, including IP addressing, DNS assignments, client software, connection type, and workgroup or domain name. MultiNetwork Manager surveys the status of an active PC, so creating profiles is as easy as running the software on a successfully connected PC and saving the profile with an understandable name. A network manager can then distribute the profiles company-wide. Certain elements, such as static IP addresses, might still have to be handcrafted, but that's a simple configuration process: The end user clicks an icon and selects the appropriate profile from a scroll-down window.