CeBIT: Linksys' Ultra-simple Network Set-up Advisor

Linksys has developed a simple-to-use network setup tool, called Easylink Advisor. It's not on the market yet, but Linksys techs are already using it to solve their own Wi-Fi issues with its booth here at CeBIT and they gave me a preview here at CeBIT. I tried to take a photo of the screen, but it's not very good:



Easylink Advisor will advise you on initial setup--advising that you ought to encrypt your network and helping you get that working, for instance. However, the Linksys tech we spoke to said that it's specifically intended to remain useful once your network is up and running too.

It's basically a network scanner that pulls in information on all the devices it can find, and then maps out the network or networks for you. You can then drill down into individual devices to find out more or, in some cases, you can launch Linksys help pages on the Web.

The information is both for your use--for example, if you can't remember what IP address you gave your Internet camera, it will find it out for you--and for when you contact tech support with a problem. It means that when the tech asks something like "Have you got DHCP enabled on your router?" you'll have the answer right there in front of you.

There's quite a few paid-for tools of this type aimed at professional network managers, but if Linksys can make this one usable for the rest of us--and even better, make it free--it'll be interesting to see where it goes.

Would you use it?

--Bryan Betts, PCW correspondent at CeBIT