Mobile Net Switch – The Network Connection Manager

This article will provide an overview of an extremely helpfull application, especially for people who are highly mobile and work on different places. Mobile Net Switch is a Network Connection Manager, but it gives you an interface to set defaults for a wide variety of important Windows settings, based on a profile (and indirect a location).

While on smartphones it is normal that there is an application to switch profiles, it’s not very common on notebooks. With the growth of the netbook-market and the use of (embedded) 3G-modems an application of Mobile Net Switch has great opportunities for further growth in market share.

The following paragraphs will have a detailed look at the different “tabs” of the application and show the possible parameters to set up in each tab. In other words it will be a step by step overview of the application.

1.  Main

The screenshot above shows the default “window” of the application, and remark that the main tab is selected from the menu on the left.

“The Main tab allows you to specify a username and password. This information is used when mapping drives. Include the domain name when entering the username (e.g. Domain1\User2).”

Personally I use different profiles and according drivemapping when I’m either at home or at the University. Remark the selection “Disconnect previous drive mappings first”, which makes life a little more easy.

There are also common usage scenario’s when you need to log-on to a corporate environment and set proxy servers for that. With Mobile Net Switch this becomes an easy task, and you can set even different proxy servers for different protocols (http / secure / ftp / etc.)

When setting these proxy servers via the “advanced button” you will also notice the detection of the  installed web browsers at the bottom of that pop-up window. Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome are supported.

2.  Network

Above a screenshot is shown from the Mobile Net Switch Network-tab.

“The network tab of Mobile Net Switch allows you to configure the network connections on your machine. You can select network connections from the drop down list. Using the Enable checkbox next to the drop down list, you can enable or disable network connections at profile activation.”

You might think: “Selecting and configuring network connections, why should I ?” Well when I’m at home I dock the Lenovo X60 tablet notebook into the Lenovo X6 ultrabase which is wired LAN connected with the Linksys WRT54GS Router of my studentsroom. This is just an example why you might want to preselect a wired connection.

In case  you have set-up some routing for the “internal network” (192.168.x.x) you can set-up the ip-address for the selected networkcard as well.

Furthermore if you select a wireless network connection, it is possible to configure a connection with the wireless router / access point via the Windows Zero Configuration. Finally you can also have a look at the current IP address parameters by switching to the last tab.

3.  Internet

The third tab of Mobile Net Switch is labeled “Internet” and has some important settings for mobile use on the road. At first you see in the screenshot above that you can configure a default homepage of your webbrowser. As already mentioned before Mobile Net Switch detects which webbrowsers are installed !

“The Internet tab allows you to configure various Internet related settings like the home page of your browser, the connection type and dialing rules. To configure proxy server settings for your web browser, use the Main tab.”

Second you are able to set the connection type to “Dial whenever a connection type is not available” and select for example “T-Mobile NL”.of “Vodafone NL”.  So on the road I just launch the webbrowser and off you go.

Furthermore you are able to configure an ISA firewall client, the modem status and dialing rules.

4.  Desktop

A screenshot of the desktop-tab in Mobile Net Switch is shown above, and within this tab you can easily configure a different wallpaper for work and home, or set a different screen resolution and volume level.

“The Desktop tab of Mobile Net Switch allows you to specify desktop related settings like the wallpaper, numlock state and display resolution.”

Not very shocking configurations, but very helpful when you can set these simply by activating a profile !

5.  System

“The System tab of Mobile Net Switch allows you to configure important system settings for each profile.”

In the screenshot above from the system-tab in the Mobile Net Switch application there is one of my favourite settings: “default printer”. When I work at the library of the University of Twente, or in the studentroom on the University Campus, or even at home or my girlfriends place, all these places require a different default printer.

Mobile Net Switch gives me the option to set a default printer for each profile. You might also use different Microsoft Outlook profiles, for example one for work and one for home. In Mobile Net Switch it is also possible to attach the Microsoft Outlook profiles to a Mobile Net Switch profile, and even set the account to open.

Also very help full for mobile use, is the option to set a power scheme. For being on the road I have customized a power scheme on the Lenovo X60 tablet to get the most out of the standard 8-cell battery and extra attached enhanced 4-cell battery. Having this machine docked into the Lenovo X6 Ultrabase, I don’t require such a customized power scheme, so again with one-click you can set it all.

6.  Hosts

The most important setting for me in the Hosts-tab is the ability to set a dynamic outgoing SMTP server. When you make use of a mobile-data-connection on the road, the provider sometimes blocks your standard Internet Service Provider’s SMTP server.

With this option you can set the SMTP server of the mobile operator you are using, for example auth.smtp.vodafone.nl or smtp.gprs.t-mobile.nl. Now you can not only receive e-mails but also sent them on the go !

“The Hosts tab of Mobile Net Switch allows you to set IP routes, a dynamic SMTP server for your email program and the content of your hosts file for each Mobile Net Switch profile.”

Furthermore you are able to set IP-routes by activating this profile, which is closely related to setting a fixed IP address in the Network-tab. And despite I have never used it, you can create a dynamic host file. However this is more something for the advanced users who know exactly what they are doing.

7.  Scripts

“The Scripts page allows you to run scripts and programs when activating a profile. You can specify when a particular script must be executed. To ensure a scripts always runs, please add it to the ‘All Profiles’ section. To let a script run when selecting a particular Profile, please add it to the ‘Selected Profile’ section. when you specify a .reg file, it will be imported into the registry automatically.”

Furthermore you are able to set how the script or application needs to run: normal, maximized, minimized and hidden. I can imagine that this tab is extremely helpful when you need to run logon scripts for a corporate environment. However it is also very helpful if you need to run certain applications with a certain profile, and is not limited to “complication” scripts. You simply browse to the specific exe-file and even can do a test-run.

8.  Remarks

The last Remarks-tab in Mobile Net Switch let’s you add some notes to a certain profile.

“The Remarks page allows you to store profile related information. For example the address of the location.”

I would never store a code or password in here, simply because there are better places to store this kind of information. However it can be helpful to add some short notes or reminders to a certain profile.

Thoughts and conclusions

Let me start with the main conclusion that Mobile Net Switch is a very clever and easy to use solution, a truly must-have utility on your notebook or netbook. It is one of the applications I install by default, just like my favourite file manager Ghisler Total Commander, that makes life so much easier.

Personally I have set-up my profiles based on locations. For each profile I have set a unique set of parameters, with the result that on each location I don’t need to select parameters manually (think of handpicking printers for instance). Mobile Net Switch offers me a one-click solution to quickly adapt my system to the location.

Mobile Net Switch is well thought-out, clever designed and let’s you easily import and export the settings you make, and transfer them to a new notebook as well. Furthermore on the website a very extensive Mobile Net Switch user manual can be downloaded if you need help to set certain parameters. My compliments for that !

Furthermore I noticed that Mobile Net Switch is already (partly) updated for Windows 7, since I found a setting in the advanced options menu. So very cool to see an engaged developer at work here.

Finally I would vote to get this nice application standard embedded into the Windows-platform. So jump over to the Mobile Net Switch website and order a single license for only  €29,- (ex VAT) , which is certainly a fair price for the productivity and efficiency Mobile Net Switch provides !!