Vicomsoft's SurfDoubler 6.6
by Morgan Aldridge

What is SurfDoubler?

SurfDoubler is a program which lets multiple, two to three, computers share one Internet connection simultaneously. Vicomsoft also makes a similar application called SoftRouter which is a high-end version of SurfDoubler (it lets more than just three computers share the same internet connection). Both applications are basically software routers specifically intended to be used to share Internet connections. A router takes network addresses and re-routes them to alternate destinations. This can be used in cases where you would like to join two networks, or when you would like to route Internet data coming in from one Internet connection to several different computers, and also handle data they send to the Internet.

Installation, Configuration and Use

I was a bit sceptical at first, I didn't think that it would be compatible with many of the earlier Classic Macs, but after reading the online documentation I discovered that it supports MacTCP and OpenTransport (although OpenTransport is required to run the server). I hoped that the installation and configuration would be easy. I knew I could get it working if it was really difficult, but I didn't really feel like wasting an evening to a struggle with router software (it can be very frustrating).

Well, when the installer had been downloaded and unstuffed I made a backup copy of my current TCP/IP settings just in case (I've done this kind of thing a lot). I ran the installer and was told to restart when it had finished. Okay. When my iMac (I had decided to install it on my Mac with the fastest modem) had restarted I ran the actual SurfDoubler application, at which point it proceeded to reconfigure some of my OpenTransport stuff while dialing in to my ISP. When this was done it asked me to restart again. Okay...

The next launch of the SurfDoubler application brought up a configuration wizard which prompted me for my password and a bit more configuration info. Netscape was opened for me displaying a page (on my hard disk) with info on the ports I had access to and a link encouraging me to click on it to test my new settings and configure the rest of my computers. I closed it to explore SoftDoubler's interface a bit more. I was then left with a window with a wave-type graph which shows how much data is being routed at that particular time and a list of ports. The list of ports contained two items: my modem and my ethernet port. I immediately went about changing that ethernet port to a MacIP port (TCP/IP over an AppleTalk network) because my network has both TCP/IP and AppleTalk traffic over it.

Next I clicked on the help button (a question mark in the upper, right-hand corner of the window) to see if I could figure out how to get that web page opened up again. It turned out that that's exactly what that help button did. When I read through the page again I noticed that the listing of ports hadn't changed. Hmm, I had changed ethernet to MacIP, but this page didn't reflect any of the changes (take half a point off for that, that could be confusing to new users). Anyway I clicked on that link to test my connection and was soon lulled into a state of bliss by the happy chirping sounds coming from my modem (well, I guess they're not that soothing). I started reading through the directions for how to configure the client computers (this is what the link took me to once it had declared that I really did have access to the Internet). They were fairly simple directions on how to set up MacTCP, OpenTransport, and TCP/IP under Windows, to use DHCP (you could also configure all of the addresses by hand, but I didn't want to waste any time getting this running).

When my client computers had been configured I opened a web browser on one of my client Macs and proceeded to get errors saying that none of the addresses had DNS entries. Okay, I was pretty sure that that was not how it was supposed to work, so I went back into my TCP/IP control panel and tried setting the IP address of the computer running SurfDoubler as my DNS server. It worked, and without too much trouble either. I don't know if I missed it somewhere or something, but it would have been nice if it had told me what to set the DNS server address to on my client computers.

The next day I connected my Mac Classic to my network and installed MacTCP on it. By configuring MacTCP to get it's IP address from a server on the network I soon was telnetting from the Classic and browsing the web on two other machines. And I thought that it wasn't going to work right for older Macs. One of the nicest features is that it is a first-come/first-serve system, so if you already have the maximum number of computers connected to the Internet and another one tries to connect it won't be able to. But, then if one computer stops using the Internet, then another computer is able to connect. Note that this only works if you set it to configure clients via DHCP (as opposed to you setting all the IP addresses manually), but it's still a cool feature and it works on the Classic Macs too.

Complaints

As SurfDoubler is designed for home use I found that some things should have been available that weren't. One of these is the lack of an easy to use "Disconnect" feature. You have to go into the application, select the modem port and select "Disconnect" from one of the menus, this is not the easiest thing for some people to remember how to do (especially when you no longer have access to the Remote Access Control Strip which has a neat "Disconnect" option). It wouldn't be so bad if the program were scriptable by AppleScript, but it's not, so you can't even make a custom AppleScript for people to use.

Conclusion

Overall I feel that SurfDoubler is a great tool for housholds which have multiple computers that they would like to connect to the Internet through one dial-up account. My one complaint is not really significant enough to keep me from using it, plus the fact that the $30-40 (US) cost is very affordable compared to many other similar products which cost over $90. On a one to five scale I'd probably give it a 4.5.

Rated 4.5

About My Reviews

These reviews are my personal opinion. I am not a professional, I do not get paid to do this. When I see a product which I feel needs a review (or one is suggested to me) I try it and write up a page on what my experiences were with it and how I feel I would rate it (on a scale of one to five) based on a number of factors. These factors may or may not be the same for various products, so I try to rate them as fairly as possible. If you would like to suggest a product for me to try out and write a review of then please contact me.