review by Brian Smither

Midcore's Midpoint, now at version 4.05, has four parts: sharing an Internet connection using one or two modems, providing basic firewall support, providing DHCP and NAT support, and providing for a local mailbox server. One of the computers will serve as the "gateway" and has the primary modem. The secondary modem can be on the gateway computer or on one of the clients.

This review covers a 20-day fully operational evaluation version for a maximum of five clients. However, only the sharing of the Internet connection feature is examined here. The other features will be explored in later reviews.

Because computers have become relatively inexpensive, Dad, Mom, the kids, and the dog can each have their own system. Each room in the house could have a phone jack and each system could possibly have its own modem. What doesn't seem to be readily available is more than two residential phone circuits per house.

Dad wants to study his on-line Fantasy Football accounts, Mom wants to study how well Intel and the other high-tech industry stocks in the family portfolio are doing, the kids want to play on-line games, and the dog wants to order $500 worth of squeaky toys from Petsmart.com. Normally, the family would take turns. However, with an Internet connection-sharing program installed, everyone can be online at the same time-provided that the computers are networked.

Sharing an Internet connection has become one of the easiest things to do. (Troubleshooting problems, on the other hand, is not an easy thing to do.)

Midcore's Midpoint and other "gateway" programs have made the setup process simple and automated. During Midpoint's installation, you are asked some simple questions as to how you want Midpoint to control your network.

If you've networked your computers at the same time as having installed Midpoint, then it's best to have Midpoint incorporate its firewall, DHCP, and NAT support. If you've already networked your computers and they've been communicating with each other successfully, then you might not want to change its configuration. In that case, you probably have the knowledge and skills necessary to make an informed decision about Midpoint's support protocols.

If the gateway computer doesn't already have the necessary networking protocols installed, the setup process goes on standby and starts the "Add a network component" function of Windows. Not only must there be a second modem (unless you use the "satellite" program), that modem, the "hardware layer," must also be connected to the "software layer." In this case, it's called the "dial-up adapter #2(VPN Support)."

(This reviewer experienced a couple problems during this phase of the installation. Instead of having Midpoint's installation clue you in on the second adapter thing, get it installed and working first.)

Midpoint can manage up to 16 connections to the Internet. If there are routers in the local network, Midpoint can be configured to use them as well. Midpoint's settings and features include an internal Web cache, an internal e-mail server/manager which determines whether all e-mail accounts are managed locally or whether remote users contact their e-mail provider directly, policy settings which determine which users can access certain Web sites based on content access protocols (PICS, VCRS, and include/exclude lists), activity logging, scheduled retrievals of specified documents, and controls as to how and when additional lines get activated.

For example, if there are more than 10 requests queued, the line gets dialed. If there is a file larger than 100KB but not larger than 50MB, the line gets dialed. (Wouldn't want to keep the secondary line-probably the primary voice line-tied up for hours. That's what teenagers are for!) However, once extra connections are activated, they can only be deactivated manually at the gateway computer or when the connection sits idle for a set amount of time.

As seen in Figure 1, downloading a large file can be split into two parts (that is, if the file server understands the RESTORE command). In Figure 2, Internet Explorer's download display is unaware until the very end that a significant portion of the file is downloading via another channel. In Figure 3, a bar graph indicates the relative throughput for each channel.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Midpoint's "Download Doubler" and "Failsafe Manager" coordinate all downloads. If the connection(s) drop, because either an extension is picked up, or you forgot to disable call waiting, it's Midpoint that attempts to redial and resume. While that happens, the downloads switch to the other line.

Most Internet programs and utilities can be instructed by another program where to send Internet requests: it's called a proxy. Some programs, however, cannot. Specifically, Netscape users will have problems until they manually change its proxy setting. Help is available at Midcore's Web site for other programs that require manual adjustments.

Performance is good. Midpoint keeps track of what requests are made from which computer, an activity that can be monitored and logged. Figure 4 shows both the gateway computer and a remote user connecting to different sites, and if an image or file is larger than a user-specified size, Midpoint dynamically calculates where to begin downloading the tail half and another connection is opened.

Figure 4

Remote users are presented with a menu at boot-up: either connect to the Internet using the gateway computer, or connect directly using that machine's internal modem. Depending on the selection, the guest program will automatically configure all Internet programs that it knows about.

Compared to other Internet connection-sharing programs, Midpoint's unique feature is that more than one physical line of communication to the Internet is possible using any of several combinations of dial-up modems, ISDN, DSL, and direct connections to a T1 line. If you have that 33.6K modem you replaced several years ago, drag it out. Or, with Midcore's "satellite" program, which Midpoint can control, have any of the other computers add their modem to the pool (presuming you've attached the phone wire to the other phone jack).

While there are, in fact, other multi-source connection-sharing programs available, most require special capabilities of your Internet service provider. Few non-business users subscribe to more than one ISP. And few ISPs permit more than one simultaneous connection without charging a small extra fee. However, should you be the lucky one who gets a dial-up account from school or work, Midpoint may be the solution you are looking for.

Licensing fees vary according to the number of computers and connections. For example, for two computers using two connections, the license is $179. For forty computers using eight connections, the license is $1599. For more than 100 computers using 16 connections, you must call to obtain the fee. (Personally, I don't like licensing structures like this. If the program code is essentially the same regardless of the number of users and number of connections, then the price paid for the license should be essentially the same as well. But that's another editorial for another day.)

Midcore's Midpoint 4.05
Prices vary
1-800-673-6274