Just some info for those of you who have Linksys routers and have been using LELA 3.0 (Linksys Easy Link Advisor). LELA obviously has some bugs in it, let me explain. A few days ago, due to my tinkering around with some router settings, no doubt—I managed to send my Linksys WRT54G2 south again. Never mind, this time I’m prepared; I give it the Reset injection, redo some settings, and all is well—my Internet connection works again. Everything’s hunky-dory, huh.

Not quite. When I open up LELA from the taskbar, it reports that my computer is offline. What the heck, I can connect to the Internet! At first I thought about uninstalling and reinstalling LELA. Then I recall the first time I installed it—this behemoth takes something like 20 minutes to install and configure the network. Thanks, but no thanks. Next, I scour the Linksys forums, and lo and behold, I discover some interesting nuggets of information and a gem.

It seems like I’m not the only one having trouble with LELA. Upon further reading I find out that LELA is about to be discontinued, giving way to Network Magic. It’s available in two versions—Pro and Essentials. The latest version is 5.1, so I uninstall LELA and download this new program. It’s a 7-day trial but I can still use the basic features after the trial expires, since I’m using a Linksys router. The two features I lose will be the ability to share printers and folders (I don’t use this anyway) plus the ability to control and monitor my network (nah, no big deal). You can find the product comparisons and downloads here.

Here’s a screenshot of Network Magic on my system:

To quote from the Network Magic FAQ page:

Is Network Magic 5.1 replacing LELA 3.0?

Yes, Network Magic 5.1 is replacing the Linksys Easylink Advisor (LELA) 3.0. Features that were part of LELA, such as the Go Wireless connection manager and the LELA Network Map, are now included in Network Magic 5.1. When you install a Linksys router or other Linksys hardware, you’ll automatically get Network Magic 5.1 to try for 7 days. You can purchase Network Magic Essentials or Network Magic Pro to continue using it after the 7 day trial, or if you are a Linksys hardware user, you can use the basic Network Magic features indefinitely.

By the way, Network Magic runs very smoothly on my computer (Pentium 4 with 3GB of RAM) Furthermore the installation and configuration is quick and painless, unlike its predecessor. So if you’re still struggling with LELA, ditch it and go for Network Magic instead.

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