BarracudaDrive Pro Web Server 4.0

BarracudaDrive professional server can be used for remotely accessing any computer. It is a fully featured remote management system, with the ability to provide VPN access to your LAN, map Windows drives over the Internet, transfer data securely, control the desktop of a remote computer, and so on. The application is in fact a web server which provides an environment for installing plugins.

The application is designed for professional system and network administrators. However, it's not very hard to learn how to use it. There are a lot of help pages that are very useful. The features are well documented, so if you take the time to read the directions, you shouldn't run into trouble. Just like any other similar software, your main concern should be to protect the program with a password. Multiple accounts are supported, so you can create a custom login for each user and you can assign his or her access rights. I guess it's also worth mentioning that as far as security is concerned, the program can encrypt your network traffic.

Most of the web pages presented through the BarracudaDrive web server are not quite eye-candy. The use of tooltips compensates the poor visual design through functionality. The publisher also uses the Bindows Ajax Framework, which makes certain web pages look just like a Windows application, even though they are presented in your Internet browser.

Pluses: I think that the support for Lua server pages is one of the nicest features of this software package. A developer can use this feature to create his or her own plugins.

Drawbacks / flaws: This program doesn't get an excellent rating in terms of user interface because sometimes (on some pages) there's no "back" button.

In conclusion: BarracudaDrive is a good choice for remote access, but I wouldn't recommend it to a rookie computer user.

version reviewed: 3.6