Network

The Network tab summarizes the details of the network interfaces. Select the respective interface in a selection box top left. In case of problems with the network connection, pressing Show Receive and Transmit displays a table with a list of all transmitted packets, sorted by interface and package type. The more packages that occur in the Errs and Drop groups, the more urgent the need is to validate your network configuration (Figure 5).

Figure 5: I-Nex clearly summarizes data on the network interface.

In the next tab, USB | Input, you can see information about USB devices and additionally check the function of various buttons. These are interesting, in particular, in combination with ACPI events on mobile devices: Some hardware still has problems with the correct configuration of various ACPI states.

The Battery tab is reserved for mobile devices and convertibles: This is where you will find detailed information about the physical properties of the battery/batteries installed in the device. If the battery electronics return the appropriate value, you can check the Cycle Count to see how many charge cycles the battery in your laptop has gone through. This is a good way of anticipating an imminent replacement.

Because there is still no binding firmware standard for the battery electronics, the corresponding fields are occasionally empty because of a lack of support by the manufacturer. The values that appear below the headings Charge full: and Charge full design: give you evidence of defective cells in the battery, or the battery's impending failure in conjunction with the charge indicator at the bottom of the program window.

Conclusions

I-Nex brings together a huge amount of information about the hardware and essential data for the operating system under a single, nicely designed interface. The software itself requires very little in the way of resources. Thanks to this useful compilation of data, the program also provides information on possible causes of issues. The software is thus especially useful for users who want a detailed graphical overview of their systems.