Someone reviewed v on Jul 5, 2022

Pros: 555

Cons: 555

Bottom Line: 555

paul76 reviewed v1.4.0.6 Beta on Jun 12, 2006

This program looks pretty cool! Seems to be updated almost weekly from looking at the update history on the about menu (wtf is the last reviewer talking about!?!?!).

Program is free and does its job, "Surf your CDs without the CDs". The banner on the search says many features coming soon, from looking at the update history I'd take the developers word for it. It's come a long way! Keep up the good work!

The file search is damn fast, pulls up the results almost instantly. I saw a download button that pulls up a message about www.MyCDSpace.com, Hmmmmmm!

So far so good!
Hope it stays free!
Paul

p.s. Dont listen to ambiancelover! Keep the updates coming! Also the program downloads Audio CD Track data! What are you talking about with the playlist stuff?!?!? d:-)

ambiancelover reviewed v1.4.0.6 Beta on Jun 12, 2006

I see no updates for a couple months now and as i have asked in personal emails to the maker!

I find this program old to new technology and very out dated.
Why cant we review and search out current pc's playlists or cd catalogs.
I have to many to want to reinstall them one by one into a program when other programs will research my files already, that are fast and acurate.

If its not going to be updated with a huge facelift to make it competitive to other programs i will pay for the well established ones. Freeware dont mean superior or good - it means free and sometimes ya get just what ya dont pay for.

Thanks but no thx
ambiancelover

boaz reviewed v1.4.0.6 Beta on Jun 11, 2006

I've been playing around with this program, and it's not too bad.

donce, "Offline CD Browser" is much older & hasn't been updated since December 2002! CDSurf.Net 2006 uses the newer .net v2.0 framework.

donce reviewed v1.4.0.1 Beta on May 24, 2006

This is quite primitive software. It's nice that there's somebody who develope CD library tool for free. Thats why i rate it 3. But there is old free tool "Offline CD Browser" which is much better than CDSurf.Net. Hope that other CDSurf.Net releases would be better

pyridox reviewed v1.3.0.8 Beta on May 18, 2006

This program has a lot of potential. It's hard to find a a nice CD database program that's free. If you have a bunch of CD's with stuff on them, this make it easier to keep organized.

Thanks, and I hope that it stays free!

garlandchaos reviewed v1.2.0.2 Beta on May 9, 2006

To piggyback on the review by Spiked. This program does require an internet connection to be installed. Upon running the program and blocking internet connection with my firewall: An error occurred attempting to install CDSurf.Net 2006. An error occurred trying to download 'http://www.cdsurf.net/Download/CDSurf.Net 2006.application'.

I give it a two as well, good concept if I could ever get a Full Download version.

metekamil reviewed v1.2.0.2 Beta on May 8, 2006

In response to the TWO previous reviews:

Response to "garlandchaos" review:

I'm writing a new installer, too tired to argue :) Customer is always right I guess.

Thanks for the feedback,
Mete

Response to "Spiked" review:

1. This program does NOT require an internet connection to execute. It checks for updates when executed IF an internet connection is present.

2. I've added privacy and disclaimer information, thanks.

3. I hate spyware, this program has zero data mining and does not in anyway gather information in the background or data mine.

4. I've renewed my domain name for 2 years and plan to keep it renewed, thanks.

5. Yes the program is in the development stage with lots of enhancements on the way.

6. It will scan DVDs but performance enhancements are planned as the code is optimized for CD volumes.

7. The scannning is strictly for data files but audio cd support will be added.

8. Explorer view speed performance is in the works.

9. The file format is proprietary as you pointd out, this is for good reason, which you will see in a future update ;) Watch this space!

10. I like your ideas about right clicking folders in the explorer view, that will be added, thanks! I also like the idea to search individual CDs, that feature will also be added.

Thanks for the feedback!
Mete

p.s. I'm rating my software a 5 as I really believe it will be great once it reaches its full potential! I have some very unique ideas in the works. Watch this space! :)

spiked reviewed v1.2.0.2 Beta on May 7, 2006

Although the Setup is only 421KB, this program is a .NET 2.0 web-deployed WinForms app. This means that the actual EXE is automatically downloaded at runtime, which means you need to be connected to the web to launch it. While the current version seems safe, neither the software nor the author's site has a privacy policy. Therefore, he "could" decide to help himself to information about your CD collection, and conceivably to share that information with whomever he wants. Even if you trust him completely, his domain registration expires on 20-Dec-2006. If he does not renew it, it could fall into the hands of someone who might substitute their own EXE for you to run. There are some default restrictions on what this type of EXE can do, but this app and author need to be more up-front about what's going on. Microsoft mainly intends for this type of EXE deployment to be used by corporate internal apps, so it's unusual to see it in a consumer-oriented app.

Aside from the privacy/security issues, this app is still clearly a work in progress. Some buttons lead to "under construction" type messages. Some menu items are always grayed out, and others simply don't do anything when you click them. You can override the default label for a disc when you scan it, but you cannot edit it afterwards. The program seems to detect duplicate scans, so if you rescan the same disc without overriding the label again, the default label will replace the one you entered before the previous scan.

Although it refers mainly to CDs, it will scan DVDs as well, but we're talking strictly data files. For example, it will index MP3 files but not audio tracks on an audio CD. The Search feature does attempt to distinguish between image, sound, and document files, but it appears to rely solely upon file extension. The extension lists are not currently customizable.

Scanning is fast, but the program fails to display any indication that it finished successfully. Worse, the statistics in the status bar do not get updated after a scan until you click the Home button. This caused me to scan my first disc several times before I realized it was succeeding.

Although the indexes are stored under a folder named CDXML, they have nothing to do with the CDXML format published by CambridgeSoft. In fact, CDSurf.Net's files are actually binary. If they contain XML, it is compressed, encoded, or both. As binary files, they are small, which probably helps the Search feature to be very fast. On the other hand, there is no export capability so you're trapping this information in a proprietary format. Since you can't do anything with these files without the app, the uninstall should offer to delete them, but it does not.

The Explore feature does not have the speed of the Search. For a DVD with thousands of files, it can take a while for the treeview to finish loading. It would be nice if you could right-click within the Explore treeview to Search within a particular folder and all child folders, but the program offers no way to Search a specific disc, from within Explore or anywhere else.