Technical support is offered via direct email, an Instruction manual, and a very meager FAQ. My support question was answered in less than eight hours. In addition, there is an RSS news feed as well as an email newsletter available. Finally, there is a 90-day money back guarantee. This is a solid program that has been around for ten years (formerly as WebStripper) and that alone speaks volumes in the software business where a year or two is the lifespan of most software.

Reviewer 5 - Dana Bostick. Once one figures out how to use it correctly, PageNest does exactly as it says it will. It is very customizable as to how much of a site to download and when to do so. It can be scheduled to do this automatically. PageNest will launch, log on, download a site or any changes, log back off and then shut itself off.


Weak points.

Reviewer 1 - Name withheld by request. There are significant limits to the types of Web sites that can be captured by PageNest Pro. These are mostly disclosed in the manual. Sites with dynamically generated content, logins, which have a captcha component or challenge questions, or sites with session IDs generally cannot be captured by this program. I also found difficulty downloading games with Flash content.

Reviewer 2 - Dana Cardwell. I could not get PageNest to perform a scheduled download unless the program was running at the time scheduled. I was not sure whether this was due to PageNest or my firewall program. I use Zone Alarm Pro that monitors all software running on all my system. It did alert me to PageNest requesting permission to be added to the startup. Although I gave PageNest permission to be added to the startup, scheduled downloads would still not occur unless PageNest was running. This defeats the function of this entire program. If I have to make sure that the program is running at the time the download is scheduled, then I might as well do a manual download.

Reviewer 2 - Peter Royle. The Help file, located on both the computer and the Web site, is not particularly helpful. It needs some graphics to illustrate the features of the program. In fact, the Help File needs some serious work, as it is simply a kind of unhelpful dictionary. "Use the Back Button to go the Previous Page and the Forward Button to go to the next page". At the very least there should be a Quick Start Tutorial to get one started, with some graphical illustrations. After that, a Help Dictionary is quite adequate.

Since I am using PageNest Pro to download complete Web sites to my computer, it would seem evident that I would have active and up-to-date anti-malware programs already installed and functional. However, this may be the exception rather than the rule with the majority of people surfing the Web. A program such as PageNest Pro should have a feature that would at least ask the user's permission if PageNest Pro could check the security measures installed on the user's computer, and return an analytic report to the user.

The Latest Product News on the Welcome screen is over a year out-of-date. There are announcements of updates to version 3.0xx, while the version I am using is Version 3.2. At first, I thought that this was simply a weakness in the implementation of the program.

There should be an automatic update feature. This might not be feasible with a dial-up modem connection, but there is an option in the program to Uncheck "Use a dial-up internet connection". When I make that selection, the program should now know that I have a relatively fast connection and go online to its own site automatically to download and post any real Product News, including recent updates; or announce that one has the most recent version.

I have had considerable trouble when PageNest Pro is running in the background carrying out some of its scheduled tasks. It takes up between 20 - 25% of the CPU Usage, which is not serious if I am doing something that does not require too much from the computer. But, if I leave the computer alone for a while, it crashes in my absence. On occasion, if I have set PageNest up to download a site, then switch to another activity, the computer will suddenly crash. I can then only get things back to normal by doing a "hard boot" (force a shutdown by turning the computer off physically, then rebooting by turning it back on again).

My first experience with a PageNest - related computer crash occurred when I was trying to register the program. (Please see "Was it easy to install" above.) More recently, when the program crashed while I was using it, the Send bug report process reappeared. I went through each of the steps that this module presented to me. After collecting whatever information it needed, it failed in attempting to connect to the server. On its second try, when it seemed to be going in a loop, I simply closed the application. Unexpectedly, my email program opened. Usually when a program failure brings up my email program, there is the beginning of an e-mail message, addressed to the support people, and perhaps with some kind of log or other system information attached to it. However, here it just opened, and as I did not need it for anything, I closed it again.

I have sent several messages to support with different questions. In the first case, I did not even get an automated acknowledgement that my message had been received. As I was able to resolve my problem on my own, I did not follow that up. However, more recently I sent several more messages. Since Silent Software declares on their site that they cannot provide support for the free PageNest, I was careful to indicate that I have a registered copy of PageNest Pro. But those messages received the same response as the first one -- nothing.

Reviewer 4 - Mark Snyder. I found no major weaknesses in my over three-month use of the program. That is not to say that there are no areas in need of improvement or suggestions I would make, some of which are:

The programs GUI (Graphic User Interface) is a bit non-intuitive and confusing, especially when attempting to download Web pages or Web sites; There were many sites that would not download using the built-in browser, but by switching to Firefox downloaded with no trouble; Why is there a need for a built in browser? Everyone has a browser so why not eliminate the built-in browser and lighten the overall footprint? Some type of file compression would really take this program to the next level. It is easy to really start consuming a lot of space on a hard drive storing Web sites; What time that might be saved using PageNest to download sites is lost do to the fact that navigating the downloaded sites is much slower than if doing the same while online; Purchasing a license gives only minor .x type updates. Translated this means that one outrageously gets only big fixes for a $40.00 license; The cost of $39.95 is far too high when the free version will satisfy probably 95% of most users' needs and the licensed, "Pro," version provides possibly only two or three desired additional features. Furthermore, there are several competing products in the market that are also free. At a price of around $19.95 I could recommend this but at the current figure I cannot.

Reviewer 5 - Dana Bostick. The primary objection I had is that PageNest is married to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. It totally ignores the default browser and launches IE instead. I do not wish to use IE for a number of reasons but here, apparently, I have no choice. Some sites did not display properly and I never was able to correct this. Oddly enough, they were sites that I had built, using Microsoft Live Office and Microsoft hosted them.

Examples below:

As seen in Firefox

As downloaded By PageNest Pro

It did not do well on this particular site and it did not pick up the graphics hosted on PhotoBucket at all. I did not have this problem on my other sites that also have graphics hosted on PhotoBucket.


Developer's Web site.

Reviewer 1 - Name withheld by request. The PageNest Web site gives a clear and accurate description of the capabilities of this program without being excessively commercial. Help is available through an online manual and by email. Noticeably missing are a FAQ and a blog.

Reviewer 2 - Dana Cardwell. The Web site is a small, simple, and easy to navigate; however, I did note that advertisements to purchase PageNest appeared on every single page. The support page on the Web site lists four options for support: resend license key, view instruction manual, sign up for newsletter, and e-mail with a support question. The search box is only a search of items in the instruction manual.

Reviewer 3 - Peter Royle. The Web site is attractively designed and easy to navigate. The right-hand set of panels, essentially ads, is a distraction. At first glance, the site is relatively appealing and suitable to the objectives and purposes of the program. However, on closer inspection, it seems that it has not been updated for almost two years. The latest news was posted in December 2007; this corresponds with the News on the Welcome screen (mentioned in Weak Points above). A subscription to the RSS Newsletter is similarly dated. Oddly, although the program itself seems not to be changing and being updated, the ads are totally up-to-date.

It also appears that the version I am using is quite different from the one illustrated by the screen shots on the site. The "Site Wizard" is entirely different -- unless it is the free Home Version being illustrated, rather than the Pro version that we are reviewing here. If that is the case, then it should be indicated. The other screen shots are also slightly different from those screens, which appear on my computer.

One of the sites that I downloaded to test PageNest Pro was the PageNest site itself. Although the downloaded version of a site mentioned in "Good Points" above maintains active links, if I click on the "Subscribe to RSS Newsletter" in the downloaded PageNest Site, I get a screen-full of Html code:

<channel>
<title>PageNest</title>
<description>News, updates, hints and tips about PageNest from Solent Software.</description>
<link>Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.>

etc.

There are also some images missing in the downloaded pages of the PageNest site that is recorded on my computer, marked by a red x.

At the very least, PageNest Pro should be able to provide a totally complete, clean and functional download of its own Web site. For a program that specializes in downloading and storing complete Web sites, and links to multiple pages and even servers, it is very disconcerting that these rather obvious links to its own site are so dysfunctional.

Reviewer 4 - Mark Snyder. The Web site is clean, simple, and straightforward. I saw no exaggerations or hyperbole. There was a general lack of promotion via testimonials and snippets of favorable reviews taking the place of needed information to make a reasoned decision about the software program. Overall, the site is laid out well and easy to read. There is one problem on the support page. The FAQ that consists of just three questions/answers is woefully inadequate, the link stating for a larger and more recently updated selection of answers visit our support site FAQ, the user is you are taken back to the same page. It was also a bit disconcerting to click on the "News" tab and find that not only was there no news more recent than 2007, but not even a mention of the latest version of the program. Also, the trial period mentions that there are features, which are disabled, but not which features are disabled. I think listing the features that are not available in the trial period would be more honest and consumer-friendly.

Reviewer 5 - Dana Bostick. PageNest's Web site is fairly clean and uncluttered with only a little promotion of other applications they offer. It has a good listing and explanations of the working of PageNest


Other comments.

Reviewer 1 - Name withheld by request. The $39.95 price for the pro version gives access to all minor updates, a 90-day money-back guarantee, and tech support for life.

Reviewer 2 - Dana Cardwell. PageNest is clearly designed to help a user make the most of his time by downloading Web sites while doing something else. This is a very good program for those users who go to the same sites on a regular basis and have a slow Internet connection. Downloading a Web site while doing something else rather than waiting for the Web site to download can be a big time saving and may be well worth the $39.95 cost for PageNest. If a user has a high-speed Internet connection, PageNest is not much of a timesaving program. I have a very high speed Internet connection and found that using PageNest took more time than just going to the website and viewing what I wanted to view.

Reviewer 3 - Peter Royle. Solent Software provides a free version of PageNest that includes many of the features of the Pro version. This would give an interested user a very good preview of the complete PageNest Pro program. I would like to be able to recommend this program, for it does have a number of very interesting features that are well-designed and implemented; but, I am concerned about the lack of support, the crashes that occur too frequently while I am using the program, and the rather worrisome indications that PageNest might not currently be in active development. Therefore, I would not recommend that anyone purchase this product at present.

Reviewer 4 - Mark Snyder. This is a program that I think may have been much more useful when it was first developed because it seems really designed with the dial-up user in mind-and not just the dial-up user but back when dial-up was sold on a usage basis, i.e., when you paid for how many minutes or hours you were online. During those early years of web surfing being able to download pages to view offline and thus free would have been a real treat and a cost savings. Today, however, with the vast majority of computer users now on broadband I can see only a few very rare circumstances when there would be any advantage to offline browsing as it were. I think there may be a small niche for this software program yet, but not much wide appeal. Oh, and speaking of the old dial-up days, PageNest and AOL do not seem to like one another as AOL developed all kinds of small glitches when using it and PageNest at the same time. I suspect it was the built-in PageNest modified IE browser fighting with the built-in AOL modified IE browser.

Reviewer 5 - Dana Bostick. I tested the program on a number of different sites. I used three sites I had build myself that were hosted on different platforms and different servers so I would know what should be there and how they should work, and a couple of "commercial sites" available on the Net that I use often. The user should be cautioned to pay attention to what sites and the depth chosen to download. I tried to do a whole site download of Neat Net Tricks but soon found out that it was going to require many gigabytes. One must take the time to read and thoroughly understand the details of how PageNest works, but if he wants an archive of an entire site, PageNest will do it.

As for support, PageNest basically has a FAQ page for the free version. The Pro version has email support available.

PageNest does not need to be active in the system tray, using resources. It will start automatically and then shut back down as needed if that is how it is set up. It can be called up as needed.

Will you continue to use it?

Reviewer 1 - Name withheld by request. Yes.

Reviewer 2 - Dana Cardwell. No, I have a high-speed Internet connection and found it is easier for me to go to the Web site and view what I wanted that it was to access PageNest.

Reviewer 3 - Peter Royle. No, because of the problems and concerns listed above.

Reviewer 4 - Mark Snyder. No.

Reviewer 5 - Dana Bostick. I'll keep it and I think it could be useful.