Summary of link checking software

[Karen Harker]

First, thanks to those who responded. 

Most of those who replied worked on sites with fewer external links than ours (we want to check between 3-5K links).  Here are the suggestions:

"mindit" (http://mindit.netmind.com/)
- setting up and adding the links I need monitored was very convenient. It
also has the advantage of being a free software. I use it on a static html
site...we have roughly 500 links to check
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We're using Link Slueth (see <http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html>).  This is freeware
and works quite well.  I keep a bookmark file with all links that we
provide access to through the catalogue (approx. 500 at this point) and
check every couple of months.
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Link Sleuth (http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html). It is quite fast, free and works on different version of Windows. No graphic, but simple HTML report (it is possible to export report in a text file). On the web page the author compare the software with WebAnalyzer and Net Mechanic.

I tried it on the link page of our site (static HTML, about 100 links) and it was faster than other - but web based - service (notice that we have an ISDN dial-up connection, unfortunately not always very reliable). 
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Here are some comments about LinkBot:

The Watchfire (Linkbot) people have taken a very nice product and killed it, at least as far as libraries are concerned. Linkbot 5.5 was a terrific 
product for checking url's either on websites or from opac records.  The 
single machine license version was not overly expensive (a few hundred 
dollars) and worked fine. The successor 6.0 product is offered in an 
expensive "enterprise" solution and a "personal" version which is limited 
to 1,000 urls. We've had Linkbot for a couple of years and are running 5.5, but we are on a dead end as far as upgrades go because of the limitations on urls in 6.0.  
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I, too, am using an old version of the software since I can't afford the enterprise version and the 1,000 link limit is ridiculous.  I have complained to the Watchfire people that I don't need/wouldn't use all the bells and whistles of the enterprise version -- to no avail.

I am copying them on this e-mail and recommend that other WEB4LIB members voice their opinions also.  Seems like they could license a library version sans 1,000 link limit.

BTW, I looked at several shareware products and none had very good
functionality. I am willing to pay, but not thousands.
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Thanks again and we plan on looking into these and other products in the new year.



Karen R. Harker, MLS
UT Southwestern Medical Library
5323 Harry Hines Blvd.
Dallas, TX  75390-9049
214-648-1698
http://www.swmed.edu/library/



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