This is a list of some of my favorite software (usually freeware), and software I've written.
ArsWare
What is Arsware? Arsware is
loosely defined as freeware applications, themes, skins, graphics work, code libraries, or
anything else written by members of the Ars OpenForum community that might be interesting for pc enthusiasts
everywhere.
Mozilla (Open source)
Mozilla is a bit complicated. Back when they were working on the version 5 browsers, Netscape
started a group to come up with a good, portable browser engine. Mozilla is that group. They have
some Netscape employees, but they are still a separate group. Mozilla is also the name of the browser
package that the group released to demonstrate their engine. However, there is also a whole platform
of Mozilla. This is the base of many different programs. My focus is on the Mozilla browser suite. If
you like Netscape, you should like Mozilla even more. Netscape is built from older, stable Mozilla
code with their extra stuff (like AIM) added in. Most IE users that I've convinced to try Mozilla
also like the browser. It is faster, more standards-compliant, and has nowhere near as many security
issues as the MS browser. Being a cross-platform application, I'd say that its weakest point is the
actual Windows interface integration. It isn't made with a native GUI toolkit, so it doesn't act
exactly the same way other Windows programs do. It's nothing major, just little things like having
to unclick the first menu then move and click on the second menu, as opposed to just clicking on one
menu and moving the mouse to a different menu. Mozilla has been taking in features found in the addons
available for it, as well as other popular features. The latest version has Firebird's selectable
popup blocker and a Bayesian spam filter built right into the mail client. With each release, the
suite gets better. Their future goals include separating the components into separate apps which are
more manageable, working the base code down to a minimum and including lots of features via removable
modules, and changing over to the customizable rendered interface.
Firebird (Open source
freeware)
Firebird is a small, fast browser based on the Mozilla source code. Personally, I feel that
Mozilla is a much better alternative to Netscape, without as much extra junk (which I don't want
anyway). Firebird is one step further. It is a browser only (no email, composer, etc.), with a very
minimalistic approach. In the near future, Firebird will become Mozilla. When they redesign Mozilla
into separate apps, Firebird is going to be the browser app for the suite.
Thunderbird is the same idea applied to
the email client. For now, it is a standalone app, but it will become part of the Mozilla suite in
the redesign. If you just want to try out a non-IE browser, I'd recommend Firebird. Mozilla has a
lot of extra stuff that you probably wouldn't use, and Firebird is faster too. The Burning Edge lists all the
changes in the latest Firebird
nightly builds.
BitTorrent (Freeware)
BitTorrent is a form of peer to peer file sharing. Rather than downloading a file from a single
server, you get it from other BitTorrent users. By keeping your "File Download" window open after
you have the file, other users are able to get the file from you. BitTorrent manages everything,
you just have to click on a .torrent link to get the file via the BitTorrent network, and keep the
window open to share with others. It works with Mozilla out of the box, which I like. Also, it's
designed so that leeches who don't want to share with others will get poor download speeds.
DerekWare HTML Author 3.0 Beta 4 (Freeware)
This is the HTML editor I used for making this page. It's like Notepad, but with features
aimed specifically at creating HTML. It allows you to easily apply tags to selected text,
including your own custom tags. The author of the program, Derek Smith, seems to have dropped
off the face of the Internet, so this is a local copy of the file, which is actually from the
middle of 1996. If you want a simple but effective HTML code editor, you probably won't find
much better than dwHTML.
RogSoft NotePad+
(Freeware)
Like the Notepad included with Windows, this is a simple text editor. However, it adds some
nice improvements over the MS program. I use this as a replacement for notepad.exe on all my systems.
Another classic from 1996 which still competes with the latest software.
MailWasher
(Tipware)
This is a small program for checking and filtering your email. It can access standard POP3
as well as Hotmail and MSN accounts. It allows for blacklists, whitelists, custom filters, and
DNS blacklist checking. You can delete and/or bounce unwanted emails, making the sender think the
address is no longer valid. You can use it as long as you like for free, with only a small banner
asking you to register, which is as low as $3. For $20 or more, you get access to their support
desk also.
MailWasher Pro
($29.95)
All development efforts are now going toward MailWasher Pro, which is now being sold under a
new brand, Firetrust. As promised, existing MailWasher registered users can get a
free upgrade. They also have
some other products including Benign, an email neutralizer that removes harmful code
($34.95), and a
shared spam database which
allows users to filter out spam that others have already received.
NATATA Anti-Spam
Encoder (Freeware)
This program converts email links into
code.
It's similar to the "%20" you see in place of spaces in a URL. Essentially, %20 is the space in
another format. This program encodes your links into this format also, which makes it harder for
harvesting bots to pick up your address and add it to spam lists. It looks fine on the page
because the browser decodes it. But if the spammer looks at the code of the page, the "garbage"
is there rather than the plaintext email address. You can use the Quick Encode page to convert
just email addresses into code. Convert your address and paste it on your page any time you need
it. If you have a webpage with an email address on it, you should check this one out. For example,
invisibill@invisibill.net
is the code for my email address. If you look at the source, you'll see that I had to use the
name
code for the ampersands so that it would "break" it and display the code, instead of converting
it to regular text, like this: invisibill@invisibill.net. If you look at the source, you'll see that this is the exact same string, but without the
name code for the ampersands to "break" the automatic conversion. @ is the code for @,
so simply substituting that in your links would probably be enough to throw off most spammers, without
much work on your part. For example, this whole page returns no emails when scanned by
Atomic Email Hunter 2.
Kerio Personal Firewall
(Free for non-commercial use)
KPF is the continuation of Tiny
Personal Firewall 2. The team that wrote TPF started Kerio, and TPF2 became KPF2. TPF3 was
basically a new product. Anyway, this program is just about as good as any firewall I've used. It's
very simple, while containing many powerful features. It has program signatures so that an unwanted
program can't masquerade as a trusted app. It has an "Ask" mode similar to ZoneAlarm, so that you
can build rules as you go (instead of having to build rules manually). All in all, I find it very
much like ZA, but with a simpler, more professional-looking interface. The only feature I find
missing is a "changes frequently" option, which disables signatures for programs that change a lot
(EverQuest seems to update daily). I have noticed a bug with network mask rules for the LAN. When
a PC initiates a connection and I make a rule for it, changing the rule to include the whole
netmask causes it to not work. Next time a PC on the LAN (including the original PC) makes this
same request, it sees it as a new connection not covered by an existing rule. I'm not sure where
the problem is exactly, but I have seen it do this in multiple situations. Other than that, I'm
completely satisfied with this program. For security purposes, it's the firewall's rules that are
most important. So long as the firewall software works correctly, there's not a whole lot of
difference between different programs.
IMAP Notify (Freeware)
As the name implies, this is a small program that checks an IMAP mail account for new
messages. It can notify you in several ways, including a status box, sound, and MS Agent. You can
check multiple accounts, and have different notification methods for each (e.g. a different sound
for each account). This is a great alternative to keeping your full email client running to
monitor your IMAP accounts.
SmartFTP (Freeware for personal use)
This is a simple Explorer-like FTP client. It allows you to drag and drop files to and from
servers. It supports all the features any good FTP client should have, including direct server to
server transfers.
FileZilla (Open Source Freeware)
FileZilla is another great FTP client, and it has a server program available as well. Being
open source, the author actually listens to user feedback. If there's a problem or missing feature,
let him know and you might see it in the next version.
Network Notepad
(Freeware)
"Network Notepad is a program for creating interactive network diagrams with user
definable management features such as point and click telnet." I use this program mostly
for creating network diagrams, though it can do much more than that. If you're looking to
make some pictures of network setups and/or do some simple network management, you should
take a look at this program.
TCPNetView
(Freeware)
This small program scans your LAN and lists each computer's hostname, IP address, MAC address,
and the SMB comment. You can save the results to a text file, and the program supports Russian
and English interfaces.
SuperScan
(Freeware)
This is a simple GUI port scanner. It allows you to create port lists with descriptions, and
choose to scan a range of ports, all listed ports, or all ports. Inside that range, you can choose
to scan only listed ports. This is an easy way to see where your computers are open for access.
Foundstone has more free tools available on this page as well.
Look@LAN
(Freeware)
This program scans your LAN and provides a lot of information about the computers on it.
WinSCP (Freeware)
WinSCP is a secure copy program for Windows. It's main use is for transferring files to a
remote host with SSH. I use it to manage files on our Linux-based router from my PC.
SSH Secure Shell (Free for
non-commercial use)
This is a Windows SSH client. It allows secure terminal access similar to Telnet. This is
another one I use for maintaining the Linux server. This version does not include PKI and PKCS
#11 functionality.
Active Server Watcher
(Freeware)
This program monitors websites and alerts you if they are unreachable. You can use this to
monitor your cable modem's web configuration address, and it will alert you whenever your cable
goes down. SmartLine has more freeware available on this page also.
Depicus Wake On Lan
This site has a lot of information and free software for implementing WOL. Once you get used to
it, starting your computer from across the network is very handy.
WinKey (Freeware)
This little program allows you to create keyboard shortcuts with your Windows logo key.
It allows you to choose your own program to open, or many Windows options (My Computer, Dial Up
Networking, Minimize/Maximize Active Window, etc.). It also includes a standalone task manager
for use with Win9x, similar to the one included with WinNT.
Camtech 2000 IE
Restrictions (Freeware)
This little app will let you easily change many "hidden" settings in IE4+. Some of them are
aimed more at network administration, while some are handy for making sure unwanted sites don't
change your preferences. Camtech 2000 also
has many more useful freeware apps, including MyIPs, which shows both your LAN and public IP addresses.
Miranda IM (Open source
freeware)
This is a compact little IM client. Originally it was an ICQ client, but now supports many IM
interfaces, like AIM, MSN, and Yahoo (via
plugins). There are also many other features that can be added via plugins.
The latest nightly builds
have AIM support built-in via TOC (the open, limited AIM protocol).
Bookmarklets (Free Javascript)
These are handy Javascript functions that you can bookmark. The bookmarklets cover a wide range
of functions, from manipulating forms to removing annoying HTML tags to checking what server the
page is running on. Each person will prefer different scripts, but everyone can probably find at
least one useful bookmarklet here.
One day while doing something else, I stumbled upon the registry entries for Microsoft's IE5 Web Accessories. I looked at the stuff in the registry and the associated script files and got an idea of how it worked. I took what was there and modified it to do what I wanted. I created a "Copy Image Location" option. This is something that I'd been using in Netscape/Mozilla for years that IE still didn't have. Well, a few minutes later, IE did have it. This inspired a friend to write an addon to search IMDB for selected text, which in turn inspired me to make a few more. All of these can be installed by right-clicking the .inf file and selecting "Install". They can be uninstalled via the Add/Remove Programs applet in Control Panel. Note that Win9x has problems with long filenames in .inf files. I may need to check my older ones, and I am not the author of the IMDB addon...
Copy Image Location
Simply right-click an image to copy its URL to the clipboard. Here is a screenshot of it in action, if you're in any way confused about it.
Google Search
Right-click on selected text to search Google.com for that phrase.
FileMirrors Search
Right-click on selected text to search FileMirrors.com for filenames that begin with that text.
Open Text URL
Right-click on selected text to open a new window at that URL. I created this specifically for use
on a message board I frequent that doesn't automatically create hyperlinks. In that situation, it saves
a lot of cut and pasting.
IMDB Search
This is a friend's entry into IE addons. My Google search addon is basically a find-and-replace job
on the text of this, so it works exactly the same way.
If you're interested in writing your own .inf files, Microsoft has an MSDN article on using DirIDs here. This can be one of the most confusing parts, as different directories are simply assigned a number. If you don't know what those numbers translate to, there's not much you can do. You'll also find links from that page with lots of .inf information. It seems to be geared toward making .inf files to define device drivers, but they're handy for a lot of different file and registry modification tasks.
NewEBD (Freeware collection)
I assembled together some of the useful DOS utilities I've found, to be added to your Win98
EBD. Most of them are contained inside a .CAB file which gets extracted when you boot. A couple
are driver files which simply get placed on the disk. Copy the three files, and edit the startup
files (per the ReadMe.txt instructions) to load or extract the new utilities. Why did I make this
a .CAB archive, instead of .ZIP (or something else)? Because I had just mastered making .CABs,
and could. This is an extension to the standard Win98 EBD, so .CABs are supported natively by the
OS too. Mostly though, just because I could.
My SME contributions (GPL)
This is where my Mitel SME contribs are
hosted. SME is a very user-friendly gateway/server package. It allows you to create your own
broadband router (similar to the Linksys models that are common now) on an old PC. It is very
similar to ClarkConnect and FreeSCO in function. SME is based on RedHat and uses a template system
for configuration files. This makes it very easy to customize your system to add extra features. In
most cases, any RedHat RPM will work on SME, often with only a few changes to convert the config
files to the template system. If you have an unused PC lying around, this option may even be
cheaper than buying one of those retail broadband router boxes, and it's definitely more powerful.
More to come!