Essential Free Software

The widespread availability of computers and connections to the Internet provides everyone with 24/7 access to information, credit and financial services, and shopping. The Internet is also an incredible tool for educators and students to communicate and learn.

 

"Safety first!" The right security software is a life-or-death matter for your computer, since spyware, viruses, Trojan horses, worms, and hackers can quickly send your PC to an early grave.

 

So, what software should i have to be safe online, plus enjoy and faster surfing experiences?

 

 

 

Featured Essential Free Software

 

 

 

Essential Free Software DAP image

DAP

 Click to download a file & DAP will accelerate your download by finding the fastest sources (websites) for the file you want, then splitting the file into several pieces & downloading them at the same time, making the most of your connection speed. This is just the beginning of what DAP can do for you.
You may have more bandwidth, but downloads can be redirected through many servers, through low bandwidth and many more communication jams & disconnections. DAP helps you maximize your bandwidth.

 

Download Now

 

Essential Free Software Video Accelerator image

Video Accelerator for YouTube

 From the creators of Download Accelerator Plus (DAP), pioneers of acceleration technology, now comes a new groundbreaking product!
Speedbit Video Accelerator makes your videos stream faster and play smoother, reducing buffering problems and video "hiccups". The unique video search lets you find the latest and hottest videos around the web, and the "Recently Accelerated" list gives you instant access to the last videos played.

 

Download Now

 

 

Protecting Kids at School With Free On-line Software

Friday, October 26, 2007

 

Recently we told you how difficult it is for many law enforcement agencies to focus attention on on-line predators. Now, one company is trying to help you and schools keep your kids safe.

Educators say, now-a-days, kids are very computer savvy and parents need to know what they are doing and who they are talking to on-line.

Ken Shallcross, Director of Media and Public Relations with Pandora Corporation says "parents are the first and last line of defense but right behind them and standing next to them is our teachers."

Kids in schools like Chippewa Falls High School have easy access to computers and Principal Jim Sauter says educators need to keep tabs on the kids.

"It's very, very important that we have the ability to monitor activity on computers here" Jim says.

And a company called Pandora Corporation is hoping its program PC Pandora will help educators do just that.

Shallcross says "it works like a TiVo or D.V.R. for your computer. It basically records everything."

And knowing schools are on tight budgets, the company is offering the program to school districts for free.

"And we basically give as much as the school needs or wants up to $100,000.00 worth of software" says Shallcross.

The program records all on screen activity from the web pages the kids go to, emails they send and even captures instant messaging. The program saves thumbnail images for parents and administrators to look back on at a later time.

Shallcross says "knowing that it's there really kind of gives them good peace of mind."

Sauter says Chi-Hi already uses a similar system to monitor and prevent inappropriate on-line activity, saving librarians a lot of time.

"Before we had our filtering we had to go around. We spent half of our day watching what was going on on all the computers" says Chippewa Falls High School Librarian Debra Peterson.
But, with software in place, Sauter says students now know what to expect. "I think that it's more of a, the educational aspect as far as having students gain a better understanding of what some of the dangers or pitfalls are out there."

Pandora Corporation has helped two Wisconsin school districts get computer monitoring software and hopes to help even more districts nation wide. For more information follow this link to the PC Pandora website.

posted by Vidor Rayne, 6:09 PM | link | 0 comments |

 

Grisoft spreads software by viral marketing

 

Grisoft, a software company based in Brno, south Moravia, has a counterintuitive strategy for distributing its most popular product, AVG Anti-Virus: Give it away.

Since launching a free, fully functioning version of its software in 2000, Grisoft has seen use peak worldwide. The company most recently announced Oct. 17 that AVG Anti-Virus has become the most popular program on Download.com, one of the Internet's largest software sites, with more than 41 million downloads.
But popularity doesn't always lead to profit, and Grisoft is looking to convert the goodwill it is banking into future paying customers, says J.R. Smith, the company's chief executive officer.

"We see [the free version] as a form of marketing," he says. "It's extremely viral — the upkeep costs are made up by the word-of-mouth it gets us."

Computer security is a burgeoning field, its growth hastened by the multitude of pitfalls coming from increased Internet dependence. Beyond viruses, there are programs devoted to filtering junk mail, blocking fake Web sites used to steal bank information and establishing firewalls to prevent hackers from taking over a computer's controls.

Despite this variety, a large part of the security market remains in the hands of two American companies, McAfee and Symantec, says Ruggero Contu, a security analyst at the IT research firm Gartner. In particular, these companies dominate large-scale computer networks, including big business and education.

Companies like Grisoft must instead find room to grow in the consumer market, Smith says. For example, spreading the AVG name has led to two million paid downloads of its deluxe antivirus program, called AVG Anti-Virus Pro, which retails for $38.95 (750 Kč).

Grisoft gets most of its revenue from the UK and the United States, Smith says. Part of this localized success is purely a matter of language, as AVG's free version comes only in English, though the company promises more languages in the future, including the recent launch of a Japanese version.

Another growth strategy employed by small vendors is selling their products directly to Internet service providers, which then pipe the program to their customers, according to Contu.

"This has become a good way to do business," he says. "This is giving smaller vendors a good way to prove the effectiveness of their technology, a better opportunity to compete with the establishment."

Grisoft will be following a similar tack, says Smith. He joined the company earlier this year, lured by the firm's new majority owners, Enterprise Investors and Intel Capital, which bought 65 percent of the company in 2005 for $52 million.

Viral evolution

The causes and actors behind Internet attacks have changed since the early part of this decade, according to Karel Obluk, Grisoft's chief technology officer.

"Viruses are not about ego anymore," he says. "Virus makers don't look to create huge slowdowns or wipe hard drives. They're trying to make money. They may limit the virus to taking over 5,000 computers to extract information or set up 'bot nets' to attack companies or mail spam."

By limiting the number of infected computers, viruses become harder to identify and stop. And if that's not bad enough, malicious coders have also developed techniques that allow viruses to be polymorphic, meaning that the viruses subtly evolve when they replicate, doubly complicating tracking.

Many of these viruses and attacks come out of the former Soviet Union, Smith says, where organized crime has set up programming divisions that mirror the capabilities and organization of legitimate software companies in the West. These programs are then sold to the highest bidder.

The complexity of threats has prompted Internet security companies, including Grisoft, to offer integrated software.

"All of the major players have been working toward offering suites," Contu says. But "it's not just a matter of adding up these layers and you'll be successful. You must be able to integrate these different layers and make sure you don't have false positives."

That's the difficult path Grisoft has to cut, Smith says. While everyone wants to avoid the mountains of spam avalanching into their inboxes, should a program flag one important letter as junk the user will caterwaul —regardless of how many other threats have been prevented.

"There's always a risk of false positives," he says. "Engineers have to walk a fine line between accurately marking spam and not misidentifying important information. Consumers will only tolerate so many mistakes."
And what about computer users who decide to go it alone, trusting their own surfing savvy? While it may remain possible to stay virus free, the threats will only continue to multiply.

For one example, look to Estonia, a country advanced in its Internet use — it has even held national elections over the Web. This May, anonymous hackers brought the country's infrastructure to its knees, crippling many essential services, Obluk points out.

"It was an organized attack," he says. "It was a demonstration of what can be done to a country. We don't know who did it or why — and why it suddenly stopped."

posted by Vidor Rayne, 6:08 PM | link | 1 comments |

 

Five Reasons for Making the Switch to Linux

 

Reason 1: Productivity

Lets start with how the overall speed and general stability that Linux contributes to productivity. Granted there will be a small learning curve for users that aren't at least a bit computer savvy, but today's distributions are very easy for a Windows user to become accustomed to.

A huge amount of software is available on the Web, many of which are free of charge and some that are driven by large, well-known companies. For productivity it's hard to beat OpenOffice. A free and viable alternative to Microsoft Office, boasts compatibility with its file formats and offers functionality only the most hard core of users of the Office suite will miss. Open Office is free to download and distribute throughout your organization. This could represent a major savings of thousands of dollars in licensing fees that most businesses pay to Microsoft every year.

There are hundreds if not thousands of other free software titles available for Linux that can help with productivity. Wikipedia is a great resource for finding links to free Linux based open source software.

Reason 2: Security

There are constant news reports about the millions of dollars in damages and downtime caused by viruses and Trojans that attack Windows based PC's. Linux is virtually free of these kinds of attacks.

Another consideration is spyware, which generates countless calls to IT helpdesk's across the globe. Spyware is nearly non-existent for Linux. Linux, a variety of UNIX, is by default, a very secure multi-user platform. It is of course, made by humans and therefore not perfect and there are many websitse out there with ways to harden Linux and make it even more secure.

Locked down tight, Linux makes a great file server, proxy server, or firewall and has been used in this capacity for over a decade.

Reason 3: Linux Maturity

As every enterprise-class IT organization knows, Linux is a powerhouse on servers and its abilities have been fine tuned for years. There is no doubt that on low to mid-range servers, Linux is a Microsoft's largest competitor. However, with the recent release of the 2.6 kernel, many new features have been added that make this release even more robust. Take, for instance, tickless idle for power savings, which can translate into lower electrical bills and longer battery life. (For a short overview, see this Wikipedia entry.)

Although the Linux desktop is still not quite as mature as the Windows platform, there have been great strides that deserve a fresh look at this useful and free operating system. When you begin to evaluate whether a move to Linux on desktops is viable for your business, you will need to weigh cost factors like software availability, potential software integration issues, and usability.

If the software you require to run your business is available to run under Linux, you'll quickly see the cost savings.

Reason 4: Availability

There are several mainstream versions of Linux, and hundreds of other, smaller, specialty versions of Linux.

Among the most popular versions of Linux available today is Red Hat Linux, which is mainly a server version. For a desktop version check out the Fedora Project and Novell's SuSe Linux. Both, you will find, are very stable versions of Linux.

A newcomer to the Linux desktop scene and probably the most popular among home users is Ubuntu. The latest version of this OS, called "Gutsy Gibbon", was just released last week and was met with fantastic reviews. We've been running this on our laptops for several weeks with the pre-release copy that we received and we can't say enough about its performance and ease of use.

It's important to remember when pitching these OS alternatives to your senior management that they are completely free for as many copies as your business needs.

Reason 5: Cost

Linux cost range from very inexpensive -- depending on the distribution you choose -- to free. Yes you read that right, FREE. There are several version of Linux which you do pay for, but you are not paying for the software, you are paying for tech support, or documentation. However, one does not always need to purchase tech support from the software developer.

One of the major advantages of Linux is that there is a huge community of people across the globe that dedicate their own time and resources to help keep the community up to date on fixes and bugs.

Usually if a bug is found in Linux, it's fixed or patched within a few hours, versus weeks, or even months as is sometimes the case with Microsoft Windows. Plus you have right to modify the OS as you see fit with some programming experience. Try doing that with Windows and odds are you'll get a nasty cease and desist letter in the mail.

In closing, these reasons sum up how moving to a Linux based desktop or even server system can save your company where it counts most: the bottom line. With the amount of freely available software and support, now is the time to begin investigating how Linux can be a cost-effective component in helping your business to grow and succeed in the years to come.

posted by Vidor Rayne, 6:06 PM | link | 0 comments |

 

Try out free software at research centers

 

FamilySearch has just announced that many popular desktop genealogy products can now be used for free in its family history centers in North America.

Patrons who already own or use any of the products to manage personal family histories at home will be able to conveniently update personal files through flash drives while working at the research centers.

FamilySearch's popular genealogy management software, Personal Ancestral File, is already available as a free download at www.familysearch.org.

FamilySearch's family history centers are frequented by millions of genealogy enthusiasts.

These family history centers are branch facilities of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. There are 16 centers in Mississippi alone.

Paul Nauta, manager of Public Affairs for FamilySearch, pointed out that once you start moving beyond parents and grandparents in personal research, the use of paper files becomes very difficult.

The software programs now available make it easy to build, organize, manage, share and view family histories.

The challenge becomes matching software programs to specific needs.

People who are in the market for purchasing a commercial program for home use can now sample software applications in the centers to help decide which to purchase.

The following programs are now available for use in centers: Genealogy management software of Ancestral Quest 12 (by Incline Software); Legacy Family Tree (by Milennia Corp.) and Family History software utilities of Personal Historian (Milennia Corp.) which writes and preserves personal life stories;

PAFWiz 2.0 (Incline Software) with add-on tools and report utility for PAF 5.2; PAF Insight (Ohana Software), which performs advanced functions related to margins and editing; PAF Companion 5.2 (Progeny Software), an add-on utility that prints a variety of charts and reports in different formats;

Family Atlas (Roots Magic), which creates and publishes custom maps from personal genealogy data; Pedigree Analysis (Generation Maps); Genelines (Progeny Software) and Map My Family Tree (Progeny Software).

The Mississippi centers are located in Booneville, Columbia, Columbus, Greenville, Gulfport, Hattiesburg, Jackson, Liberty, Meridian, Natchez, and Oxford.

All operate on individual hours so it is best to call before going.

A list of addresses and phone numbers (and some operation hours) is available at www.FamilySearch.org.

posted by Vidor Rayne, 6:00 PM | link | 0 comments |

 

McAfee to offer free security software

 

McAfee is making a virtual trial of its McAfee Secure Internet Gateway appliance available to organisations as part of a free 30-day software trial.

Aimed at medium-sized enterprises, McAfee Secure Internet Gateway is an integrated web and email security appliance designed to help companies fend off spam, viruses, spyware and malicious websites.

Other features include the ability to block 98 per cent of existing spam, including hard-to-detect image spam, according to the company. The software also features McAfee anti-virus and anti-spyware technology and McAfee SiteAdvisor, designed prevent users from visiting websites laden with spyware, phishing scams, or spamming agents.

In addition, McAfee Secure Internet Gateway will offer the company's ePolicy Orchestrator allowing users to manage their gateway, desktop and mail server protection from a central location.

"For the first time, customers can try a spam-filtering appliance through the download of a virtual software file, to see how it performs relative to their current anti-spam solution," said Jack Marsal, director of product marketing for McAfee.

"We're giving customers the opportunity to experience the benefits of McAfee Secure Internet Gateway on their own server, before making an investment in an appliance."

Technical support is to be made available to customers on a selective basis. Only 'qualified' users actively participating in the evaluation of the product will be offered support during the 30-day trial period.

posted by Vidor Rayne, 6:00 PM | link | 0 comments |

 

Keep It Clean For Free

Sunday, October 21, 2007

 

Buy any PC or notebook and you'll probably be offered the chance to trial and buy some kind of security suite, be it from McAfee, Symantec or any other of the "Internet Security" companies. Such software packages are intended to keep your system secure from viruses, spyware and all the other nefarious little blighters you'll encounter from using the Internet. However, it ought to be no great secret that you can gain the same functionality by using a combination of excellent freely available software. Here's our quick and to the point guide of software worth looking at.

Anti-Virus

AVG Free (Grisoft) & avast! (Alwil)


Anti-Virus is obviously an essential for any PC connected to the Internet, particularly if you're also sending and receiving lots of emails using your machine. There are many free Anti-Virus applications out there, but the two best and most popular are Grisoft's AVG Anti-Virus and avast! Anti-Virus from Alwil Software.


Both offer a comprehensive set of features, including real-time scanning and email scanning as well. Updates to software and anti-virus databases are also free, with both automatically updating during use. All-in-all there's very little to choose between them, though avast! does require a free activation that must be renewed every twelve months whereas AVG requires no activation at all.

Software Firewall

ZoneAlarm Firewall (Check Point) & Comodo Firewall ( Comodo)

Though many routers come with hardware firewalls a software firewall remains an important thing to have, especially if you're using a notebook on the move. Moreover, although Windows does have a built-in firewall, it isn't up to much and lacks many of the features these free alternatives have. Again, there's lots of choice out there but two of the best and most renowned include ZoneAlarm and Comodo.

ZoneAlarm is a user friendly application, requiring little in the way of configuration. As with most firewalls, initially you must train it to accept connection requests from programs you use regularly. One useful feature of ZoneAlarm is the Game Mode, which temporarily deactivates the firewall for playing online games.


Comodo is another excellent, though not so renowned option, that's well suited for more advanced users as well as beginners. There's a network monitor for those who want to take a closer look at what's going on, while everything is presented in a way that is comprehensible to the novice as well providing more detail than ZoneAlarm. Regrettably, though, it doesn't as yet support Vista, which will doubtless count it out for some.

posted by Vidor Rayne, 5:28 PM | link | 0 comments |

 

Remote Desktop Connection for Mac.

 

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) builds into Windows XP and Vista the ability to easily take control of another Windows machine's desktop. However, what if you have a Macintosh computer on a Windows network, and you'd like to easily access software on those PCs?

Microsoft has released a test version of Remote Desktop Connection 2.0 for Mac that's very simple to use. Once installed, and after you've set permissions on the Windows computer to allow remote access, just point Remote Desktop Connection at either the IP address or name of the PC you want to control. You'll be prompted to log in, and you'll then see that computer's desktop as a window on your Mac.

You can run any program that's installed on the Windows computer, though graphics-intensive programs may bog down.

You can also use it to transfer files between the Windows and Mac computers, as well as copy and paste text and images between computers.

Be aware, though, that while you're connected to the Windows PC from a Mac, someone sitting at the Windows computer won't be able to use it. The screen goes black, and a login is required to reclaim it.

You can't use this software to go back the other way -- i.e., control a Mac from a Windows machine. However, there are programs that use the Virtual Network Computing protocol, or VNC, which is built into the Mac OS. Windows users, try TightVNC.

posted by Vidor Rayne, 5:25 PM | link | 0 comments |

 

Quote of the day: There may be no 'I' in team, but there's a 'ME' if you look hard enough. - David Brent