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| | | | FAQ Revisions | Editors: MSeng  , lilhurricane , Rxdoxx
Last modified on 2009-10-24 23:23:07
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30 Archived Software Forum [POLLS]·(Archived) Preferred Antivirus Programs - 2005 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Antivirus - 2001 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Personal Firewall - 2001 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Cookie Controls - 2001 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Pop Up Stopper- 2001 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Backup & Imaging - 2001 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Defragmentation Software - 2001 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Instant Messaging Program- 2001 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred CD Creation Software - 2001 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Memory Management - 2001 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Remote Access Programs - 2005 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Hex-Text Editor - 2005 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred E-Mail Client - 2005 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Image Viewer - 2006 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred File Manager - 2005 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Media Player -2005 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Download Managers - 2005 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Pop-Up Blocker - 2005 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Instant Messaging Client - 2005 Members Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Utility Software Suites - 2005 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Audio Editors - 2005 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Defragmentation Software - 2005 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Newsgroup Readers - 2005 Members Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Personal Firewall - 2005 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred File Sharing Programs - 2005 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Internet Browsers - 2005 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Office Suite Programs - 2005 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred FTP Managers - 2005 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Backup and Imaging Software - 2005 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred DVD Copying Software - 2005 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred IRC Clients - 2005 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Encryption and Password Protection - 2005 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Reg Cleaners/Editors - 2005 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Defragmentation Software - 2006 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Cookie Controls - 2005 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Image Viewers - 2005 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Spyware Removal & Prevention Programs – 2006 Membe
·(Archived) Preferred Anti-Virus Programs - 2006 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred DVD Copying - 2006 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Instant Messaging Clients - 2006 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred CD Creation Software- 2006 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Audio Editors - 2006 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred File Manager - 2006 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Newsgroup Readers - 2006 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Personal Firewalls - 2006 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred FTP Managers - 2006 Member's Choice
·(Archived) Internet Browsers - 2006 Members Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Download Managers - 2006 Members Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Backup and Imaging Software - 2006 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Media Player - 2006 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Pop-up blocker - 2006 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Hex-Text Editors - 2006 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred E-mail Clients - 2006 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Utility Suites - 2006 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Office Suite Programs - 2006 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Reg Cleaners/Editors - 2006 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred File Sharing Programs - 2006 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Remote Access Programs - 2006 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred IRC Clients - 2006 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Uninstallers- 2006 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Cookie Controls - 2006 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred DVD Creation - 2006 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Encryption and Password Protection - 2006 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Image Viewers – 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Defragmentation Software - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Personal Firewalls - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred IRC Clients - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred DVD Creation Software - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred DVD Copying Software - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Spyware Removal & Prevention Programs - 2008 Member Cho
·(Archived) Preferred File Manager - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred CD Creation - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred File Sharing Programs - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Anti-Virus Programs - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Audio Editors - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Office Suite Programs - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Cookie Controls - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Internet Browser - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Instant Messaging Clients - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Compression Utilities - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred E-mail Clients - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Media Players - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Reg Cleaners / Editors - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Download Managers - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Remote Access Programs- 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Backup and Imaging Software - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Newsgroup Readers - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Pop-up Blocker - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Encryption and Password Protection - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Uninstallers - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Utility Suites - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred Hex-Text Editors - 2008 Member Choice
·(Archived) Preferred FTP Managers - 2008 Member Choice
| | | 2005 Member Choice Poll
Because our Poll included both free and pay versions of Antivirus Software, you might say there were two clear winners representing both categories.
However, the overall winner with 253 votes and 24% of the total (in what would be considered a pay product) was Norton Antivirus.
To be fair, this popular Symantec product is intended primarily for home use where Symantec Enterprise Software was also mentioned several times in the comments as a preferred business solution (and in some cases for home use as well). Therefore, votes for Norton from users of other Symantec AV products most likely helped to raise the vote count.
One thing is certain, people that have come to know and trust Norton Antivirus over the years (or other Symantec AV products), continue to remain faithful.
It is a time-tested product that almost everyone is familiar with.
Below are some highlights included in the basic version of Norton Antivirus 2005:
KEY FEATURES•Automatically removes viruses, worms and Trojan horses•Blocks Internet worm attacks•Includes email and instant message attachments protection•Provides automatic virus protection updates•Detects virus infections in compressed file archives•Defends against Spyware and other emerging threats KEY BENEFITS•Blocks Internet worms like "Blaster" at multiple points of entry •Provides more proactive protection with the integrated ease-of-use design•Protects against Internet Worms out of the box without required user configuration or interaction •Safeguards users' PC and prevents it from spreading viruses to their friends and colleagues
Other notable products in the “Pay” category and frequently mentioned by our participants in the Poll were (in order of popularity from the highest to lowest vote count):
•Kaspersky (Very popular and second in votes as far as Pay Software).
•Mcaffee
•Nod32
•EZAntivirus
•Trend Micro
While not as popular in our particular Poll, there were still a fair number of votes for several other pay versions.
(Again, continuing in order of vote count from highest to lowest):
•F-Prot
•Panda
•F-Secure
•Bit Defender
•Sophos
•Dr Web
Moving on to the number two overall winner in the Poll, AVG came in as a close second behind Norton with 211 votes and 20% of the total.
While Grisoft does offer both free and pay versions, the free version is extremely popular, and judging by actual statements in the Poll, the free version most likely represents the majority of the 211 votes it received.
Avast (also offering both a free and pay version), was the main contender as the other popular choice for free Antivirus protection. Again, use of the free version was reflected in the comments during the Poll and from discussions we have seen in the past.
With 94 votes and 9% of the total, it was not as popular as AVG, but judging from the comments, Avast users love this Software, and it comes highly recommended as a free program. As with AVG, there are some that use the respective pay versions (usually after testing the free versions and liking what they see, and for the extra features).
* After reading the many comments, the obvious conclusion is that whatever the choice, people are finding a product that they feel comfortable with, and for the most part, sticking with it.
In this day and age, there is no denying that Antivirus protection is important and certainly just about any legitimate product is better than none at all.
It is nice to know that our participants seem to agree.
Surprisingly, there is still the “adventurous” group out there that claim they don’t use any Antivirus protection at all (31 votes representing 3% of the total). With new threats evolving every day, and different ways to become infected, this is probably not a wise choice to say the least.
Note that in addition to the enormous number of actual votes, there were also some excellent comments and opinions posted in the thread itself. Some of them offer very helpful insight as to why people use a particular product, (or why they chose “Other”), so be sure to check out the Poll and read through the thread when you get a chance for further information!
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by jabarnut edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-30 16:14:13 | | | After many votes to this poll, The clear-cut winner for most preferred anti-virus application was Symantec's Norton Antivirus. The following is an excerpt from Symantec's site about the product: Norton AntiVirus™ is the world's most trusted anti-virus solution. Now it repairs common virus infections automatically, without interrupting your work. It scans and cleans both incoming and outgoing email, and defends against script-based viruses such as "I Love You" even between virus definition updates. Protect your PC today with award-winning Norton AntiVirus!
Norton Antivirus 2002 has many features, including: •NEW! Automatic removal of many viruses lets you work without interruption.•NEW! Script Blocking detects script-based threats such as the "I Love You" and "Anna Kournikova" viruses, even before new virus definitions are created for them.•NEW! Scans and cleans outgoing email messages to prevent sending infected files from your PC.•NEW! Integration with Windows Explorer lets you use many common Norton AntiVirus functions from the Explorer menus for easy access.•NEW! Built-in links take you directly to the Symantec Security Response Web site (formerly known as Symantec AntiVirus Research Center) for additional information on specific viruses just when you need it most.•Automatic LiveUpdate checks for and installs new virus definitions when you're connected to the Internet to keep your system updated against the latest viruses.•Automatically scans email messages and attachments in standard POP3 clients, including Microsoft® Outlook®, Eudora®, and Netscape® Mail.•Protects against viruses, Trojan horses, and malicious ActiveX® code and Java™ applets, even in compressed files.•Quarantine feature isolates infected files in a protected area of your hard disk until they can be repaired.•Scan and Deliver wizard makes it easy to send infected files to Symantec Security Response experts for analysis.
Norton Antivirus 2002 for Windows has support for Windows 95B/98/Me/NT workstation/2000 and Windows XP Home and Professional editions. More details about the system requirements can be found by clicking here. Norton Antivirus version 7 is also available for Apple Macintosh, as more details are available here.
Links to company sites for all antivirus programs may be found here: •Symantec Norton Antivirus•McAfee VirusScan•AVG Anti-Virus•InoculateIT virus protection•Panda Software's Panda Antivirus
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by C0deZer0 edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-30 16:14:30 | | | ZoneAlarm was the winner in this poll with 38% of 161 total votes. It was followed by its more powerful brother, ZoneAlarm Pro, which gained 26% of the vote. Links to both products can be found at ZoneAlarm.com. A comparison of the two products can be found here.
The latest version, ZoneAlarm 2.6, is compatible with Microsoft® Windows® 95/98/Me/NT/2000 and XP. It is offered free for personal use and is $19.95 for business users. Some of the features include:•Simplicity: ZA is easy to set up. New users do not need extensive backgrounds in ports, protocols or firewall programming to be protected. The graphic user interface is easy to understand, with simple controls.•Activity Monitoring: Users are immediately alerted when there is a new activity (both inbound and outbound) and have the opportunity to stop it instantly.•Application Control: Gives users simple "yes" or "no" control over which applications can access the Internet. The authors of the application provide a Service and support section for their products, including a General FAQ, OS specific details for install and uninstall of the product, how to set up for various types of network connections, tips on using different types of programs and even provides a section on known issues with their product.
Although online help is available, you can also download the User Manuals in Adobe Acrobat PDF format for use on your local drive.
Other applications either included or mentioned in this poll are:•Norton Personal Firewall•Tiny Personal Firewall•Sygate Personal Firewall•BlackIce Defender•McAfee Personal Firewall•Look-n-Stop Personal Firewall
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by MSeng edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:47:36 | | | Cookie Pal was the winner in this poll with 31% of the total votes. It was followed by cookiewall which gained 25% of the vote. The web site to Cookie Pal can be found at here at Cookie Pal .
Cookie Pal is a complete Internet cookie management system for Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4.0 and Windows 2000. Cookie Pal works with your web browser to give you complete control over the cookies which are accepted by and stored on your system.
Cookie Pal features are a clean interface,
Automatically and seamlessly accepts or rejects cookies from all or specified servers without user interaction.
On the fly adding of servers to the accept from and reject from lists.
Wildcards allow cookies to be accepted or rejected
summary list of the number of cookies accepted and rejected from each server during a session.
You can view and delete at any time.
Load and closes with with your web browser.
Can be customized to work with other software and to play sounds to alert the user.
Cookie Pal is configured to work with the following web browsers and software:
Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.x, 4.x and 5.x
Netscape Navigator 3.x and 4.x
Opera 4.x and 5.x
Neoplanet
America Online 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 and 6.0 for Windows 95/98/ME
CompuServe WinCIM 3.0.1 and 4.0 and 2000
Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express.
Eudora E-mail
Windows Media Player and RealPlayer
It can be customized by the user to work with most other Internet software which uses cookies.
Registration costs $15
Online help is available through their Cookie Pal Tutorial which will give you a step by step guide to set up Cookie Pal. And Cookie Pal's support page.
Other applications either included or mentioned in this poll are:
Cookie Cutter
Cookiewall
Cookie Jar
Cookie Terminator
Cookie Crusher
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by FastEddie edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:48:03 | | | Pop-Up Stopper was the winner in this poll with 28% of the total votes. It was followed by PopKi which gained 19% of the vote. Links to other software in the poll can be found below.
The latest version of Pop-Up Stopper stops Internet Explorer pop-up windows without adjusting proxy settings, or adding sites to a list. Surf in style with this free tool, allowing pop-up windows only when you want them! Unique control feature makes it simple to allow only the pop-ups you want, such as opening hyperlinks or new browser windows.
Pop-Up Stopper requires that you are using a compatible Operating System and Browser. Pop-Up Stopper is supported by most Windows Operating Systems including Win 95, 98, 98SE, ME, NT, 2000 and XP.
it's features include :
Now even easier to Install and configure, and easier to control
Eliminate pop-up windows without adjusting proxy settings.
Play a sound to notify you when a pop-up has been blocked
Stops pop-under windows
Online help is available which will provide you with a guide to its features and also a FAQ section.
Other applications either included or mentioned in this poll are:
PopKi
Pop-up killer
Surf Pal
Proxomitron
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by FastEddie edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:48:44 | | | | Drive Image won this poll with 46% of the votes. A close second was Norton Ghost with 38% of the votes. Drive Image offers the following benefits: •Support for Windows XP.•QuickImage™ Windows interface allows you to configure and execute imaging sessions. You're no longer forced to operate while in DOS as you are with other imaging software. •QuickImage scheduler allows you to schedule regular backups of your entire hard drive or individual partitions. Once your schedule is set, you do nothing more-the backups will happen automatically. •Improved performance allows you to create and restore images faster than ever.•Support for a greater number of CD-R/W drives, including IDE, SCSI and PCMCIA drives.•VF Editor allows you to custom-build your own Virtual Floppy files, removing the need to create and boot from floppy diskettes. •Supports hard drives as large as 80GB. You can download a demo version of Drive Image HERE. Drive Image is $69.95 for the full product or $49.95 for the upgrade. Check out their website at Drive Image.com.
| Hardware\Software | Minimum | Required |
|---|
| Processor | Intel Pentium | | RAM | 16MB | 32MB for FAT32 or Hard Disks larger than 4GB | | Hard Disk Free Space | 16.5MB | | CD-ROM Drive | Any Speed | | Operating System | Win95/98/Me, NT Workstation 4.0, Win2000 Pro, WinXP, DOS 5.0 | | Video | VGA | Super VGA | | Removable Media | 3.5" floppy and CD-ROM |
Other products in this poll can be found by clicking the following links:
Norton Ghost
NTI backup
Handy backup
Backup MyPC (Formally Backup Exec by Veritas)
Retrospect
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by Jaime edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:49:12 | | | Norton Speed Disk came out ahead, although by just a bit. Throughout the polls uptime Executive Software's Diskeeper was a very close runner up.
What is Fragmentation according to webopedia.com
Fragmentation
Refers to the condition of a disk in which files are divided into pieces scattered around the disk. Fragmentation occurs naturally when you use a disk frequently, creating, deleting, and modifying files. At some point, the operating system needs to store parts of a file in noncontiguous clusters. This is entirely invisible to users but it can slow down the speed at which data is accessed because the disk drive must search through different parts of the disk to put together a single file.
Norton Speed Disk 5.1 - Consumer
Norton SpeedDisk v5.1 for WinNT/2000 Pro Optimizes Everything!
Norton SpeedDisk v5.1 for WinNT/2000, provides powerful analysis and optimization tools to maintain peak performance of your hard drives. It not only defragments volumes, it completely optimizes them. Unlike fragmentation utilities, Norton SpeedDisk optimizes everything, including the MFT (Master File Table), PageFile, free space, open files and metadata. Moreover, it doesn't require the system to be rebooted at all, or require key processes such as AntiVirus protection to be turned off or a lot of free space to be available on the disk.
Key Features:
•Complete optimization of Windows NT and Windows 2000 drives
•Performs full optimization while your PC is up-and-running
•Uses intelligent analysis to place file types in the optimal order for best performance
•Limits re-fragmentation through the intelligent placement of files
System Requirements:
•Intel 80486/66 processor or higher
•Windows NT 4.0 (Workstation) with Service Pack 3, 4, 5, 6 or Windows 2000 Workstation
•32 MB RAM or greater
•20 MB hard disk space available
•NTFS and FAT cluster sizes (512 bytes, 1K, 2K, 4K, 8K, 16K, 32K, 64K)
•CD-ROM drive or network connection
•16 color VGA monitor, 256 color recommended
Current Version: 5.1
Platforms: Windows 2000, Windows NT
Product can be downloaded directly from Symantec Store for the cost of $49.95
Comparison review of both products by PCWorld
Other applications either included or mentioned in this poll are:
Defrag Commander Personal Edition ver1.31
O&O Defrag 2000 Professional Edition
Defrag Commander ver1.31
PerfectDisk 2000 ver4.0
PageDefrag ver2.10
(Note: At the time that I created this poll, I was unaware that this defrag program only defragged the registry hives, event logs and Pagefile.)
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by cjsmith edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:49:44 | | | After a lot of replies to the following Poll, The winner was .Net MSN/Microsoft Windows Messenger, but by a very close win over AOL Instant Messenger.
MSN/Windows Messenger is Microsoft's Instant Messaging Program. Its newest version features include:•Integration with .NET, and providing alerts•Voice and/or Video conversations•Make worldwide phone calls with its built-in internet phone call software•Ability to use voice recognition software to talk instead of type•Proxy Server support•Join an IM on-the-fly (For example, you're IMing with one person, and you want someone else to come in on the conversation. With MSN Messenger, you can simply invite the person into the same IM window, and continue from there)•Watch for new email (through Hotmail, MSN and Passport integration)•Invite friends to play a game (Using MSN Messenger and a DirectPlay-compatible game) Windows Messenger (built into Windows XP) allows for extra options, like:•Seamless integration of video into instant messages (requires a PC camera of some kind)•Use remote assistance so that a friend can help through some issues you may have•Work with a friend on the same program•Brainstorm with someone using Whiteboard•Quicker access to the available features.
Out of the universal IM programs, Trillian was the clear-cut winner, taking the majority of the votes for universal IM programs. Trillian's features include compatibility with AIM, MSN, IRC, ICQ, And Yahoo! messenger accounts. More details may be found by clicking here.
For all IM Programs listed in the poll, click the following links:
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by C0deZer0 edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:44:29 | | | According to the results of the Poll Recommended Apps - CD Creation Software, Ahead NERO was the choice with 55% of the vote. It was followed by Roxio Easy CD Creator which received 39% of the total responses.
Nero v5.5 is the latest release from Ahead Software AG. Some of Nero's features include:•Bootable-CD
•from floppy disk
•from hard drive partition
•Audio-CD
•Track-at-Once and Disc-at-Once
•extraction of multiple audio tracks
•speed setting of digital audio extraction
•playing tracks digital and analog
•format conversion "on-the-fly"
•variable pause-length, ISRC
•filters for de-click and de-hiss
•additional filters: wide-stereo and normalize
•compile audio cds by drag&drop from cd-rom drives
•supporting of MP3 and WMA (MS Audio) as source for audio tracks
•CD-Copy
•Track-at-Once and Disc-at-Once
•Image-copy for most reliable copy
•"on-the-fly"-copy for fast and easy copy
•complex read-error handling
•Images
•Track-at-Once and Disc-at-Once
•importing ISO 9660, HFS-images and others
•writing third party images, also from other platforms
•Burn options
•Track-at-Once and Disc-at-Once
•performance test
•multiple copies
•automated process of performance testing followed by
•automatic selection of maximum speed, simulation and burning
•dynamically disables auto-insert-notification
•80 min CD-Rs
•overburning
•Multi-functional user interface
•Explorer like
•drag & drop within Nero and from File Manager/Explorer
•built-in file browser
A complete list of features may be found here. Although Nero supports a large variety of burners, it's best to check out the information on the Supported Recorders page before downloading.
NERO can be run on any Microsoft Windows® platform, including XP. It requires a 486/33 or higher processor, 8 MB RAM minimum and a WinASPI driver layer. NERO can be purchased for $69.00 U.S., however, if you download the trial version, then the cost for a serial number is only $49.00
Information on the other applications either included within this poll or mentioned within the thread can be found at the links below:
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by MSeng edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:42:05 | | | Outer Technologies' Cacheman was the winner in this poll with 37% of the total votes. It was followed by MemTurbo which had 23% of the vote. Links to the other software in the poll can be found below.
Cacheman is a performance enhancement and memory recovery utility. By optimizing the Disk Cache and additional system settings it can prevent frequent swapping of the data to hard drive resulting in improved performance, system reaction time and even stability. Besides this, Cacheman corrects generic problems on systems with more than 512MB of RAM. Wizards help novice users to learn more about the tweaks and their results.
What can I do with Cacheman?
Optimize
- Disk Cache
- Name & Path Cache
- CdRom Cache
- Icon Cache
Periodically recover memory
Tweak several system settings to improve performance
Watch & monitor several important system values
- Overview page
- History Graph
- Logging
- Tray Icon
Create System configuration reports
Does Cacheman work on Windows NT4/2000/XP?
Yes, most settings are designed for Windows 9x-ME, but Cacheman offers even some NT4/2000/XP only settings.
Is Cacheman Freeware or Shareware?
That depends on yourself.
1. Private/Educational usage
The registration fee for Cacheman is $10. Since most users cannot afford $10, Cacheman has no disabled features and no time limit. If you really cannot afford the shareware fee you are allowed to use Cacheman as Freeware. All updates for registered users will be free even if we should be forced to change the license to Shareware only with the next major release.
2. Commercial/Corporate usage
If you want to keep using Cacheman you have to pay a $10 (Single User license) Shareware fee. Multi User and Corporate/Site licenses are available on the registration page.
THE FULL CACHEMAN FAQ CAN BE FOUND HERE.
Other applications either included or mentioned in this poll are:
AnalogX's MaxMem
MemMonster
RAMpage
RAM Idle
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by brandn8 edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:48:23 | | | In the Remote Access Poll of 2005, the following results are listed:
182 votes were submitted, and the clear winner was...Microsoft's Remote Desktop
said by Microsoft :
Remote Desktop is based on Terminal Services technology. Using Remote Desktop, you can run applications on a remote computer running Windows XP Professional from any other client running a Microsoft® Windows® operating system.
Remote Desktop is included with Windows XP, and provides a free, easy to use solution for accessing your computer over a network.
In 2nd place was UltraVNC.
UltraVNC is based off of RealVNC which was developed by AT&T Labs (which also was a contender in the poll) UltraVNC adds lots of new features that make it stand out from all the other VNC variants.
Here are just a sampling of its features:•Video driver hook: (bypasses the CPU, and gets information straight from the video card helps speed polling times)•MS-Logon: Uses your Windows login information to authenticate access rights•Encryption: Using an optional data encrytion plugin, you can encrypt the data stream through VNC (highly recommended for use over the internet)•File transfer: an embedded File Transfer with intuitive Graphical User Interface is included allowing for easy file copy between local and remote computers•Chat: Features built in chat functionality so you can communicate with the user on the other end In 3rd place by a narrow margin was TightVNC
Another VNC variant, it's known best for its Tight encoding method. The Tight encoding method is very efficient and also speeds up polling times (UltraVNC also has Tight encoding capabilities)
Special Mention:
Logmein stands out because it is accessible from any web browser, and can go through firewalls. It is the easiest to setup, and is very simple to use. Another thing to mention is that it is FREE, but does not support file transfers (except in the higher tiers) It is also encrypted, which makes it much safer to use over the internet than, some of the other unencrypted VNC varients.
Some other contenders:
•Radmin
•TightVNC
•UltraVNC
•PCanywhere
•GoToMyPC
•GoverLAN
•Remotely Anywhere
•Remote Explorer
•Lap Link Gold
•Anyplace Control
•PlanetRemote Remote Control
•TotalRC
•WinShadow
•Simple Desktop
•NetOp Remote Control
*Note: All links verified as of 10/21/05
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by fegul edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:47:18 | | | There was a total of 135 (and still counting) votes cast in a poll generated by MoerL over a period of two weeks in late August. What became evident was the fact many respondents used a combination of the two. See the definitions below (courtesy of wikipedia.org):
•Text Editor: a piece of computer software for editing plain text. It is distinguished from a word processor in that it does not manage document formatting or other features commonly used in desktop publishing. Text editors are often provided with operating systems or software development packages, and can be used to change configuration files and programming language source code.
•Hex Editor: a type of computer program that allows a user to manipulate binary (normally non-plain text) computer files. Using a hex editor a user can see or edit the raw and exact contents of a file as opposed to the interpretation of the same content that other higher level application software may associate with the file format.
Regardless, the outcome was somewhat unexpected when the top vote getter (with 42 votes) happened to be good old Notepad. Notepad is a text editor available in ALL Windows Operating Systems. Why, with so many other specialized tools available do people use such a basic component provided with the OS? Some of the responses included:•"It's the least bloated"•"doesn't require any kind of install, and very easy to use."•"Notepad does what I need"
For the techies who wanted a multi-functional program, UltraEdit32 was the choice. IDM Computer Solutions bills UltraEdit32 as "the ideal text, HEX, HTML, PHP, Java, Perl, Javascript, and programmer's editor". UltraEdit32 runs on the Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/2003 and XP platforms and the author provides free trial language-specific downloads for English, French, German, Italian, Korean and Spanish.
Other programs mentioned in the poll can be found in the list below. Note! - links verified as of 10/21/05.
FAQ written in Notepad.
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by MSeng edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:47:01 | | | It needs no introduction, and it's the one thing even the least knowledgeable computer user knows about and uses more or less frequently: email (or E-Mail).
Most people like to keep "dealing with email" as simple as possible. Simple means for most not having to install anything new onto their functioning systems, which automatically rules out email clients and leaves the alternative: webmail. If you're looking for even further reading on the benefits of webmail, see this short but sweet article on just that topic. A considerable number of users turned out to swear by webmail. GMail, Google's webmail solution, is by far the most popular webmail service among DSLR users.
Now, let's see how DSLR users like their email! According to a recent poll in the Software Forum on e-mail clients, our members found by a slight margin, that Microsoft Outlook took 34% of the 591 votes.
“Outlook 2003 provides an integrated solution for managing and organizing e-mail messages, schedules, tasks, notes, contacts, and other information. Outlook works directly with other programs in the Microsoft Office System. Outlook delivers innovations that you can use to manage your communications, organize your work, and work better with other people — all from one place. Features found only in Outlook include support for Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail accounts, Out of Office automatic e-mail replies, group calendar scheduling, multiple address books, tasks, notes, junk e-mail filtering, automatic backup, and archiving of items.”
You can view a comparison here on the differences between Microsoft Outlook vs. the third place finisher, Outlook Express.
Outlook was very closely followed by Mozilla's free alternative: Mozilla Thunderbird. Thunderbird has become enough popular to trump even the very successful Microsoft Outlook Express.
“Thunderbird is a free, open-source and cross-platform mail client for most operating systems including, but not limited to, Windows, Linux and Macintosh. It is based on the Mozilla codebase. It is a robust and easy to use client, similar to competing products like Outlook Express, but with some major advantages such as junk mail classification.”
System Requirements for Windows, Linux & Mac’s are found here
Some other of e-mail clients covered in this [POLL] that folks noted they used are listed below:
Note: Links Verified as of 10-14-05
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by illJazz edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:46:48 | | | From Wikipedia:
An Image Viewer or image browser is a computer program that displays a stored graphical image;
it can often handle various graphics file formats.
Such software usually renders the image according to properties of the display such as color depth and display resolution.
Some people use full-featured bitmap graphics editors as image viewers.
A person with, for example, Adobe Photoshop may have no need for a separate image viewer. Others may find that full-featured bitmap graphics editors load too slowly and keep a separate viewer for simply displaying images.
Many image viewers feature:
Basic viewing operations such as zooming and rotation.
Slide shows
Printing
Cataloging
By nearly a 2 to 1 margin above all others in the 2006 Member's (multiple choice) Poll the runaway winner for an amazing third time according to those who replied is: Irfanview !
Second Place was the built in Microsoft Windows Fax & Picture Viewer which is included with the Operating system in latter Windows builds.
And ACDSee is still the main choice for those who actually paid for an application, however many suggested they prefer an Older Version.
Also notable is that about one quarter of those responding indicated that they utilize more the than one viewer depending on their immediate needs.
So...
What is IrfanView ?
IrfanView is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE (for non-commercial use) graphic viewer for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003.
It is trying to be simple for beginners and powerful for professionals.
IrfanView is trying to create new and/or interesting features in its own way, unlike some other graphic viewers, which whole "creativity" is based on feature cloning, stealing of ideas and whole dialogs from ACDSee and/or IrfanView! (for example: XnView is stealing/cloning features and whole dialogs from IrfanView, since 5+ years).
IrfanView was the first Windows graphic viewer WORLDWIDE with Multiple (animated) GIF support.
One of the first graphic viewers WORLDWIDE with Multi-page TIF support.
The first graphic viewer WORLDWIDE with Multiple ICO support.
Some IrfanView features:
Many supported file formats
Multi language support
Thumbnail/preview option
Slideshow (save slideshow as EXE/SCR or burn it to CD)
Show EXIF/IPTC/Comment text in Slideshow/Fullscreen etc.
Support for Adobe Photoshop Filters
Fast directory view (moving through directory)
Batch conversion (with image processing)
Multi-page TIF editing
Email option
Multimedia player
Print option
Change color depth
Scan (batch scan) support
Cut/crop
IPTC editing
Effects (Sharpen, Blur, Adobe 8BF, Filter Factory, Filters Unlimited, etc.)
Capturing
Extract icons from EXE/DLL/ICLs
Lossless JPG rotation
Many hotkeys
Many command line options
Many Plug-Ins
Only one EXE-File, no DLLs, no Shareware messages like "I Agree" or "Evaluation expired"
No registry changes without user action/permission!
and much much more ...
Other Image Viewer Applications appearing in this year's poll
(listed in descending preference order) were:
FastStone ImageViewer (free)
Other
Picasa (free)
Microsoft Paint (included with the OS)
XnView (free)
The Gimp (free)
Microsoft Office Picture Manager (included in the Office Suite)
Adobe Photoshop Album SE (free)
CompuPic
ThumbsPlus
VuePrint
iPhoto
None
Corel Photo Album
Firehand Ember
Ulead Photo Impact
Cam2PC
FlipAlbum
Imagstik (free)
Pixels (free)
Ulead Photo Explorer
Studioline Photo Basic
Ultimate Paint
Xequte MegaView
Some of those Others that captured 6% of the votes were:
Paint.net
Directory Opus
LView Pro
FuturixImager
Graphic Workshop Professional
PolyView
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by steve1a edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-28 09:27:36 | | | Satisfactory, light, sufficient, just fine. These are just some of the comments made by BBR members who participated in our 2005 Member Choice poll describing the file manager they most like to use.
Wikepedia definition of File Manager
The file manager and a clear winner with 60% of the votes is ubiquitous
•Microsoft Windows Explorer.
Seven Tips To Manage Your Files Better
In terms of popularity it was followed by (Taking 19% and 11% of the votes respectively):
• Powerdesk
•Xplorer^2
The most votes for a Non-Windows file manager went to:
•Nautilus
Some other File Managers we reviewed:
•Accelman
•FileAnt
•TotalCommander
•A43
•Ac Browser
•freeCommander
• ExplorerXP
•AB Commander
•Waz Tree II
•EF Commander
•Directory Opus
•Konqueror - KDE
•Finder - Apple
Note: Links Verified as of 9/3/05
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by Cudni edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2006-07-07 10:40:17 | | | The top vote getter according to our poll with 32% goes to Windows Media Player 10 !
Second place @ 22% went to WinAmp and the top “other” write in candidate was VLC Media Player.
Many of the responses noted that a fairly high majority tend to use a variety of different Players for either their audio, video and/or other types of media playback needs.
So what gives Windows Media Player 10 the leading edge ?
Some might say “it is because it came pre-installed”.
Others seem to indicate that they like the true “Multimedia” Player features and overall ease of use...
While the selling points that Microsoft tout are:
“Windows Media Player 10 gives you more music and more choices, and for the first time makes it possible to sync high-quality music, video, and photos to the latest portable devices.”
New Streamlined Design
A whole new look giving you quicker and easier access to your favorite digital media.
Choice of Online Stores
A world of music at your fingertips. With Windows Media Player 10, you are just a click away from the world's largest collection of digital music.
Choice of Devices
Sync your music collection to over 70 different portable music devices.
Smart Jukebox Features
Remove the hassle of organizing even the largest digital media collections.
Others Included in this Poll were:
Windows Media Player 9 series
Windows Media Player Classic 6.4
(available in Windows 98, 98se ,ME , 2000 & XP: start/run: mplayer2)
MusicMatch Jukebox
RealPlayer
QuickTime
J River Media Jukebox
Quintessential Player
ZoomPlayer
JetAudio
iTunes
Foobar 2000
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by steve1a edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-30 16:14:47 | | | (See the definition of Download Manager here).
Curiously enough, the most frequent answer to the poll was "None" (67%, with 287/428 votes).
This could be due to a couple of reasons:
• Most recent browsers (Mozilla Firefox, Opera...) come with built-in managers which could suit the needs of the average user (especially for not really large files);
• "Download managers" are often - wrongly - considered mere "Download accelerators".
Many users feel no need of a Download Manager, since they use a fast connection.
Other voters find Download Managers useful even with DSL/Cable, when dealing with slow servers or when the connection closes in the middle of the download. Not every server allows full-speed downloads, and a Download Manager can significantly improve the transfer speed through simultaneous connections.
2nd place goes to FlashGet (7%, with 34/428 votes), closely followed by GetRight (6%, with 27/428 votes).
Some of the features listed in FlashGet homepage:
•Speed: the ability to split files into up to 10 parts, with each part downloading simultaneously. Up to 8 different simultaneous download jobs;
•Organize: categorize files with FlashGet's integrated & simple-yet-powerful file management features;
•Mirror search: automatically search for the fastest server available;
•Automatically have FlashGet dial up, hang up & shut down the computer when you're not around!
•Schedule to download files
•Manage your copious downloaded files with FlashGet's simple yet powerful user interface;
•Superior ease-of-use
•Control the download speed limit so that downloading files doesn't interfere with your web browsing;
Other download managers listed in the poll:
LeechGet
Net Transport
Fresh Download
Star Downloader
Mass Downloader
Free Download Manager
Internet Download Accelerator
These were omitted, but mentioned by users:
Download Studio
Download Express
Internet Download Manager
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by Fin edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2006-08-10 20:00:28 | | | This poll ran from approximately 7/11/05 - 7/21/05, and the clear winner with 39% of the total vote was Firefox.
Apparently, having a browser with a built-in pop-up blocker is becoming the selection of choice, as Internet Explorer made a good showing as well with 15% of the vote.
Other Popular Choices:
•Google Toolbar
•Proxomitron
•Opera
Also included in the poll:
•Admuncher (beta)
•AbsoluteShield IE Popup Blocker 1.40
•AdsGone Popup Killer
•AdShield 3.0,AdSubtract 3.0
•AnalogX POW! v 1.58
•AskJeeves
•Avant
•Crazy Browser
•Enigma
•Free Surfer Companion v 1.3.0.0
•GL-AD POPUP TERMINATOR
•Hitware Popup Killer Lite
•Internet Explorer (Windows XP SP2)
•Maxthon
•MEAYA's Popup Ad Filter
•MyPopupKiller
•NoAds v2005.02.12
•Norton Internet Security
•Pop-down 2.0.1
•PopKi v2.0
•Popup Killer and Tracks Eraser 2.0
•PopKiller 2.2
•PopUp Ad Smasher
•PopUpCop
•Popup Manager
•Pop-Up Stopper Free Edition
•Pop-Up Stopper Basic Edition
•Pop-Up Stopper Companion Edition
•Pop-Up Stopper Professional Edition
•Pop This!
•Spyblocker Software's POPUP ELIMINATOR
•STOPzilla!
•Surf Pal
•Window Shades
•Yahoo! Toolbar
•Zone Alarm Pro
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by Garbs edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2006-08-25 22:02:05 | | | There was no overwhelming choice in the Software Forum poll conducted from July 7th through July 23rd but the top vote getter with 25% of votes cast is the Trillian IM client offered by Cerulean Studios.
What is Trillian?•Trillian application offers the capability of connecting to the major chat services (MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, IRC and AIM) with one client, reducing the amount of programs installed. For a complete Product Overview check the information available on this page.
What platform does Trillian run on?•Trillian runs on the Windows platform.
What features does Trillian provide?•The program comes packaged in two versions - free and Pro. The Pro version provides additional capabilities, specifically voice chat. A complete list of features is available here.
Where can I download the latest version?•The latest version can be found here.
Interestingly enough, many of the respondents chose None (47 votes or 17%), instead using other methods to communicate with their friends, family and associates. Does this signal the decline and popularity of the Chat client? Only subsequent polls on the topic will tell.
Other clients mentioned, with the platforms supported, can be found in the table below:
(NOTE! - links verified as of 7/25/05)
| Program | Web Site | Platform | | Windows Messenger | http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx | Windows | | MSN Messenger | http://messenger.msn.com | Windows | | Yahoo Messenger | http://messenger.yahoo.com | Windows, Mac, Linux | | ICQ | http://www.icq.com/ | Windows, Mac | | AIM | http://www.aim.com | Windows, Mac, Linux | | Miranda | http://www.miranda-im.org | Windows | | Trillian | http://www.ceruleanstudios.com | Windows | | Gaim | http://gaim.sourceforge.net | Linux, Unix, Windows | | IM2 (Instant Messenger 2) | http://www.im2.com | Windows | | iGo Incognito | http://www.igo-incognito.com/main.html | Windows | | Proteus | http://www.defaultware.com/proteus/ | Mac | | Jabber | http://www.jabber.org/about/overview.shtml | | | AMSN | http://amsn.sourceforge.net/ | Windows, Mac, Linux | | Qnext | http://qnext.com/ | Windows, Mac, Linux | | Exodus (Jabber client) | http://www.jabberstudio.org/projects/exodus/releases/ | Windows | | Psi (Jabber client) | http://psi.affinix.com/?page=download | Windows, Mac, Linux | | AdiumX | http://www.adiumx.com/ | Mac | | iChatAV | http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/ichat/ | Mac | | Pulver Communicator | http://communicator.pulver.com/download/ | Windows |
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by MSeng edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:40:52 | | | The results from this POLL indicate that the largest percentage of our members who voted do not utilize any utility software suite.
Of those that do, the flavor du jour was overwhelmingly TuneUp Utilities 04.
"TuneUp Utilities 2004 makes Windows faster, more secure and comfortable. All important aspects of system configuration, security, cleaning and maintenance are combined under a modern graphical user interface."
Other Utility Suites receiving votes were:
Norton Systemworks
System Mechanic 5
X-Setup Pro
Ace Utilities
Tweak Now
Systweak Advanced System Optimizer
Window Power Tools
VCOM System Suite
Ashampoo WinOptimizer
From the replies to the poll, it was also clear that many members utilize smaller or specialty applications to optimize their PC such as Crap Cleaner
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by grobinette edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:46:33 | | | According to an official poll, the best audio editor turned out to be Audacity, the free and cross platform audio editor that is well known for its capabilities and its price.
2nd place was a tie between Sony Sound Forge and Nero Wave Editor. Sound Forge is an expensive professional editing tool and has been around for a long time generating a large user base.
Nero Wave Editor is bundled with Ahead's Nero Ultra package. It is inexpensive and relatively powerful, appealing to the consumer who is interested in editing sound, but not enough to spend hundreds of dollars on a professional program.
3rd place went to Adobe Audition, another professional editing application that used to be called Cool Edit Pro until it was bought by Adobe. It was also the most common response in the "Other" category.
Other contenders in the poll were:
• Goldwave
• Wavepad
• MP3 Surgeon
• Wave Lab
• Samplitude Pro
• ReZound
• Roxio Sound Editor
Note: Links valid as of 07/29/05
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by fegul edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:46:01 | | | Defragmentation defined Wikipedia
The results from this POLL indicated that the largest percentage of our members who voted are using Windows built in defrag software. A good explanation of the Windows defragmentation utility can be found at The Elder Geek
Of those who use third party defragmentation software the voting was very close between Perfect Disk and Diskeeper.
"PerfectDisk® Version 7.0 delivers speed, thoroughness, and ease-of-use for all Windows® home, small business, and large enterprise users. Certified by Microsoft® for Windows 2000 and Windows Server® 2003, PerfectDisk is designed for today's largest disk drives. If you are serious about disk defragmentation, optimization, and free space consolidation, you'll find PerfectDisk meets your high demands and requirements."
"New Diskeeper 9 is the "Set It and Forget It"® high-speed defragmenter that runs undetectably in the background and makes the problems of fragmentation go away forever! Diskeeper is packed with features and new technology that keep your systems running at top speed and protect critical system files, ensuring like-new levels of performance. Your systems can perform like new again — get Diskeeper 9 and see!"
Other defragmentation software receiving votes were:
•O&O Defrag
•Diskeeper Lite
•VoptXP
•Buzzsaw and Dirms
•Abexo Defragmentor
•MindSoft Defrag
Another specialty defrag tool mentioned by several members, that was not included in the poll is PageDefrag Utility from Sysinternals
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by grobinette edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:44:41 | | | The top five binary readers from the 6-21 thru 7-13 2005 Poll are as follows (in order of vote count from highest to lowest):
Agent is a stand-alone newsreader that runs on the Windows platform. A full list of features, including comparisons of the paid and free versions available, can be found here.
Interestingly enough, Other topped the votes, with most using Outlook Express or Thunderbird to read their text based newsgroups.
Q: What are newsgroups?A: In a nutshell, think of newsgroups as basically text based forums or message boards on usenet. There are literally thousands of them covering every topic imaginable.
Q: I was in some newsgroup and opened a message and all I could see was gibberish, was it some kind of secret code?A: Chances are you opened up a binary message. Newsgroups are posted text messages, someone figured out a way to encode binary files into text and posted it to the newsgroup. In order to download the binary file you would need a reader that can decode the message.
Q: Where can I find more information on newsgroups?A: A wealth of information can be found at the following links:
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by khc987 edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:43:41 | | | This write up covers the poll conducted in Broadband Reports' Software forum and it reflects the favourite choice of its visitors, it certainly does not mean it is “the solution”. As with anything in life, it is all matter of personal preference. There is no best firewall, and probably there will never be.
How many times have you stumbled upon a thread titled "Which firewall do you use/recommend/think is best?" while browsing forums? Almost daily? That is not surprising having more and more people use computers every day, and having high speed Internet access such as Cable and DSL being almost a standard today. Being online 24/7 allows us do shopping, chat with our friends, do business, pay bills, and so on. Sounds great? However, while Internet provided us with many new abilities it has also opened a whole new set of possibilities to others to intrude our privacy, collect data about our surfing habits, infecting our computers with malicious software… Reading so many reports about virus infections harvesting computers around the Globe, and many of us being the ones infected, it has encouraged many home users who did not think protecting your computer is important to find a solution to prevent infections and intrusions to your computer, and most important, to protect your data.
In the era of high speed Internet access it has never been so crucial to protect your computer than now, especially when there are reports that almost 80% of computers connected to Internet are infected with spyware. This represents a growing problem for many of us, and using tools such as antivirus, anti-spyware and a firewall is a must these days.
To answer your question which firewall is preferred among BBR members, we decided to conduct a poll. Results show that Zone Alarm is, once again, a clear winner with 32 percent of votes. While there are many solutions out there to choose from, according to our members Zone Alarm seems to be the most trusted and the most used solution. This is not a surprise since Zone Alarm has been preferred choice for the past several years. From the beginning Zone Labs has provided rather outstanding free version and pay version to those in need of more than a pure firewall. Combined with ease of use, in my own opinion never seen before, with stability, small footprint, and plenty of features it has won over many people. One of the reasons why so many people use Zone Labs’ solutions, according to their reports, as well as reading threads and results of polls on this and other forums is that they provide wide range of products. They cover basically anything a customer could wish for. Want a pure firewall, easy to use, and free? Then Zone Alarm Free is your choice. While it may not have all bells and whistles of most commercial solutions, it does what is made for and it does it excellent. Zone Labs has kept it up to date with latest enhancements and fixes as their commercial solutions, which is always appreciated by users rather than using outdated free version. While some other vendors limit their free versions drastically or provide outdated versions, Zone Labs has not neglected their non-paying users and has always kept its free version up to date. Zone Labs, as well as competition, has been adding many features to their Zone Alarm product to meet consumers’ demand. On this page you can find a complete list of products offered by Zone Labs and comparison between them.
Zone Alarm is outstanding firewall, no matter if you use free or pay version. All products made by Zone Labs use the same core and thus providing you with what probably is one of the best firewalls on the market. I personally like to combine several products to do separate things, rather than using all-in-one solution. There is no doubt components Zone Labs integrates in its pay versions are top notch, however I believe users can combine their outstanding free firewall with several other free product to protect their systems.
Description of Zone Alarm Free:
Easy-to-use firewall blocks hackers and other unknown threats.
•Systematically identifies hackers and blocks access attempts
•Automatically makes your computer invisible to anyone on the Internet
System Requirements:
Windows 98SE/ME/2000 Pro/XP. Pentium III 450 MHz or higher. 50MB of available hard disk space. Internet access. Minimum system RAM: 48MB (98SE/ME), 64MB (2000 Pro), 128MB (XP)
Looking at results more closely we can see that while Zone Alarm got almost 1/3 of member’s votes there are other products worth mentioning as well.
Second choice is built in Windows XP (SP1 and SP2) firewall. This is a basic firewall, which provides good inbound (incoming traffic) protection. It does not provide outbound protection and thus is does not provide you with ability to block an application, which potentially could be malicious, from connecting to the Internet.
If you are looking for rules based firewall an older but still very much used version of Kerio Personal Firewall is absolute winner in this category. Version 2.15 has not been updated since May 2003, however its stability, configurability and low resource usage won over many users who are looking for a free firewall. Broadband Reports has Kerio – Tiny forum with extensive info about Kerio and Tiny products, custom made rules as a great starting point for all Kerio v 2.15 users, and other useful tips.
Sygate, next to ZoneAlarm, is one of the popular choices when it comes to application based firewalls. It ended up in second place on our poll, together with built in Windows XP firewall. Sygate provides both free and pay versions. Its free version should be sufficient for most users. Advanced users should consider purchasing Pro version. I personally would not recommend you to use Sygate if you use a proxy server to access the Internet. There is a known issue in this firewall, which allows any application to connect to the Internet without prompting you if you use a proxy server. Applications like Proxomitron, Ad Muncher, WebWasher and similar are examples which function in this manner. If you are part of the group of users who do not use a proxy, then you should consider using this firewall.
Other choices we reviewed (alphabetically):
If you happen to be a user who is not familiar with firewalls and you ask yourself what a firewall is, then below you can read very brief explanation and type of firewalls that exist.
Firewalls provide protection against outside attackers (other Internet users) by filtering malicious Internet traffic, and thus shielding/hiding your computer (from others).
There are two types of firewalls:
Hardware firewalls are external devices are positioned between your computer or network and your cable or DSL modem. They provide high lever of protection, and are usually used for protecting multiple computers. Many people use routers, which usually have built in firewall features. Their downside is that their cost.
Software firewalls are installed on a computer and are used as regular programs. Some systems, such as Windows XP (SP1 and SP2) come with built in firewalls that provide inbound protection. Software firewalls allow users to control incoming traffic (inbound protection) and outgoing (outbound protection). Filtering outgoing traffic, meaning which application can (not) have Internet access, is one of the main reasons to use one, even if you have a hardware firewall.
In the end it doesn’t matter which solution you choose. It’s highly recommend that you use one. Any properly configured firewall being hardware or software based should provide you with excellent protection from intruders. It is also recommended that you keep your Windows up to date by downloading the latest updates from Windows Update, and that your software firewall is up to date.
Recommended Reading:
What is a firewall?
Which Firewall should I use?
What is the Best Type of Software Firewall?
When is an NAT Router Inadequate Protection?
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by richter35 edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:45:39 | | | BitTorrent or derivative was the overall winner of the poll.
BitTorrent is a P2P system that makes transferring large files (or groups of files) amongst a large group of people easy, fast and efficient. The BitTorrent network is set up in a way that is a little different than a normal P2P network. With this network, you really don't do any searching for files that the other users have using the client as you would with traditional clients like Kazaa. Rather, you go to websites that have lists of recently released files.
Newsgroups was a close second place. Due to limitations of posting to newsgroups more work is involved. Files need to be encoded (converted to text message) and uploaded to usenet newsgroups and also downloaded and decoded (converted back to original file).
Lime Wire came in third. LimeWire is a Gnutella based P2P network allows you to search for multiple files at the same time, multi language support, and is most famous for its ease-of-use and cross-platform compatibility. LimeWire will run on Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Solaris, and other operating systems. Features no adware or spyware, allows for firewall-to-firewall transfers and proxy support
More information on filesharing can be found at the following links at BBR's »Filesharing Software and »File Sharing FAQ .
Another recommended source is : »www.slyck.com/index.php
This FAQ entry written & submitted by khc987
Note: Links verified as of 08-19-05
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by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:43:52 | | | The poll for most used or favored Internet Browser was posted recently. And to say the result was an eye opener in putting it mildly.
The favorite among BBR users hands down is an open source browser, Mozilla Firefox. This stand alone browser is a well put together multi-operating system browser, with forums and individuals looking for and offering up useful extensions to the browser itself. Mozilla Firefox is customizable for each individiuals' taste, be it "Plain Jane" out of the box ready to go, or in some cases, loaded up with extensions and a variety of themes to please even the most novice among us.
Mozilla Firefox easily beat out the next favorite browser, Internet Explorer by a margin of more than 2 to 1 in the poll. While Internet Explorer is tightly tied into the Windows operating system enviroment, there is a version for the Apple Mac users. It is an older version, and one that will not be updated by Microsoft anytime soon, if at all.
**It should also be noted here, that Internet Explorer in it's current incarnation of IE6 SP1 will not be updated with latest security features found in the browser in Windows XP, 2003 Server and Vista operating systems. Bear this in mind when making your decisions.**
This then brings up our third place browser, Opera. This is also a multi-operating system browser, offering itself to Windows, Linux, Mac, FreeBSD, Solaris, OS/2 and QNX. This browser is also customizable, with Opera endorsed extensions and themes. If you visit the Opera Community, you can get help in any area you might have a question about, including editing the Opera .js files.
While there were votes for the Safari browser, that particular browser is tied strictly to the Apple Operating System.
There a host of other browsers out there, some for Windows only systems, some for Linux/Unix only systems, and then some that are cross platformed. The choice comes down to what your favorite is, what you are most comfortable with, and what is compatible with your Operating System.
For more information, click on the following links of the browser you're interested in and see if it fits your requirements.
Mozilla Firefox
Opera
Mozilla Suite
Netscape 8.0
Internet Explorer
K-Meleon Browser
Seamonkey Suite
Other places for information on making a browser selection can be found from the Mozillazine Forums on the latest open source offerings, including Galeon, Camino, Beonex, K-Meleon, Seamonkey and even Netscape.
Our very own Software forums, Mozilla forums, Microsoft Help forum, All Things Unix forum, and last but certainly not least, All Things Macintosh forum.
Each forum has users who can offer their advice and point you in the right direction in making your decision on a browser.
The only thing holding you back is you, so dig in and enjoy. You might be surprised to find something here you like and will want to use day in and day out.
Note: Links verified as of 08-19-05
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by TransitMan edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:46:19 | | | Our Software forum recently had a poll to ask about the Office program or Suite BBR members use. Surprisingly, it was a Microsoft product that won, Office 2003. It beat out Office XP by a 2 to 1 margin.
Office 2003 is tied to the Windows operating system and unless you have Virtual PC installed, you won't be able to use it in Linux, Mac or any other Operating system environment.
Office 2003 has several key features, Word, Excel, Power Point, and Outlook. It is a powerful product for those that need all features offered. And it comes at a hefty price as well. The full version of Office 2003 is $399.00.
However, there is a freeware solution that is comparable with the offerings in Office 2003. I'm speaking of the third place vote getter, Open Office. This product is a multi-operating system product, and can be used with Microsoft Windows, Solaris, and GNU/Linux. This product can read most if not all Microsoft office files. Open Office has its' own suite of products, from Writer to Calc, Impress, Draw, Base, and Math. This open source product is a direct cousin to Star Office, the offering from Sun. While not free, it weighs in at $79.95 and up.
As you can see from the poll, there were lots of products out there, some better than others. The real question is, which one is right for you?
Explore each product offered, see if meets your system requirements, and then see for yourself if it meets your expectations. There is a lot to choose from.
And remember, if you have a question about a product listed in the poll or just the top vote getters above, you can always ask in our Software Forum where some of esteemed members can help guide you with your choice.
And you can always click on the product listed in the poll, which will take you to that products home page where you can get the answers you need to make your decision.
*Note: Links verified as of 08-19-05
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by TransitMan edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:43:13 | | | FTP - File Transfer Protocol. Unlike HTTP, FTP does not go through all the "handshaking", it just blasts away. There are MANY FTP Managers out there, try a few and see which one is best for you.
This years results can be found by viewing the thread - [POLL] What FTP manager do you use?
Our member's #1 choice for FTP Managers is WS_FTP Pro by IPSwitch. It is the most popular FTP manager used by developers world-wide. WS_FTP Pro is a paid product @ $49.99. WS_FTP Pro has an impressive features list, you can review it by going here.
WS_FTP Pro System Requirements:•Windows® 98 SE/NT/2000/Me/XP/2003•16MB of RAM for Windows 98 SE and 32MB for Windows NT/2000/Me/XP/2003•8MB of disk space Note - a 16-bit version for Windows 3.1 is available.
The #2 choice by our members is FileZilla. FileZilla is a free, GNU General Public License (GPL), and easy to use FTP Manager.
System Requirements:•Computer/Processor: Pentium 3 or greater•Operating System: Windows XP Professional or Home Edition, 2000 Professional, NT 4.0 Workstation, Me, 98/98SE•Memory: not listed•Disk Space: 2 MB Filezilla features include:•Ability to resume Uploads/Downloads (if the server supports it)•Custom Commands•Site Manager with folders•Keep Alive system•Timeout detection•Firewall support•SOCKS4/5 and HTTP1.1 Proxy support•SSL secured connections•SFTP support•Upload/Download Queue•Drag&Drop•Multi-language support•GSS authentication and encryption using Kerberos
Other FTP Managers include:
CuteFTP
FlashFXP
SmartFTP
Plus MANY more!
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by dadkins edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:45:16 | | | In a recent BBR Software Forum poll, visitors were asked to vote for their favorite backup or imaging software. By a wide margin, Acronis True Image took top honors, gathering nearly half of all votes cast for both types of software.
Backup and imaging software should be your first line of defense against data loss. Hard drive crashes, accidental deletion of files or formatting of drives can all render your data unrecoverable. Backup and imaging utilities make it easy to recover your data should disaster strike.
Backup software differs from imaging software in that it's primary purpose is to backup individual files or folders, many times on a daily basis. Imaging software, on the other hand, is used to make image files of entire drives or partitions. In the event of hard drive failure or other circumstances where you cannot boot into the operating system, these images can be restored to a new or existing drive. In most cases, you'll be back in business in just minutes. Images are normally stored on another physical drive or on removable media such as CD or DVD.
Acronis, a relative newcomer to the disk imaging arena, has taken on the major players such as Symantec and has become an almost overnight success. True Image users prefer it's ease of use, easy to navigate GUI and overall speed compared to other solutions. If TI has one drawback, that would have to be it's inability to image directly to DVD media. DVD media must be formatted first with packet writing software and this can be a very time-consuming process. Hopefully, future versions will resolve this issue.
Norton's Ghost was a distant second, with older versions (2003 and earlier) preferred over Norton's newest offering, Ghost 9.0. Others receiving votes were Powerquest's DriveImage (recently acquired by Symantec and reborn as Ghost 9.0), Dantz Retrospect and TeraByte's Image for Windows/DOS.
Preferences for backup software was pretty evenly distributed among the candidates with no clear winner in that category.
Software choices in the imaging category included:
•Acronis True Image
•Norton Ghost 9.0
•Norton Ghost (2003 or earlier)
•Norton Ghost Corporate Editions
•Powerquest DriveImage 7
•Powerquest DriveImage (2002 or earlier)
•Symantec LiveState Recovery Desktop 3.0
•Powerquest V2i Protector
•Dantz Retrospect (all versions)
•Paragon Drive Backup
•Partition Image (Linux)
•TeraByte Image for Windows/DOS
Backup software choices included:
•Windows Backup Utility
•BackUp MyPC
•Veritas Backup Exec
•Genie Backup Manager (Home or Pro)
•Nero BackItUp
"System Restore" type utilities included:
•Norton (Roxio) GoBack
•RestoreIT
Links verified as of 08-30-05
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by howie edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:42:23 | | | A poll was conducted to determine which software program members used most often to copy DVDs.
The winner, DVD Decrypter, is a freeware program with great versatility. Unfortunately, it is no longer being developed. The last version, 3.5.4.0, can be downloaded from various sites online. Due to legal considerations, we cannot link you directly to a source. DVD Decrypter can perform a multitude of tasks, either as a standalone program, or in combination with other readily-available freeware.
Wikipedia, the free Internet Encyclopedia, provides a useful article regarding DVDs.
An explanation of terminology, such as what constitutes a DVD5 or a DVD9 format, is also provided:
•The History and Specifications of DVDs
Here are links to tutorials on the most requested DVD copying options:
•A complete overview of DVD Decrypter
•Copying a DVD in ISO mode
•Copying a DVD with DVD folders using DVD Decrypter & Folder2ISO
•Copying a DVD9 using DVD Decrypter & DVD2One
•Copying a DVD and adding subtitles
Our runner-up program, DVD Shrink, shares the same marketing conditions as DVD Decrypter. It is freeware that is no longer being developed. Again, we cannot link you directly to a source for DVD Shrink, but it remains available for download from various Internet sources. DVD Shrink requires a "helper program" to complete a burn. It has the ability to directly call Ahead Software's Nero to accomplish this task.
A guide to copying DVDs with DVD Shrink may be found here:
•Copying a DVD using DVD Shrink
Other programs in this category are not free, but may come with trial or demo versions. They are typically all-in-one solutions. Copy and burning quality will vary by program. Popular choices, which include trial versions, and/or reputable support, include the following:
•1 Click DVD Copy
•Clone DVD (Elaborate Bytes)
•Clone DVD (Slysoft)
•Copy To DVD•DVD2oneX (Mac)
•DVDFab
•DVDxCopy/DVDxPlatinum (current customers only)
•Easy DVD Copy - Roxio
•EZ DVD Copy
•IcopyDVDs2
•Nero
•Pinnacle Instant
•Popcorn - Roxio (Mac)
IMPORTANT NOTE!
Neither this website, nor the author or editor(s) of this FAQ, condone or endorse the illegal duplication of copyrighted materials. It is assumed that you will use the information provided herein strictly in accordance with the copyright laws of your country. Failure to do so is at your own risk.
All links provided are current as of 08 September 2005, but are subject to change.
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by RangerTX7 edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2006-06-09 12:45:24 | | | We held a poll recently here at BBR for most used IRC Client. The results were pretty surprising.
Our users first choice was MIRC. It blew away the competition with an amazing 64%!
MIRC is a stand-alone IRC Client.
Coming in a distant second was:
• Trillian with 7% of the vote, which is a combination IRC and IM client
Our third choice was:
• X-chat with 5% of the vote. X-chat is also a stand-alone IRC client.
3-way tie for fourth place with 3% each:
••Opera (internet suite: browser, mail, IRC, and news)
•pIRCH (stand-alone
•irssi (IRC, SILC, and ICB) UNIX only
Others we discussed:
•ChatZilla
•GAIM
•jIRC
•KVIrc
•PJIRC
•savIRC
•smuxi
•ViRC
•Vortec IRC
•WS IRC
•XiRCON
•dIRC
•HydraIRC
•IceChat
•Klient
•Microsoft Comic Chat
•Miranda
•Nettalk
•TinyIRC
•BitchX
•Centericq
•IIRC
•ircII
•Konversation
•Kopete
•KVirc
•naim
•Scrollz
•TalkSoup
•Xaric
•Zircon
•Colloquy
•conversation
•fire
•IRCle
•Minerva IRC
•ShadowIRC
•Snak (Mac)
•X-Chat Aqua (Mac)
•Xirc
•EZIRC
•GTIRC
•IRC/2
•Openchat/2
•Baxter
•BIRCH
•Bowser
•Felix
•Vision
•ircabi
•jpirc
•AIRC
•ERC
•ZenIRC
You can find additional IRC Client Lists here at IRC Reviews & at wikipedia
Note: Links verified as of 9/10/05
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by Rob A edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:44:57 | | | A poll recently conducted in our Software Forum yielded these results:
• One of the more common options for encryption, and our number one choice is to use the resources that are already available to you. Some operating systems such as Windows XP Professional have an encrypting file system built right in. Linux and Unixes can also do this as well, though doing so is beyond the scope of this FAQ entry and you should consult resources related to those systems.
A simple guide for users of Windows XP Professional is available. Here:
»www.practicalpc.co.uk/computing/···ypt1.htm
Microsoft TechNet has some excellent resources related to the Encrypting File System built into Windows XP Professional and above. Here: »www.microsoft.com/technet/prodte···tfs.mspx
Another popular solution available on multiple platforms is PGP and applications that can handle it. You should be able to find software that handles PGP regardless of what operating system you're running.
•PGP Desktop and other PGP products
»www.pgp.com/
• GNUPG
From the website: »www.gnupg.org/
GnuPG is a complete and free replacement for PGP. Because it does not use the patented IDEA algorithm, it can be used without any restrictions. GnuPG is a RFC2440 (OpenPGP) compliant application.
»macgpg.sourceforge.net/ - Mac GPG
• CTC
Seems to be a collection of libraries, may be of use to developers out there.
From the website: CTC is a collection freeware PGP-interoperable encryption software package developed by Ian Miller and Mr. Tines.
CTC does not stand for anything; it is Rot13("PGP").
»www.bifroest.demon.co.uk/ctc/
•Secure Data Manager (SDM)
»sdm.sourceforge.net/
The SDM application was created to help you manage your passwords and other private information for web sites, computers, contacts, and other programs within one secure application. A fully functional, open source, free, password manager! No limit or restrictions to the application. We are currently using SunJCE crypto (specifically DES 56-bit encryption with a 1024 bit MD5 hash algorithm)
•Password Generator
Many of these are available including some on the web, you are recommended using on of these to prevent against brute force attacks. Some of these include:
»www.winguides.com/security/password.php
»www.multicians.org/thvv/gpw.html
»www.angel.net/~nic/passwd.html
»www.adel.nursat.kz/apg/
»www.buttuglysoftware.com/
• AxCrypt
»axcrypt.sourceforge.net/
AxCrypt File Encryption Software - Free Personal Privacy and Security for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2K/XP with AES-128 File Encryption, Compression and transparent Decrypt and Open in the original application.
• Windows Privacy Tools
»winpt.sourceforge.net/en/
Windows Privacy Tools (WinPT) is a collection of multilingual applications for easy digital encryption and signing of content.
• SecureIT
Protect all your files individually. Secure IT is an easy to use, feature packed, file encryption program based on 448-bit strong encryption using the Blowfish algorithm. It includes a powerful, customizable file shredder, and the ability to generate self decrypting email attachments, allowing the user to send encrypted email to anyone - the recipient does not need to have a copy of the program.
»www.cypherix.co.uk/secureit2000/
»www.cypherix.co.uk/prods.htm
• TrueCrypt
»www.truecrypt.org/
Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows XP/2000/2003
Main Features:
* It can create a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mount it as a real disk.
* It can encrypt an entire hard disk partition or a device, such as USB memory stick, floppy disk, etc.
• CompuSec at Home
Website was unavailable at the time of this writing, if it is up in the future a free version of Compusec should be available on the following page.
»www.ce-infosys.com.sg/CeiNews_Fr···uSec.asp
• Blowfish Advanced CS
»www.lassekolb.info/bfacs.htm
• BcArchive
»www.jetico.com/index.htm
• PicoCrypt
It is a small and extremely fast encryption utility that uses Blowfish encryption algorithm in CBC mode. It is easy to use and support multiple files drag-and-drop. In addition, it is portable, you can put it on your USB memory stick and run it anywhere you go! Very useful for users who want to keep their document secure on their computer or transfer over Internet using unsecure channel.
»www.picofactory.com/download.html
• Zero Footprint Crypt
»www.snapfiles.com/get/zerofoot.html
•Cryptainer LE
Creates an encrypted container (vault) to store any type of data.
»www.cypherix.com/cryptainerle/
• Password Depot
Commercial password manager, looks rather interesting.
»www.password-depot.com/
• Password Safe
Password Safe is a tool that allows you to have a different password for all the different programs and websites that you deal with, without actually having to remember all those usernames and passwords. Password Safe runs on PCs under Windows (95/98/NT/2000/XP). An older (but fully functional) version is available for PocketPC. Linux/Unix clones that use the same database format have also been written.
»passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/
• Max Crypt
»www.kinocode.com/maxcrypt.htm
• Private Disk Light
»www.dekart.com/products/file&dis···k_light/
• Any Password
Another free password manager
»www.romanlab.com/apw/
• Fine Crypt
»www.finecrypt.net/
•Crypto-lock
Crypto-Lock is a File Protector that allows you to restrict access to your executable files (programs) and other type of files as well. The program uses the SHA-1 and Blowfish algorithms and can produce either self-decrypting files or encrypted modules. You can optionally select to create a backup copy of the original file.
»www.snapfiles.com/get/cryptolock.html
• Cryptosuite
CryptoSuite is an easy to use, but extremely secure encryption software package for Windows operating systems (Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/2003).
»www.ghostsecurity.com/index.php?···ptosuite
• Keepass
Another open source password manager, this looks like one to watch.
»keepass.sourceforge.net/
• Oubliette
Oubliette is easily one of the most feature-packed password managers available.
»www.tranglos.com/free/oubliette.html
• CrypBox
Securely stores sensitive data on your
Palm OS handheld and desktop PC. Data is
encrypted to keep it safe from prying eyes.
»www.portableprojects.com/
• Cryptext
Sometimes you'd just rather not share your files with anyone. Install this freeware, right-click on any file, and encrypt it using a 160-bit key. It uses a combination of SHA-1 and RC4 cryptographic algorithms to encrypt files, and generates a value to ensure that no two files are encrypted with the same keystream. This shell extension is available in English, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese versions.
»www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_d···1,00.asp
• Archiving tools
Archiving tools can provide a moderate amount of data protection but one should be aware that they are not in generally safe and there are tools that exist to break the passwords.
»www.rarlab.com/
»www.winzip.com
»www.elcomsoft.com/azpr.html
»www.elcomsoft.com/arpr.html
• Roboform
Roboform is the top-rated Password Manager and Web Form Filler that completely automates password entering and form filling.
RoboForm was named PC Magazine Editor's Choice, and CNET Download.com's Software of the Year.
• DriveCrypt
1344 bit hard disk encryption software. It uses virtual container as well as partition encryption and can hide data into music files.
»www.securstar.com/
• eWallet
»www.iliumsoft.com/site/ew/ewallet.htm
• Steganos Security Suite
How does Steganos Security Suite work?
Steganos Security Suite is a perfectly integrated package based on security programs developed over time.
From the user-friendly central monitoring area you can access all programs by clicking the mouse. And naturally Steganos Security Suite is as simple to use as all other Steganos programs.
»www.steganos.com
*Note: All links verified as of 09/30/05
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by Betaflye edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:43:30 | | | CAUTION!
Before editing the registry, back it up. You can kill the OS if you are not careful. Take your time and be sure you know what you are doing.
A: A poll was conducted to determine which software programs members used most often to edit and/or clean the system registry.
The winner, by a wide margin, CCleaner, is a freeware program that does more than just clean the registry. Like CCleaner, a number of the programs included in the poll also clean temp files created by browsers and those left over from program installations and uninstallation.
Depending on your experience level, you can choose a program that will safely clean the registry for you.
•Registry Mechanic
•RegSeeker - freeware
•jv16PowerTools
TuneUp Utilities, was mentioned 16 times by those voting Other. This tool is part of a suite so it was not included in the poll. But I have listed it here due to it's popularity.
Or you can take a more hands-on approach and use a program that let's you manually edit the registry.
•RegEdit (comes with the OS)
•RegEdt32 (comes with the OS)
And for those of you that like to rough it. You can export with RegEdit, edit it with your favorite text editor, then import the changes to update the registry.
If you are curious about the registry, the following links should help you get started.
•Registry Guide for Windows
•Introduction to the Registry
•Description of the Microsoft Windows registry
All links provided are current as of 03 October 2005, but are subject to change.
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by jcsjr edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:42:38 | | | The results from this 2006 POLL indicated that the largest percentage of our members who voted this year are using Diskeeper.
"Manual defragmentation just isn't practical—who has time to defrag every system, every day? Manual defragmentation is a break-fix situation. Automatic defragmentation with Diskeeper, the Number One Automatic Defragmenter, is the only true defrag solution. Diskeeper 10 uses "Set It and Forget It"® and Smart Scheduling technologies to defrag drives as needed, keeping your systems running as fast as they did when they were brand-new."
The next most popular choice being Windows built in defrag software. A good explanation of the Windows defragmentation utility can be found at The Elder Geek
Other defragmentation software receiving votes this year were, in order of popularity:
•Perfect Disk
•O&O Defrag
•Diskeeper Lite
•VoptXP
•PageDefrag
•Defrag for Windows
•Contig
•Power Defrag
Links verified as of 06-09-06
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by grobinette edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-28 21:53:28 | | | According to our recent poll, regarding Cookie Controls, conducted by Lucky , a resounding portion of our members chose "none", stating they use their computers browser settings effectively enough.
The main purpose of cookies is to identify users and possibly prepare customized Web content. Some internet users are taking control of their computer, not allowing themselves to be readily tracked by tiny text files embedded onto their hard drives.
Second place came in for "other", including these programs discussed in the thread:
•MRUBlaster - Javacool Software
•CookiePatrol - Computer Associates
•Window Washer - Webroot
•CCleaner - Ccleaner.com
•Cookie Jar 1.01 - Jason Levine
Additional Programs/Resources:
The majority of these programs are specific to managing cookies, although included are a couple of "multiple use" programs like Proxomitron and ZoneAlarm.
•Cookie Crusher
•Cookies Manager
•Cookie Monster
•Cookie Pal
•Cookie Wall
•Cookieculler (FF extension)
•Karen's Cookie Viewer
•Permit cookies (FF extension)
•Proxomitron
•ZoneAlarm Pro
No files are destroyed or compromised by cookies, but if it concerns you about being identified or about having your web browsing traced through the use of a cookie, either set your browser to not accept cookies or use one of the cookie blocking programs available to you.
Note: All links verified as of 10-07-05
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by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-09-29 10:42:52 | | | As in other polls conducted over this year, there was no majority vote getter in the poll ran in early September. A common theme throughout the poll was the use of multiple image applications depending on what the user wanted to accomplish (i.e., viewing or editing). But there has to be a winner and the widely popular IrfanView once again reigns as the favorite amongst BBR users, garnering 35% of the votes cast.
Irfanview, which runs on the Windows platform, is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE* graphic viewer for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003. (* = for non-commercial use). A feature list of the product can be found here. The author offers a comprehensive package of plugins for added functionality and also keeps an updated History of Changes.
Download links:
The second highest vote was given to an application included with the Microsoft Windows operating system, Picture Viewer. This was not entirely surprising for the poll, which was primarily for image viewing. The general consensus was "Simple, fast, and useful."
All in all, seventeen of the twenty five products received votes, with another six applications mentioned when voting Other. This is a great indicator of the variety of programs available today, which gives the user multiple options when looking for programs.
The list below reflects all of the programs mentioned. Links are verified as of 10/8.
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by MSeng edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2006-05-21 12:51:03 | | | If new toolbars in your Internet Explorer that you didn't intentionally install are seen, or if your browser start page has changed unknowingly, you most probably have spyware. But even if you don't see anything, you may still be infected. More and more spyware is emerging that is silently tracking your surfing behavior to create a marketing profile of you that will be sold to advertising companies.
Wikipedia definition: Spyware
Our results show a close race between Ad-Aware & Spybot S&D… Spybot taking 23% of the vote and Ad-Aware taking 20% in our 2006 Member Choice Poll put up by wrath457
Ad-Aware provides advanced protection from known Data-mining, aggressive advertising, Parasites, Scumware, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware, Browser hijackers, and tracking components, as described on their site. Also the Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition also has the capability to scan and list Alternate Data Streams (ADS) in NTFS enabled volumes.
The freeware* version of Ad-Aware is compatible with:
Microsoft Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003
Spybot - Search & Destroy detects and removes a multitude of adware files and modules from your computer. Spybot S&D cleans programs and Web-usage tracks from your system, which is especially useful if you share your computer with other users. Modules chosen for removal can be sent directly to the included file shredder, ensuring complete elimination from your system. For advanced users, it allows you to fix registry inconsistencies related to adware and to malicious program installations. The handy online-update feature ensures that Spybot always has the most current and complete listings of adware, dialers, and other uninvited system residents.
*Free for personal use
Supported platforms:
•Win 95 – updated winsock necessary
•Win 98 & ME – Fully functioning
•NT & 2000…may need administrator rights for some functions
•XP - may need administrator rights, (XP has these by default)
•Win XP (AMD64) - may need administrator rights for some functions (no problems found, still in testing)
•Windows PE - Windows Preinstallation Environment is supported since 1.4 details
•Mac OS & Mac OSX & Linux – not yet supported:
Our next runner-up:
SpywareBlaster by Javacool was third with 13.7% of the poll in member choice.
Many indicated they use a combination of programs to fight spyware & malware. Some utilized the multi-featured “real-time protection” implemented with some of these programs for the prevention as well as cure.
The reasons we gave for our choices :
•Freeware/shareware vs. “commercial” software
•Real-time resident protection offered
•Ability to choose what is included in scans
•Favorable frequent updates to definition files
Some other choices we reviewed:
•SpyHunter
•Windows Defender
•BOClean
•IE/SpyAd
•Spycop
•Ewido Anti-Spyware
•HPGuru’s Host File
•Spyware Block List File
•(SpySubtract)Trend Micro
•Spyware Doctor
•McAfee AntiSpyware
•SpywareStopper 8.1
•CounterSpy
•MVPS Hosts
Bottom line:
Most of our users polled used several of these products simultaneously…
What some programs found, others did not & vice-versa…
All the more reason for many to believe in that “layered” approach.
NOTE: - links verified as of 8/13/06 ~ 2005 poll here: »[POLL] Spyware Removal & Prevention Programs
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by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-10-27 14:29:57 | | | The 2006 Member Choice Poll saw a couple of changes in the members choice for anti-virus programs. The first was the added capability to select multiple programs. Many people indicated they use one program for their resident anti-virus protection and use another as a back up scanner. This was reflected in the new multiple choice poll.
The second was a free program knocking a commercial program out of the top spot. The overall winner of the 2006 Preferred Anti-Virus Poll with 117 votes and 19.7% of the vote was AVG, AVG offers both a freeware version and a commercial pay version of their anti-virus, but most users in the poll indicated they were using the free version. AVG Free Edition is available free-of-charge to home users, includes email scanning and virus cleaning, is easy to install and updates almost daily. Two year licenses are available for purchase of AVG Professional and there is now a version bundled with a firewall.
The second runner up was Avast! with 98 votes and 16.5% of the vote. Avast also has both freeware and commercial versions available, with most of those in our poll using the free version. The freeware version includes email, p2p, IM and web scanning and updates almost daily.
The following programs were also extremely popular appearing in the order of their popularity from highest to lowest:
•NAV/SAV
•KAV
•NOD32
•McAfee
•E-Trust EZ
•AntiVir/Avira/H+BEDV
•TrendMicro
•BitDefender
•Windows Live OneCare
Another interesting point:
There were 17 people, 2.8% of the vote who have chosen to run without any antivirus protection at all.
There were many excellent comments and opinions in the poll explaining why users chose the products they use and I would highly recommend reading all of them.
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by mers2 edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-11-23 10:45:37 | | | The results of our 2006 DVD Copying poll are in, and free software took 3 of the top 4 places in our poll. 297 participants cast 624 total votes in the multiple-choice format, and we thank you all for your input.
The clear winner, with 140 votes (nearly half of those voting - 140/297 - chose this program) was DVD Shrink, followed by DVD Decrypter with 102 votes.
It's a testament to quality of design that, even long after development stopped on both these programs, they still function quite well and are in widespread use.
The free version of DVDFab Decrypter came in 4th, with 44 votes.
On the pay side, two of Slysoft's offerings led the way, with AnyDVD (Slysoft) in 3rd place (65 votes) and CloneDVD 2 (Slysoft) in 6th place (32 votes).
Nero Recode was 5th with 33 votes.
Also receiving double-digit votes were CloneDVD (Elaborate Bytes), DVDFab (Platinum/Express/Gold), and DVD X Copy (Platinum/Gold/Xpress - current users only).
For the Mac O/S, MacTheRipper was the leading vote-getter, followed by:
DVD2One (Mac) and Roxio Toast (Mac).
Our Unix brethren chose K3b ('nix), XDVDShrink, and Lxdvdrip ('Nix). HandBrake and K9Copy were next.
Some other results:
12% of our voters (37/297) said they use one or more programs to rip/process/burn;
5% (15/297) said they used a program or programs not listed;
7% (21/297) chose "What's a DVD?"
The popularity of DVD Shrink (and it's offshoot, Nero Recode), along with CloneDVD would seem to indicate that most people are using single-layer discs for their backup. I tried to work that question into the poll but technical difficulties eliminated it when we went to press. The poll in its entirety can be found HERE, and the comments are worth reading.
Once again we thank you all for your participation!
Top Ten
•DVD Shrink
•DVD Decrypter
•AnyDVD (Slysoft)
•DVDFab Decrypter (Free)
•Nero Recode
•CloneDVD 2 (Slysoft)
•CloneDVD (Elaborate Bytes)
•DVDFab (Platinum/Express/Gold)
•DVD X Copy (Platinum/Gold/Xpress - current users only)
•MacTheRipper
Links verified as of 06-09-06
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by antiserious edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-10-26 09:40:08 | | | In a recently held poll for the most used Instant Messaging Clients: Trillian took the gold by a long shot, with 21.4% of the votes.
"Trillian is a fully featured, stand-alone, skinnable chat client that supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, and IRC."
Download here: »www.download.com/3000-2150-10047473.html
In second, with 13.3% of the vote, was MSN Messenger (recently renamed Windows Live Messenger), produced by microsoft and is a single protocol IM client.
Download here: »www.download.com/Windows-Live-Me···045.html
In third, with 11.9% of the vote, was AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), produced by AOL and is a single protocol IM client.
Download here: »www.aim.com/
Other IM Clients included in the poll:
•Yahoo »messenger.yahoo.com/
•Skype »www.skype.com/
•Gaim »gaim.sourceforge.net/
•Google Talk »www.google.com/talk/
•Miranda »www.miranda-im.org/
•ICQ »icq.com/
•iChat »www.apple.com/macosx/features/ichat/
•Meebo »www.meebo.com/
•Xfire »www.xfire.com/
•Adium »www.adiumx.com/
•Windows Messenger (bundled with Windows OS)
•Gadu-Gadu »www.gadu-gadu.pl/ (requires translation)
•Jabber »www.jabber.org/
•QQ »www.qq.co.za/
•NateOn »www.nate.com/ (requires translation)
•Ayttm »ayttm.sourceforge.net/
•Zango IM »www.topshareware.com/Zango-.IM-d···6592.htm
•Centericq »konst.org.ua/centericq/
•Easy Message »www.easymessage.net/
•Fire »fire.sourceforge.net/
•IM2 »www.5star-shareware.com/Windows/···r_2.html
•Instan-t »www.interactiveni.com/imsite/imfreeware.htm
•Meetro »www.meetro.com/
•Naim »naim.n.ml.org/about
•Mercury »www.soft32.com/download_75589.html
•SIM »developer.berlios.de/forum/forum···id=18598
•BitWise »www.bitwiseim.com/
Links verified as of 6/23/06
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by Rob A edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-12-09 20:11:33 | | | As defined by Wikipedia:
Optical disc authoring software is computer software for authoring optical discs including CD-ROMs and DVDs. They are also known by synonyms such as CD burning application or DVD authoring software. Such software is required to use a optical disc recorder.
Creating an optical disc usually involves first creating a disk image with a full file system designed for the optical disc, and then actually burning the image to the disc. Disk file systems include ISO-9660 (often known simply as "ISO") and Universal
The results from this years poll indicated that members use both free and paid versions from a variety of providers.
This years [POLL] was multiple choice, where users could select the programs they use.
The clear winner with half the votes,and 146/289 votes was Ahead Nero Burning Rom / Express.
Nero Burning ROM / Express are distributed both at retail, and with various CD / DVD Burners.
In a distant second, with nearly 11%,and 31/289 votes was Alcohol 120%.
Following in third, with 10%, and 30/289 votes was Roxio Easy CD Creator.
The rest of the software included in the poll,by rank:
• CD Burner XP Pro
• Other: Not on list, see "Additional Software" section below.
• SlySoft: Clone CD/DVD
• Sonic Record Now
• UltraISO
• Burn At Once
• NTI CD & DVD-Maker
• AVS Disc Creator FREE
Additional software mentioned by users, but not included in the poll:
• B's Recorder Gold
• BurnCDCC
• CDRWIN
• DeepBurner
• Drag'n Drop
• ImgBurn
• K3b A front end for *nix based CD-r tools.
• MagicISO
• Padus Discjuggler
• Plexar Tools
• Roxio Easy Media Creator
• Roxio Toast Macintosh equivalent of Easy CD Creator.
• XP Built-in CD recording
• Sonic DigitalMedia LE
• Sony Click to DVD
Links verified as of 6/30/06
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by AMDUSER edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-11-13 20:16:44 | | | The number one audio editing program as voted by DSLR members in the 2006 Audio Editors Poll, was Audacity
“Audacity® is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds.
It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.”
Audacity also took 1st place last year. The fact that it is freeware, versatile, and compatible with such a wide range of Operating Systems no doubt contributes to its success.
In second place came Adobe Audition (formerly known as Cool Edit Pro).
Adobe Audition is a prosumer audio editing application that has a bit of a steep learning curve, but its flexibility and advanced options no doubt appeal to those that are serious about their sound.
Tied for third place were Goldwave and Cool Edit Pro.
Other contenders:
•Sony Soundforge
•Nero Wave Editor
•Wavelab
•Logic Pro
•Roxio Sound Editor
•Garageband
•Pro Tools
•Wavepad
•ReZound
•TotalRecorder Pro
•Creative Wave Editor
•MP3 Surgeon
•Samplitude Pro
All links verified as of 7/4/06
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by fegul edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-11-24 07:10:03 | | | Wikepedia definition of File Manager
Click here to view our 2006 Member Choice Poll.
It has to be very good for our members to vote it for the second year running as the most popular file manager.
Microsoft Windows explorer might not have fancy tabs and extra features that other file managers do but it still took over 54% of votes to make it the most popular file manager in 2006.
Second most popular was Powerdesk (also voted second in 2005) but in the third place were the likes of cmd (command line), Norton Commander, Servant Salamander and Fileviewer as just some of the other that are popular amongst our members when manipulating files.
Konqueror was voted most popular for non Windows file manager
Some other File Managers we reviewed:
•Accelman
•FileAnt
•A43
•freeCommander
•ExplorerXP
•EF Commander
•Directory Opus
•Finder - Apple
•AcBrowser
•TotalCommander
•Xplorer^2
•Nautilus
•ABCommander
•Waz Tree II
Links verified as of 07/07/06
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by Cudni edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-11-10 12:21:15 | | | Last year, venerable Agent was a clear winner, but this year it lost ground, beating out second choice NewsLeecher by a single vote. The top six Usenet readers from the July 2006 Poll were as follows (in order of vote count from highest to lowest):Eighteen additional newsreaders received from one to eleven votes each, but taken together got 82 votes which is more than twice the top single vote getter.
This year’s poll was multiple choice. Out of 211 participants, 252 total votes were cast indicating that a significant number of members use more than one newsreader. As some readers function only for binary downloading, and others work better for text, we suspect that users may have selected different readers for different functions although that was not clear from the comments.
Q: What are newsgroups?A: In a nutshell, think of newsgroups as basically text based forums or message boards on Usenet. There are literally thousands of them covering every topic imaginable. Q: I was in some newsgroup and opened a message and all I could see was gibberish, was it some kind of secret code?A: Chances are you opened up a binary message. Newsgroups are posted text messages, someone figured out a way to encode binary files into text and posted it to the newsgroup. In order to download the binary file you would need a reader that can decode the message. Q: Where can I find more information on newsgroups?A: A wealth of information can be found at the following links:
Links verified & winning choices all in as of 07-16-06 FCT (FAQ Creation Time) 
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by jmorlan edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2008-01-18 11:47:51 | | | Any properly configured firewall be it hardware (external), or software (installed as a program on a computer) should provide you with excellent protection from intruders.There is no best firewall, but some prefer one over the other and this write up covers the poll conducted in »Software reflecting the favourite choice of software firewalls this year.
Firewalls provide protection against outside attackers (other Internet users) by filtering malicious Internet traffic, and thus shielding/hiding your computer. Reading so many reports about virus infections harvesting computers around the Globe, and many of us being the ones infected, it has encouraged many home users who did not think protecting your computer is important to find a solution.
Results of this year's Broadband Reports Software Forum poll show that Zone Alarm is, once again, a clear winner with 25.8 percent of votes. Zone Alarm seems to be the most trusted and the most used solution and has been the preferred choice for the past several years.
Second choice is built in Windows XP (SP1 and SP2) firewall (17.5%). This is a basic firewall, which provides good inbound (incoming traffic) protection. It does not provide outbound protection and thus is does not provide you with ability to block an application, which potentially could be malicious, from connecting to the Internet.
If you are looking for rules based firewall an older but still very much used version of Kerio Personal Firewall(13.1%) is absolute winner in this category. Version 2.15 has not been updated since May 2003, however its stability, and low resource usage won over many users who are looking for a free firewall. In viewing the poll, it's still surprising that there are 5.7% that use no firewall at all.
Broadband Reports has a new forum Security Cleanup that might help in the decision process. Any of these choices in this year's software firewall poll or hardware firewall are excellent to use to protect your computer and data.
As an addendum, Windows Live OneCare seems to be a favorite choice in the other category.
Links verified as of 7/28/06
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by dandelion edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-10-12 19:49:34 | | | Wikipedia defines FTP or file transfer protocol as "a commonly used protocol for exchanging files over any network that supports the TCP/IP protocol (such as the Internet or an intranet). There are two computers involved in an FTP transfer: a server and a client. The FTP server, running FTP server software, listens on the network for connection requests from other computers. The client computer, running FTP client software, initiates a connection to the server. Once connected, the client can do a number of file manipulation operations such as uploading files to the server, download files from the server, rename or delete files on the server and so on. Any software company or individual programmer is able to create FTP server or client software because the protocol is an open standard. Virtually every computer platform supports the FTP protocol. This allows any computer connected to a TCP/IP based network to manipulate files on another computer on that network regardless of which operating systems are involved (if the computers permit FTP access). There are many existing FTP client and server programs, and many of these are free."
Taking the number one spot for FTP Managers in our 2006 Member Choice Poll by the forum members was FileZilla
Filezilla received nearly 26 percent of the vote while overtaking last years winner WS_FTP Pro with 15.5 percent.
FileZilla is a fast and reliable FTP client for windows with lots of useful features and an intuitive interface. Some of the features/requirements of Filezilla include:
• Operating System: Windows 9x, ME, NT4, 2000 and XP
• licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL)
• Easy to use
• Multilingual (English, German, French, Japanese, just to name a few)
• Strong encryption support using SFTP over SSH and FTP over SSL/TLS
• Supports transfer resuming and files larger than 4 GiB
• Queue support
• Proxy support
• Speed limits
• MODE Z transfer compressing
• Drag&Drop
• Ability to resume Uploads/Downloads (if the server supports it)
• Custom Commands
• Site Manager with folders
• Keep Alive system
• Timeout detection
• Firewall support
FTP Managers that received votes included:
WS_FTP Pro
CuteFTP
FlashFXP
SmartFTP
BulletProof FTP
FireFTP- Firefox Extension
Core FTP
FTP Explorer
FTP Managers that was not on the list but mentioned by members:
gFTP
Panic Transmit- For the Mac Operating System
FTP Voyager
Opera (Web Browser) built in FTP Client
ALFTP
Links verified as of 7/29/06
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by Trout edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2008-02-06 18:03:11 | | | There were surprises in the results of a poll conducted in early July on the Software Forum members favorite internet browser. The surprise was not in the overall winner though. Mozilla Firefox once again was the top vote getter, garnering 50% of the total votes cast.
So what is it that makes this program so popular? Many people like it for the customization, primarily in the add-ons available. Other features of the browser include:Tabbed Browsing
Use tabbed browsing to open multiple Web pages in a single browser window, and quickly flip back and forth.
Live Bookmarks
Stay updated with your favorite Web sites and blogs. Use Live Bookmarks that update themselves automatically with the latest content from the Web.
Accessibility
Firefox delivers easier navigation for everyone, including those who are visually or motor-impaired. Firefox is the first browser to support DHTML accessibility, which, when enabled by Web authors, allows rich Web applications to be read aloud. Users may navigate with keystrokes rather than mouse clicks, reducing the tabbing required to navigate documents such as spreadsheets
With a strong following at BBR for support, Opera was the biggest surprise as the second place winner in this years polling, gaining slightly over 20% of the totals and pushing Microsoft Internet Explorer off the podium. Now offered as a free program, Opera comes as a smaller install package but offers a variety of features and customization that makes it the choice for many.
Rounding out the top three are the current offerings from Microsoft, Internet Explorer 6 and the upcoming release of Internet Explorer 7. Microsoft continues work on the newest incarnation with plans for a complete release in the fourth quarter of 2006.
Other browsers gaining votes in this years poll include (in order of votes):
Links verified as of 8/2/06
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by MSeng edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-12-08 12:51:07 | | | Wikipedia defines a download manager as: a computer program designed to download files from the Internet, unlike a web browser, which is mainly intended to browse webpages on the World Wide Web (with file downloading being of secondary importance).
This year, the most popular option in the poll was "None" with 64 votes out of 144 total votes, which is 44.4%.
There are a few possible explanations:
The vast majority of users have no need for one, because a Download Manager is usually perceived as something used to speed up a download. Not necessary with DSL/Cable.
The popular browsers (IE, Firefox, Opera) have built-in download managers and/or extensions to increase their functionality.
However, the 2nd place pick, FlashGet, has 17 votes which is 11.8%.
This indicates that there are users that use a download manager for other purposes, such as scheduling, resuming a download, and opening up multiple connections to a download server, which can greatly speed up a download even on broadband.
And last but not least, the 3rd most popular pick is Free Download Manager with 15 votes which is 10.4%.
Other Download Managers mentioned:
•GetRight
•LeechGet
•Star Downloader
•Net Transport
•Mass Downloader
•Internet Download Manager
•FreshDownload
• DownThemAll! (Firefox extension only)
Links verified as of 8/10/06
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by Razgriz edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2008-01-04 13:38:12 | | | There are two main methods for backing up important information on your hard drive. One is disk imaging - making a clone copy of the hard drive and the other is backing up individual files and folders. Our members have indicated that Disk Imaging or cloning is by far the most popular way to back up a hard drive and the first and second place winners fall into that category
Mirroring the 2005 Backup and Imaging Members Choice, the clear winner is Acronis True Image with 118 votes and 48% of the vote. Coming in second with 34 votes and 13.8% is Symantec Norton Ghost,.
Other Imaging Programs voted on in the 2006 Member Choice Poll included:
In third place with 21 votes and 8.5% of the vote was "None". Users explained they used hardware solutions, backed up files manually or simply did a complete reinstall of the operating system and all programs.
Following up in a tie for the next slot were the Windows Backup Utility and Nero BackUp,
Other popular Backup Programs were:
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by mers2 edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2008-01-16 06:14:08 | | | A media player is typically computer software for playing back multimedia files
The Media Player that was voted the most popular in our 2006 Member Choice Poll is:
Windows Media Player! ---- With 28.1% of the vote!!
Second place @ 15% went to WinAmp
The top “Other” candidates considered by our members were:
•amaroK
•Itunes
• Nero Showtime
•quicktime
•Real Player
•RealPlayer Alternative
•Musicmatch
•jetaudio
•UltraPlayer Media Player
•VLC media player
•SUPER
•Ashampoo Media Player+
•Foobar
•Media Player Classic 6.4
•Windows Media Player Classic 6.4
(available in Windows 98, 98se ,ME , 2000 & XP: start/run: mplayer2)
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by Anonymous_ edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-12-21 13:49:34 | | | A poll was run in the software forum from August 11th to August 24th to gather input for the most popular pop-up blocker. This year the poll was multiple choice since many applications/browsers run in concert.
Out of the 279 voting participants there were 394 total votes. The top choice this year was again Firefox with 31.7% of the vote.
Internet Explorer (with SP2) came in second collecting 16.7% and in 3rd place was the Google Toolbar with 9.8%. Interestingly enough 1.7% of those voting said they used no pop-up blockers at all.
Others included in the poll were (listed alphabetically):
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by state edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2008-01-22 18:17:56 | | | The 2006 poll featured 68 (!) choices for users to vote on, and 148 users let us know about their favorite text/hex editors this year. To start things off, let's be sure we're all clear what the definitions of these tools are.
We asked Wikipedia, and the following is what it had to say:
Wikipedia definition of a Text Editor - is that it's a software application used for editing plain text. It is distinguished from a word processor in that it does not manage document formatting or other features commonly used in desktop publishing.
Text editors are often provided with operating systems or software development packages, and can be used to change configuration files and programming language source code.
Wikipedia deifinition of Hex Editor - (or a binary file editor or byte editor) is it's a type of computer program that allows a user to manipulate binary (normally non-plain text) computer files. Hex editors that were designed to edit sector data from floppy or hard disks were sometimes called sector editors.
Using a hex editor a user can see or edit the raw and exact contents of a file as opposed to the interpretation of the same content that other, higher level application software may associate with the file format.
This year's poll ended with a surprise. For the first time ever..IDM Computer Solutions' UltraEdit-32 came out on top as the most popular text/hex (it does both, like many other editors featured in the poll) editor among the DSLR Software crowd. Last year's winner, Notepad, came in a close second this time around. Much like last year's poll, the 2006 text/hex editor poll revealed what seems to be a general pattern among DSLR users: most of them simply don't need and hence don't use extraordinarily powerful, feature-laden, super-well performing editors. Many are perfectly happy with good, plain old Notepad, which has been and still is included with every copy of Windows. Despite this "trend", UltraEdit-32 unmistakably earned itself the top spot as the most popular tool in this category in 2006. Does this mean we here at DSLR are kicking our average "techiness" level up a notch? Maybe, maybe not, but the discussion is not one worth having, for only the Oracle really knows the truth.
It is worth noting that, given the sheer number of poll choices this year, the individual vote totals per tool, (in their role as the deciding factor in the final ranking of the tools included in the poll), were not as indicative as in previous polls in this category. After all, UltraEdit-32 set itself ahead of the rest with, when taken out of context, a rather small total number of votes: 26. Please keep this in mind.
Another surprising fact coming from this poll is that each and every single tool/choice in the poll got votes. In fact, not one poll choice received less than two votes, indicating that the pool of voters is an incredibly diverse bunch when it comes to the use of text/hex editors. Would you have guessed it? A combined 148 people voted a total of 295 times in this multiple-choice poll, only to show us that even a group of 148 people can be as diverse and varied as to use up to 68 (that's sixty eight!) unique text and hex editors.
Ranked third is the popular (and free, unlike UltraEdit-32) Editpad. If you prefer not to spend any money in your quest to find the perfect text/hex editor for yourself, it appears the DSLR crowd wouldn't hesitate to recommend Editpad.
For the sake of completion and in order of votes received (most to least), here is the complete list of editors included in this year's poll:
• UltraEdit
• Notepad
• EditPad Lite/Pro
• TextPad
• Notepad++
• NoteTab
• None
• HexEdit
• Notepad2
• Vim
• PSPad
• WinHex
• Hex Workshop
• Resource Hacker
• EditPlus
• jEdit
• Kate
• Metapad
• XVI32
• nano
• ConTEXT
• Crimson Editor
• gedit
• KEDIT
• Pico
• acme
• Alpha
• Alphatk
• BBEdit
• BDV Notepad
• Beaver
• BIX
• Bluefish
• Boxer Text Editor
• CRISP
• Cssed
• Cute Editor
• Diakonos
• ed
• ee
• Emacs
• evolvEd
• Frhed
• GNU Emacs
• GridinSoft Notepad
• Hackman
• Hexplorer
• JED
• JOE (Joe's Own Editor)
• KWrite
• MadEdit
• NEdit
• nvi
• Professional Notepad
• Programmer's Notepad
• skEdit
• Smultron
• SubEthaEdit
• TED Notepad
• Text Edit
• TextMate
• TextWrangler
• Win32pad
• XEMacs
• Zeus
• mined
• Multi Edit
• SciTE
The above was composed, it should be noted, in UltraEdit-32 :).
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by illJazz edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2008-02-05 20:29:02 | | | Our 2006 Member Choice [POLL]
Wikipedia's definition of E-mail Client - An e-mail client, also called a mail user agent (MUA), is a computer program that is used to read and send e-mail.
Originally, the MUA was intended to be a simple program to read the user's mail messages, which the mail delivery agent (MDA) in conjunction with the mail transfer agent (MTA) would transfer into a local mailbox.
The most important mailbox formats are mbox and Maildir. These rather simple protocols for locally storing e-mails make import, export and backup of mailfolders quite easy.
E-mails to be sent would be handed over to the MTA, perhaps via an mail submission agent, therefore an MUA would not have to provide any transport-related functions.
Since the various Microsoft Windows versions intended for home use never provided an MTA, most modern MUAs have to support protocols like POP3 and Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) to communicate with a remote MTA located at the e-mail providers machine.
IMAP and the updated IMAP4 are optimized for storage of e-mail on the server, while the POP3 protocol generally assumes that the e-mail is downloaded to the client. The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is used by most e-mail clients to send e-mail.
In addition to the fat client e-mail clients, or small MUAs in cooperation with a local MDA/MTA, presented here, there are also Web-based e-mail programs called webmail.
An important standard supported by most e-mail clients is MIME, which is used to send binary file e-mail attachments. Attachments are files that are not part of the e-mail proper, but are sent with the e-mail.
Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) is a proprietary Microsoft Windows application programming interface (API) which can be used to access the Microsoft Exchange e-mail server or to interact with the Microsoft Outlook client.
The public has spoken, and here are the top 4 for the 2006 Member Choice awards.
In first place, with 104 votes, is Outlook.
Coming in second is an Open Source upstart with 97 votes is Thunderbird.
The battle for third and fourth was almost a tie, but squeaking by with just 1 over its competitor, with 76 votes, is Outlook Express.
In fourth place, and quite the surprise among the Member Choices, with a vote of 75, was Web-mail Clients (GMail; Hotmail; Juno/NetZero; Yahoo; InBox; AIM/AOL; etc.).
Rounding out the top ten with their respective vote totals, in 5th place with 13 votes was Other (Please list with link), with 12 votes, The Bat!, in 7th place, with 11 votes, Eudora, in 8th place, with 9 votes, Opera M2, 9th place with 8 votes, Pegasus, and finally in 10th place with 6 votes, Evolution.
With 344 people casting 499 votes, this poll shows that there are 2 things changing. One is that while Microsoft is trying to entice us with "whistles and bells", a lot of folks aren't buying into it. It is evidenced by the popularity of the Open Sourced browser Mozilla Thunderbird. But what is also remarkable is that the Web-Based E-mail clients are rising in popularity as well. While it trailed Outlook Express by one vote, Web-Based Clients have shown to be a dark horse among all contenders.
This is the opinions of the 344 people who cast their votes.
To see more of the poll where you will see the complete results as of 9/7/2006, go here
I'd like to thank to forum hosts for letting me conduct this poll, but most of all, I'd like to thank the members who voted and made their voices heard.
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by TransitMan edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-12-18 20:37:47 | | | In a swing from the previous years poll where most people who voted indicated that they use no Utility Suite, the results of this 2006 Poll again shows that the largest percentage of people responding who use a suite prefer TuneUp Utilities, with a "mini" utility suite Crap Cleaner coming in a close second.
Wikipedia explains software suites as follows:
"A software suite, or application suite, is a collection of computer programs, usually application software and programming software of related functionality, often sharing a more-or-less common user interface and some ability to exchange data with each other smoothly."
Other Utility Suites :
Norton Systemworks
System Mechanic 5
X-Setup Pro
Ace Utilities
Tweak Now
Systweak Advanced System Optimizer
Window Power Tools
VCOM System Suite
Ashampoo WinOptimizer
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by grobinette edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2008-02-03 16:10:48 | | | From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
"Office Suites - In computing, an office suite, sometimes called an office application suite or productivity suite is a software suite intended to be used by typical clerical and knowledge workers. The components are generally distributed together, have a consistent user interface and usually can interact with each other, sometimes in ways that the operating system would not normally allow."
The members have spoken in this years 2006 Members Choice poll.
The results are not all surprising, with Microsoft Office [all versions for Windows] coming away with 145 votes for first place.
Coming in second, with a vote count of 66, is the open source software, Open Office.
Trailing far behind the top 2 in 3rd place with a vote count of 8 is Corel.
The results of this poll shows that while Open Office has a good following, Microsoft still commands the office suite environment. A lot of this is due to the fact that folks are integrated into the Microsoft products because this is what school, work, or even their personal feelings dictate.
But this also shows that there are folks out there ready for a change, be it in free software, compatible software to whatever Microsoft has, or just plain wanting to try something different.
The bottom line: if you're looking for a good office suite, then look at what the members here voted for, then decide with your pocketbook if it meets your criteria for what you want or need.
And remember, the software forum is a good place to ask questions if your answer is not here.
Some others we looked at:
Lotus SmartSuite, Sun Office (all versions), AbiWord, Open Office, KOffice, NeoOffice, 602 PC Suite, One Special Edition (formerly Easy Office), GNOME Office, GoBe Productive, VistaSource ApplixWare, AppleWorks 6, Ability Office, Quick Office, EIOffice, Portable Office, Documents To Go, SoftMaker Office, Think Free Office, Zoho Office Suite, iWork for Apple, Siag Office
I would like to thank the MODs for letting me put together this poll, and for the members that voted in it. Without you, this FAQ could not be possible.
Links verified as of 09-18-06
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by TransitMan edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-11-26 17:24:28 | | | A poll was conducted to determine which software programs members used most often to edit and/or clean the system registry.
The winner, by a wide margin, CCleaner, is a freeware program that does more than just clean the registry. Like CCleaner, a number of the programs included in the poll also clean temp files created by browsers and those left over from program installations and uninstallation.
Depending on your experience level, you can choose a program that will safely clean the registry for you.
•Registry Mechanic
•RegSeeker - freeware
•jv16PowerTools
TuneUp Utilities was mentioned 17 times by those voting Other. This tool is part of a suite so it was not included in the poll. It is listed here because of its popularity.
You can take a more hands-on approach and use a program that let's you manually edit the registry.
•RegEdit (comes with the OS)
•RegEdt32 (comes with the OS)
And for those of you that like to rough it. You can export with RegEdit, edit it with your favorite text editor, then import the changes to update the registry.
If you are curious about the registry, the following links should help you get started.
•Registry Guide for Windows
•Introduction to the Registry
•Description of the Microsoft Windows registry
Links verified as of 9/18/06
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by White Rose edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2008-01-04 11:51:43 | | | This year’s multiple choice poll allowed our voters to not restrict themselves to one software title to fill their needs.
There were 315 votes cast by 208 participants. The poll was run in the software forum from September 8th – September 22nd.
BitTorrent was our overall winner (for the second year in a row) with 29.8% of the votes.
Our second most popular was Newsgroups with 14.9% followed by LimeWire with 12.3%.
All of our choices received at least one vote this year with some of our members listing some other options which are available.
Others included in the poll (alphabetically)
•Ares
•BearShare
•DC++
•eDonkey
•eMule
•Kazaa
•Morpheus
•Shareaza
Links verified as of 09/22/06
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by fourboxers edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-11-14 08:02:01 | | | In the Remote Access Poll of 2006, the following results are listed:
254 votes were submitted, and the winner was... Microsoft's Remote Desktop (for the second year running)
said by by Microsoft :
Remote Desktop is based on Terminal Services technology. Using Remote Desktop, you can run applications on a remote computer running Windows XP Professional from any other client running a Microsoft® Windows® operating system.
Remote Desktop is included with Windows XP, and provides a free, easy to use solution for accessing your computer over a network. In 2nd place was UltraVNC. (for the second year running)
UltraVNC is based off of RealVNC which was developed by AT&T Labs (which also was a contender in the poll) UltraVNC adds lots of new features that make it stand out from all the other VNC variants.
Here are just a sampling of its features:
Video driver hook: (bypasses the CPU, and gets information straight from the video card helps speed polling times)
MS-Logon: Uses your Windows login information to authenticate access rights
Encryption: Using an optional data encryption plugin, you can encrypt the data stream through VNC (highly recommended for use over the internet)
File transfer: an embedded File Transfer with intuitive Graphical User Interface is included allowing for easy file copy between local and remote computers
Chat: Features built in chat functionality so you can communicate with the user on the other end
In 3rd place was Logmein
Logmein earned a special mention last year because of its versatility when connecting to computers behind firewalls, as well as its price (free) and its ease of use. It is also encrypted which makes it safer to use than a plain VNC variant when connecting to another computer over the internet.
Other contenders:
•RealVNC
•PCAnywhere
•Remotely Anywhere
•Radmin
•GoToMyPC
Links verified as of 9/23/06
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by fegul edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2008-01-07 19:15:25 | | | Wikipedia defines an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) as
quote:
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of instant communication over the Internet. It is mainly designed for group (many-to-many) communication in discussion forums called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication.
We held a poll recently here in the Software Forum, for the most preferred IRC Client. Here are the results..
This year, the most popular option in the poll was MIRC with 78 votes out of 298 total votes, which is 26.1%.
MIRC is a stand-alone IRC Client.
However, the 2nd place pick was "none" - with 41 votes of of 298 total votes, which is 13.7%.
There is a possible explanation:
It's not a popular type of program. Seemingly, that is what it boils down to. With the advent of IM's and other programs to communicate, it's just not widely utilized by our members here...
In third place Trillian 16 out of 298, which is 5.3%.
In fourth place X-Chat 12 out of 298, which is 4%.
Other IRC programs in the poll by rank or mentioned in the thread:
•BitchX
•ChatZilla and or ChatZilla (Firefox Addon)
•Irssi
•Kopete
•Opera chat
•Colloquy
•Gaim
•HydraIRC
•IRC/2
•K conversation
• X-Chat Aqua
•Bersirc
•CGI:IRC
•Ircabi
•IrcII-EPIC
•IRCle
•KVIrc
•Miranda IM
•pIRCh
•XiRCON
•AIRC
•AmIRC
•Baxter
•BIRCH
•Bowser
•Centericq
•ChinWag IRC
•Client
•Cretin
•DIRC
•DSOrganize
•ERC
•EZIRC
•Felix
•Fire
•Go PowerTools
•GTIRC
•Homer
•IceChat
•ii
•iRC
•IrcCE
•IRCDS
•IRC Free
•IrcII
•JavIRC
•Jini
•jIRC
•jIRCii
•jmirc
•jpirc
•Klient
•ksirc - for KDE based on sirc
•LIRC
•Macirssi
•Microsoft Comic Chat (network shut down), please see Wiki page on it
•Minerva IRC
•MobilIrc
•naim
•NetTalk
•Openchat/2
•Orion
•PJIRC
•Pocket IRC
•pork
•ProChat
•PSPIRC
•Qirc
•Rhapsody
•RoxIRC
•savIRC
•ScrollZ * Note: Fedora Core Test Page is at the offical site *
•ShadowIRC
•sirc - in Perl
•SmartIrc.net
•smuxi
•Snak
•SolarIRC * Note: Site is not in English. *
•SylphIRC
•TalkSoup
•TinyIRC * Note: TinyIRC (through DSLinux) - was not found with Google :( *
•TurboIRC
•urk
•ViRC
•Virca
•Vision
•Vortec IRC
•WeeChat
•WLIrc
•WmIRC
•WookieChat
•Xaric
•Xirc
•ZenIRC
•Zircon
•ZsIRC
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by aefstoggaflm edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-10-12 19:54:45 | | | According to: Wikipedia
An uninstaller is a computer program which is designed to remove all or parts of a specific other program or application. It is the opposite of an installer. Most software vendors ship an uninstaller with their applications.
This year, the most popular option in the 1st ever 2006 Poll on Uninstallers, was Windows Add/Remove Programs with 100 votes out of 147 total, which is an overwhelming 68%.
It seems that many people are content with the built-in Windows utility and would rather just uninstall their programs this way. After all, it works and it’s simple, why mess with it?
2nd place in the poll was “other” with 19 votes, which is 12.9%. Some people use imaging utilities or other programs not listed in the poll. This indicates that there are people out there who wish to do advanced uninstall of programs, via methods such as imaging.
3rd place in the poll was “none” with 16 votes, which is 10.8%.
Apparently there are some out there who have no need to uninstall programs.
Uninstallers mentioned in this poll:
• Add/Remove Pro
• Total Uninstall
•Advanced Uninstaller Pro
• Innovatools Add/Remove Plus!
• Your Uninstaller
•Zsoft Uninstaller
• CCleaner
Links verified as of 10/02/06
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by Razgriz edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2008-02-01 15:48:51 | | | We had a poll in the Software forum, asking what programs are used to control cookies.
There were 164 total participants in the poll.
It was a multiple choice poll, so people could vote for more than one program.
Several people posted that they use more than one program.
The clear winner was the freeware program CCleaner.
It got 33.3% of the votes.
Second in place was "none" with 19.9% of the votes.
Some posters wrote that they don't care about cookies.
Others posted that they use their browser settings.
Third in place was "other" with 12% of the votes.
Similar to the "none" option, some posters wrote that they use their browser settings.
Other programs with their percentage of votes:
• Cookie Pal 5%
• Proxomitron 3.7%
• Window Washer 3.7%
• MRU-Blaster 3.2%
• CookieCuller 2.7%
• CookieWall 2.7%
• Cookie Monster 1.3%
• Cookies Manager 1.3%
• IE Privacy Keeper 1.3%
• CleanCache 0.9%
• IEClean 0.9%
• IECookiesView 0.9%
• Index.dat Suite 0.9%
• Karen's Cookie Viewer 0.9%
• Paraben's Cookie Manager 0.9%
• PurgeIE 0.9%
• Cookie Jar 0.4%
• CookiePatrol 0.4%
• E3 0.4%
• NSClean 0.4%
• PurgeFox 0.4%
• X-Cleaner 0.4%
Thanks to all who participated in the poll !
And to quote from last year's FAQ about Cookie Controls:
"No files are destroyed or compromised by cookies, but if it concerns you about being identified or about having your web browsing traced through the use of a cookie, either set your browser to not accept cookies or use one of the cookie blocking programs available to you."
Links verified as of 10-03-06
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by Jrb2 edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-12-07 18:05:26 | | |
Wikipedia defines DVD authoring as
quote:
DVD authoring describes the process of creating a DVD video that can be played on a DVD player. DVD authoring software must conform to the specifications set by the DVD Forum group in 1995. The specifications are complicated due to the number of companies that were involved in creating them.
The actual layout of the files on the medium and the operations that have to be undertaken to produce a 'playable' DVD (starting with already MPEG2-coded footage) are far too intricate - and beyond the scope of this article - to be explained here, and, indeed, worlds apart from the simple process of CD-audio authoring.
Strictly speaking, DVD authoring is a separate process from MPEG encoding, but most modern DVD authoring software has a built-in encoder (though separate encoders are still used when better quality or finer control over compression settings is required).
Most authoring applications are for video DVDs only; they do not support the creation of DVD-Audio discs.
We held a poll recently here in the Software Forum, for the most preferred Preferred DVD creation.
This is the first Member Choice poll covering DVD authoring software. With that mind, here are the results..
The most popular option in the poll was Nero Vision with 33 votes out of 117 total votes, which is 28.2%.
However, the 2nd place pick was "none" - with 18 votes of of 117 total votes, which is 18.3%.
In third place Roxio Easy Media Creator - with 12 out of 117, which is 10.2%
In forth place Tmpgenc DVD Author with 8 out of 117, which is 6.8%
Other DVD creation in the poll by rank or mentioned in the thread:
Adobe Encore
WinDVD Creator
Apple iDVD
Cyberlink PowerProducer
Sony DVD Architect (Part of Sony Vegas)
Ulead DVD Movie Factory
Dazzle DVD Complete
Mediachance DVD-lab PRO
Sonic DVDit
Sonic MyDVD
Ulead DVD Workshop 2
Apple DVD Studio Pro
Avi2DVD
DVD Maestro. It is no longer updated or sold(you may find it on ebay)
DVDStyler
Sonic DVD Creator
Arcsoft Showbiz DVD (rating 0)
GEAR Video (rating 0)
Magix Movies on CD-DVD. (rating 0)
Mediachance DVD-lab (rating 0)
Pinnacle DVD Expression (rating 0)
Pinnacle DVD Impression Pro (rating 0)
Sonic DVD Producer (rating 0)
Sonic ReelDVD (rating 0)
Sonic Scenarist (rating 0)
SpruceUp (no longer available / rating 0)
Click to DVD
Adobe Premiere Elements
Pinnacle Studio
Vista's built on tool. Vista is currently in beta, and I did not find the offical site, but I did find this :)
Tsunami DVD Author
svcd2dvd
Combo of: ConvertxToDVD to create and Ashampoo to burn.
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by aefstoggaflm edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2007-10-13 09:53:15 | | | A recent poll in the sotware forum was held to determine the Encryption and password protection software of choice.
Wikipedia describes encryption as " the process of obscuring information to make it unreadable without special knowledge. While encryption has been used to protect communications for centuries, only organizations and individuals with an extraordinary need for secrecy had made use of it. In the mid-1970s, strong encryption emerged from the sole preserve of secretive government agencies into the public domain, and is now employed in protecting widely-used systems, such as Internet e-commerce, mobile telephone networks and bank automatic teller machines." These are the applications that made the top five spots: Write-in's included the following applications:
Details about the applications mentioned in this poll  Any Password An easy-to-use tool that lets you store and arrange all your passwords, user IDs, and related information in a tree form. The program saves this information in encrypted files which can be protected by a password. So, the only thing you need to remember is the password for the file. Any Password can also generate random passwords with specified parameters (length, used characters, etc.). You can find any stored information using the incremental search feature.
AxCrypt AxCrypt is free and easy to use open source strong file encryption for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2K/XP, integrated with Windows Explorer. Encrypt, compress, decrypt, wipe, view and edit with a few mouse clicks. Cryptographic primitives are AES-128 and SHA-1.
BestCrypt Keeps your confidential data in a strongly encrypted form on your disk and provides you with transparent access to it from any application. Keep your letters, databases, private information in an encrypted form on your hard disks, removable media, magneto-optical devices, CD ROMs, floppies or network disks - all within a standard operating environment.
Blowfish Advanced CS File encryption and security tool for the Windows platform.
CompuSec Security Suite that protects Notebook and Desktop PCs. Windows only at this point.
CrypBox for Palm OS CrypBox securely stores sensitive data on your Palm OS handheld and desktop PC. Data is encrypted to keep it safe from prying eyes. You'll always have your confidential information like passwords, account numbers, logins, PIN's and URL's at hand.
Cryptainer LE Cryptainer LE is software that can create multiple encrypted containers. It functions like any other drive (C: or D:) on your computer. Just drag and drop any file into the Cryptainer. It is automatically encrypted. It's that simple! Cryptainer files can only be viewed, accessed, browsed or modified by the user who has the key to open it. At other times it remains invisible.
Crypto-Lock Crypto-Lock is a File Protector that allows you to restrict access to your executable files (programs) and other type of files as well. The program uses the SHA-1 and Blowfish algorithms and can produce either self-decrypting files or encrypted modules. You can optionally select to create a backup copy of the original file.
CTC Crypto A collection freeware PGP-interoperable encryption software packages.
DriveCrypt DRIVECRYPT securely and easily protects all proprietary data on notebooks and desktop computers 100% of the time without users having to think about security. Any organization, from a small company to a large international firm with thousands of users in the field, can effectively protect business plans, client lists, product specifications, confidential corporate memos, stock information, and much more with this product.
Entrust Email encryption, disk security, content control and our PKI-ready developer tools to secure information.
eWallet A digital wallet application that runs on your palm or Windows smartphone.
Fine Crypt Quick encryption, key manager, session keys and passwords. You can choose for encrypting any of 10 encryption algorithms: AES, Blowfish, CAST-256, GOST, IDEA, MARS, RC-6, Serpent, TripleDES and Twofish; also you can use any of four encryption modes: Electronic Codebook, Cipher Block Chaining, Cipher Feedback and Output Feedback. GnuPG is the GNU project's complete and free implementation of the OpenPGP standard as defined by RFC2440 . GnuPG allows to encrypt and sign your data and communication, features a versatile key managment system as well as access modules for all kind of public key directories. GnuPG, also known as GPG, is a command line tool with features for easy integration with other applications. KeePass is a free/open-source password manager or safe which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key-disk. So you only have to remember one single master password or insert the key-disk to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish).
Mac GPG GnuPG is a free OpenPGP client (PGP == Pretty Good Privacy). It can encrypt text (usually e-mail or other messages sent between people) and sign text to prove who wrote it.
MaxCrypt Security Suite An easy to use, but powerful computer security system for your computer. MaxCrypts On-the-Fly encryption system uses the 256-BIT AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) encryption algorithm on virtual volumes for fast, transparent encryption of files.
Oubliette Stores a list of accounts with information such as account name, associated password, URL, and free-form notes. You can easily access the information, copy to clipboard or export to a variety of formats. There is a powerful search facility with filtered output (i.e. view only the records that satisfy your search criteria). You can also filter by categories that you assign to accounts when you create or edit them. Oubliette offers a number of ways to transfer account names and passwords to the browser: via the clipboard, through drag-and-drop, or by automated form filling. Note: As of October 20th 2005, this project was shut down, the author citing programming bankrupcy. Old binaries are still available for download.
Password Agent A password manager program that allows you to store all your passwords, secret notes and data snippets in a single, easy to navigate, and secure database.
Password Depot Commercial password manager, supports USB drives.
Password Safe Password Safe is an open source tool that allows you to have a different password for all the different programs and websites that you deal with, without actually having to remember all those usernames and passwords. Password Safe runs on PCs under Windows.
PGP Tools Industry strength encrpytion tools including protection of files, emails, attachments, instant messages and entire disk protection.
PicoCrypt A small and extremely fast encryption utility that uses Blowfish encryption algorithm in CBC mode. It is easy to use and support multiple files drag-and-drop. In addition, it is portable, you can put it on your USB memory stick and run it anywhere you go. This free disk encryption software creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk. All data encryption is extremely fast, automatic, on-the-fly and with no performance penalty. Private Disk Light uses NIST certified AES 128-bit encryption to protect confidential information.
Secure Data Manager (SDM) Designed to help you manage your passwords and other private information for web sites, computers, contacts, and other programs within one secure application. Uses specifically DES 56-bit encryption with a 1024 bit MD5 hash algorithms.
SecureIT A file and folder encryption application that supports 448-bit strong encryption, high compression, command-line processing, built-in file shredder and email security.
Steganos Security Suite Security tools that provide file encryption, anti-spyware and anti-theft protection.
TrueCrypt Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file, used to store data. Touts realtime automatic encryption and hidden volumes within encrypted files.
Windows Privacy Tools Windows Privacy Tools (WinPT) is a collection of multilingual applications for easy digital encryption and signing of content. It's GnuPG-based, compatible with OpenPGP compliant software (like PGP) and free for commercial and personal use under the GPL.
WinRAR An archive manager with password protection options.
WinZIP An archive manager with password protection options. Uses AES encryption.
Zero Footprint Crypt Zero Footprint Crypt can encrypt your files using any of 6 supported algorithms (Blowfish, Twofish, 3DES, RC4, Serpent and Rijndael). It comes with a built-in viewer for images, movies, sound and support for MP3 tags. Uses blowfish encryption.
Links verified as of 10-9-06
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by state edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2008-01-28 05:30:16 | | | The Member Choice Poll in the software forum this year saw 451 votes cast by 283 participants.
Irfanview was our overall winner (for the 4th consecutive time) with 29.7% of our members choosing it.
Our second most popular was the built in Microsoft Picture Viewer with 18.8% of the vote and 3rd place taken by AcdSee with 7.3% with some members mentioning they preferred and older version.
Others included in the poll (alphabetically)
Adobe Photoshop Album SE
FastStone Image Viewer
FlipAlbum
Graphic Workshop Professional
GIMP
Paint.NET
Picasa
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by fourboxers edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2009-02-07 11:48:37 | | | The 2008 Member Choice Poll received 437 votes by 390 participants. 24% of the members voting indicated that the Windows defrag program was their preference this year.
For members that use third party software Perfect Disk was the defrag software of choice this year with 21% and Diskeeper coming in right behind with 18%
There was a very strong showing for a newcomer which was not included in the poll Auslogics received 29 write in votes and evidently a few conversions.
Other members choices worth mentioning are JK Defrag, O&O Defrag and Diskeeper Lite
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by grobinette edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2009-02-07 10:19:20 | | |
A personal firewall is a software application used to protect a single Internet connected computer from intruders or in some cases also control applications from connecting to the internet. It should also be noted that many people use both personal and network firewalls as a layered form of security. A network firewall can either be protecting your entire network or an individual computer from incoming or both incoming and outgoing connection to the internet. For many of us this is our router or NAT modem.
Further reading about both types of firewalls can be found on Wikipedia here for network firewalls and here for personal firewalls.
These are the results of the Software Forum's Member Choice Personal Firewall Poll 2008:
»[POLL] Personal Firewalls - 2008 Member Choice.
Added this year was the option to choose using a software firewall in combination with a router. Over 20% of the members here are using this combination as part of a layered defense. Among the advantages of this setup are having both a fallback defense and a line of defense within a network from other computers on the same network.
Once again, the Windows XP firewall placed first among our members. The XP firewall has the advantage of being included in XP SP2 and provides user friendly inbound protection. It should be noted that the XP firewall is not configurable for outbound control. The Windows Vista firewall currently ranks in fifth place but as Vista is more widely adopted, it will continue to gain ground on the XP firewall.
Zone Alarm, our favorite add-on firewall from last year has been edged out of second place by a slight margin by Comodo Personal Firewall. Comodo getting 11.7% of the vote compared to Zone Alarm's 11.3%. This is quite an accomplishment for Comodo, a relative newcomer that ranked only 2% in last year's poll. Both Zone Alarm and Comodo firewalls are available in free versions. At the time of this writing, Comodo is also preparing to release a Vista version of it's popular firewall.
Kerio 2.1.5 still has strong support from our members, even though it has long since been unsupported. The Broadband Reports support forum has been closed to active posting but still remains archived as a reference. The archives are here.
Another interesting result in the poll is that the number of people using no firewall at all has dropped from 5.7% to 1.5%. Although this number may be skewed due to the inclusion of the 'using a router' option in this year's poll.
Here are the choices we presented members with:
•8 Signs
•Black Ice
•CA
•Comodo
• F-Secure
•Jetico
•Kaspersky Internet Security
•Kerio 2.1.5 (unsupported)
•(Sunbelt) Kerio Personal Firewall
•Lavasoft Personal Firewall
•Look 'n' Stop
•McAfee Internet Security
•NetVeda
•Norton PF / Norton Internet Security
•NVidia Active Armor
•Outpost
•Panda
•PC-cillin
•Private Firewall
•Security
•Snort IDS
•Sygate (unsupported)
•Windows Vista Firewall
•Windows XP Firewall
•Windows Live OneCare
•Zone Alarm
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by salzan edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2009-02-23 16:01:18 | | | Wikipedia defines IRC Clients as follows:
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of instant communication over the Internet. It is mainly designed for group (many-to-many) communication in discussion forums called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication. Recently we held a poll in the Software forum to determine what IRC client most people use and here are the results:
1st was mIRC with 115 votes which was 34.7%
2nd was none with 43 votes and 12.9%
There is an explanation for that. In the early years of the Internet IRC was the only method of communication and after the invention of IM (Instant Messaging) it rendered IRC useless as a chat program.
3rd was XChat with 25 votes and 7.5%
Here are the rest of the IRC programs from the poll above:
•Trillian
•ChatZilla
•Irssi
•BitchX
•Pidgin
•Opera
•pIRCh
•Colloguy
•Kopete
•EPIC
•IceChat
•ircII
•IRCle
•Klient
•Konversation
•KSirc
•KVIrc
•Linkinus
•Miranda IM
•Snak
•0irc
•AmIRC
•Bersirc
•HydraIRC
•ii
•Jini
•OrnateIRC
•PhibianIRC
•PJIRC
•savIRC
•ScrollZ
•ShadowIRC
•TurboIRC
•Visual IRC
•WeeChat
•Wookie Chat
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by Lanik edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2009-04-05 16:55:28 | | |
Wikipedia defines DVD authoring as
quote:
DVD authoring describes the process of creating a DVD video that can be played on a DVD player. DVD authoring software must conform to the specifications set by the DVD Forum group in 1995. The specifications are complicated due to the number of companies that were involved in creating them.
The actual layout of the files on the medium and the operations that have to be undertaken to produce a 'playable' DVD (starting with already MPEG2-coded footage) are far too intricate - and beyond the scope of this article - to be explained here, and, indeed, worlds apart from the simple process of CD-audio authoring.
Strictly speaking, DVD authoring is a separate process from MPEG encoding, but most modern DVD authoring software has a built-in encoder (though separate encoders are still used when better quality or finer control over compression settings is required).
Most authoring applications are for video DVDs only; they do not support the creation of DVD-Audio discs.
Our 2008 Member Choice DVD Creation poll results are here.
Nero Vision remains at the top of the pile with 29% (63/217) of the votes.
Coming in a distant second was "Nothing" with 9.2% (20/217) of the votes.
Roxio Easy Media Creator takes third place with 8.2% (18/217) of the votes.
In fourth is "Other" with 7.3% (16/217) of the votes.
Taking fifth place is Tmpgenc DVD Author with 5.5% (12/217) of the votes.
Rounding up the top 10 in order are:
6) Windows DVD Maker (Vista) (4.6%)
7) Adobe Premiere Elements (3.6%)
8) Ulead DVD Movie Factory (3.6%)
9) Adobe Encore (3.2%)
10) Sony DVD Architect (Part of Sony Vegas) (3.2%)
The other programs falling below the top 10 are (in alphabetical order):
Apple DVD Studio Pro
Apple iDVD
Arcsoft Showbiz DVD
Avi2DVD
Cyberlink PowerProducer
Dazzle DVD Complete
DVD Maestro
DVDStyler
GEAR Video
Magix Movies on CD-DVD
Mediachance DVD-lab PRO
Mediachance DVD-lab
Roxio MyDVD Studio
Sonic DVD Producer/DVDit
Sonic Scenarist
Ulead DVD Workshop 2
Ulead VideoStudio
WinDVD Creator
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by Straphanger edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2009-04-22 20:30:15 | | | The results of our 2008 Members Choice Poll for DVD Copying Software are in, and the more things change, the more they stay the same.
DVD Shrink, DVD Decrypter, and AnyDVD (Slysoft) once again took the first three spots in our poll, retaining their rankings from Last Year's Poll , although their percentages did drop a bit. Amazing that two free programs out of development for years still perform so well. CloneDVD 2(Slysoft), DVDFab, RipIt4Me and Nero 8 Ultra/Nero Recode also made good showings.
On the Linux side it was K3b, K9Copy, and dvd::rip leading the way, and the Mac users chose HandBrake and MacTheRipper as their top two.
In other results of note, 55 voters (7.8%) said they backup to single-layer DVD, 23 voters (3.2%) backup to hard disk, and 18 (2.5%) use dual-layer disks.
Only two people said they backup to HD DVD, and only one for Blu-Ray. The plain old DVD isn't quite dead yet.
46 voters (6.5%) said they used more than one program to rip, process and burn.
Even with 44 choices listed, 23 voters (3.2%) still said they used a program not listed. Their comments in the body of the poll should offer even more options for those interested. The most-often mentioned 'other' program was DVD Rebuilder.
Only 13 voters (1.8%) this year chose "What's A DVD?", down from 21 last year.
And finally, 299 members cast 707 total votes, and we thank each and every one for their participation. Your input makes this forum, and this site, unique.
The poll in its entirety can be found HERE.
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by antiserious edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2009-03-08 13:50:03 | | | All of a sudden, do you notice a plethora of pop-ups on your desktop, an odd wallpaper, toolbars, or just a whole lot of other programs on your computer that YOU NEVER INSTALLED? Chances are, your computer is infected with Spyware.
As defined by Wikipedia, "Spyware is computer software that is installed surreptitiously on a personal computer to intercept or take partial control over the user's interaction with the computer, without the user's informed consent".
Luckily, there are many companies out there who are willing to help you get rid of these "pests" once and for all, and the following information should make it clear as to which ones are the most effective according our users here at DSLReports.
This years POLL was a complete one sided victory for the program many, if not all, people have used to combat spyware - Spybot Search & Destroy. Walking away with 22.8% of votes, it blew away the competition with quite a comfortable lead. Spyware Blaster (12.8%), Ad-Aware (11.2%) and even Windows Defender (9.9%) got quite a bit of votes, but it was not enough to earn them the victory.
Spybot "detects and removes spyware, a relatively new kind of threat not yet covered by common anti-virus applications". Spybot is simply an all-round anti-spyware program that will remove all kinds of spyware to keep your computer running healthy.
The Requirements for Spybot is not very demanding either, which makes older and newer systems have the same kind of protection they deserve. All you need is one of the following:
*Windows 95
*Windows 98
*Windows Me
*Windows NT
*Windows 2000
*Windows XP
*Windows Vista
Other choices included this year:| Ad-Aware 2007 | 6.1% | | SUPERAntiSpyware | 5.6% | | AVG Anti-Spyware | 4.9% |
| BOClean | 4.9% | | MVPS HOSTS File | 3.6% | | A-Squared 3 | 2.5% | | None | 2.5% | | Webroot Spy Sweeper | 2.3% | | SpywareGuard | 2.1% | |
| IE-SPYAD/IE-SPYAD2 | 1.7% |
| Bazooka Adware and Spyware Scanner | 1% | | Spyware Doctor | 1% |
| eTrust PestPatrol Anti-Spyware | 0.8% | | CounterSpy 2 | 0.6% |
| Spyware Terminator | 0.5% | | Ashampoo AntiSpyWare | 0.1% |
| SpyHunter | 0% | | SpyRemover | 0% |
Due to the nature of the results, Spybot clearly swept the competition. Most users preferred a "layer protection" which involved more than one anti-spyware program installed. The reasoning behind this is so that if one program doesn't catch everything, the other ones will.
Bottom Line: Whether your a beginner or an expect, when it comes to spyware, Spybot Search & Destroy is a "must-have" program.
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by blackdragon1 edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2009-02-24 14:06:15 | | | The 2008 Member Choice Poll can be found here
As in previous years, most Windows users are happy to stick with the included Windows Explorer.
A surprising trend emerged...The number two choice was Finder, which means many members of this site are migrating to the Apple computer.
The above two earned 60% of the votes, with the remaining choices having a small following. The top ten grabbed 88% of the votes.
Here are the results of the top three:
The remaining choices can be found by viewing the original thread
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by tahoejeff edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2009-02-22 00:53:52 | | | As defined by wikipedia.org
Optical disc authoring software is computer software for authoring optical discs including CD-ROMs and DVDs. They are also known by synonyms such as CD burning application or DVD authoring software. Such software is required to use a optical disc recorder.
Creating an optical disc usually involves first creating a disk image with a full file system designed for the optical disc, and then actually burning the image to the disc. Disk file systems include ISO-9660 (often known simply as "ISO") and Universal Disk Format (UDF). ISO is most common for CDs and UDF is most common for DVDs.
The results from this years Poll indicated that members use both free and paid versions from a variety of providers.
This year, members had multiple choice, where users could select the programs they use.
The winner with 74 Votes 26.6% was Ahead Nero Burning Rom / Express
Nero Burning ROM / Express are distributed both at retail, and with various CD / DVD Burners.
In second place with 45 Votes (16.1%)was Ashampoo Burning Studio
And in third place with 28(10%) was ImgBurn
The rest of the software included in the poll,by rank:
•Roxio Easy CD Creator
•CDBurnerXP
•Alcohol 120% - Record & Emulate
•Windows Built in CD Burning
•UltraISO
Other choices
•SlySoft:CloneCD / DVD
•Sonic Record Now
•NTI CD & DVD-Maker
•Deepburner
•Blindwrite
•Cheetah CD Burner/DVD
•CDRWIN
•dBpoweramp CD Writer
•FinalBurner FREE/Pro
•None
•AVS Disc Creator FREE
•Acoustica MP3 CD Burner
Also mentioned by users, but not included in the poll:
•K3b
•Rhapsody & RealPlayer
•SonicStage(Sony)
•SonicStage Mastering Studio(Sony)
•Cyberlink Power2Go
•BurnCDCC
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by gate1975mlm edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2009-01-27 12:12:10 | | | There were 353 votes cast by 258 participants in our File Sharing - 2008 Member Choice poll
Wikipedia describes File sharing "as the practice of making files available for other users to download over the Internet and smaller networks.
This can be done in any number of ways; in corporate networks it is done using file servers, but on the wider Internet it more usually follows the peer-to-peer (P2P) model, where the files are stored on and served by personal computers of the users. Most people who engage in file sharing on the Internet both provide (upload) files and receive files (download)."
Utorrent was our overall winner (for the Third year in a row) with 32% of the votes.
Our second most popular was Azureus with 16.9%
This was followed by Limewire with 12.4%.
All of our choices received at least one vote this year with some of our members listing some other options which are available as shown:
•Shareaza 13 (3.6%)
•BitTornado 9 (2.5%)
•BitTorrent / Mainline 8 (2.2%)
•FlashGet 7 (1.9%)
•BitComet 5 (1.4%)
•ABC 4 (1.1%)
•KTorrent 4 (1.1%)
•BitLord 3 (0.8%)
•kazaa 2 (0.5%)
•KDonkey 2 (0.5%)
•BearShare 2 (0.5%)
•BitLet 2 (0.5%)
•BitSpirit 2 (0.5%)
•KTorrent 2 (0.5%)
•iMesh 1 (0.2%)
•Morpheus 1 (0.2%)
•Acquisition 1 (0.2%)
•Anatomic P2P 1 (0.2%)
•Arctic Torrent 1 (0.2%)
•BitFlu 1 (0.2%)
•QTorrent 1 (0.2%)
•Tomato Torrent 1 (0.2%)
•Turbo Torrent 1 (0.2%)
•XTorrent 1 (0.2%)
•ZipTorrent
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by Anonymous_ edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2009-05-13 15:33:26 | | | The 2008 Anti-Virus Member Poll is now completed. This year, the two top Anti-Virus programs of choice were once again both free programs.
AVG has retained the number one place with 122 (24.3%) votes, followed by the also popular AVAST! with 88 (17.5%) votes. Both offer free for home use and paid commercial versions, but most people indicated that they use the free versions.
Also popular and coming up behind AVG and AVAST! were:
NOD32 with 66 (13.1%) votes
NAV/SAV with 51 (10.1%) votes
AntiVir/Avira with 33 (6.5%) votes
KAV with 32 (6.3%) votes
McAfee with 22 (4.3%) votes
There were also 5 (0.9%) votes for the choice of running with no Anti-virus, which is a slight drop from last year.
As always, our voters kindly gave their informed and interesting opinions on their Anti-Virus of choice. If you are looking for an Anti-Virus program, it is highly recommended to read their opinions to get a feel for why each Anti-Virus works for them.
Update (8/08) Editing to add one caveat... when this poll was taken, AVG was version 7.x and has since been upgraded to version 8.x There have been numerous reports of people either having problems or not liking the new AVG' features (slow surfing with ant-phishing link checking for one). So adding this info to for you to decide if the results from then are now passe.
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by La Luna edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2009-02-07 19:53:29 | | | Here are your results from the Audio Editors - 2008 Member's Choice Poll:
• Audacity takes the Audio Editors - 2008 Member's Choice BBR Gold for the third time in a row...“Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.”
• GarageBand '08 takes the Audio Editors - 2008 Member's Choice BBR Silver...
"With GarageBand, you can create your own virtual onstage band and play along on your favorite instrument. You can record, edit, and mix a song exactly as you want it, in pristine CD quality."
• mp3DirectCut takes the Audio Editors - 2008 Member's Choice BBR Bronze...
"mp3DirectCut is a fast and extensive audio editor and recorder for compressed mp3."
Other contenders that received votes in the Audio Editors - 2008 Member's Choice Poll: (These are listed by percentage of votes, alphabetically thereafter.)
In the compilation of this data, some interesting statistics emerged: • 55.7% of the users that voted may have gotten their favorite Audio Editing software for free,
• 26.2% of the users that voted may have purchased their favorite Audio Editing software, and
• 18.1% of the users that voted may have received their favorite Audio Editing software along with the purchase of another product.
And the (very) rough indication of platforms preferred by those who voted on Audio Editing software are: • 39.3% of the voters may be likely to run their Audio Editing software on some kind of Windows computer.
• 35.4% of the voters may be likely to run their Audio Editing software on some kind of Mac computer.
• 25.4% of the voters may be likely to run their Audio Editing software on some kind of *NIX computer.
For your perusal, here is a table of data that was compiled for this FAQ:
| Audio Product | Stats |
|---|
| (All Voted Products) | Votes | % of Total | Acquisition | Platform |
|---|
| (included in poll) | 127 | 94.1% | | | Audacity | 69 | 51.1% | F | P,N,M | | GarageBand '08 | 14 | 10.4% | I | M | | mp3DirectCut | 8 | 5.9% | F | P | | Nero 8 WaveEditor | 7 | 5.2% | I,P | P | | Sound Forge 9 | 6 | 4.4% | P | P | | Adobe Audition 3 | 5 | 3.7% | P | P | | Soundtrack Pro 2 | 5 | 3.7% | P | M | | Logic Studio | 4 | 3.0% | P | M | | Roxio Jam / Roxio Sound Editor | 4 | 3.0% | I,P | P,M | | GoldWave 5.22 | 3 | 2.2% | P | P | | ReZound 0.12.3beta | 1 | 0.7% | F | N,M | | WavePad (/Masters Edition) | 1 | 0.7% | F,(/P) | P | | (not included in poll) | 7 | 5.2% | | | mpTrim (/PE,/PRO) | 2 | 1.5% | F,(/P) | P | | SonicStage Mastering Studio | 2 | 1.5% | I | P | | Jazz++ Midi Sequencer | 1 | 0.7% | F | N | | MP3Gain 1.2.5 / MacMP3Gain 1.9 | 1 | 0.7% | F | P,M | | Spectrogram 15.1 | 1 | 0.7% | P | P | | (*special hardware required) | 1 | 0.7% | | | Pro Tools|HD | 1 | 0.7% | P* | P,M | | (Total Votes) | 135 | 100.0% | |
|---|
Key for the "Acquisition" column: • F = Free
• I = Included with purchase of another product
• P = Purchase
Key for the "Platform" column: • M = Macintosh
• N = *NIX
• P = PC
All links verified as of November, 2007
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by Kylemaul edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2009-04-18 19:47:38 | | | said by Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia :
Office Suites - In computing, an office suite, sometimes called an office application suite or productivity suite is a software suite intended to be used by typical clerical and knowledge workers. The components are generally distributed together, have a consistent user interface and usually can interact with each other, sometimes in ways that the operating system would not normally allow.
The members have spoken in this years 2007 Members Choice poll.
The results are not at all surprising, or are they?
A total of 348 participants cast 482 votes in this years Member Choice Poll for Office Suites.
Our first place winner of this years poll is Microsoft Office [all versions for Windows pre-Vista] with 155 votes.
In second place, Microsoft Office 2007 [all versions included], with 108 votes for second place.
Coming in third place, with a vote count of 100, is the open source software, Open Office.
Rounding out the top 5, in fourth place with 20 votes is Microsoft Office for Mac, and in fifth with a vote count of 17 is OpenOffice.org Portable Office.
The entire poll can be looked at from this link, »[POLL] Office Suite - 2008 Member Choice .
The results of this poll shows that while Open Office has a good following, and increased it's showing from last years vote count of 66, Microsoft still commands the office suite environment. In fact, if we combine the top two figures for Microsoft Office [all versions], the vote count is 263, a very impressive figure. A lot of this is due to the fact that folks are integrated into the Microsoft products because this is what school, work, or even their personal feelings dictate.
But this also shows that there are folks out there ready for a change, be it in free software, compatible software to whatever Microsoft has, or just plain wanting to try something different.
Bottom line is, if you're looking for a good office suite, then look at what the members here voted for, then decide with your pocketbook if it meets your criteria for what you want or need.
And remember, the Software Forum is a good place to ask questions if your answer is not here.
I would like to thank the MODs for letting me put together this poll, and for the members that voted in it. Without you, this FAQ would not be possible.
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by TransitMan edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2009-02-09 19:11:21 | | | This year our Software Forum Member Choice Poll on Cookie Controls, had 247 participants with 310 total votes.
At closing time - the poll showed continued support of a free product from Piriform, CCleaner. Thus again taking the lead this year, with 43.8% of the vote.
Wikipedia defines cookies as "parcels of text sent by a server to a web browser and then sent back unchanged by the browser each time it accesses that server. Cookies are used for authenticating, tracking, and maintaining specific information about users, such as site preferences or the contents of their electronic shopping carts. The term "cookie" is derived from "magic cookie," a well-known concept in UNIX computing which inspired both the idea and the name of HTTP cookies."
In second place - our members chose "None" - with 21.6% of the vote.
Third place went to "Other" - users primarily using browser controls to thwart cookies, with 10% of the vote.
The remainder of choices we examined are below:
•CleanCache
•Cookie Jar
•Cookie Monster
•Cookie Pal
•CookieCuller
•CookieWall
•E3
•IE Privacy Keeper
•IECookiesView
•Index.dat Suite
•Karen's Cookie Viewer
•MRU-Blaster
•Paraben's Cookie Manager
•Proxomitron
•PurgeFox
•PurgeIE
•Window Washer
•X-Cleaner
A quote we bring forward every year:
"No files are destroyed or compromised by cookies, but if it concerns you about being identified or about having your web browsing traced through the use of a cookie, either set your browser to not accept cookies or use one of the cookie blocking programs available to you."
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by lilhurricane
last modified: 2009-04-05 10:48:13 | | | This years poll once again proves that published reports on market share are not indicative of the favored browser of the BroadbandReports.com membership. Mozilla Firefox clearly stands alone in the results, garnering a 53% majority of users participating.
So what makes Firefox so appealing to users? Some cite the feature set included in the latest version, most notably the improved tab browsing, built-in spell checker, session restore and search features. Others speak of the plethora of Add-Ons available to provide increased functionality and customization of the application. Certainly one of the main reasons is the security inherent with the browser with features such as phishing protection and the ability to quickly clear any private data used during the browsing experience.
Other notable changes from the previous poll was a significant drop in those who choose Opera and a notable increase in those now using Safari which has been recently been ported for use on the Microsoft Windows platform.
The table below represents the vote totals of this years poll.| Browser Platform | Total Votes | % of total | | Mozilla Firefox | 372 | 53.5% | | Windows Internet Explorer | 147 | 21.1% | | Safari | 75 | 10.7% | | Opera | 63 | 9% |
| Camino | 12 | 1.7% | | Other - includes Omniweb, Avant, Maxthon | 10 | 1.4% | | SeaMonkey | 8 | 1.1% | | Mozilla | 3 | 0.4% | | Netscape | 3 | 0.4% | | K-Meleon | 2 | 0.1% |
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by MSeng edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2009-04-05 11:52:37 | | | A poll was recently held here at DSLR to determine the most preferred IM Clients in 2008 by DSLR members.
There were some surprises this year. Dethroning last year's winner (Trillian in a run away effort), MSN stormed back taking the title with 13% of the vote. MSN Messenger (Windows Live Messenger) is a single protocol IM Client by Microsoft.
Download: »get.live.com/messenger/overview
Last year's champ, Trillian, was edged out by 10 votes (11.5%) and finished 2nd. Trillian is a multi-protocol IM Client.
Download: »www.ceruleanstudios.com/
Rounding out the Top 3 in a very tight finish was AIM with 10.9% of the vote. AIM is a single-protocol IM Client produced by AOL.
Download: »aim.com
Yahoo IM was right behind however, with 10% of the vote itself, only 6 votes behind AIM.
Download: »messenger.yahoo.com/
Other IM Clients included in the poll:
•Yahoo »messenger.yahoo.com/
•Skype »www.skype.com/
•Pidgin »gaim.sourceforge.net/
•Google Talk »www.google.com/talk/
•Miranda »www.miranda-im.org/
•ICQ »icq.com/
•iChat »www.apple.com/macosx/features/ichat/
•Meebo »www.meebo.com/
•Xfire »www.xfire.com/
•Adium »www.adiumx.com/
•Windows Messenger (bundled with Windows OS)
•Gadu-Gadu »www.gadu-gadu.pl/ (requires translation)
•Jabber »www.jabber.org/
•QQ »www.qq.co.za/
•NateOn »www.nate.com/ (requires translation)
•Ayttm »ayttm.sourceforge.net/
•Zango IM »www.topshareware.com/Zango-.IM-d···6592.htm
•Centericq »konst.org.ua/centericq/
•Easy Message »www.easymessage.net/
•Fire »fire.sourceforge.net/
•IM2 »www.5star-shareware.com/Windows/···r_2.html
•Instan-t »www.interactiveni.com/imsite/imfreeware.htm
•Meetro »www.meetro.com/
•Naim »naim.n.ml.org/about
•Mercury »www.mercury.im/
•SIM »developer.berlios.de/forum/forum···id=18598
•BitWise »www.bitwiseim.com/
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by Rob A edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2009-01-25 04:45:54 | | | For the first time we held a Compression Utilities Member Poll. In 2008, the top program was WinRAR
The poll can be found here »[POLL] Compresssion Utilities - 2008 Member Choice Poll
WinRar, a Shareware program which can be used beyond the trial period, won first place with 193 votes (38.9%). WinRar supports and is not limited to the following formats: ZIP, TAR, GZ, BZ/BZ2, 7z, RAR, LHA, ACE, ARJ, CAB, and ISO images.
7-zip came in second with 82 votes (16.5%).
WinZip placed third.
There were 496 votes from 392 participants so there’s a decent group of people who still use a combination of 2 or more compression utilities. The general consensus is that a compression utility is needed nowadays with the increasing size on files. Only two people said they did not use compression utilities.
Some others we reviewed:
•Alpha Zip
•ALZip
•Beezer
•BitZipper
•BOMArchiveHelper [built into Mac OS X]
•Built-in Windows Compression utility [Part of Windows 98 Plus!/ME/XP/2003/Vista],
•Disk ARchiver
•Filzip
•Info-Zip
•IZArc
•jZip
•KGB Archiver
•PeaZip
•PKZIP
•PowerArchiver
•Squeez
•StuffIt
•The Extractor
•The Unarchiver
•Tar
•TUGZip
•WinAce
•WinHKI
•WinRK
•WinUHA
•XADMaster.Library
•ZipGenius
•Zipeg
•ZipZag
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by mike31mets edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2009-04-18 11:46:48 | | | Wikipedia's definition of E-mail Client - An e-mail client, also called a mail user agent (MUA), is a computer program that is used to read and send e-mail.
Originally, the MUA was intended to be a simple program to read the user's mail messages, which the mail delivery agent (MDA) in conjunction with the mail transfer agent (MTA) would transfer into a local mailbox.
The most important mailbox formats are mbox and Maildir. These rather simple protocols for locally storing e-mails make import, export and backup of mailfolders quite easy.
E-mails to be sent would be handed over to the MTA, perhaps via an mail submission agent, therefore an MUA would not have to provide any transport-related functions.
Since the various Microsoft Windows versions intended for home use never provided an MTA, most modern MUAs have to support protocols like POP3 and Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) to communicate with a remote MTA located at the e-mail providers machine.
IMAP and the updated IMAP4 are optimized for storage of e-mail on the server, while the POP3 protocol generally assumes that the e-mail is downloaded to the client. The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is used by most e-mail clients to send e-mail.
In addition to the fat client e-mail clients, or small MUAs in cooperation with a local MDA/MTA, presented here, there are also Web-based e-mail programs called webmail.
An important standard supported by most e-mail clients is MIME, which is used to send binary file e-mail attachments. Attachments are files that are not part of the e-mail proper, but are sent with the e-mail.
Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) is a proprietary Microsoft Windows application programming interface (API) which can be used to access the Microsoft Exchange e-mail server or to interact with the Microsoft Outlook client.
The public has spoken, and here are the top 4 for the 2008 Member Choice awards. (These represent 80% of the responses.)
•In first place, with 27.1% of the votes, is Outlook.
•In second place is an Open Source upstart with 22.4% of the votes is Thunderbird. (When does it quit being an "upstart" and become the "client of choice"?)
•In third place this year (up from fourth place last year) with 18.5% of the votes are the Web-mail Clients (GMail; Hotmail; Juno/NetZero; Yahoo; InBox; AIM/AOL; etc.).
•And in fourth place (down from third place last year) with 12.0% of the votes, is Outlook Express.
Rounding out the top ten with their respective vote percents: in 5th place with 3.6% was Other, in 6th place with 2.1% was Eudora, in 7th place with 1.8% was Pegasus, in 8th place with 1.6% was Mac OS X Mail, in 9th place with 1.5% was Opera M2, and finally in 10th place with 1.3% was The Bat!.
One thing to note is that a number of people are now using "Windows Live Mail". This should be added to the poll the next time it is done as we will probably see more users moving from Outlook Express and other Microsoft clients to it.
Also, several use Lotus Notes because of work environments.
With 439 people casting 597 votes, this poll shows that there are 2 things changing. One is that while Microsoft is trying to entice us with "whistles and bells", a lot of folks aren't buying into it. It is evidenced by the popularity of the Open Sourced client Mozilla Thunderbird. But what is also remarkable is that the Web-Based E-mail clients are rising in popularity as well. Outlook Express is also slowly loosing ground.
To see more of the poll where you will see the complete results as of 10/26/2007, go here.
I'd like to thank to forum hosts for letting me conduct this poll, but most of all, I'd like to thank the members who voted and made their voices heard.
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by McSummation edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2009-03-17 05:15:31 | | | We once again turned to Wikipedia for our definition:
Media player is a term typically used to describe computer software for playing back multimedia files.
Most software media players support an array of media formats, including b |
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