Online Tools - April '98

This month we feature the latest version of our pick of Internet tools and software

CyberContact Light NetClipper NetLab WebTabs Internet EZ Search CyberSense Personal Search ClickMail 32 Net Nanny 3.1 NewsFerret Net.Medic GeoBoy 1.4.1 CyberPatrol NetToob Stream 3.5 Internet BookCreative Connections Trumpet Winsock ICQ mIRC Turbo Browser 98 Transoft Mail Control Dropit Internet Explorer Netscape Communicator/Navigator  WebTurbo Alchemica Webworks Powermarks Web Writer 98 HTML Index Generator Amaya 1.2 Lynx Mosaic Opera WebProwler WebSurfer Internet Explorer 4 PowerToys Flying Toolbars Auto WinNet Internet Commander Calypso Mail Shockwave RealPlayer Acrobat Reader 

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CyberContact is a PIM which focuses on your Web-related contact information. It's indispensable if you use your online sessions to manage your business. You can use it to manage all your Web data, including e-mail, tasks, appointments and activities, URLs, Web pages, documents, and files. The program's special features include: the ability to file e-mail with your contacts, send e-mail and browse the Web directly from the program, send broadcast e-mail, manage your tasks and activities, and much more.

This Lite version allows you to work with two databases with up to 100 contact records per database. If you need more, upgrade to the Pro version.

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NetClipper is a simple program: it saves time by allowing you to grab the locations of downloads, for downloading at a later time. You can make your lists of downloads, and then work at something else while the files are downloaded. It works with both Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. NetClipper handles any kind of download: files, Web pages, graphics, etc.

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NetLab is a great collection of TCP/IP utilities, that you can access at a click. The tabbed interface easily lets you perform various tasks, as well as assess your IP's performance. You can access the Finger, Whois and DNS tabs to find out about people and domains, the Time utility lets you synchronise your computer's clock, and the port scan and Winsock info tabs give you a rundown on the performance of your connection.

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WebTabs is much more than an URL manager: it also monitors your actions on the Web. It creates bookmarks automatically as you visit sites, tracks the URLs you visit repeatedly, and encourages you to annotate them, it supports drag and drop for organising your bookmarks, it cross-references folders and bookmarks, it supports various search options, also allows you to export your collections as HTML files, and more. The windowed interface is simple to use, and allows you to see all your information at a glance.

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EZ Search speeds up your Internet searching: it lets you query up to 39 search engines at once. It will even remove any duplicate results for you. The program couldn't be easier to use. Simply enter your search terms into the box, then tick off the search engines you want to use on the left. Clever features include: an ability to verify that links are still operational; view results as a Web page; in-context Help; and more.

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This program is a free search engine control centre, and you can install it in your favourite browser. The program's main feature is Quick Search, which lets you send your search query to your choice of nine of the most popular search engines, including AltaVista, and Yahoo. The program offers various customisation features via JavaScript and cookie technology. The best way to use the program is to make it your homepage in your browser. Full instructions on using Personal Search come via an included HTML page, simply open the page in your browser to install the program.

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Why bother loading a large program just to send your e-mail? Let ClickMail 32 send it for you -- the program dials up your e-mail connection, sends your mail, and then disconnects. Install the program into the directory in which you intend to keep it, there's no setup program. When you start it, you're given the option of whether you want to make it your default mailer.

URL: www.netnanny.com
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Net Nanny 3.1 is a superior offering to its former hybrid DOS/Windows version 2.1, which was clumsier to use.

This time around we still had a few issues under Windows 95. In particular, we had to nominate the executable files of our browser for it to work.

Also, as with version 2.1, you get no default taboo list and have to download these from its Net Site. These are then imported and activated.

Net Nanny has two remarkable features to distinguish it from other smut sniffers. First, it can operate on non-Net applications as well. If you have a mind to, you can set up your own forbidden list of words or phrases (for example, credit card information, home address) and Net Nanny will intervene by tracking the incident, warning or closing down the application entirely.

Secondly, it is the only one of the group where its lists were fully accessible and editable. While you could agonise over the fact that Net Nanny fails to stop certain sites -- or stops certain worthy sites -- you can fix it by amending its database in any way you like. Like CyberPatrol, you can mark sites that are okay or even recommended, as well as sites to avoid.

Thus Net Nanny could be used to promote certain sites relevant for a school project -- as with Web Recall -- and you can also block sites for reasons to promote students looking up the information elsewhere.

We found Net Nanny a little rough with installation and uninstallation compared to CYBERsitter and CyberPatrol.

One tip: don't uninstall Net Nanny while it is in memory.And when you do, be sure to use the provided Uninstall routine - don't simply delete the folder from your hard drive.

This is a 45-day evaluation version.

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NewsFerret is one of the many Internet utilities produced by Ferretsoft. Some of the utilities are free, others like NewsFerret are not. This program installs itself onto your desktop, and when you need some information which you think may be available in a newsgroup, just click to start the program, and enter your text -- it will even load your dialler for you if you don't have a direct connection. You can enter as many keywords as you like to cut down on the irrelevant matches that you find. You can also speed up searching by limiting the number of results.

Note: This is a 14-day trial version

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Net.Medic is a Windows 95 program that gives us a chance to know what's going on with your Internet connection. It provides continuous information about modem throughput including compression, service provider delays and capacity, backbone delays and load, server delays and load, traffic and peak speed on the Internet as a whole and the number of hops between you and the server. It will even offer to shoot off an automatic e-mail complaint to the people concerned if one of the links in the chain is persistently failing to perform.

One thing I found very practical is that Net.Medic reveals when a server has frozen up, as they do now and then. There may not be a specific indication, as when the data server icon turns red because nobody's home, but when everything shows green and nothing is coming through, it's time to hit the Reload button on the browser. Much better than just looking at the little network icon and wondering why it isn't blinking . . .

Net.Medic not only lets you see where the problems are, but in fact can correct some of them automatically. If you have an unsuitable modem or port setup, for example, it can apply automatic adjustment. In my own case, it changed the maximum speed setting of the serial port. There are several logs and health reports to let you keep track and decide if a particular problem appears more often than it should.

To get the best out of Net.Medic, you have to make sure the modem reports its speed correctly to the system; it can show the preset maximum speed or it can show the actual data transfer rate. The true data transfer rate is what is interesting from the system health checking viewpoint, but there is no Windows setting to select this. Some modems default to this state, some don't. Fortunately, there is something you can do about it: open the Modems icon in the Control Panel, then click on the Properties button. Click the Connection tab in the dialogue box that appears, then on the Advanced button. This opens a dialogue box that contains a window labelled Extra Settings. Write ATW2 in this window. This is the code that sets true speed reporting, and it gets transmitted to the modem every time it's reset.

I found no bugs as such, but there are a couple of niggles: the online time indication registers active time only; if you take time to read something and the link is idle, the clock stops. When you process e-mail or read a newsgroup, the modem speed indicator shows the traffic but again the online clock stops. Also, the server and backbone indications don't always work with Internet Explorer 4.0, which is probably because IE4 has its own sensors.

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This fascinating program is part of a network management suite for professionals (EtherBoy, WebBoy and PacketBoy are the other parts) that looks set to write a brilliant success story for yet another Australian company, namely NDG Software. GeoBoy traces the hops of an Internet connection and extracts geographical data from the Web and a geographical database to display the hops on a world map. This is fascinating in itself, just for the sheer "gee-whiz" of seeing where your connection goes, but there's also useful information -- for instance, the example in the picture demonstrates that the Ferrari site is located on a server in New York, in spite of the Italian address (www.ferrari.it). The locations of the intermediate hops are interesting, too, as it shows what international carriers are involved.

Where there is no location data, the location is given as "unresolved". So how can I tell that the "unresolved" Ferrari server is in New York? Easy: no link to Europe is shown, and that would certainly have data in the database. Besides, I know that my host server (Page Depot) offers unrestricted virtual URLs, so I could have, say, "www.TheoneandonlyJan.com.au" even though the site resides in San Francisco, if I were vain enough to pay for it.

You can enter location data into the database when you find out (for sure!) where a node is and are invited to submit data to NDG.

According to NDG, the plan is that GeoBoy should act as a catalyst to stir up enough interest for people to submit new cache entries, and for node operators to realise that there is a need to support this kind of information via DNS. Not only will updated data files be made available to registered users, but they will also receive the next major update of GeoBoy, which will support RFC 1876 (a method of encoding Geographical location via DNS).

As well as the world map -- flat or rotating globe -- there's a verbal display of every hop, which includes the time it takes as well as its identity. This makes for interesting comparison between nodes and also performance of a node at different times. For instance, I've seen my own local service provider (Acay) vary between 900 and 5000 milliseconds total for its three internal hops.

This is a 14-day trial version.

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CyberPatrol promises Internet access management that allows parents or teachers to manage computer use in their own household or classroom. It controls access from any computer to the Internet. It loads during startup and runs in the background to control access to all associated applications.

It works with all browsers and has built-in support for the PICS standard, including the SafeSurf & RSACi standard rating systems. You can restrict access to the Net at certain times of the day and limit total time spent online.

CyberPatrol comes loaded with Microsystems Software's 'The CyberNOT List' a listing of researched Internet sites containing materials which parents may find questionable as well as the 'The CyberYES List' a listing of researched Internet sites containing fun and educational material for children.

Parents can choose to use either the CyberNOT Block List or the CyberYES Allowed Sites List according to the individual child's needs.

The block list is divided into categories and access can be managed down to the file directory or page level. This means that appropriate material at an Internet address need not be blocked simply because there is some restricted material elsewhere at the address. Parents and teachers may select all or any of the categories to be blocked by general content, time of day, or specific Internet site.
It also can be configured to prevent typing of your credit card information, telephone numbers or other information.

We found CyberPatrol installed with ease and operated well in blocking typical adult entertainment sites. It blocked a site that suggested how to make an Atomic Bomb, but permitted us to log onto another site, which explained how to make a fertiliser bomb -- the kind used in the Okalahoma bombing.

We found few problems in researching legitimate issues of sex education, however.

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NetToob is a handy all-in-one multimedia player which will play nearly all types of video files and some sound files, either over the Net or on your hard disk.

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This program gives you a place to keep all your Internet information: URLs, e-mail and FTP addresses, info on newsgroups, etc. The clever interface is styled as a ring binder, so it's very easy and intuitive to learn. You can keep a complete page of information on each item, with full descriptions and comments; you can enter the details manually, by copying and pasting, or you can get the program to capture the URL or address for you.

When you've entered URLs, you can click on an URL to go directly to the Web page. This new version features several enhancements.

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This is a great program if you're new to the Internet. It provides links to over 2000 sites, including the major search engines. Other topic areas you can access include: business, computer information, educational, seniors, gardening, DTP, and much more. Visit the Creative Connections site for free updates.

If your PC runs Windows, Internet applications need a Winsock to connect with your ISP (Internet service provider). Short for 'Windows sockets' and also known as a TCP/IP stack, a Winsock provides the interface for TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/Internet protocol) -- the language that links computers on the Net.

The most popular Winsock for Windows 3.1x is Trumpet Winsock (TW), which also includes a dialler for controlling your modem. Version 3.0D is available as shareware from the Australian Trumpet Web site above. During installation, TW Install pops up several configuration screens. Since they're all available from the TW menus after it's fully installed, you can simply click OK and fix things up from TW before you go online.

ICO is a client for chatting online with people who are connected to the Net. It's one of the few programs where you don't have to log onto a specific server to chat, and has lots of neat file transfer and messaging features. You'll need to go to the Mirabilis Web site (above) for tips on how to install ICQ and start chatting.

Easy to use and the all-time favourite shareware client for Internet Relay Chat.

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This file manager is like Windows Explorer on steroids and the latest version offers many enhancements, such as complete viewers for Office 97 documents.

Turbo Browser's original features remain including an integrated ActiveX viewer for HTML, e-mail, ZIP, documents, spreadsheets, images and other multimedia; auto view for no hands viewing of your files; built-in archive management of ZIP files; built-in conversion for graphics into multiple formats, including size reduction of files; and integrated printing of most file formats.

The SearchBar has been enhanced with new filters to make locating files even simpler. In addition, the program has taken on the Windows 98 look, which makes the interface easy and intuitive.

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If you're a heavy user of e-mail, you'll like this program. It's easy to use and has lots of great features: an incoming mail 'shuffle' feature, which sorts your mail according to the rules you've set; auto reply, which responds automatically to types of messages you've defined and will even attach files to the responses (this feature is similar to fax-on-demand); store multiple signatures; access multiple mailboxes on multiple servers (if you have accounts with several ISPs, for example); and auto dial-in which downloads messages at designated intervals, as well as sending auto-responses if you've enabled that feature.

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Dropit is a simple utility that can save you a lot of time when it comes to filling out forms -- especially on the Internet. You simply create any text that you want to reuse in Dropit, open Dropit from the system tray, and drag and drop your selected text into the form.

The final release of Internet Explorer 4 is finally here, but it's been worth the wait. IE 4.0 goes toe to toe with Netscape with this lineup: Explorer (the browser with integrated Webcasting), Outlook Express (integrated e-mail and newsgroups), NetMeeting (conferencing and collaboration), FrontPage Express (Web page authoring), and NetShow (broadcasting and streaming multimedia).

But IE 4 is more than a great suite of Internet tools. Through its Web Integrated Desktop, IE 4 offers a revolutionary development in the integration of the operating system (Windows 95) and the Internet: browsing your hard disk and browsing the Web become essentially the same experience.

On the whole, we feel that Internet Explorer 4.0 pips Communicator as an Internet suite, and, because it's free to everyone, it's even better value. Throw in desktop integration and you have a compelling case for all Windows 95 users, except perhaps Netscape devotees.

And now, just as we go to press, Microsoft has released a beta version of IE 4.0 for Windows 3.1, which appears to have all the major new Internet features of IE 4.0 for Win 95.

Naturally, there's a hardware hit with IE 4.0. Those of you who don't have at least a fast 486 with 16Mb of RAM can always use IE 3, which will provide many of the features of version 4, except of course the very latest and best.

If you want to find out more before you make the leap into IE 4.0 check out our Special
True Web Integration guide for Internet Explorer 4.0

By Rose Vines

Communicator 4 isn't just a browser -- it's a complete Internet suite. It gives us the latest version of Navigator (the browser itself), teamed with Messenger (e-mail), Collabra (newsgroup reader), Conference (collaboration), Composer (Web page authoring), Media Player (live broadcasting and streaming multimedia support) and Netcaster (Webcasting, the Web's equivalent of TV channels with information broadcast directly to your desktop).

It's an excellent suite of tools, certainly good enough for dedicated Navigator users to stick with Netscape.

However, bear in mind that for business users Communicator is free to try only for 90 days. Navigator 4 can be downloaded separately and is free to everyone. However, while it includes the browser and Netcaster, it's lacking all the other components including e-mail. As an alternative, Netscape is offering server-based e-mail -- users will have to connect remotely to a Netscape server if they want to use the browser to pick up their mail.

The good news is that Navigator 4 can get by with 8Mb (if you're patient). However, a better low-memory option for those who want e-mail but don't want all the new technologies such as Webcasting, is to stick to Navigator 3, which will still give you a rich Internet experience.

Rose Vines

WebTurbo is a great freeware addition to the Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer browsers. It provides a separate window in which you can search using the major search engines; when you choose a site, WebTurbo will provide an expandable outline of the entire site, with information on what each page contains. This saves you a lot of wasted time, because you no longer have to look at each page individually.

This update contains several new features, expanding on ways in which you can save the information that you've found.

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This program contains everything that you need to create your Web site. Included with the program is a project manager, HTML editor, thumbnails browser, clickable image map creator, an FTP client and much more. An excellent feature of Alchemica Webworks is that it's completely graphical: you can see exactly where you are in your work at any time -- this is an immense benefit to keep track of tasks related to your site. However, the main benefit of the program is that you can create a single project and simultaneously publish it to a World Wide Web server, an Intranet server, a CD-ROM or an HTML help application. In other words, rather than focusing on any single element of a Web site or similar project, Alchemica Webworks gives you a complete overview and allows you to pull elements from many places together into a new project.

To get you started, and to show you how the program works, there's a sample project, as well as a good Help file.

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Powermarks is a simple but powerful utility which offers a solution to the Internet bookmarks problem. It works with both Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. You add your bookmarks with a Fast Add option, which saves the current page, or an Add and edit option, which allows you to fill in various fields. When you want to retrieve a bookmark, just type a few letters of the name, and the appropriate bookmark appears.

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Web Writer 98 is an HTML editor that functions much like WordPad, except that it inserts HTML code. It's very handy for creating additions or alterations to your Web pages on-the-fly. Features include: toolbars for single-button HTML tag insertion, automatic HTML colour syntaxing, as well as unlimited undo/redo functions.

HTML Index Generator is a simple program, but very handy if you're trying to organise GIF and JPG files for your Web site. The program scans any directory you nominate, and presents any GIF and/or JPG files as thumbnails. You cannot save any indexes, however, they are quickly generated, and the thumbnails are a good viewable size. Click on a filename if you want to see the file full size.

Features: For the technojunkies, this is about the most fun you can have with a browser. It lets you edit and browse a page at the same time, and then save the results -- to your Web-based server if you have the appropriate permissions. You can edit anyone's page on the net and save it locally. Amaya is for advanced users to test latest Web technologies, so it not only supports HTML, graphics and other standards, but also newer technologies such as MathML.

Drawbacks:Not always predictable behaviour; buggy -- can mess up the display and cause system crashes; not obvious how to run it (open the thot\win95\bin folder and run the Amaya application).

Platforms: Unix, Win 95, Win NT, others
Price: Free
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Features: Lynx is one of the best-established, text-only browsers. It's fast, small and easy on hardware resources.

Drawbacks: Text-only; interface takes getting used to; short on help; DOS version a little difficult to setup.

Platforms: DOS (lynx386), Win 95/NT (lynx95)
Price: Free
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Features: The browser that started it all -- everything that Internet Explorer and Navigator do now was built upon the original concepts in Mosaic. This well-established browser has a stylish interface and good graphics support (you can also turn graphics off). It's stacked with fascinating features, such as auto-surf, which automatically follows all links (you can set maximum numbers and depth) and a site mapping feature.

Drawbacks: No longer being developed, so no support for recent HTML or scripting developments (it won't even try to load anything contained in tables), and it hates Java.

Platforms: Win 3.1 (mosaic21.exe) and Win 95/NT (mos30.exe)
Price: Free
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Features: The pick of the browsing alternatives. Opera is highly customisable, and provides support for e-mail and newsgroups. It's packed with thoughtful features. One example is how it automatically imports favourites/bookmarks from other browsers. Another is the zoom feature, which lets you view a Web page from 20% to 1000% of its normal size -- great if a page doesn't quite fit your screen or if the tiny writing is hard to decipher. Yet another: navigate the Web using one key only -- great for physically challenged surfers. And you can run it on your 386SX just as easily as your Pentium.

Drawbacks: It uses a multi-windowed approach that might confuse some people (you can turn this off); won't handle Java applets, although it does handle Javascript.

Platforms: Windows 3.1/95/NT and OS/2.
Price: US$30 registration
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Web Prowler is an internet browser, which lets you surf the web in style & sophistication. Web Prowler incorporates advanced browsing techniques, and a well desgined, graphical interface. Web Prowler is completely free!

Features: A very up-to-date browser which handles Java and cascading style sheets with aplomb, and is also good with sounds, graphics and plug-ins such as shockwave.

Drawbacks: Navigation controls are sometimes buggy.

Platforms: Win 95 only
Price: Free
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Features: A very stylish, fast graphical browser, which handles HTML 2 and most of HTML 3.0 including tables, forms and secure connections. WebSurfer has a neat "Defer images" button on the toolbar so you can load images later, and a useful History list.

Drawbacks: Doesn't always handle graphics well; no frames support (some would regard this as a plus); installs itself as default browser without asking.

Platforms: Win 3.x or later
Price: Free
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The Internet Explorer 4 PowerToys add functionality and fun to the program — and they're free. However, you should note that although they were developed by the IE4 team, they are not officially supported by Microsoft, so you install and use them at your own risk. Some of the utilities include: zoom in/zoom out on any graphic on a Web page; open a frame in a new window; and text highlighter — this operates as it does in Microsoft Word; Web search — select keywords on a Web page, right-click, and hit Search; links list — allows you to see all the links on a page.

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This program lets you maximise your screen when you're running Netscape Navigator. Basically the program adds an auto-hide feature to Navigator's toolbar so that the toolbar slides out of the way when you're not using it and increases your viewing area. Flying Toolbars' additional features include: Personal Buttons to create shortcuts to your favourite Internet locations, Batch Loader (load multiple Internet apps during Navigator's startup), Search Engine Submitter (search multiple search engines automatically) and Fast Access Buttons, which simulate various menu commands.

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AutoWinNet95 automates many of the tasks you perform online. You can schedule these tasks so that the program carries them out while you're busy with other work, or while your computer is unattended.

Tasks you can schedule include: FTP transfers, with automatic retries for busy sites and customisable log-ins; e-mail, with unlimited multiple mailboxes; and Usenet downloads, with support for Forte Agent and Anawave Gravity.

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Internet Commander gives you quick access to your favourite Internet locations, as well as storing your passwords for you. The program is easy to use -- the interface is simply a large toolbar. As well as the sites which are provided for you (search engines, software sites, hardware links etc), you can add your favourite URLs and Internet applications. Definitely worth having for the password keeper alone.

Calypso is an ideal e-mail client for business users, but it's easy to set up, most of the work is done via a Wizard. Some of Calypso Mail's sophisticated features include: support for multiple accounts, automatic reply, auto spell check, multiple signatures, filtering, bulk e-mail, templates, and fast retrievals.

Angela Booth

The original Shockwave plug-in, which can add incredible animation, sound and interactivity to Web pages, are created using Macromedia Director. The new ShockWave Flash plug-in plays the fast, small vector-based animations, graphics and buttons created by Macromedia Flash.

The plug-in provided here includes players for both Director and Flash Shockwave.

The latest version of the RealAudio and RealVideo Web plug-in that gives you live streaming Audio and video over the Net with your browser.

You'll find many documents on the Net in Adobe Acrobat's PDF format, making this reader an essential part of your toolkit.