Mac

Windows

30-day trial version

This program should be a great help to your efforts to improve the ranking of your Web sites in the various major search engines and therefore increase the number of people visiting your site. It will certainly save you a lot of time and effort as it automatically makes appropriate submissions to each search engine and monitors how likely people are to find you when they search. You can schedule pages to be resubmitted regularly.

WebPosition Gold can analyse your Web pages and generate HTML pages designed to rank near the top of the search results. The program will report your positions on each search engine for each keyword you are targeting.

This trial version works with three of the 20 or so search engines currently supported.

Web link: www.webposition.com

Free

If you've ever wanted to do a file search of an FTP site and your FTP program doesn't have that feature, then FtpSearch could be just the tool for you. Instead of manually trawling through file lists, FTPSearch does all the work for you. The interface lets you add any number of FTP server addresses and file patterns to search for (e.g. *.mp3). It then searches simultaneously for files on the specified servers. Any matches are displayed in a central list and you can select any one of them to download with your default browser – or copy the URL and download it with your favourite download manager.

Web link: www.flashpeak.com

Evaluation version

From the makers of the popular Paint Shop Pro comes Quick View Plus, the easy way to view virtually any file even if you don't have the originating program. QVP is particularly handy for viewing email attachments. You can also view a huge range of graphics, spreadsheets, databases, word processor documents, presentations, zip files, and more.

Web link: www.jasc.com

30-day trial version

Use ZoneAlarm Pro to shield your Internet-connected PC or network from hacker attacks – the program protects against worms, Trojans, spyware and other malicious threats. It blocks unauthorised connections, pre-empting known and unknown attacks and provides email protection against 46 suspect file types. Users of 'always-on' broadband connections should seriously consider a tool like ZoneAlarm Pro.

Web link: www.zonelabs.com

Trial version

EasyCrypt is a file encryption program that will protect all your PC based files or folders from unauthorised access.

Web link: www.eon-solutions.com

Free – updated version

This version includes an important fix for a potential security problem involving cross-site scripting. Also the zlib code is updated to version 1.1.4 and there are several other enhancements.

Analog is a statistics program to measure the usage on your Web server (or Web site). It can show you which pages are most popular, which countries people are visiting from, which sites they tried to follow broken links from, and all sorts of other useful information. Analog can read all standard log formats and can handle large log files very quickly.

Note: Analog is ready to run and does not require installation – to use it, simply copy the folder as above to your hard drive and run the file analog.exe from there.

Web link: www.analog.cx

Evaluation version – updated

Web Link Validator is a utility for checking remote and local links and can generate a detailed error report for any bad link, for example case errors, availability errors and missing pages. The program can check over 100,000 links during one session and save all the retrieved information to a file to be viewed and analysed later. It also supports importing and checking of plain text URL lists, Microsoft Internet Explorer Favorites, Netscape Navigator Bookmarks and Opera Hotlist.

The slick interface makes using the program easy – simply enter a URL and the program does all the work. The comprehensive reports it generates are broken down into good and bad internal and external links, HTML tags used, protocols used, filename extensions, file groups (such as videos, sound, graphics etc.), and a directory tree. This update provides several extended features and support for Opera 6 bookmarks.

Web link: www.relsoftware.com

Evaluation version

CodeLifter is a more powerful replacement to the View Source facility in your browser. Its main purpose is as a learning tool for viewing Web page source code, not as a means of nicking other people's work. CodeLifter can also display HTML that may be protected through various JavaScript cloaking methods. CodeLifter will also access CSS scripts and external JavaScript files. The program sits in your system tray and reads your browsing history. When you hit a cloaked or interesting page, you instantly view its code. Other commands let you save, print or copy the source code and a search feature is included.

Web link: www.codelifter.com

Trial version

MySQL Studio is a set of graphical database management, reporting and monitoring tools for MySQL database systems. The suite includes Apache, MyODBC, MySQL and PHP and the main component, NaviCat, a nifty MySQL graphical front-end. You can access both local and remote MySQL databases and it lets you browse through your databases; create, edit and delete databases, tables, indexes and users; modify your data; generate reports; run SQL queries and more.

The MySQL launcher provides a quick and easy way to stop and start MySQL and Innodb provides robust transactions, row level locking, and foreign key constraints for MySQL. There's plenty of help bundled as well, including a 500 page MySQL reference manual as well as a 200 page NaviCat manual.

Web link: www.mysqlstudio.com

30-day trial – updated version

Tweakmaster aims to speed up your Internet connections. Modem users could gain as much as 3 to 8 Kb/sec greater download speeds. Tweakmaster works by modifying various hidden Windows dial-up settings. There's a number of them, so Tweakmaster provides a wizard with three preset scenarios that you can experiment with. A number of other tools are included such as a DNS accelerator that stores host name lookups, a keep-alive feature that maintains your connection when it's idle and a tool that synchronises your PC clock with time servers available on the Internet. There is also a 'Pro' version available that includes DU Meter to accurately and effectively monitor your download speeds and bandwidth usage.

This latest version includes stability improvements.

Web link: www.tweakmaster.com

'Adware' – latest version

FlashGet is designed to improve the speed and organisation of downloads. By splitting files into parts and downloading them simultaneously, the downloading speed can increase significantly. To help organise your downloaded files, you can create an unlimited number of categories, each category having a specified hard drive folder. This update features various minor enhancements.

Web link: www.amazesoft.com

Free – latest version

Aladdin's Stuffit Expander gives you an easy way to expand most compressed or encoded files including those downloaded from online services and the Internet. The program handles Mac and Windows archive files.

Note: StuffIt Expander is a free component of StuffIt Lite 6.5.1. This means that you will also have the opportunity to install an unregistered StuffIt Lite package, as well as unregistered shareware versions of DropStuff and StuffIt Browser.

Web link: www.aladdinsys.com

WinZip
v6.3
(Win 3.x)
Evaluation version

At last, after extensive beta testing, it's time to upgrade to the latest Windows 9x/NT/Me/2000/XP version of WinZip. WinZip is an excellent archive file manager, handling ZIP and other compression formats, including many common on the Internet, such as TAR, BinHex, UUencode and MIME. Features handy integration with Windows explorer.

A key addition to this version is compatibility with Windows XP. There are also major enhancements to the integration of WinZip into Windows Explorer, with many new functions and options in the context menu. You should generally find the handling of your ZIP files easier than before. There are various cosmetic changes and improvements to the program and its help files.

Web link: www.winzip.com

Free 'Adware' – latest update

DAP helps manage your downloads. Features include the ability to resume interrupted downloads (even from servers that do not normally allow it) and splitting individual file downloads between multiple threads for added speed. It offers additional acceleration options to users with connections faster than 56k modems.

DAP 5 features the ability to import/export downloads lists and operate triggered sounds, password management, and the option to save files to different folders based on their file extension.

After version 4.0 you also get improved download acceleration and additional features such as: Advanced Mirror Servers Search; integration with Netscape 6 and Opera browser versions 4 and 5; improved multi-connection management; improved proximity check of mirror servers; Windows ME support; a new Multi-Lingual Interface (German, Dutch, French, Chinese Traditional, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Italian), and much more.

The unregistered version displays rotating banner ads within the program interface.

Web link: www.speedbit.com

Free for non-commercial use

WS_FTP LE (Limited Edition) is the cut-down version of WS_FTP Pro. It still gives you the most important file transfer functions: you can transfer files between a local PC and another remote computer system connected via a modem or by a local-area network; browse through directories and files, and transfer files between the two systems; create, change, and remove directories and view, execute, rename, or delete files; the program can also resume interrupted file transfers.

Web link: www.ipswitch.com

Free

View all those PDF documents found around the Internet and elsewhere. Acrobat Reader is a standalone program and browser plug-in that lets you view and print Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files. PDF files are useful for distributing documents that will always look the same, regardless of the platform and operating system they are viewed on.

Version 5 now includes many new features including the ability to save PDF files downloaded to your browser, drag-and-drop toolbar icons, dynamic thumbnail generation, improved access to Web-hosted applications and online services, improved support for the visually impaired, better display of text on LCD screens using Adobe CoolType technology, and support for Adobe Illustrator 9.0 graphics that contain transparency. This latest version also lets you download Asian font packs so you can view PDF files that contain Chinese, Japanese and Korean fonts.

Web link: www.adobe.com

Mac OS

NOTE: The Mac programs are mostly in archived 'HQX' (BinHex) files – they can be extracted with several applications, including Stuffit Expander (see below). Clicking on the links below should set the process in motion. You may receive a message that the file cannot be loaded into Simple Text — if so, start Stuffit and then open the HQX file you want from within Stuffit.

Web link: www.aladdinsys.com

Free

Captain FTP is a full-featured FTP client for OS X. It has all the tools you'd expect from an FTP client including unlimited simultaneous connections to different servers, file and folder transfer and an address book that stores all your FTP session parameters. The two-paned Aqua interface is easy to use and functions like any Finder window. You can drag and drop files from a local folder to a remote server, or double click files to initiate transfers. If you want to check the contents of a local file, you can double click on it while pressing the option key and open it.

Other features allow you to specify connection ports, firewall and proxy support, file manager functions such as renaming, creating and deleting directories, folder searching and more.

Web link: http://captainftp.xdsnet.de

Free – latest version

Requires CarbonLib if on a system earlier than OS X.

Analog analyses your Web site log files, giving you vital statistics on visitors' usage of your site. It understands MacHTTP, WebStar, WebCenter and NetPresenz log formats. It also understands the common log file format, NCSA old-style and the NCSA/Apache auxiliary and combination. This version is updated to the latest Unix version; includes a security fix for cross-site scripting security bug; and the zlib code is upgraded to version 1.1.4.

See also Analog Helper below.

Web link: www.summary.net/soft/analog.html

Shareware – latest update

Speed Download has gone through a number of updates this year, incorporating numerous changes, improvements and fixes. The program lets you use multiple simultaneous connections to perform downloads, working with Internet Explorer, Netscape and Opera. Open up to 32 simultaneous connections per file. All downloads are resumable and a queue system that supports schedules and scripting allows for efficient use of online time.

Speed Download is ready for Mac OS X and has multi-processor optimisations when running under OS 9 or higher. It doesn't install system extensions, control panels or other gadgets, but just brings speed and performance.

Since the previous version on this CD, several bugs have been fixed, improvements have been made to the interface and optimisations of the program bring faster performance.

Note: this unregistered version supports only two simultaneous downloads.

Web link: www.abtdata.com

Trial version

MySQL Studio is a set of graphical database management, reporting and monitoring tools for MySQL database systems. The suite includes Apache, MyODBC, MySQL and PHP and the main component, NaviCat, a nifty MySQL graphical front-end. You can access both local and remote MySQL databases and it lets you browse through your databases; create, edit and delete databases, tables, indexes and users; modify your data; generate reports; run SQL queries and more.

The MySQL launcher provides a quick and easy way to stop and start MySQL and Innodb provides robust transactions, row level locking, and foreign key constraints for MySQL. There's plenty of help bundled as well, including a 500 page MySQL reference manual as well as a 200 page NaviCat manual.

Web link: www.mysqlstudio.com

Analog Helper
v1.5
(OS 7+)
Shareware

Analog Helper is a graphical configuration tool for use with Analog, a free program that analyses the logfiles from your Web server. (You will find the latest version of Analog above.) Analog Helper lets you control and preview the results of hundreds of settings, and means you need not touch the complex syntax of Analog's configuration files.

This version adds full support for the new reports in Analog 5.0. In these unregistered versions report generation is limited.

Web link: www.sigsoftware.com

Free

View all those Acrobat format (PDF) documents found around the Internet and elsewhere. A plug-in for Netscape Navigator is included and automatically installed. For the latest version 5 you will have to go to the Adobe Web site to perform an online installation.

Web link: www.adobe.com