BOOT CAMP 236 (30/07/02)

SHAREWARE TOP TEN – Part 2

Following on from last week’s introduction to shareware and freeware, here’s ten more useful and interesting programs that can help to make your PC more secure, backup and recover essential data, organise your beer mat collection, build virtual models and even repel blood-sucking parasites...

As before most of these programs are entirely free but a couple are shareware and you can try them for a limited period; if you find them worthwhile and want to continue to use them then please pay the licence fee and help to maintain this innovative and vibrant sector of the software market. Next week, to round off this short series some freeware and shareware fun and games.

AGNITUM OUTPOST, freeware, 2.7Mb, Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP

www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/

Outpost is another free firewall program and a very worthy rival to Zone Alarm (see last week’s Boot Camp). Like Zone Alarm it protects your PC from external attack from hackers and from adware, spyware and Trojan programs hiding on your PC, making unauthorised connections to the Internet. However, whereas ZoneAlarm is an excellent general-purpose firewall, Outpost is better suited to more advanced users and for small networks. It is highly configurable and currently the only free firewall that supports ‘plug-ins’ which can be added to make it even more functional

STARTPAGE GUARD, freeware, 678kb, Windows 9x/NT/2000

http://pjwalczak.com/spguard/index.php

There are few things more annoying than having your browser’s home page hijacked, especially if the new home page happens to be an advertisement, or worse, a pornographic web site. It can happen to anyone, at ay time, simply by visiting a web site – even an apparently innocent one. Usually it’s fairly easy to change back to your old home page but occasionally these rogue web sites make alterations to the Windows Registry and the new home page won’t go away. StartPage Guard protects your settings and won’t let your home page be changed without your explicit permission.

FREE SURFER, freeware, 1.7Mb, Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP

www.free.surfer.tc/mail

Pop-up ads are incredibly annoying and more likely to ensure that the recipient will never have anything whatsoever to do with the company or product mentioned -- pop-up advertisers take note! Unfortunately it’s almost impossible to filter them out completely but Free Surfer is the best pop-up stopper we’ve tried to date. As an added bonus it has a home page lock and a ‘panic button’ facility that instantly closes all open browser windows.

WHO’S WATCHING ME? shareware, 392kB, Windows 9x/NT/2000

http://www.trapware.com/

It’s easy to get paranoid and believe that you and your PC are being spied upon, but what if you are right? There’s an easy way to find out and that’s to run a little utility called Who’s Watching Me? Once installed it can be used to periodically check whether there’s any ‘snooper’ programs installed on your PC that could be spying on you, or monitoring your activities. The chances are your machine is clean, but it’s reassuring to have it confirmed!

DRIVE RESCUE, freeware, 917kb, Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP

http://home.arcor.de/christian_grau/rescue/

Hopefully this is one program you’ll never have to use, but if you do, it might just save your bacon! Drive Rescue is a powerful tool that can recover data that has been deleted by accident or corrupted, on a wide range of storage devices, including hard disc drives, floppies and even memory cards, used in digital cameras and other portable devices. It’s quick and easy to use and providing the storage device hasn’t been physically damaged there’s a very good chance you’ll get back at least some of what you’ve lost.

CYG, freeware, 3.1Mb, Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP

http://www.geocities.com/HoloGuides/CyG/

Whatever you collect, whether it’s stamps, beer bottle caps or airline sick-bags, you need some way of keeping track and managing your collection. Cyg is an intelligent and easy to use ‘object-oriented’ database that will help you to categorise, collate, find and modify your entries. It’s all done in plain English, which means you don’t have to waste time learning to use it.

LEOCAD, freeware, 6.5Mb, Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP

http://www.leocad.org/

Any resemblance to a well-known brand of coloured plastic building bricks is purely coincidental… Whilst it’s not quite the same as having a bucket full of bricks to play with but it’s the next best thing and you can construct models on your computer screen. It’s highly therapeutic, a great stress reliever and ideal for whiling away a few aimless minutes (or hours…), what’s more you don’t have to clear them up, or extract them from the vacuum cleaner afterwards.

HANDY BACKUP, freeware, 1.4Mb, Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP

http://backup.novosoft-us.com/index.html

When was the last time you backed up your essential, irreplaceable data? Handy Backup makes it simple, you can backup to a second disc drive, a CD-writer, floppy disc, your network, even that free web space that came with your Internet account. It has encryption and compression facilities, backups can be scheduled to take place at any time, on any day, what’s more it all happens in the background and consumes very few of your PC’s resources.

ANTI MOSQUITOES, freeware, 260k, Windows 9x

http://www.thaiware.com/software/util/UL00608.htm

We are going to have to take this one on trust but the creators of Anti Mosquitoes say it will banishes blood-sucking pests from within a two-metre radius of your PC – and yes, we’re talking about insects… The program generates a high-pitched whine from your PC’s speakers that apparently repels the little beggars. It should be worth trying the next time you take your laptop in the garden, or travel to an exotic clime…

SILLY 8 BALL, freeware, 36kb, Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP

http://wots.coolfreepage.com/download.php

Should you or shouldn’t you? If you just can’t decide let the power of the 8-ball make up your mind for your. Based on the popular Magic 8 Ball problem solver this PC version sits anywhere on your screen. The next time you’ve got a question that needs a yes or no, just click on the ball to give a good shake and your answer will appear…

Next week – Shareware Top Ten part 3

JARGON FILTER

OBJECT ORIENTED

In computer programming an ‘object’ is a container for data or code, that resides within and interacts with a program or application

PLUG INS

An item of software that adds extra features or functionality to a program

TROJAN

Program on a PC that allows hackers to gain access to files whilst on line

TOP TIP

FLAG3D, freeware, 237k, Windows 9x/NT/2000

http://www.improbable.ukgateway.net/flag3d/flag3d.htm

This week’s bonus program is for everyone missing the recent jubilee and world-cup flag-fest. Flag3D is a screensaver program that creates a waving flag, it comes with a set of national flags, the Jolly Roger and a Chequered flag but if you want something a bit more specialised you can make your own or download designs from an extensive library.