[O]

{Enhance Outlook Express} Want more toolbar options in Outlook Express? OETool adds more options to the Views toolbar with the following: use plain text mode for other messages, use plain text mode for this and other messages, view replies to my messages for newsgroups, group messages by conversation to manage threads, switch identities (now, now, no smart ideas here), run the OEBackup program (requires separate download from the same Web site), and run DBXtract (extracts all mail and news messages from individual DBX files) or DBXtend (more capabilities than DBXtract, but not free) if they're installed and both are on the same Web site. You can run OETool in the system tray and stop it by right-clicking the system tray icon.

Outlook Express Freebie Backup For Versions 5.0 and Greater
(Outlook Express 4  not currently supported)

• OEBackupFull.zip   - the full installation with all support files.  2.6 meg.
• OEBackup.zip  -  a partial installation where the user already has installed the Visual Basic 6 Runtimes.
• OEBackupexe.zip  - the executable file only. Download this if you have installed the previous versions.

Quick overview of features:

• Quick backup of current selected Identity.
• Quick backup of all Identities.
• Show the path list to the select message store (DBX files).
• Show the path list to the Address Book
• Search for DBX, IDX, MBX, WAB and WA~ files used by Outlook Express.
• Generate a text or HTML report of Identities and files.
• Easy change of Address Books and have multiple Address Books available.
• Backup and restore of Address Book file
• Backup and restore of DBX, IDX, MBX files used by Outlook Express 4, 5 and 6.
• Backup and restore of registry entries.
• Change the {USER_ID} of a registry file to another.
• Change the username of a selected Identity.
• Create a new Identity.
• Clone an Identity for use on the same computer.
• Remove an Identity.

[P]

PhaseOut is a multi-window tabbed browser (IE-based) with heavy skin effects and several additional privacy tools, a built-in pop- up blocker, and more. It also offers Web page preview, enhanced search functionalities for multiple search engines, and more. PhaseOut also offers channel integration (under construction), different skins to choose from, and integration with your Web cam to send pictures to your friends directly from inside the browser. It can also be used in full-screen mode with a remote control- style control to navigate. PhaseOut is designed to be customizable in content and navigation for possible use by companies or ISP (most likely in commercial versions). Nice interface, if you like heavily skinned browsers. A little too cluttered and slow for our taste.

Photo Conference is a PC-to-PC (IP to IP) image file sharing and communication software. It allows you to load a directory of images or to connect your web cam, and then send each other your snapshots while chatting on the Internet. Great for exchanging live web cam snapshots or to exchange and comment on photos. It comes with a built-in slideshow to view all images, support for third-party editing, adjustable compression, and more.

POPFile is an e-mail classification system that automatically sorts your messages and fights spam. It acts as a proxy between your e-mail program and the mail server, scanning all incoming mail and then marks the mail according to your settings. When you first install the program, it is dumb and does not perform any classification at all - it is designed to learn from your personal classifications and becomes more and more hands-off the longer you use it. It keeps a history of all e-mail messages that pass through the system and then allows you to classify each message as good, spam, or any other criteria (personal, work, important, etc.). These criteria are called "buckets," and they are similar to virtual mail folders. The mail in each bucket will be tagged in a special way (subject, header), so you can instruct your e-mail program to process it according to your preferences. POPFile does not delete any e-mail on its own; however, you can instruct your e-mail program to act upon messages that are tagged as spam (or anything else) and have them be deleted or send to a different mail folder. The program offers an additional quarantine option that can wrap the message in a container, allowing you to get an idea of the content, without actually opening any attachments or images of the original mail. POPfile uses Nive Bayes classification, which is highly effective and learns from your instructions. Overall, POPfile provides great flexibility and accurate filtering, but it does require at least some basic understanding of e-mail and POP accounts in order to use it effectively.

PopMan is a simple but effective POP3 manager and e-mail checker that can be used to list all e-mails on your incoming mail server, preview them, and optionally delete selected items without having to download them. It supports multiple accounts and allows you to color-code each one for easy identification. When new e-mails arrive, you will be notified via sound or system tray message.

PopTray is a small and feature-rich e-mail notifier that can check for new mail in all your POP accounts. It then notifies you when new mail arrives. You can set up custom notification options for each account, color-coded tray indicators, and you can even be notified of important messages that match your criteria. PopTray allows you to set up rules that allow you to automatically delete messages, ignore them, launch a program, and more. You can also reply to messages, delete them from the server, play custom sound notifications, and more.

Powercons is a set of free Internet Explorer browser tools that provides more user control over many IE display functions. The toolbar is activated from the right-click menu and opens a small layer window on top of the current page, which provides a list of functions and links. You can customize the links and add your own as well. Among the available features that can be applied to any Web page are frame management, black/white coloring, resolution changer, font size manipulation, page information with link list, and much more. It also provides several functions that are of interest to Webmasters, like turning on table borders, applying style sheets, and more. In addition, it includes several pre- configured options to launch Web searches based on selected keywords (Google, Dictionary, eBay, and more). Powercons is a very interesting tool for power users, but may confuse novice users, since it requires some scripting knowledge and patience to customize.

Privacy Bird

{Search Favorites or Bookmarks} This (literally!) tiny tool searches your Favorites and Bookmarks files for Internet Explorer, Opera, Netscape Navigator, and Mozilla. Actually, there's no mention of Mozilla, but I tested it and it worked. If you have multiple Favorites or Bookmarks, this tool can quickly search them all and produce the results. Click each link one time and it tells you what browser the URL came from. Click "-" to launch the URL in the Web browser, click "+" to copy it to the clipboard, or hit Esc to go back to the search box. The program doesn't even do anything to the registry. Just unzip it and file it where you want to keep it. When running the program, you get a little search box and a button labeled "Pref." This is where the preferences can be changed, and where you can tell the program where the Bookmarks are located. Favorites are auto-detected, but you have to enter the others. I entered Mozilla into the Netscape box. Preferences can also be entered into the search box using strings as listed on the program's accompanying HTML file. This doesn't solve the problem I've been having with Bookmarks (although I didn't expect it to). Whenever I "Search for Bookmark" and see duplicates, I want to delete it from the search results page in Mozilla. It can't be done like the in old versions of Netscape. The only way to delete a URL, to my knowledge, is to find it in its folder and delete it from there, or by going through the tedious task of opening and editing the HTML file. Be proud if you have a big Bookmarks / Favorite file, and use this to help you find what you need instead of weeding it out

SA Proxy (Spam Assassin Proxy) is based on the open source software, Spam Assassin. It runs as a local proxy server that sits between your e-mail program and your POP3 mail account. All you need to do is start SAProxy and configure your e-mail program to connect to it instead of the normal incoming mail server (documentation shows how to do it). The next time you check your email, all spam messages will be tagged with ****SPAM**** in the subject line, allowing you to easily recognize them, or to create a rule in your e-mail program that will move those tagged messages into a separate folder. Spam Assassin uses Bayesian filtering, which is highly accurate and can learn from new spam as it is detected. The program does not delete any spam, but only marks it, leaving it up to you what to do with it.

SecExMail is a transparent e-mail encryption system that integrates with your favorite e-mail program (Outlook, Outlook Express, The BAT, Poco, etc.). It runs as a virtual POP3/SMTP server that encrypts and decrypts messages in real-time as they are sent or received by your e-mail program. SecExMail uses RSA public key encryption and the Twofish block cipher to securely protect your privacy. The program operates with all SMTP POP3 e- mail clients, including Microsoft Outlook, Netscape Mail, IncrediMail, Pegasus, The BAT, Eudora, and Calypso. It automatically encrypts the e-mail subject as well as attachments (including their file names and MIME type information). SecExMail Home is free for personal use. Additional versions that support corporate functionality and SSL connections are available at a charge.

SecureIIS provides IIS web server protection against known and unknown vulnerabilities. It works as an application-level filter to prevent attacks from penetrating the Web server, and will guard even unpatched servers from malicious attacks. The program provides a user-friendly interface that allows you to configure the protection options, by selecting from the available lists of vulnerabilities and potential risks. You can specify maximum query lengths, header lengths, etc., and limit various other request methods. In addition, you can protect IIS from high-bit data and certain keywords found in requests (e.g., root.exe, cmd.exe) and more. You can also enable protection against several known exploits, limit folder access and even monitor error statistics, view server log activity, and monitor the file system.

ServersCheck Standard Edition is a tool for monitoring, reporting and alerting on network and systems availability. The standard version can be used for free with up to five devices, which is adequate for personal use. It can monitor any TCP Port (HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, NNTP, POP3, SMTP, VNC, DNS, etc.), check ODBC databases, trap SNMP values (disk space, free memory, CPU usage), verify content served from a Web server and check NT services' availability. In addition, it also can monitor environmental devices like temperature, humidity, flooding. ServersCheck runs as a local service and is administrated through a browser interface by connecting to the built-in Web server. Additional features include alerts and graph output for long-term statistics tracking.

{Web site monitoring} Web developers can use Server Alert to monitor a Web site and be notified when a site can't be reached. When this occurs, the program will send an e-mail notification and log all monitors and errors. Fully customizable, Web developers can monitor many sites, modify the e-mail alert, and select the site monitor frequency in minutes. To use the program, add the sites to ping on a regular basis and set up the alert preferences. All pings can be logged (but this would be a massive-sized file!). The log viewer displays the pinged site, date, time, and error.

Shoot The Messenger is a very simple tool that helps you get rid of annoying IP-based Messenger popup ads (the ones that use the Windows Messenger service). These popups are unlike regular popups, since they abuse the Messenger Service, which is intended to send text messages across a network, using the computer's IP address. They can appear as dialog box on your desktop if you have the Messenger Service enabled and are not using a firewall. Shoot The Messenger will display the current status of the Messenger Service and allows you to turn it off/on with a simple click, without having to go into the Windows configuration panel. The program does not need to be running after the service has been turned on or off. It can also be used from the commandline.

{Web site checker} I'm in the process of redesigning and testing my Web site, and after a while my eyes get crossed and I can't see straight anymore. No matter how much energy I put into checking and re-checking the site, someone always does me a "favor" and reports an error that I missed. SiteMorse tests every element of a Web site, regardless of size, complexity, or location. It checks and reports on the number of URLs, pages, errors, site warnings, service response time, and calculated download speed of a tested Web site. My redesigned site is not quite ready for testing, but this in addition to the HTML, accessibility, and CSS-checking tools sounds like a wise addition to a Web site's testing toolbox.

With Skype you can use your computer to call other Skype users anywhere in the world for free.

This software lets you make PC-to-PC calls conducted over the Internet. Using the Skype service requires both parties to have the software installed and active, plus a microphone headset attached to the computer. It supports video calls, too--for that, you'll need a Webcam.
Version: 2.0.0.103 
Price: Free 
Author: Skype Technologies
Size: 8.96 Megabytes
Download Skype now at: http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,23523,tk,hsxdwn,00.asp
[Download from Authors Website]

SoftPerfect Network Scanner is a multi-threaded IP and NetBIOS scanner with a modern interface and several advanced features. It is intended for both system administrators and users who are interested in computer security. The program pings computers, scans for listening TCP ports, and shows what types of resources are shared on a network (including system and hidden). In addition, it allows you to mount shared resources such as network drives, browse them using Windows Explorer, filter the results list, and more. SoftPerfect Network Scanner can also check for a user-defined port and report if it is found open, resolve host names, and auto-detect your local IP range.

You can configure the program to filter up to 12 mailboxes. If a spammer gets through, you can report the abuse and be protected in the future. This update lets you preview intercepted files before deleting them, if you desire.
Author: Contact Plus | Version: 1.9 | File Size: 1385KB | Price: Free |
| Pcworld Download |
Operating System(s): Windows 9.x, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows NT

{Spam defense} I'm a fan of CSI (Crime Scene Investigation), the TV show. Like on the show, Spam CSI treats Spam like a crime and goes after the criminal. Spam isn't as gory as what we see Grissom and company handle on the sometimes-graphic (but educational) program. The program starts its investigation by scanning the POP mailbox, and investigating links found in the e-mail messages, and scouring through the Spammer's Web site for evidence. After collecting all the vitals for the case of the stinky Spam #23, the program notifies you what is going behind the message. It comes with the ability to have all spam messages be returned to the sender as undeliverable. Also included is a database for maintaining records of trusted and denied domains or senders. Like the TV show, this program isn't for the faint of heart, because it comes with advanced features. Investigators, get on the case and report back to me. Be warned this is a popular crime lab and the server may be slow – be patient and return to the lab when appropriate.

Spam, the set up for a million and one bad jokes, and the cause of untold headaches. Here's a handy little spam fighting tool called Spamdel. It's easy to configure and use. Works with most e-mail programs. It allows you to preview and slam (delete) spam before it gets to your PC. Can be set to check e-mail accounts at predefined intervals, and it has various tray notifications and sounds to alert you with.

Spamihilator is an anti-spam filtering program that works with any e-mail client. It runs as a local POP server that sits between your e-mail program and your mail server, and filters mail based on a built-in filtering mechanism. In addition, you can maintain a blocklist as well as a list of friends (whose mail will never be filtered). The program comes with a nice interface and automatically configures popular e-mail clients (Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape, etc.). Unfortunately, the filter list cannot be edited or even reviewed, which severely reduces the functionality. In our tests, it detected only about 50% of spam messages, but did not have any false positives. Spamihilator does not delete the spam right away, but moves it to a Recycle Bin, where you can review it, restore items, or permanently delete them. A good tool that is save and easy to use, but needs options to customize or control the filtering process. Homepage is in German, but program is in English.

SpamPal sits between your email program and your mailbox, checking your email as you retrieve it. Any email messages that SpamPal considers to be spam will be "tagged" with a special header. All you have to do is configure your email client to filter anything with this header into a separate folder, so your spam won't be mixed up with the rest of your email.

To identify what is spam and what isn't, SpamPal uses so-called "DNSBL" lists, which lists servers that facilitate spam. Any email from these machines have an increased probability of being spam.   Download from PcWorld or, visite authors website:
Author: Private Work | File Size:786KB | Price:Free |
Operating System(s):Windows 9.x, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows NT
mirror site: http://www.spampal.org.uk/

Does your Internet Service Provider drop your dial-up connection after what seems like only nanoseconds of account inactivity? Stay Live 2000 keeps your Internet Dial-Up Connection active and on-line by periodically sending a small TCP/IP packet to one of the many Atomic Clocks maintained by the United States Government. Sending these small packets prevents your ISP from dropping your connection due to inactivity. You may also optionally select to have your computer's internal real-time clock updated each time one of these packets is sent and a response is returned from an NIST Time Server. You can use this utility in one of two ways: either run your web browser or other Internet software and then launch Stay Live to keep your connection active, or launch Stay Live first to establish an Internet connection and then run your web browser or other software.

StripFile is a tool for reducing the size of HTML and image (GIF, JPEG, PNG) files. It allows you to remove redundant information from those files, thereby reducing the size in some cases by up to 50% or more (depending on file type). StripFile only removes embedded data from image files; it does not alter the actual images. The program can process selected files or entire folders (with subfolders) and process images and HTML files at the same time, allowing Webmasters to optimize their entire site in a single run. The results vary strongly and depend on the files that are processed; HTML files with many comments and spaces usually produce much greater savings then most images. The program is easy to use and also integrates into the Windows Explorer right-click menu.

SpySites allows you to manage the Internet Explorer Restricted Zone settings and easily add entries from a database of 1500+ sites that are known to use advertising tracking methods or attempt to install third party software. You can select the sites from the list, or optionally add all of them, or only the "worst offenders." The program then adds the URLs to the IE Restricted Zone settings. Once configured, there is no need to run the program again, unless you want to add additional sites.

Author: Intelsoft International, Inc.| Version: 1.0 | File Size: 250KB | Price: Free
Operating System(s): Windows 9.x

SmartFTP v1.0
[275k] W9x/NT/2k