The Freeware Hound's Blog

2099-12-31T23:58:00.000-06:00

Security Recommendations...
I wanted to share the security profile I am running on my computers (updated 7/20/08). Not only has this configuration been highly effective, but almost all of the software I am using is free for personal use. My system security has changed due to the differences in available software and methodology of the malware. In addition to being behind a router (providing a hardware firewall) I run Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall. This helps protect my machine from unauthorized access via the internet.
I no longer use a series of programs to scan for malware (trojans, rootkits, etc...). Instead, I run an antivirus software and a single malware scanner. Key for me is automation... if I have to remember to scan something every month, then it simply will not happen.
Speaking of antivirus, I switched to Avira AntiVir for protection. While some of the commercial programs may be slightly more effective, a current antivirus program is infinitely more effective than a "better" scanner. So if you (like me) are unwilling to pay for annual subscriptions for antivirus updates, then use Avira or another program where the updates are free.
Also, I will periodically run CodeStuff Starter to check for unwanted items that are starting when my system restarts. Become familiar with what startup items should be there and then be sure that any newly added items are ones you really want. Starter will also allow you to disable the unwanted startups. (Word of warning: Do not disable items unless you are SURE that you don't want them. You could disable something that is required for your system to operate properly. Also, many legitimate programs that add items to your startups allow you to disable that feature within the program.)
Further system maintenance that I recommend includes cleaning the registry (using a program like CCleaner). In addition to a registry scanner/cleaner, CCleaner has temp folder cleaners and other utilities as well. Use registry utilities with extreme caution. Always backup your registry first (Erunt) and/or create a system restore point. I suggest regularly emptying temp folders (Empty Temp Folders and/or CCleaner again) and of course running your computer's disk cleanup, scandisk, and defrag utilities (now I use an old version of Diskkeeper Lite). While I still recommend K9 as a proxy spam blocker, I do not use it anymore. Instead, I run all of my email through a gmail account. Gmail has an excellent spam filter built-in, so by the time it gets to Outlook, my email has very little spam.
For backups I use Acronis TrueImage (commercial software), but there are free backup tools available (see TechSupportAlert.com). TrueImage creates a drive image of my entire hard drive and saves it to a backup hard drive. Although this takes a large amount of storage space, the benefit is a complete restore including software when necessary. This saves me 30-some hours to reinstall all of my software and get everything up and running the way I like it in the event of a major hard-drive failure. Regardless of what you use, use something. Backups are crucial. As the old adage goes... there are two types of computer users, those who backup and those who wish they had.
A last measure of protection I recommend is modifying your hosts file. This is a windows system file that tells your computer which ip addresses are associated with which domain names. Long story short... it can trick your computer into disallowing access to websites that are notorious for carrying malicious code. This can be done manually, but I recommend joining Mike Skallas' Ad Blocking Hosts. This is a yahoo group that will automatically email you updated hosts files and a nice little utility that installs the hosts file with a couple of mouse clicks.
One more item worth mentioning is the Support Alert Newsletter. If you want to keep on top of security issues (as well as a variety of useful freeware programs), subscribe to at least the free version. The supporter's version has even more useful information and is well worth the $10/year that is costs (this is the only newsletter that I've ever paid for and I highly recommend it).
The future (or maybe even the present) of computer security is sandboxes and/or virtual machines. SandboxIE allows you to run programs "sandboxed". By adding this isolated "sandbox environment" to your computer, anything run, installed, infected, or modified within that sandbox cannot permanently affect your system unless you intentionally make it permanent. Furthermore, if you encounter a problem, or simply decide you want to eliminate that action, just delete the sandbox and your system is back to the way it was. No restore point necessary. For a more detailed explanation, go to www.sandboxie.com.
A similar (and slightly more complex) approach is using virtual machines. VMware allows you to run a completely separate system within your existing system. This distinct "virtual machine" can be set to access the internet running the same or a different operating system. Anything done in the virtual machine will not affect your main computer since it is essentially a completely distinct computer that happens to share all the hardware.
Either way (sandbox or vm), you can filter all (or most) of your internet traffic through one of these setups so that your computer is nearly impenetrible (more accurately, any "penetrations" of your security can simply be wiped away).
Summary:
Hardware Security...
Router (built-in firewall)
Security that starts with Windows, runs in the background (always on), and scans automatically...
Avira AntiVir
Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall
???
Scans that I run manually (at least every month)...
Empty Temp Folders
CCleaner
CodeStuff Starter
ScanDisk, Disk Cleanup, and Defrag (Diskkeeper Lite)
Other...
Sandboxie.

2008-01-19T23:22:00.000-06:00

VTiger...
Although there aren't many who might need such an application, Vtiger is an incredible (free) customer relationship management (CRM) tool. It is designed for full-blown corporate web use, so the installation for a single user is a bit overkill. Unfortunately, to use Vtiger on your computer, you must install MySQL, Apache, and make your computer a web server. The good news is that Vtiger comes pre-packaged with everything needed in a simple executable. Run the program, don't freak out, and all will be well. And this thing is well worth it! If you are in a sales role and need a high-tech method for tracking your sales from lead to closing (and all stages in between), this is the way to go. Too many features to list. Check it out at www.vtiger.com

2007-05-31T20:04:00.000-05:00

ZOOKODA!!! One of my best finds ever!
Technically this is not freeware, but it is a free online tool. And it's my blog so I'll post whatever I want. ;-P
Ok, Zookoda is an email newsletter tool. Designed to be used in conjunction with Blogger, it will maintain your contact list, help you create your email with wizards and templates, automatically add content from your blog, and send personalized newsletters with blog content automatically on the schedule you determine.
But wait... There's more! You are not limited to using blogs as the foundation. Create your own "posts" for a newsletter from scratch. Also, the template can be completely customized including uploading your own images to a library and editing the html code directly. If that isn't enough, consider being able to track what happened to your email through a variety of reports including a weblinks report that shows how many clicks each link in your email received. Zookoda will even help you create custom subscription forms to add to your website.
There are only 2 downsides that I've found. First, the instructions/FAQ are not very helpful. For most functions this is not a problem since Zookoda is extremely easy to use. However, if you want to customize or personalize the template, the method of doing so (i.e. Zootags) is not documented well if at all. The only other downside is that if you want to change ANY information relating to the sender (including the footer that shows up on every email and has no preview), the Zookoda people have to verify your account again. They have been very quick about doing so during normal business hours, but they evidently do not work weekends. So don't make any changes to your sender information on Friday evening and expect to be able to send an email before Monday morning. (I found that out the hard way.)
Overall, 2-thumbs up, 5 stars, and all that jazz. Zookoda is awesome, and it's free!

2007-01-29T07:31:00.000-06:00

Giveaway of the Day
Wow! This is pretty awesome. Every day a piece of commercial sofware is given away for free. RSS feed is available. And there is a sister-site that gives away a game every day too.

2006-08-31T21:51:00.000-05:00

I'm very excited for (and proud of) my wife... She has jumped from paper scrapbooking to digital scrapbooking. That's not the exciting part though. After only a few short months on a digital creative team, she started designing digital scrapbook "supplies". Here are links to her products and her galleries...
3RingStudio.com
My3RingCircus.com (her blog)
Divine Digital Store
Elemental Scraps Store (under construction)
Divine Digital Gallery
Scrappers Anonymous Gallery

2006-02-19T17:50:00.000-06:00

AirSet - Shared Online Calendars, Contacts and Lists for your Family, Work and Social Groups
While this is not exactly freeware, it is a free online service. All I can say is WOW! In addition to providing a great group calendar service that syncs to your desktop, Airset provides email and sms reminders, allows RSVP's for both AirSet users and non-users, uses RSS feeds for further monitoring, and is extremely flexible. Furthermore, the company is continuing to develop the service and seems to listen to the users and implement desired improvements. While they are selling a related service (one that allows the access to their services from mobile phones), everything else is free. I'm impressed... and I'm using AirSet for work and family calendars.

2005-03-20T17:47:00.000-06:00

46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities...
This web page lists some (well 46) of the best freeware progams currently available. It is provided by Ian Richards, or "Gizmo". He is also the author of the Support Alert Newsletter that I cannot recommend highly enough. Subscribe, then once you see how valuable it is, become a supporter for only $10/year and get even more information.
If you want to share this list with your friends/family, you can use the snipurl link I created... snipurl.com/bestfreeware.

2004-11-10T13:35:00.000-06:00

Virtual CD Update...
I have found an alternative to Circle Virtual CD that seems to meet my needs and does not cause any hardware conflicts. Microsoft created a powertoy for XP that creates a virtual cd drive and can mount an ISO cd image saved to the hard drive. The setup is a little more complicated, but after a few minor problems I got the program working and uninstalled Circle Virtual CD. Instructions and download are available here...
|MG| Free Download - Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel 2.0.1.1 (for Windows XP only).

2004-07-20T01:18:00.000-05:00

Forget Classmates.com!!! Register at Graduates.com and get the same type of services for free. Emailing other members is private, but free. The sooner everyone registers there, the sooner it will be worthwhile to do so.Graduates.com - Reuniting School Friends Around the World! -- alumni classmates reunion high school college university.

2004-05-26T15:54:00.000-05:00

New online tool that I love! At furl.net, you can list your favorite web sites (urls) including clippings and/or comments. They are then completely searchable, and furl.net creates a copy of the page on their server. In addition, others can subscribe to your furl and receive daily emails listing the new sites you have added. Furl - Your web page filing cabinet

2004-03-08T16:17:00.000-06:00

Update on Circle Virtual CD... After updating to Easy CD Creator 6, Virtual CD functioned well for awhile. The same conflict that existed with ECDC 5 crept up eventually, though, so now they do not function together. I had to set up 2 different hardware profiles, one for VCD and one for ECDC. Unfortunately, this means that to switch between the 2 utilities, I have to reboot the computer.

2004-03-07T22:56:00.000-06:00

If you want to virtually eliminate the possibility of viruses, try Abtrusion Protector. This program prevents any other applications from running unless granted permission by you. It is free for personal use (as long as your computer is not on a LAN). I tried it and liked it, but not free on a LAN so I uninstalled (didn't want to get to love the protection only to have the trial period end). Read about it and download here... Abtrusion Protector

2004-03-03T18:49:00.000-06:00

Eric's updated resume... Eric K. Beschinski

2004-02-25T00:03:00.000-06:00

Since my norton expired, I have been running Avast! on my computer. After some research, it received the highest rating of all freeware antivirus software available. Still use AVG on my other computer, but I really like Avast!. Avast! Free antivirus software download

2004-02-24T23:57:00.000-06:00

This is a great little utility for creating a virtual cd-rom drive on your computer. Why would you want to do that? For those pesky applications that won't run without the cd in the drive. Now you can save the cd image to your hard-drive and run the program from your virtual drive. Only problem is that it conflicts with Roxio's Easy CD Creator 5. Get it here... Circle of One - Circle Virtual CD Description

2003-11-15T18:21:00.000-06:00

This is a link to a page at the Lifeway website that contains a variety of Christian resources available for downloading... and they're free. LifeWay: Downloads

2003-10-07T22:12:00.000-05:00

View Eric's online resume here...Eric K. Beschinski

2003-09-28T23:20:00.000-05:00

If you can wait for a 700mb download, then this compilation has an incredible assortment of freeware. You will have to burn the downloaded ISO file to a cd, but it is worth it. Check out the website for more information. GNUWin II Version

2003-09-05T16:12:00.000-05:00

I just switched to K9 anti-spam software. Check the details and then compare to SpamAssassin.
K9 download, reviewed and rated - intelligent anti-spam filtering
SpamAssassin (SAproxy)
For a comparison chart of these and more, go to this site... Features chart for SpamPal and some of its major competitors

2003-09-05T15:54:00.000-05:00

If you need an office suite, but don't want to pay for MS Office, try OpenOffice. Not only is it free, but it is also completely compatible with MS Office. OpenOffice download, reviewed and rated - open source alternative to MS Office

2003-09-04T16:29:00.000-05:00

This is probably my favorite freeware site.WebAttack.com - download freeware and shareware programs.

2003-09-02T22:01:00.000-05:00

Good spyware detection tool. --SpybotSD - Download Spybot - Search & Destroy by PepiMK Software: "SpyBot"

2003-09-02T19:27:00.000-05:00

This is a very interesting program that I use to collect information that I don't want to lose/forget, but is otherwise not easy to compile. It is a bit difficult to use, but quite valuable for me. Download LM 2000 - The Literary Machine - free database and creativity software for writing and research

2003-09-02T19:19:00.000-05:00

I just started using the Google Toolbar. Pretty handy little tool. Includes search (of course), pop-up killer, and a BlogThis tool that lets you blog from your browser. Google Toolbar

2003-09-02T19:15:00.000-05:00

For virus updates (Norton, McAfee, etc...) without paying for subscriptions, visit WinDrivers.com. Scroll down on the main page to find the Virus Updates box and select your utility.