Mac

Windows

Free

Ever wondered how many cookies are on your computer and where they came from? This little utility not only shows you, but also lets you delete the ones you don't want. It presents you with a list of all the cookies on your PC, date and time they were created, and provides a link to the Web site that put them there. You can then decide to keep them or delete them.

Web link: http://Camtech2000.net

Shareware

If you use multiple ISPs to get online, this alternative dialler could help you manage your connections. Its easy-to-use – you start Bob Connect from the system tray, where you can switch connections from a drop-down picklist. You can have it automatically establish a connection when started, set the number of redial attempts, and re-establish broken connections. It also keeps a log of your connection time and costs and tracks details of daily, weekly, and monthly online time.

Web link: www.bobline.com

30-day time limited trial

CuteFTP is a file transfer application that's easy for beginners to use and has enough features to be useful to power users as well. It uses drag and drop, bookmarks, automatic renaming and download resuming to make FTP easier. Other features include directory upload, directory compare, remote site editing, queued uploading and downloading, complete directory overwrite and delete, and a progress rate display. CuteFTP also offers MP3 and file searching; Windows Explorer integration; and remote file editing.

New features in this version include: automatic browser integration, allowing you to launch CuteFTP when you click on an FTP URL from within your browser; Input Command, allowing you to directly input any command an FTP server supports; removal of banner ads in the demo; and more.

Web link: www.cuteftp.com

Chronograph maintains the accuracy of your PC's system clock. When you start it up, it displays your local PC time and once it connects with one of several time servers on the Internet, it retrieves the exact time and displays the difference. From there you can synchronise your PC clock with one of ten National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Atomic Clock servers. You can run the program manually or keep it in your system tray and let Chronograph set the clock automatically once per day. You're given the option of dialling out as needed or waiting until an active Internet connection is detected.

Web link: www.altrixsoft.com

FlashGet manages your Internet downloads. Running in the system tray, it displays a small, always-on-top drop box and monitors your Clipboard for downloadable URLs. When a download is detected or dropped onto the box, FlashGet speeds up the download process by splitting the file into several pieces and transferring them simultaneously. You can use FlashGet as a download queue, saving dropped and intercepted transfers for later. FlashGet also features an Explorer-style FTP client for downloading files, and another Explorer-style interface you can use to categorize and manage your downloaded files.

Web link: www.amazesoft.com

30-day trial version

A popular fully automated FTP client, with many advanced features including automatic download resuming, leech mode, ftp search, and much more.

Web link: www.bpftp.com

New version – free

This free FTP client is great for beginner or experienced users alike. Includes support for firewalls and downloading/uploading of whole directory structures. You can change file attributes on remote files (CHMOD). FTP Works auto-detects file types, allows you to create and delete remote directories, and also lets you view remote files. This is ad-sponsored freeware.

Web link: www.corbanware.com

Limited shareware

This collection includes a domain scanner, port scanner, Ping and Traceroute features, host address-to-name and name-to-address resolution, detailed output, Whois and Ph clients, a finger utility, and more. It's fully configurable and fast, and works with external viewers. It offers Netstat, a utility that gets info about active connections on a local host; and Remote Network Info, a utility that gets more info about a specified remote network (Whois to ARIN, RIPE, APNIC).

The ability to log events, save output, and change configurations is available for registered users only.

Web link: www.ostrosoft.com

Free

Speed-O-Meter displays your current TCP/IP transmission speeds on all interfaces including network adapters and modems. It displays the true current transmission speed and does not average it as IE does.

Web link: www.freeturtles.com

30-day trial – recently updated

Hook up an entire LAN to the Internet using only one modem. Features include a DHCP server built into WinGate for automatically configuring TCP/IP on your LAN machine, a scheduler that can run WinGate tasks and external applications at scheduled times, and a Java Authentication Client for authenticated login via a Web browser.

Web link: www.deerfield.com

View all those Acrobat format (PDF) documents found around the Internet and elsewhere. A plug-in for Netscape Navigator is included and automatically installed.

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

Upgrade to the latest Windows 9+/NT 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 the Windows shell. This new version includes enhancements to the WinZip Wizard and improvements to the interface.

Web link: www.winzip.com

Vbrun5
(Win 95)

Visual Basic runtime libraries for Windows. Some applications ship without these files, requiring you to install them.

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.

Modem Magic provides third-party modem scripts (ARA CCL files) for 56K or ISDN Mac modems, providing high-speed modem scripts for OT/PPP and most modems.

It installs over 180 high-speed modem scripts, with common Global Village, iMac, G3, G4, and iBook modem scripts. The installer includes support for ISDN modems, as well as for numerous common and obscure brands of modems. The program can help alleviate involuntary modem hang-ups and compensates for certain 'bugs' in some ISPs' V.90 code. The program makers say that all of the V.90 Scripts are one-year newer than those in Mac OS 9.04 or most downloadable Mac modem drivers.

This demo version has reduced functionality.

Download speeds are very often far from their theoretical maximums. This can be due to general congestion of the Internet, but it is often because servers will try and share bandwidth between clients. By using up to 32 simultaneous connections, Speed Download helps overcome this limitation. All downloads are resumable.

Note: unregistered users can only have two simultaneous downloads, and queue schedules are limited.

Web link: http://homepage.mac.com/fred_cheung

30-day trial

NetFinder is an FTP browser that's simple enough for new users to understand, yet powerful enough for advanced users. It can resume interrupted downloads automatically and is Internet Config-aware.

Web link: www.ozemail.com.au/~pli/netfinder

Shareware

A queue-based FTP client that gives you extensive control over your FTP sessions. This program automatically retries connections, uploads, and downloads. Hefty FTP can be used to transfer queued files to or from four FTP servers simultaneously, while browsing a fifth.

This version includes major improvements to the program's appearance and documentation, improves stability, adds numerous improvements to the client-server interaction, adds adjustable display font, and makes several bug fixes.

Free – latest version

Analog is a program that analyses log files from Web servers. This program is intended for professionals: install Analog only if you know exactly what you want to do with it and you have log files to analyse. Analog 4.11 adds a few new features and fixes bugs.

Shareware

Like Fetch and NetFinder, Vicom FTP Client is capable of uploading and downloading files via the file transfer protocol. This latest version allows uploads to be resumed, more simultaneous connections to be open with the same memory partition, the remaining upload/download time to be displayed in a small progress window, and ASCII files to be correctly downloaded. It features many other enhancements and bug fixes.

This shareware version has the following limitations: five simultaneous connections, limits to the host-machine support, and no support for aliases or scripting.

Web link: www.vicomsoft.com

Shareware

WebWorms simplifies the process of creating lists of links and accurately simulating live traffic on a Web site. This program augments enterprise-level stress-testing tools by adding a real-world randomness factor to the testing process, which gives the site designer a better idea of how a Web site will behave once it goes live. WebWorms logs errors and generates a list of the site's links for use with other tools.

Note: the demo version creates only three worms per use; this function is unlimited in the full version.

Web link: www.macflow.com

View all those Acrobat format (PDF) documents found around the Internet and elsewhere. A plug-in for Netscape Navigator is included and automatically installed.

Anarchie is the most popular Mac FTP tool – probably. It has an interface that is easy to use on the whole, supports Drag & Drop and includes a comprehensive AppleGuide. Importantly, Anarchie allows you to search for and download files in one go, with one application. Anarchie boasts a new modern Internet engine (one of the fastest available for the Mac), Sherlock-compatible Internet searches, Keychain support for storing passwords, crash-proof transfer resuming and transfer progress icons.

Web link: www.stairways.com