14 DAY TRIAL // In part III of our freeware saga, we'll take a ride straight into the Internet world and take a look at some of your free software alternatives. In part I, we've talked a bit about this subject, when reviewing our choices regarding browsers and antispyware programs. Now it's time to dig a little deeper and see if we can also find some quality programs in the Internet?s less known areas of interest, such as FTP clients, download managers, servers or bookmark managers.
Let?s start with this millennium?s new postal cards: e-mails. Most people use e-mail services that provide a user friendly web interface also known as webmail, but that?s not always the case. What can you do when there is no user interface? And furthermore, shouldn?t there be a faster way to view and write your e-mails instead of logging and checking a webpage all day long? Yes, there is, it?s called an e-mail client and here are some examples of these freeware applications that will help you manage your mail much more easily: Foxmail, Mozilla Thunderbird, Incredimail, Popcorn, DreamMail, Pegasus and Sylpheed.
A serious problem with emails these days is represented by spam and phishing emails. In order to protect yourself from such security threats, it is highly indicated to install an antispam utility along with your e-mail client. Here are some freeware solutions you might want to give a try: Sinapsi Antispam, K9, SpamPal, Spamfighter and Spamihilator.
If you?re trying to share files with people around the globe, you have a lot of freeware programs from which to choose, but here are just a few, categorized by protocol: oDC, StrongDC++, DC++, ApexDC++ using Direct Connect; Cabos, Limewire, Shareaza, FrostWire using Gnutella; Azureus, BitComet, BitSpirit, ?Torrent using Torrent.
Downloading files from the Internet using solely your browser may not be a very pleasant experience. The safest way to download at maximum possible speed is by installing a download manager. You can try world renowned free download managers like FlashGet and Free Download Manager or can give Orbit Downloader, Fresh Download or LeechGet a try.
Let?s continue with some ?heavy? stuff that may be of great interest especially to webmasters. The easiest way to upload files to a server is by using a FTP client and you have a few, very interesting choices: Filezilla and WinSCP that can also be installed for commercial use, Core FTP Lite, Fresh FTP, DeluxeFTP and LeechFTP.
If you want to install a FTP server on your computer instead of using an online service, let us help you by recommending some great freeware alternatives: Cesar FTP, Home FTP Server, TYPSoft FTP Server, Baby FTP Server; the producer of Filezilla has also developed a great FTP server, Filezilla Server.
Since we?re on the subject, let?s take a look at what other types of servers can be installed on your computer using free software. While searching for a web server, you can give HFS (HTTP File Server), Baby Web Server and Abyss Web Server a try, since these applications provide a very intuitive user interface while providing a variety of powerful features.
Setting up an email server isn?t very difficult either: you can install popular freeware applications like XMail, Macallan Mail Solution and Free SMTP Server or try other promising titles like hMailServer, MailEnable Standard or Baby POP3 Server from the creator of the above mentioned Baby FTP Server and Baby Web Server.
And last, but certainly not least, there are the HTML editors. Sadly, there aren?t a lot powerful freewares without a catch, so here you have a few suggestions that will help you get your site up and running without paying loads of money: Evrsoft First Page, NVU, CoffeeCup Free HTML Editor, Fresh HTML and Html Editor.
In part IV, we?ll take a look at some of the ways one can easily perform maintenance tasks on his system, find out important information about it and much more.