Administer a remote server with SmartFTP
Most of us are used to downloading files from the Internet, but there will be a time when you need to put files on to the net, whether you upload files to a website, need to administer a server (change files, delete/add folders) or simply upload to a remote FTP site. However, web browsers are based around pull technology, where you download files from a site, not upload. They're certainly not designed to upload multiple files and resume, where necessary. An FTP client is required.
SmartFTP 2.5.1005.27 is the latest version of the fantastic free (for personal use only) FTP client. Simply enter the details of the remote server you want to connect to, connect, upload files. It's the same as working Windows Explorer, so you can't really go wrong. Sure, it takes time to upload files to any remote server, but that's the only real difference. If you want to download a large file from the Internet, such as a Linux distribution, you may find that an FTP download is not only quicker, but you can also resume the file if you need to reboot or shut down your PC.
Download SmartFTP 2.5.1005.27.
Digital cameras are becoming more advanced, with more storage capacity and a high digitak camera megapixel count. This means you could realistically use your digital camera to take footage of a concert or anything else you find interesting. You don't need to bring a camcorder with you whenever you leave the house. This flexibility means that you're just as likely to collect and store video as you are digital images. What do you do with these videos, once you have them on your system?
Did you know that some ISPs give you a static IP address when you signed up? They don't readily admit this, but some of the cheaper broadband ISPs (names withheld for obvious reasons) give you a free static IP address, whether you pay for this option or not. How can you find this information? Check your router and if you have the same IP address for any length of time, you've been given a static IP address. The advantage? You can use a dynamic name redirection service such as DynDNS, register a domain and then point the domain to your IP address. You give someone ftp.yourdomain.com and they end up on a server installed on your home PC.
Windows Vista really ought to have enabled end-users to produce PDF documents directly from within the operating system, as Mac OS X has supported, since it was first previewed back in 2001. However, with Microsoft's ongoing dispute with Adobe regarding PDF technology, this might not happen any time soon. The best alternative is to install PDF technology that will enable you to create a PDF document from just about any Windows application.
It's really easy to grab a selection of files, ZIP them up, then provide them as an archive that nearly any operating system can handle. However, if your archive contains sub-folders and you want to place the folders in a specific destination, it becomes a little more tricky when you're using an archiver. You could create a self-extracting ZIP file, but that only offers basic options for the destination of your files.
There are plenty of TV adverts telling us to switch to another gas or electricity provider, or use a insurance search engine to take the hassle out of searching through various deals to find the best insurance for your car. The same theories apply to broadband. How many people really spend time looking through various broadband promotions and, if they do, it's easy to overlook the restrictions on each services. Sure, a monthly download limit of 2GB might seem excessive, but you might soon find that you're downloading movies from the web and one single DVD-quality movie would instantly exceed this basic 2GB/month limitation.
Only recently we were promoting the use of portable applications on an external USB stick. The fact that you could run your business from an external drive and simply take this drive on the road.
There are so many uses for the free web space you're given, free of charge, when you sign up to your broadband provider. Sure, it might only be 50MB, but you could compress your digital photos and create an online photo slideshow. Another alternative is to use the space to host files for download, or as an invitation for a forthcoming party and more.
For me, one of the worst parts of Mac OS X is the Finder. It's so basic, so simple, especially after using a tool such as 
Due to the constant potential of software-based threats, security technology is always being updated, from commercial and freeware developers. This week we've seen a plethora of updated security software. 
Some of the basic archive management tools are designed to either open and extract files from an archive or create an archive from a set of files. The archive manager will support a number of formats, enable you to choose the compression and destination, amongst other features. Only the high end tools enable you to create an archive with compression and turn it in to a personal password-protected file.
Capturing video and photos can often be a spur of the moment activity. You don't want then have to hang around, spend time with your DVD authoring suite, setting up the themes and navigation required to create your DVD movie. Sometimes it's great just to be able to grab the raw video and burn it directly to DVD. You don't need the fancy navigation or menus. You can create a DVD movie that starts automatically as soon as you press 'play' on your DVD player.
People, and not just business orientated people, are becoming more mobile. We're taking our mobile, digital camera, PDA and other gadgets with us. Our laptop is now a heavy distraction as you can't possibly take that on holiday or around town. However, there are times where we might need immediate access to a computer, due to a remote work-related crisis. Without your laptop, where are your business contacts, your diary and a plan for the next week?
If you're not a big fan of the Windows Start Menu, there are many new ways of launching applications. Recently we featured 
Can you ever have too much security software installed on your PC? Well, yes, there is no reason for trying to install more than one anti-virus client or anti-spyware application. Some people do - we had one reader recently email us to say they had five anti-spyware apps installed! However, if you're one of the many who uses basic but effective free anti-virus technology, you may need to install a separate firewall, anti-spam, anti-spyware and other tools.
We've said it so many times in the past, but the more you do with your computer, the slower it will get over time. When you install and remove software, your Registry becomes cluttered with all sorts of entries that are not always removed when you uninstall applications. You can use Registry cleansing software, but as the Registry is so complicated, these tools are also complicated to use. What do you tell the software to remove from your Registry?
Have you ever tried working on someone else's computer? They have their own way of working, configured their computer completely differently from yours and, of course, when you come to use their web browser, none of your bookmarks are available. If you move from computer to computer or are planning a trip abroad, ideally you'll access to your favourite web browser, bookmarks, personal information and more.
If you've tried to create your own customised DVD, you'll find it's not always as easy as you'd expect. Once you've collected together the video you want to burn to DVD, you may find that some of them are not compatible (video or audio wise) with the format required to create a DVD. You could try and re-encode the files with the DVD burning software, but they often don't ship with all the codecs necessary to import your old video.
From time to time, we'll be on Messenger and a friend will send us across a digital photo. Alternatively, you may see an image online that you want to preview in full, so you'll download to your desktop. Either way, you could do with a powerful image viewer that enables you to open and view the photo, quickly, with the minimum of fuss. You won't want to load Photoshop, nor will you want your photo management tool to catalogue the photo.
There is technology built in to Windows that isn't readily accessible unless you employ the services of a third party product to 'open up' the hidden feature. Virtual desktop technology is a good example. You can quite easily create another desktop on Windows that will enable you to open and view an application, full screen, whilst you work on another application on your main desktop screen. A good example is a designer who is working on a DTP tool and has their photo editor open on the virtual desktop.
Wouldn't it be a fantastic idea if you could simply enter a few key words and the application you wanted to launch would appear almost immediately? The Windows Start Menu is a great idea, but if you've owned your computer for a while, you're bound to have all kinds of apps located in your Start Menu. Besides, who spends time sorting and managing the Start Menu contents? It's usually a mess.
Were you around in the late 90s when only a handful of people used the Internet? In those days, Microsoft didn't dominate the web browser market, people primarily logged on to FTP sites to download the latest freeware and shareware and chatting was done through IRC or ICQ (indeed, I don't know IRC isn't used more often as it's such a good tool for multi-user discussion). ICQ was almost the forerunner to products such as 
If you work in a large organisation, you probably have no idea how your network is structured. You might find that you are part of a small network, with your own server(s), connected to a much larger network. If problems occur on your network, it probably won't affect the entire company. However, what happens if you need to make changes to your network in the future? You might find that it's so complicated that you don't know where to start.
There are three major media players available, but each of these players is primarily geared up to playing their own media files. For instance, QuickTime likes the .mpg format, whilst Windows Media Player will play the .wmv formatted video files. These players will often play formats from their rivals, but they'll try and make sure that they are the default media player for your audio and video.
There are a few big commercial disc-burning packages available, but they are more 'media suites' than orientated around burning audio and data discs. Sometimes you simply want basic disc-burning software to produce your discs, quickly. You simply want to burn an audio CD and go. How about burning some files to a CD for a presentation. You want that done without fuss.
What would you regard as the two operating systems of choice? Windows and Mac OS? Would you include Linux in that question or are you a die-hard Windows user and the choice is simply between Windows XP and Windows Vista? Linux has developed in to more of a mainstream operating system in recent years, with companies such as Mandriva and Canoical using the Linux framework and adding an easy-to-use front end. With major applications such as Firefox, Thunderbird and OpenOffice available for the Linux platform, there's no reason why you couldn't turn to free software to drive your home or business computer.
When you purchase electronics hardware, most reputable manufacturers will have run your DVD player or new TV through some kind of burn-in procedure as most electronics components will go faulty within the first two weeks of use. It's more appropriate to run a burn-in test than have to replace a faulty device. If you design custom PCs, you'll probably find that you need to run your own stress-induced PC burn-in test procedure. Your PC will be less likely to be returned due to faulty hardware.
If you manage your own website, it might prove more cost-effective to move your operation across to your own server, whether it is a hosted VPS or a fully-blown commercial server, which will need configuring. Either way, your server will enable you to manage your own email service, setup an FTP server, password-protect an area of your site and run just about any web application to supply files to your end-users. However, you need to manage the server contents.
There is so much security software to choose from, either available as a commercial-grade application or free/opensource. The snag is, how do you establish whether the security application you're about to download and install, is a valid application. How do you know if it's not out of date or the definition updates have ceased to be supported? You can easily be fooled by a well-designed commercial website and you'll never know if the application is rogue software, until it installed.
With the news that Google has been investing in the IE-based 
It's fairly easy to create your own customised PC. It's even easier to get someone else to do it for us. You specify the PC you require (and the components may differ depending on whether you're a gamer, require the PC for writing documents or need to encode high-quality video) and they'll price it up depending on your request. Your quote will include particular components but, in a quest to save money, you might find that your quote and your PC differ in components selected.
Many of us only like to trust particular brands, which is a reason why stores such as PC World are dominated with security software from only one or two major 'well known' brands. This doesn't necessarily mean that these technologies are the best available on the market. It just means that they're popular. As security software always sells well, many other suppliers have entered this market, some offering commercial software, others with free alternatives.
Some people would say that eBay has lost its charm, somewhat. That's primarily due to its popularity. It's simple - the more people that get to know about the bargains they might be able to find on a particular website, the more likely they'll visit. The more people who visit, the more likely you'll find that people bid on the items that you find interesting. However, there are still bargain items. These are items that have been placed with misspelt item descriptions, but finding these can prove tricky.
It must be difficult trying to think up new features for the next version of a web browser. With Firefox 3 planned for late 2007 and Microsoft evaluating ideas for the next version of Internet Explorer, Opera are busy working on new features for their fantastic web browser.
If you've ever used Mac OS X, you'll know that it has always had the facility to create a PDF document from any application that can print. Just go and print a document and save it as a PDF instead. Previously most Windows-based PDF tools were either commercial-grade or based around the free Ghostscript technology, so you had to have this installed before you could use a tool that would create a PDF. This has since changed and even companies who produce commercial PDF software are creating lower-end editions, designed for the home user.
Not long ago, the fastest Internet connection you could buy would be an ISDN line, unless you could afford a leased line. With ISDN, you paid for the time you were connected to the Internet. You had to physically log on and log off. With this in mind, browsing the web was a premium. It was easier to go online, grab and send your email and download your favourite websites, so you could browse offline later in the day. These days with our 'always on' connection, we might as well browse the web online. We've got all the time in the world.
Whether we travel on business or for pleasure, most of us can't leave behind our gadgets. Some of us take our laptop, others take our Blackberry or other mobile device. Either way, these tools can become invaluable when you land in a major city such as New York and want to make your way around the city. If you get lost, what's the quickest way of finding your current location? You could ask someone or grab your laptop and use a tool that pinpoints your exact location via WPS (wireless positioning service).
Who said old games aren't immensely playable? You don't need a high-end graphics card or fancy audio to make game play more effective. Sometimes the simple games are the most fun. One of those games was Lemmings, which was a game where you controlled a number of lemmings and had to direct them, safely, to the exit. On the way to the exit, there are various obstacles and the point of the game is to save a certain percentage of your lemmings.
When you specified your new Windows Vista-based PC, it's more than likely you decided to upgrade the size of the hard drive or even fit a spare drive. Perhaps you intend to use that spare drive to store your work, music and video files and perhaps an area partitioned for backing up your data. The snag is that the new drive is formatted as one large partition and it's not particularly easy to re-partition your drive from within Windows.
It's seems a long time to develop a new email client, but 
It's all too easy to think of a great idea during the day, sleep on it, then completely forget about it the next morning. If you're one of the many people who is always thinking about projects, ideas about how to improve your projects and the many plans you may have, you need a tool that enables you to jot your thoughts and ideas when they come in to your head.
It's all too easy to cleanse your Desktop from file clutter and accidentally drag important files to your Recycle Bin. When you drag files to your Recycle Bin, they are simply moved to a location for deleting at a later date. They're still very much on your system, even when you decide to empty the Recycle Bin. Yes, you can't see them listed in the usual folders, but the file data is still stored in locations on your drive. Over a long period of time, new file information will overwrite the old data, but until this happens your files are quite easily recoverable.
When we want to delete confidential information, be honest and admit you simply drag the date to your Recycle Bin, leave it in there for days or weeks, before emptying your bin. You're not the only one, we all do this. We all assume that the data we've sent to the Recycle Bin has been deleted. Worse, many of us believe that when we sell or dispose of our computer, the files we deleted have been eliminated from our system. Not at all. Most files are recoverable long after they've been deleted.
If you're in business, you'll know that you need to spend serious time organising your affairs, making sure you have enough time to finish a project, work through your 'to do' list, attend meetings and answer your emails. Although we wouldn't always use a project management tool to manage our business affairs, we should use a organisation tool to store the basics.
We're told that we should create different passwords for browsing the web, securing our modem from outside attack, for the account on our computer and so much more. As we need passwords for just about everything we do on our computer, they're also really easy to forget. Forget an important password and you'll find that there's no easy way of retrieving it from another person. If you've created the password on your system, only you can remember the password.
An average website can contain more information that you can possibly
digest, with links to other pages and remote sites. It's easy to miss
the information store on a page and it's very easy to navigate from a page by clicking on the wrong link. What you need is a ingenious system that enables you to store your favourite information, details about your interests and then will direct you when it finds relevant information on the web pages you visit.
If you're a fan of music from before the mid-90s, you'll probably find that all your favourite live performances are only available on VHS video cassette. Live performances are a must-have collectors item for the music fan as tracks are often re-worked for the live audience. Most of us would love to get these tracks on to our iPod or other portable player. The thing is, how do you get them from VHS video to your digital audio player? It's much easier than you'd imagine.
Your Registry is like a huge database of information about your PC. The software you've installed (and removed), where the software is located on your drive, media type associations, software that starts with your computer, all your preferences and much more. The more you use your computer, the additional information that is stored and written to your Registry. Some of this information isn't successfully removed from the Registry when you uninstall software from your computer.
There are times when you need to send files to other users, whether they are work colleagues or your friends. Often the best way is to upload the files to a server and then tell the other users where they can download the files. If they are collection of documents or digital photos, you could ZIP them up and most end-users will know how to manage the archive and work with the content. However, if you're trying to distribute a multimedia presentation, perhaps a slideshow of your holiday photos along with the audio track, you might want to automate the process so that the end-user can quickly view your work.
