Tools and Utilities to increase your productivity

[GeorgeK]

I thought it might be interesting for folks to share some of the tools, utilities, etc. that they use to increase their productivity on the net. Here are some from my Tool Chest:

Communications
AOL Instant Messenger
Yahoo Messenger
ICQ
MSN Messenger

FTP Software
CuteFTP

Misc
Sam Spade for Windows
About Time (atomic clock utility)
Irfanview (images utility)
Putty SSH client (a "secure" telnet)
NetLookOut -- website monitoring
Xenu Link Checker
Microplanet Gravity (Usenet news reader)

[Spider]

trillian.cc, wraps up all 4 of those message services into 1.

[insomnia]

My Webdesign Tools
Dreamweaver MX
Photoshop 6.0

[seriouswrong]

I up you one - Photoshop 7 and Image Ready 2. I use to take Image Ready for granted, well not any more. It's the best way to optimize images and make amimated gifs from Photoshop files.

Also Ultra Edit 32 ( along with Dream Weaver MX)

Bullet Proof FTP

And on a web server - Web Min for management!

[GeorgeK]

What kind of graphic tool(s) would allow a novice to make the same kind of tabbed navigation header as this website?

[lotsofissues]

Paint Shop Pro

[seriouswrong]

Originally posted by lotsofissues
Paint Shop Pro

Well I agree, but Photoshop Elements can be found cheaper and is almost Photoshop without some high end features - You can buy it for $39 after rebate at Costco.

[Customb]

I have created a free search tool for expiring domains. It lets you search the full list by projected drop date, number of characters, keyword, including/excluding numbers, and including/excluding hyphens. Check it out and let me know what you think. If you have any suggestions I will add to it.

http://www.snaganame.com

[hiOsilver]

Originally posted by Customb
I have created a free search tool for expiring domains. It lets you search the full list by projected drop date, number of characters, keyword, including/excluding numbers, and including/excluding hyphens. Check it out and let me know what you think. If you have any suggestions I will add to it.

http://www.snaganame.com

I like it. Very good.
One suggestion: it would be good for the changes one makes to the radio buttons and check boxes would remain after a search so that it is not necessary to redo these for a subsequent search.

[Customb]

I will have the my team work on that on monday. Thanks.

[GeorgeK]

Given the continued security vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer and Outlook Express, e.g. see:

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/05/02/1845241

I've switched to Eudora (at www.eudora.com) as my mail reader. It has a free fully functional "sponsored" mode, with ads, although for $40 one can register and eliminate the ads completely (as I did). Eudora seems to have everything that was in Outlook Express, although I'm still getting accustomed to the interface.

Now, I'm going to look for some anti-spam tools which work with Eudora. I already get 400+ spams/day (and it seems to be increasing), so I need to help automate the spam filtering. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[Corwin]

For your fax need, i suggest www.j2.com you can receive fax for free!

[Customb]

hiOsilver: The changes are now kept active after you search as well as a new design has been released. Please enjoy.

[Nexus]

Here's my "short" list:

• We use eFax ( www.efax.com ) for faxes and voicemail. Brilliant service.
• I use WatchMyDomains Pro ( www.softnik.com ) for domain look-ups.
• I update FreeWho.com ( www.freewho.com ) with Internet-based tools I like (and have time to script myself.) I'm steadily moving it away from any "out-of-the-box" scripts, as they've proven to be more an impediment than a help. To that end, I've personally written the whois, domain status checker, and link popularity script on the website in PHP.
• I visit NetCraft.com ( www.netcraft.com ) every so often, it's "history of" tracking information is nice. Their "whats that site running" checker is something I plan to implement myself when I have the time. Cross-referencing sites on the same network, or with the same provider is very unique and valuable though. They've provided an invaluable record of the Internet's OS/server Software and ISP distribution for years.
• Dialog's Open Access ( http://openaccess.dialog.com/ip ) system is great for looking up WhoWas.
• I'm sure everyone here uses Archive.org ( www.archive.org ). I still like checking sites through it from time to time.
• I still like Deleted Domains ( www.deleteddomains.com ). Sometimes I'll root through and paste a list of names into the FreeWho checker to see where those names currently stand, as DeletedDomains doesn't seem to update the status very often, so you never know what you're looking at (which is fine, but requires an extra step).
• My Google toolbar ( http://toolbar.google.com/ ) is still wonderfully useful. You can actually use Google to check spelling and dictionary meanings if you look closely.
• My DomainState toolbar ( http://www.domainstate.com/toolbar/ ) is really useful as well. Nice to have "whois" build into your browser.
• DNScape is a GREAT free tool ( http://www.newsbin.com/dnscape ). I use it to check through names and records. It usedto be "banner ware", but now they've made it very streamlined and polished. It's "whois" is server-to-server, but that can be useful as well.
• NoteTab Standard ( www.notetab.com ) - This is the BEST replacement one could treat themselves to for manipulating reems of text. The tabbed document interface, scripting language, and regex support is wonderful. I can process QUOTES out of e-mails, clean up whole websites with dozens of documents (search and replacing corrections), and dozens of other things. Well worth the effort to download and play with.
• Rname-it ( http://fileutil.tripod.com/Rnameit.htm ) - If you ever need to rename huge lists of files, in complex ways (and your DOS prompt is just getting you down), I recommend this tool. When I was doing lots of 3D work, this was a godspend for tweeking file names before compiling a full movie from a sequence of images. One of those tools I still keep within arm's reach for special occasions where files en masse just have the wrong names...
• Whois.exe - ( http://www.saeven.net/sware/ ) Stick this in your Windows "system32" directory, and get "whois" info from your Dos prompt. This is useful particularly because you can then go and create .BAT files using "whois" like any other Windows command.

That's it for me. Probably gobs more, but no time!

~ Nexus

[izopod]

A lot of handy webmaster tools on this site:

http://www.craigcecil.com/checkyoursite.htm

[Nexus]

I forgot to mention All-Nettools.com ( www.all-nettools.com ) Can't forget them, or their parent TamoSoft, Inc., ( www.tamos.com ) that offers a bevy of useful software tools for network administrators and Internet professionals.

~ Nexus

[Banned: NameCaster]

Originally posted by Customb
I have created a free search tool for expiring domains. It lets you search the full list by projected drop date, number of characters, keyword, including/excluding numbers, and including/excluding hyphens. Check it out and let me know what you think. If you have any suggestions I will add to it.

http://www.snaganame.com

Nice Tool!
Thanks

[Manic]

Originally posted by hiOsilver


quote:Originally posted by Customb
I have created a free search tool for expiring domains. It lets you search the full list by projected drop date, number of characters, keyword, including/excluding numbers, and including/excluding hyphens. Check it out and let me know what you think. If you have any suggestions I will add to it.

http://www.snaganame.com

I like it. Very good.
One suggestion: it would be good for the changes one makes to the radio buttons and check boxes would remain after a search so that it is not necessary to redo these for a subsequent search.

I like it too!

...and I also have a suggestion:

I think it would be easier to read the results quickly if they were in lower-case. ALLCAPS slows down the process when trying to get through 100's of names.

Cheers! ...and thanks for creating a very useful tool!

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