From this point on, Buzof periodically scans the desktop and takes care of the window whenever it shows up again. Teaching Buzof how to click buttons is a snap; it can be done either by dragging an icon from the Buzof window to the targeted button, or by positioning your cursor over the button and pressing a hotkey.

www.basta.com/prodbuzof.htm

eFax Messenger Plus

Have you ever sent a document to a friend only to find that they couldn’t open it because they didn’t have the application it was made in? This free utility lets you create a file that you can send to anyone by email or fax. Simply go to the print menu and choose Messenger Plus from the list of printers to create the file. A printer and viewer feature built into the resulting file lets the recipient print the document exactly as you sent it.

www.efax.com

ICQ 5.18

This update of the popular chat tool lets you chat, send files, play games and surf the web with friends. ICQ, of course, stands for ‘I seek you’. It lets you do just that by entering your buddy’s name, nickname, email address, or ICQ number and also lets you set up buddy lists so you’ll know when your friends are online. In addition, the program gives you a record of every communication sent or received, in case things turn sour and you end up in court (an unlikely occurrence, one would hope).

This program features ICQphone, which lets you make PC-to-PC or PC-to-phone calls. Other useful features include a quick-launch bar, ICQmail, and web search. It also supports a variety of firewalls. Features new to this version include a spellchecker and the ability to share directories with friends in your ICQ Contact List.

You can also pick and choose the features that you want, and the Contact List is now saved on ICQ’s servers.

web.icq.com

Mirc 6.03

Chat, chat, chat. There are many kinds of chat. Internet Relay Chat is what got it all started back when the internet was still an inside secret. IRC remains an important tool because it is uncensored, private and not subject to any corporation’s terms of service. Unlike AOL’s, Microsoft’s and Yahoo’s instant messaging systems.

IRC consists of multiple networks of independent chat servers, each hosting multiple chat channels. Using a few basic commands, you join or exit existing channels, create your own channel, find out more about other users on the channel and send them private messages, and even decide who can and can’t join your channel. Though there are many ways of plugging in to IRC, one of the best for Windows users is Mirc’s $20 Mirc 6.01, with a free evaluation period for 30 days.

www.mirc.com

PGP Freeware 6.5.8

Protect your email messages from being intercepted and read by unauthorised parties. This program authenticates the origin and the destination to ensure that only the intended recipient can read your message. It also lets you encrypt messages and ‘sign’ them so that recipients can be confident the messages came from you. Another feature, PGPnet, secures all internet communications between your PC and any machines on PGPnet.

This version also includes Self-Decrypting Archives that allow you to exchange information securely with people who do not have PGP, as well as a feature that allows you to use the Windows Task Scheduler to schedule periodic secure wiping of the free space on your disk.

web.mit.edu/network/pgp.html

RascalPro 1.9

Dropped dialup connections are hardly among life’s most joyous occasions. RascalPro lets you turn them into an ancient memory. The program simulates network activity to fool ISP detectors that terminate your connection if it’s idle, and restores your connection if it is lost.

When a connection is made or lost, RascalPro notifies you with an audio alert. It also provides information about your dialup session, including the name of the dialup server; the IP address of the current connection; a calculation of your monthly connection costs so far; and a time log of how long you’ve been online for the current session, day, week, month and year.

You can schedule when you want RascalPro to start monitoring, stop monitoring or release your connection, as well as define processes that should run when a connection is made or lost.

www.basta.com/prodrascalpro.htm

Red 5 Chat 1.3

Owning and managing a chatroom doesn’t have to be limited to experts with dedicated servers. Red 5 Chat allows encrypted, real-time messaging and chatting across a local network. It does not require an internet connection or a dedicated server to support discussions, and everyone on the network has equal access to the application’s tools and functions.

At startup, all Red 5 Chat users on the network join one common chat channel (called Main). However, you’re not limited to this channel – you can create as many new channels as desired and initiate discussions on completely private channels. You can send messages at any time to others on the network, and chat in public as well as private chatrooms that requiring passwords to enter.

www.red5soft.com

SpamNet

If you need a spam killer that works without personal attention, Cloudmark’s free SpamNet may be the answer. The program works exclusively with Microsoft Outlook 2000 and XP (the company says Outlook Express compatibility is on the way). It requires that you first download mail to fry spam, but finds most unsolicited email. When it occasionally misses one, select the message and then click the Block button that SpamNet places in Outlook’s toolbar.

Conversely, to move back to the inbox the few nonspam messages that SpamNet mistakenly adds to the Spam folder, simply click the Unblock button. Blocked and unblocked spam is fed back into Cloudmark’s database of known spam messages, improving the overall detection accuracy for everyone using the program. It’s the antispam equivalent of Napster.

www.cloudmark.com

Virtual Network Computing

If you were using a Windows PC from across the world and you needed to run a program on your Linux home computer, you might think you’d be out of luck. And you might be – unless you use Virtual Network Computing, a free utility which allows you to view and use a computing desktop environment from anywhere on the internet with most types of operating systems.

VNC is platform-independent, so a desktop running on a Linux machine can be displayed on a PC, or a Solaris machine can be displayed on a Macintosh system. The program supports other architectures as well, and includes a Java viewer that can run in any Java-capable browser.

One helpful feature of this program is that no state is stored at the viewer. This means that you can leave your desk, go to another machine, reconnect to your remote desktop and finish the sentence you were typing. Even the cursor will be in the same place. The desktop can also be shared by several viewers at once.

www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/download.html

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