Éamonn's Homepage

Microsoft's Internet Explorer can now be downloaded freely over the Internet. While many people are unhappy with Microsoft's attempts to control the software market, e.g. you cannot remove the Explorer icon from a Win98 desktop, this is in my humble opinion the best browser available at the moment. (also the easiest to program pages for, with Netscape being very fussy when it comes to style sheets and javascript.) The latest verison is available for download at www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.htm, it took me a little under 2 hours to download and comes with the latest version of Outlook Express.

The choice of most people who prefer to avoid Microsoft and it comes a close second to Explorer as browsers go. The link I have is to an archive of pretty much every version of Communicator with advise on which would best suit your operating system, just go to sillydog.webhanger.com/narchive/

WS_FTP from Ipswitch is probably the most widely used ftp client and WS_FTP LE (limited edition) can be downloaded for most non-commercial purposes at download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10064-100-1572132.html

Another popular FTP application, this one being a more sophisticated than the first although the catch is that this is shareware. You can download it at download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10064-100-1572170.html?tag=st.dl.10001_103_1.lst.td

Putty is the one I use myself - its never given me any problems and its free - what more can you ask for. It can be downloaded at www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/

Flash is pretty much essential these days with an increasing number of sites running completely through it, and a lot of games and animations run through it too. As far as I know the latest browsers come with flash capability, but if you don't have it you'll know by now. It can be downloaded at www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash

RealPlayer is for streaming audio and video - while the quality of video is pretty awful on a normal connection, the audio is ok and you can use it to listen to radio while you're online. You can download it at www.realplayer.com/, the free bits are at the bottom of the page.

Quicktime is a widely used method for playing and downloading videos on the Internet and it can also play most soundfiles. Quicktime videos are generally of good quality but can be quite large and take a while to download. Quicktime can be downloaded at www.apple.com/quicktime/download/.

There are far too many mp3 players available at the moment to give them all a mention, but some of the more popular ones are WinAmp and Sonique. A more comprehensive listing of mp3 players available for download can be found at . A lot of the are skinable too, so check out www.skinz.org to see what you can do to completely change the appearance of your player. There's a long list of free players for downloading at www.mp3-music-4-free.com/software.shtml.

If you plan on downloading a lot from the Internet, then you should probably get this. It allows you stop downloading, and finish later if you have to disconnect and has othe helpful features too. It can be downloaded at www.download.com/PC/DLM/Offer/0,186,0-0,00.html.