Description: Ammyy Admin is a free remote computer access tool that offers quick, easy, and reliable connections with nothing to install, no accounts to sign up for, and no technical configuration or messing with IP addresses and routers. It offers file transfers and desktop sharing, and can be used to connect with unattended machines.

I’ve written about remote access/desktop and file sharing programs similar to this in the past, but this one has the distinction of being the simplest and lowest-involvement in terms of the steps required before getting connected.

Have you ever been on the phone (or IM) with someone and wished that you could see their screen and/or access their computer or that they could see yours? I recently was helping a friend set up a Google Adwords campaign for his business and needed him to see what I was doing on my screen; however, I wanted something quick that would not require us to waste a lot of time registering accounts, installing software, and then spending more time trying to configure it on both ends. Ammyy Admin would have been perfect for such a situation. More notes on this program as follows:

• Ease of connecting: both users need to run Ammyy Admin, a 128K no-install
  executable. The program will display ID numbers for each machine. To access the other PC you will need the ID number provided on the other side; it’s literally as easy as pressing a button (on both ends). There are no accounts to register, no messing with IP addresses, no ports or routers to configure. The ID seems to be fixed per machine rather than per session, which means that, for example, your PC at home will always have the same ID and can always be accessed at will.
• Services: screen sharing, remote access of windows and applications, and if file system access is enabled, file sharing as well. For file sharing the person who is accessing the other machine can copy files back and forth straight to the hard drive of the PC being accessed.
• Performance: was actually quite good in that it got the job done competently, although other solutions I’ve written about (e.g. GBridge, Remobo) seem to offer faster performance overall.
• How it works: Ammyy Admin accesses public routers, but offers you the option to use private routers if you prefer. For the latter you will need to download and use Ammyy Admin’s sister product called Ammyy Router. Unlike some similar programs Ammyy Admin is not browser based. Read more »

Description: Tidy Favorites is a free extension for Internet Explorer and Firefox that allows users to manage bookmarks visually as thumbnails that can be dragged and resized on a workspace, similar to icons on a desktop. It offers the ability to organize favorites within combination of tabs and folders, and provides a “drop stack” for quick, temporary bookmarking of URLs that you might want to check out then dispose of afterwards. Tidy Favorites can be installed portably.

If you are looking for a better way to manage favorites than the default bookmarking process that Internet Explorer and Firefox provide, check out Tidy Favorites. This program combines four concepts that make it much easier and more practical to work with your saved URLs, as follows:

1. Thumbnails: a bookmark is added as a visible thumbnail of the website, making it much more intuitive to work with (and much more pleasant) than the standard text link. Thumbnails can be resized manually at will and placed in the location that makes sense to the user.
2. Organize into tabs or folders or both: Tidy favorites provides a customizable workspace that can accomodate both tabs and folders, in effect providing a “3D” organizational structure where each tab can contain it’s own set of folders. This is much more flexible than the default 2D hierarchical structure that the browsers use.
3. Drop stack: this is an area to the right of the screen where URLs first appear (in thumbnail form) when you bookmark them. You can either drag and drop your new thumbnails into the proper tab or folder or simply use the drop stack as a temporary area for web pages that you want to look at at some convenient point in time but not add to your bookmarks collection.
4. Centralized bookmarking across browsers: Tidy Favorites works interchangeably in IE and Firefox both: if you use both browser your URLs that are saved in one browser will also instantly appear on the other.

More notes on this program as follows: Read more »

Description: Split Browser is a Firefox plugin that can"split" your browser into multiple panels, enabling you to view multiple web pages simultaneously in the same Firefox window. It is useful in situations where you would like to be able to surf the internet using a part of the screen while maintaining another site, web mail service, or web app etc. visible in another part of the screen at the same time.

I first saw this plugin being used by a colleague at work who was using it to keep a page on display at all times in the lower part of the screen that displayed his "tickets" (we use a "ticketing" system in our office to assign tasks), while doing his normal browsing in the upper part of the screen.

Which of course prompted me to start thinking about other pages that someone might want to be able to see alongside their normal surfing activity, e.g: web-based email, streaming internet radio or music services such as Pandora, online to-do and productivity software like GTDAgena or Vitalist, online instant messaging services such as Meebo, online note-taking services, and, naturally, the various social networking sites, etc.

Of course it is possible to have something quite similar to what Split Browser does by arranging sperate Firefox windows around your screen (for example using a program such as WinSplit Revolution), but Split Browser does the job elegantly and seamlessly inside Firefox. Here are more notes on this program:

• Number of split browsers: You can add as many split browsers as you like and place them anywhere on screen (top/bottom/left/right). I had 6 sections going on at once at one point.
• How to create a split browser: right click on the tab or anywhere on the page and find the "split tab to" context menu. Or otherwise hover ove r the edge of the frame and a little arrow will appear on the side that will create a split browser window for you in that side of the screen.
• Synchronized scrolling: makes scrolling actions in any one window apply to all other split browsers which have this option enabled. Although this option appear in the main "split menu" I found that you have to enable it individually for each desired window for it to work.
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Description: TubeMaster Plus is a free tool that can download streaming video and audio files from almost any media sharing site, including sites with anti-leeching protection. TubeMaster Plus also can convert downloaded videos to several formats, offers a video search function across multiple video sources, and offers a downloadble audio mp3 search function.

[Review Updated 10/27/2008] This program is a tool for downloading videos/music/streaming media from video and music sharing sites. I have learned a lot more about this program since first publishing this review two weeks or so ago, hence this updated review. Note that my original review of version 1.3.1.4 which as of this writing has been updated to 1.3.1.5.

This program combines the following tools into a single product: Orbit Downloader for streaming media downloads, FFMpeg for video conversion, an IE based internal browser, and a some sort of internet searching resource for finding (and downloading) audio files on the internet and videos across multiple video sharing sites. This program has multiple pros and cons, which I will list as follows:

PROS:

1. Downloads media from sites that have anti-leeching technology: I tested TubeMaster Plus with Last.FM, Pandora, and Imeem and it worked beautifully! Note: this functionality is provided courtesy of the Orbit Downloader component of TubeMaster Plus.
2. Downloads various media formats: video and audio in multiple formats (see image to the right).
3. Does not install itself as a plugin inside your browser: instead uses it’s own internal multi-tabbed embedded browser.
4. Music search: can search the internet and find downloadable tracks. It works very well and I highly recommend it.
5. Downloads YouTube vidoes in "HD" mode: when browsing YouTube, TubeMaster Plus will ask whether you want to download the higher-resolution MP4 video file versions of your desired video if these are available. (Not only are these higher in resolution but they can be uploaded to Ipods easily without conversion).
6. Global video search: looking for a video? Try using TubeMaster Plus’s media search, which offers a "Global Video Search" that can search up to 100 video sharing sites simultaneously.
   Read more »

Description: TED (Torrent Episode Downloader) is a free tool that can find episodes of almost any TV show for downloading using a torrent client. It’s database of torrent sources is updated periodically to include new shows, and the program allows users to search for and add any shows that are not listed.

This is an extremely useful and impressive tool that can make the process of finding and downloading your favorite shows very easy; TED brings an easy to use iTunes-store like interface to the world of torrent TV shows.

This program is particularly suited for average users who (a) do not want to wade through torrent search sites and get bombarded with dubious ads and popups, (b) do not have the time or inclination to be searching for torrent sources needed for downloading, and (c) would like a reliable and easy way to find just the episodes that they want to watch. Here are more notes on this program:

• Shows in the database: you can choose from dozens of shows that are listed (I counted 191, and more shows are being added continuously). For each entry TED will download information from the net about the show including an overall rating, etc. (see first screenshot above). A search box is provided that makes it very easy to filter the list by keyword and quickly find what you’re looking for. Despite the expansive list I was struck with the number of shows I could think of that were NOT there (although these can be added by the user - see "adding to the list" below).
• Episode selection: you can choose whether you would like (a) a specific (custom) episode that you are looking for, (b) the last aired show, or (c) to put in a request for TED to look out for the upcoming show. The program will display a list of available episodes as well as a gauge that indicates the "availability" (i.e. likelihood and/or speed of downloading).
• Torrent client: you will need a torrent client to download; TED will NOT download anything without one. I recommend uTorrent.
• Adding to the list: if you do not find the show you want listed you can easily add it yourself. All you need to do is simply type in the name of the show and (optionally) choose the season and episode number you want, if any, and TED will generate a list of feed sources for you. I successfully added "Clone Wars 2008" and "Man vs. Wild" (as an experiment for research purposes of couse; I didn’t actually download ).
• Filtering: you can filter the files that TED will list by size of the found file, no. of seeders, or keywords (for example "xvid","2008", or"ipod" in the torrent).
• Scheduling: imagine coming home from work to find that TED had initiated the download of the latest episode of the show(s) on your list. By default TED uses an online resource (EPguides) to determine when an episode will air and therefore when to start looking for it (the period it will wait between lookups is user defined). Or you can use a rules-based scheduler to tell TED exactly when to go out and search for new episodes (e.g. if you know the show will air on a certain day you might set TED to go out and look for it on or after that day). Scheduling assumes that the program will be running in the background, which is a good segue for the next point.
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Description: Remobo is free app that can connect computers instantly via VPN. Based on a P2P structure, it allows you to connect to and control your computer remotely, to access your files from anywhere, and to run any application between computers on top of Remobo. It also offers secure file shares via private BitTorrents as well as the ability to share your entire music collection online using Remobo and Opentape. Remobo is multiplatform Windows and Mac OSX.

Yet another foray into freeware VPN/screen sharing/file sharing apps (e.g. Mikogo, gBridge, TeamViewer, and Crossloop). I recently had an email exchange with one of the members of the team behind Remobo where I asked him what makes Remobo noteworthy, and would like to paraphrase the reasons he cited as follows:

• Instant: connect easily and instantly without the complex configuration that is needed with traditional VPN software. If you have internet access you will be able to connect.
• Secure: all traffic is secured using “industry standard encryption”. Any files/folders are shared using encrypted private bittorents (even your ISP cannot see what is being shared).
• P2P: Remobo uses a unique architecture built on P2P technology rather than a client/server model, which makes it (a) easy to install/launch, and (b) promises better performance.
• Share your entire music collection: the Remobo team provides a tutorial on how to use the open source Opentape in conjunction with Remobo to do this (note that you will need to install PHP/MySQL). Note that I did not try this personally.

Here are some observations on Remobo having installed and used it:
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Description: Gbridge is a free software that can connect multiple computers. It forms a VPN between multiple computers and provides remote computer access, folder synchronization, automatic folder backup, remote computer control and/or screen sharing, and chat. Gbridge can use Google’s Gtalk network to connect remote PCs and requires Gtalk (Gmail) accounts.

There has been a proliferation of free tools and protocols that aim to provide various remote connection services (e.g. Crossloop, Mikogo to name but two). These services will require the installation of some sort of desktop client locally and many will require the creation of user accounts in order to access a centralized network used for the connection. With the various protocols that these tools use, it may or may not be possible to connect in different settings depending on whether the different computers are behind firewalls, behind routers (whether or they have a public IP), and whether the tool/service offers a centralized network on their own servers. What is noteworthy about Gbridge is that it will try multiple ways to connect based on what will result in the best performance, but the lowest common denominator (if you will) will be connecting through the Gtalk network (a Gtalk/Gmail account is a requirement to use the service). Here are more notes on this software:

• You WILL be able to connect: Gbride will automatically figure out the best way to connect the various computers to provide maximum throughput and privacy; it will attempt to create a tunnel through NAT or firewall or if that is not possible it will connect through the Gtalk network. The user does not have to worry about complex technical configurations and the likelihood that you will achieve connectivity is high no matter what context your PC lives in; Gbridge, to quote their site “solves the real world naming and connectivity issues for almost all networks”.
• VPN for non-experts: see point above. Gbridge will allow any user to install, logon, and be on their way.
• Highly versatile: you can control which folders to share with which of your contacts and which users to require password authentication to access your shared folders, etc. You can also share an unlimited number of files, folders, and - interestingly - unlimited file size (I read somewhere about successfully sharing a 5 gig file).
• Wide range of services: will try to keep up with the terminology here. Share a file or folder with yourself or others (Secureshare), synchronize folders automatically across computers (AutoSync), backup files across computers (EasyBackup), view the screen and/or access remote computers (DesktopShare), chat with friends (Chat). Gbridge automatically generates thumbnails for media files, and allows for media streaming of shared media files without downloading first (LiveBrowse); also offers the ability to run 3rd party applications (e.g. FTP) over the VPN.
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Description: Interclue is a free Firefox extension that displays information whenever you hover on a link in Firefox, including a visual preview of what the linked page contains, extra information and action buttons, and warnings about dead links, malware, and/or phishing sites.

First off let me admit that initially I wasn’t sold on the idea of a tool that displays previews of linked pages or web content, since (a) putting together such a preview involves downloading data from the page being previewed and using up that bandwidth anyway, and (b) the web in my view suffers from informational overload as it is, and I saw no reason to cram the page that I am surfing with content from other pages as well.

Which is why I was somewhat surprised that, in practice, Interclue actually made for an interesting surfing experience. I found this to be especially true in sites that reference a lot of links in the text whereby I could take a quick peek into these links without interrupting my reading of the article. In reading my favorite political blogs, for example, I am able to hover over the links to see the sources and pages that they are referencing quickly in a setting where the source really matters (e.g. I can find out quickly if the links are referencing the New York Times or the Washington Post or The Wall Street Journal, etc.) Or sometimes blogs (like this one) have “latest comments” sections on the main page, an Interclue can be very useful in quickly revealing the posting where the comment was made without having to click into it; it’s much more intuitive than trying to trying to read the URL in the browser’s status bar to figure this information out.

Another interesting use are links that are common in blogs or review sites such as “20 Comments” or “Read all 50 reviews”, in that Interclue can give you an instant glimpse of these from within the page you are surfing without going into the new page. I got particularly excited about this one because it seemed so useful; unfortunately, however, Interclue seems to only load a small segment of this content with no way to tell it to go ahead and grab more (I emailed the developers about this and got a response within 2 hours, and it may be an issue with my system). Here are more notes on this software:

• How it works: hover over a link for a few milliseconds and little icons appear next to it that will display the interclue
• Previews sites and media: aside from getting a preview of the site that the link refers to you can also view videos, PDFs, etc.
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Description: “Can You Run It?” from system requirements lab is a free web service that compares your PC specs against a large, constantly updated database of games and can tell you whether your computer is  sufficient to run any game that you are interested in. It can also give you a breakdown of individual components and tell you exactly where your computer stands in relation to the recommended and preferred specs and what areas or components to change or upgrade.

Imagine the following: you’re interested in getting a game for your computer, but you’re not sure whether your computer meets the minimum requirements. So you do some research and find out the minimum specs, except… you don’t really know if your computer meets them.. Sure, you can ascertain that your CPU has enough muscle and that your memory seems sufficient, but then there’s all that gobblety-gook about DirectX and the required pixel and vertex shaders and yada yada yada. Wouldn’t be simpler and better if you could just log onto a site somewhere and get a simple answer to “can I run it?”

Well as it happens “Can You Run It?” is exactly the site you are looking for. Constantly updated with the latest and greatest games, the site will evaluate your system and give a detailed report of all the different requirements and where your computer stands for each one. It will even place your system on a continuum that visually illustrates where your PC is in terms of minimum and preferred requirements. Here are more notes on this service:

• How it works: once you select a game from the dropdown, the site will run an ActiveX control that examines your system and compares it to the requirements for that game (more on this below).
• The report: breaks down each component and gives you the low-down with respect to your system specs and a rating of how well they meet the game requirements (see image to the right for partial results). It will provide upgrade suggestions where your PC does not measure up.
• Performance: is very fast. Scanning took about 20 to 30 seconds on my machine before I got my results.
• Installs ActiveX/Java component: this component is necessary to perform the scan, and you will need to give permission for it to install. This component can be removed from the Windows Add/Remove dialog just as you would uninstall any app; look for the “System Requirements Lab” entry.
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Description: This posting will present a number of free options that can provide access and/or allow surfing of sites that are blocked by a corporate firewall or by your Internet Service Provider. Options presented are (1) using a proxy service site, (2) Web2mail (3) getting internet from your home machine via VPN, (4) using an internet anonymizer, and (5) using Google.

Have you ever been in a situation where you where prevented access to certain sites on the internet because you were behind a company firewall or because of a restriction imposed by your Internet Service Provider? If so, you might be able to use the solutions provided below as a workaround.

Although I’ve been asked variants of the question "how do I surf blocked sites from my job" often enough to decide to investigate some potential solutions, let me begin by saying that I present these without experience in a restricted internet situation myself and therefore can not attest to the efficacy of the solutions below.

1- Use a Proxy service site: such as hidemyass.com, can’t bust me, or anonr.com. Many of these sites in fact all belong to the same network and work in the same way: they will act as a go-between between you and the sites you want to access.

The easiest way to find these is to search Google for "proxy service sites" or a similar keyword. Once you are able to access one of these sites you will find an address box where you can enter the URL for the site you want and the proxy site will grab the content for you and present it within the proxy site URL, allowing you to surf your desired content while its actual URL is being masked by the proxy site. Note that some of these sites will also provide anonymous internet surfing by disguising your IP address and location info.

Click on the image to the right for a list of some proxy service sites. Bear in mind that your corporate firewall or ISP may have already blacklisted some proxy sites, preventing you from accessing them. In this case you might simply search for some new ones that may have not been blacklisted or considering another solution.

2- Web2Mail: this is a free service that works as follows: send a blank email to send[at]web2mail.co.cc with your desired site URL as the subject. After less than a minute the Web2Mail service will send you an email that contains the web page you requested in HTML format, which you can read in your email client.

As you might imagine, "browsing" your desired site using this service involves receiving the initial email, clicking on a link on that page that most likely be blocked in your browser but that you would use as the subject line in another email to Web2Mail, and repeating. Not the highest quality surfing experience, but will work in a pinch.

One thing I might add: the Web2mail servers are at times unresponsive and there was a point when I was testing it a few days ago and having my emails sent back to me. Since then the issue seems to have been fixed and it is working just fine.

3- Get internet from your home machine via VPN: this stands for Virtual Private Networking. If you are behind a restrictive company firewall you can in most cases set up a connection to your home PC and get unrestricted internet through your home connection. You might want to signal to your network admin that you are doing this; it should not be much of an issue in most settings (you will not need any technical intervention from your network guy to set a VPN up necessarily).

There are many free VPN software options: OpenVPN (and GUI version, pictured above), UltraVNC, TightVNC, LogMeIn Free, and Windows’ own built in VPN. This post is not intended to be a tutorial on how to set this up, but if you search the internet you will find a lot of further information on this. If you know of a good tutorial or tutorials on this please post them in the comments.
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