With all the phishing and spam web sites today, is becoming very difficult to stay secure while surfing, not to mention that you have to install all kinds of filters to get a minimum protection. So what do we do?

We go on and install every possible app until we find one that will please us?  Makes you mad.

Why not install something on a network level and block the bad from there?

With OpenDNS you can do that right on your home network and they have a great tutorial for every available router.

When i first discovered OpenDNS, i used it to enhance my network for gaming. Their servers are apparently faster and so i used the IP’s provided and i was quite pleased about the performance.
I then started to use OpenDNS on all the machines till i realized that i can install it on the network and enhance the overall performance.

Aside the faster browsing, OpenDNS provides a content filter, which can be managed once you’ve created an account with them and installed their DNS servers – 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 - into your TPC/IP properties of your network as you can see below.

Here’s how you start using it: Start OpenDNS.

As soon as you’ve created your account, you will be taken to your dashboard which will look like this:

On your “Settings” you’ll be able to set the content filtering level. You can block any category that you don’t want such as phishing, gambling and so on.

Check, save and let OpenDNS take it from here and handle it for you. They will blacklist and whitelist for you, while you enjoy your surfing.

I focused a bit on the benefits and settings but there is a lot more in there and there is no catch to it. It’s all free.

If you are the “security freak” type and you think that this alone doesn’t do it for you, i can’t do much to convince you but i can add one more tool to it, a Firefox extension which was recommended to me by my good friend David and is call WOT – Web of Trust.

Web of Trust is a community where users get to vote which web site is safe for surfing, if it can be trusted, if it has a good reputation. After installing this extension, every web site you will encounter that has been marked by the WOT users will display a safety circle.
There too, you can create an account and be a part of the community to help improve the security on the world wide web.

Here’s an example of how a rated web site will look :

Well, that’s it for today. Now go get safe!

ZoneAlarm ForceField was designed to help you surf safer and without a trace.

No web history and no information is shared anymore with other users, so nothing will be stored on your computer anymore.

With numerous protection layers, Forcefield will shield your computer from the Internet against phishing, spyware and other treats.

Forcefield features and advantages :

• Browse anywhere without a care
• Surf safely on any PC – even public ones
• Secure online transactions
• Bank and shop security
• Private browser
• Dangerous download detector  
• Dodge all evil, uninvited downloads
• Walk away from any machine without a trace
• Advance anti-phishing, anti-keylogger and anti-screengrabber technology.

Be aware that Forcefield is in beta.

If you do decide to install it before the final version arrives, don’t forget to make a restore point.

Platform Windows XP, Windows Vista

Freeware

AOL decided to replace its antivirus software Active Virus Shield, powered by Kaspersky with McAfee Virus Scan Plus instead…and they call it “Special Edition”.

The new suit is still free and includes a firewall, antivirus and a spyware protection.

So what’s wrong about it?

Users who have been using McAfee over the years know that is not only a difficult program to remove in case you don’t want to use it anymore, but also its antivirus scanning angine is not as good as Kaspersky.

One thing i really hated about McAfee, was the huge amount of CPU resources it was using, and i do not suppose that this has changed.

My recommendation – Try finding something else instead. There are lots of other antivirus, firewalls and anti-spyware freeware that won’t clog your system and slow it down.

Check out the disk space you need for it.

System Requirements

• Windows Vista

  Windows 2000, XP

• 200MB hard disk space – Huh???????

Windows 98/2000/Me/XP/Vista

PasswordSafe 3.09- Password Safe is an Open Source (free) tool that allows you to have a different
password for all the different programs and websites that you deal with, without
actually having to remember all those usernames and passwords.

Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP

The Gimp 2.2.17 – multiplatform photo manipulation tool. GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image
Manipulation Program.

Windows all versions, including Vista.

Avant Browser – Just in case you need another browser, with lots of nice features. Is been one of my favorites for long time.

Windows Xp and Vista.

Eusing Free Registry Cleaner - free registry repair software that allows you to safely clean and repair
registry problems with a few simple mouse clicks.

Windows 2000, 9.x, Me, XP, Vista

PhotoScape - complete photo editing suite that includes image
browsing/viewing, photo editing, picture page printing, photo resizing and
renaming, and even RAW conversion.

98/ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Education, Freebies, Freeware, OpenSource, Security, Tech Blogs, Technology, Today’s freeware, Vista, Windows

31 Bayesian Spam Filters for Windows

8 Bayesian Spam Filters for Linux

12 Bayesian Spam Filters for Mac

+

Top 10 Free Spam Filters for Windows

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Freebies, Freeware, Linux & OpenSource, Privacy, Security, Tech Blogs, Technology, Windows, Anti-Spam filters, Bayes Filters, Bayesian Filters

TrendProtect NOW

What this plugin actually does, is to show you the web site’s reputation by warning you if the page you are browsing is secure or not, with a button that is placed on your toolbar.

It also displays the warning buttons into your Google, Yahoo and Msn searches.

You can set up the content filter by clicking the TrendProtect button and go to the settings.

One other extra that TrendProtect Now offers is the ” Check your Computer Security” option.

This option enables you to scan your computer for viruses, worms, trojans and spyware, right from your browser with Trend Secure HouseCall Free scan.

For more information, visit TrendSecure web site or go directly to the download page.

Stay safe!

If you are trying to avoid the WGA tool, then this is a good way to get your updates.

The program is easy to install and use and you will be able to download updates for Windows 2000 Pro, Windows 2003 Server , Windows Xp, Microsoft Office 2003 and Microsoft Exchange.

After the installation you must download the updates list from the author’s web site – Jcarle – choosing the right language of your Windows or Office so you can continue.

Once that’s done, pick the updates you want to install and download them.

This freeware requires Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0.

You’re done!

Quick Update :

The updates will only be downloaded and not installed. You will have to install them manually.

To do that, find the installation folder of Windows Updates downloader or the folder where you chose to download them and install them one by one.

The folder is by default: C:\Program Files\Windows Updates Downloader\

Part 3 – Update January 30

• Cooliris Previews 2.1 – A simple and powerful way of navigating through Google search results and Google image searches!

• FaviconizeTab 0.9.7.2 – The width of the specified tab becomes small up to the size of favicon.

• McAfee SiteAdvisor 26.1 – A McAfee SiteAdvisor Firefox Extension for safe searching and browsing

• PermaTabs 1.4.0 – Create permanent tabs that don’t close, and stick around between sessions

• SEOpen 0.8 – Provides some basic tools to help with search engine optimization.

• Tab Effect 1.1 – Tab Effect
  

Part 2

• Adblock Plus – block unwanted adds
• Answers – search the web,find definitions
• blueorganizer – personalize and organize and more…
• Clipmarks – saveto your faves. only small parts of a web page that interest you
• Colorful Tabs – enhance your tab browsing
• Compact Menu – organize your menu options on the menu bar
• DictionarySearch – search definitions
• Dr.Web anti-virus link checker – check links for viruses
• Google Toolbar for Firefox
• Greasemonkey – install scripts
• Jeteye – bookmarking tool
• MR Tech Local Install – manage extensions
• Nightly Tester Tools – make extensions compatible
• NoScript – extra protection for your Firefox
• Search Engine Ordering – order/remove search engines
• SearchStatus – see how other web sites are doing in search engines
• SecurePassword Generator- generate secure passwords for your accounts
• StumbleUpon – stumble through the web with this cool tool

Part 1

• Adblock – block adds
• Adblock Filterset.G Updater blocks adds/set up filters
• AJAX Yahoo! Mail [Viamatic WebMail++] 0.6
• All Customized Links 1.1 - add unlimitted customized URLs to your right-click menu
• All-In-One Sidebar 0.6.4 - switch between sidebars, view downloads, extensions,
• Clear Private Data… (Add-Ons) 0.2 - clear your tracks
• coComment! for Firefox 0.9 - add your comments to your cocomment account
• del.icio.us Complete 0.6.3.2 - easy and fast access to your del.icio.us bookmarks
• DownThemAll! – download manager
• Gmail Manager 0.4.3.6 - access your mail
• Hyperwords(tm) 1.3.3 - searches, references, email, blogging, translation,etc
• Make Link - make links codes for forums,blogs…
• Performancing – blog from Firefox
• Stealther 0.95 - surf without a trace
• SwitchProxy Tool 1.4 - switch between proxy (to be used with Tor)
• Tab Mix Plus 0.3.0.5 - make your tab browsing even better
• VideoDownloader – download videos
• Web Developer 1.0.2 -no description nedded
• Yahoo Toolbar

Some backup freeware

JaBack – free backup software with advanced automation features.

Cobian Backup – multi-threaded program that can be used to schedule and backup your files and directories

SyncBack – backup, synchronize, or restore your files to another drive, FTP server

♦

JAP – surf the internet anonymously and protect your privacy.

Wild Rename – multiple file rename utility with many more features.
WinSnap – screen capture utility.
CX NOW! – transform your ordinary Excel spreadsheets into persuasive presentations.
Docs Vault Home Edition – digitizes your paper files through integrated scanning, built-in PDF creator, and custom organizing and search capabilities.

Technorati tags: backup, freeware, howto, organizers, screen capture, tech blogs, tools, windows

You know that when you delete a file by sending it to the Recycle Bin, the file isn’t actually deleted.

So if you are one of those who want to keep things clean and secure, you might want to get rid off the files by deleting them in a secure way.

I’ve got two freeware for you that can do that from the right click menu.

First one is DeleteOnClick – download the program and install it…and that’s it. All you have to do is to right click on the file you want to be gone and gone will be.

Second one is one of the RegToy utilities. When you install RegToy, you’ll be able to add Secure delete to the right click menu

Personally, I like deleting with this one because I have more options and I can rename the files before deleting them for a better result.