Test the Speed of your Broadband Connection

There are many sites that offer free testing of your broadband speed.

One of my favourites is SpeedTest.Net (http://www.speedtest.net). Not only does it have a nice-looking visual, but it is easy to use and provides useful information.

Steps:

Select the yellow pyramid (Test Using Recommended Server) to begin the test.

It then tests your Download Speeds, followed by Your Upload Speeds.

Once complete it generates a report, as well as other reports such as statistics for the entire world.

 

Tests such as SpeedTest are worth running to see how closely they correlate with the Broadband plan you signed up for. They are particularly useful if you feel that the speed of your service has slowed down considerably. Note that there may be a variety of reasons your speed is slower than normal, therefore run the test several times at different times of the day, in case it is a one-off.

Other Speed Tests Links can be found at http://www.geejay.net/links.asp#broadband

My new Favourite Web Browser

As so often happens on the Internet it is “out with the old and in with the new“.

Like most Internet users I have long used Internet Explorer (latest version IE7) from Microsoft to browse the Internet. Every so often an application comes along that is better than previous ones.

I came across Flock, version 1.0, which bills itself as the “Social Web Browser”. Thus far, I have found it quicker and more stable than IE, which is not so surprising considering it is based on the Mozilla Firefox Browser http://en.www.mozilla.com/en/firefox/, which has long been a popular and preferred contender to IE.

What I find attractive about Flock is that like many Internet users I have accounts with a number of websites, including WordPress (for my blogs), Photobucket and Flickr (for sharing photos), as well as Social Networking and Video sharing sites such as Facebook and YouTube. These can all be accessed via Flock’s ‘Accounts and Services‘ left Sidebar, providing a single location for many of your favourite websites, with all being able to be logged in simultaneously, making sharing and access so much easier than doing the same from IE.

It makes uploading photos, accessing your personalised RSS feeds, clipping images and text from web pages as well as editing your blog all the easier.

I highly commend this Internet Web browser. It is a free download of 10.3 megabytes from http://www.flock.com.

If you have a lot of favourites already in IE, Flock will prompt you to import these details.

Give it a go, and let me know if you agree with my assessment.

It would be great if in the future Flock in a new version would allow users to customise the ‘Accounts and Services’ sidebar.

Roboform Password Manager

One of my favourite as well as most useful applications is Roboform – which describes itself as Password Manager, Form Filler, Password Generator, Fill & Save Forms.

You can download Roboform for FREE, but users are limited to storing a maximum of 10 passwords.

In upgrading to Roboform Pro, there are three versions available. My recommendation is using the Roboform2Go version. This version runs off a portable USB drive, allowing your passwords to be accessible via any computer you access. Although Roboform is protected by a Master Password, the main risk here is the loss of your USB drive, and the potential for someone to break your Master Password for your version of Roboform.

If you are only wishing to store and retrieve information and passwords on one machine then a single Roboform License is the preferred option. This currently is listed as US$29.95, but if you use the following discount code ‘SMC‘ you will receive an automatic US$10.00 discount.

The reason why Roboform is one of my favourite applications is simply I have a multitude of passwords for a variety of websites I either subscribe to or have to access. These include sites I use regularly such as accessing my Bank online, paying mobile phone and utility bills, managing my website and many more.

Trying to remember all my passwords is next to impossible and Roboform both allows storage of these passwords, filling in my username and password details and the ability to print all my details if I require a hard copy. Not only does it reduce the need to remember passwords, it allows me straight from Roboform to select the website I wish to navigate to and completely access the page – a reduction in time and typing.

The other benefit of Roboform is its ability to create unique paswords. One of the problems many internet users face is that often they use the same password for many websites, and they choose one that they can easily remember. The best passwords are those that are greater than 6 alpha-numeric characters, and Roboform can create these on the fly for you.

I highly commend this software to you.

If you wish to purchase Roboform please click on the following link:
Order Roboform

Introduction to My Favourite Applications

In this category I highlight my favourite and most useful applications, as well as share my experiences using them.

As always feedback is much appreciated.