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Security, Programming, Geeky Links



OpenCourseWare Consortium ~ webcast.Berkeley.edu/courses ~ MIT's OpenCourseWare ~ eBookSpyder ~ Syntax across languages
~ GuidetoOnlineSchools.com Free Online Classes ~ Ross Anderson's Security Engineering book now free online. "If you're even thinking of doing any security engineering, you need to read this book" --Bruce Schneier
TrID - File Identifier utility identifies file types from their binary signatures. (Win32 and Linux/x86)

Intel Microcode Update Utility for Linux patches CPU bugs ~ Intel microcode reliability update for Windows.

Secunia Software Inspector and Secunia PSI (Personal Software Inspector; stand-alone for Windows; scans more programs) scans for insecure versions and missing security updates.

FAQ: Alternate Data Streams in NTFS and LADS (List Alternate Data Streams) utility. ~ Alternate Data Streams in the \Queue Directory (C:\NTFS_0ec25fe701c4120a00000001.EML:PROPERTIES-LIVE) ~ ADS Spy view or delete Alternate Data Streams (ADS) on Windows 2000/XP

TestDriven.NET Visual Studio add-in (homepage has links to NCover, NCoverExplorer, Reflector, TypeMock, dotTrace, NUnit, MbUnit, ZaneBug, MSBee & Team System; TestDrive even works in Microsoft's free Visual Studio Express Edition via Properties window.)

Anti-Spyware / Malware / Adware : Orbitech Hazard Shield ~ Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware ~ SUPERAntiSpyware FREE Edition ~ Tenebril's SpyCatcher Express ~ Spybot Search & Destroy (alternate link) ~ LavasoftUSA's Ad-aware (alternate link#1) (alternate link#2).
Webroot Spy Sweeper ~ PC Tools' Spyware Doctor (pay to remove detected malware) ~ Spyware Terminator ~ ZeroSpyware
Bazooka Adware and Spyware Scanner (free) ~ SynergeticSoft Spyware and Adware Removal (5 day trial; $30).
PestPatrol (free PestScan) ~ Anonymyzer's Spyware Killer (featured at ZoneLabs) ~ McAfee AntiSpyware (free 5-day version after registration).
HijackThis (HJT) continually updated to detect and remove new hijacks. Sumbit reports to the auto webform at hjt.networktechs.com or forums for analysis.
Trend Micro Anti-Spyware and CWShredder (formerly maintained by Merijn.org of HiJackThis fame; maintained by InterMute starting October 19, 2004 and then Trend Micro acquired Intermute).
Andrew Aronoff's Silent Runners to list executibles in all ASEP's (auto-start entry points) and his CoolWebSearch (CWS) Removal Procedure.
DiamondCS Autostart Viewer ~ Sysinternals Autoruns ~ Windows Startup Inspector and Startup Application knowledge Base ~ WhatsRunning.net ~ Pacs-Portal Startup Applications ~ Sysinfo.org Search CLSID (BHO) or Pacman list. ~ Uniblue Systems WinTasks Process Library and Process Scanner.
A huge list of rogue/suspect "spyware removal" programs to avoid.
Benjamin Edelman's New and Notable spyware company news

Anti-Virus : AV-Test.org test A/V, anti-spyware and personal fireware software. ~ AV Comparatives ~ AntiVirus Performance Statistics ~ Virus Buletin VB100 award ~ ICSA Labs
GFI Email Security Testing Zone sends specified detection tests to your email address.
Virustotal upload a file to have it scanned by 30+ virus engines. ~ Jotti scans with 15 virus engines ~ Threat Expert click "Submit Sample"
Clam AntiVirus (submit samples) See also ClamAV for Windows from hideout.ath.cx and ClamAV Antivirus Native Win32 Port used in ClamWin Free Antivirus ~ ClamAV/SOSDG For Windows (includes and runs within Cygwin)
CA's eTrust EZ Antivirus free for 1 year. ~ F-Secure Anti-Virus free for 6 months.
Web-based online scanners: Trend Micro's HouseCall ActiveX web-based scanner (Java version) ~ Symantec Security Check ~ McAfee freescan ~ Panda ActiveScan
Not free: GFI MailSecurity for Exchange/SMTP ~ Trend Micro Internet Gateway Products and Email/Groupware Products ~ Symantec ~ McAfee (NAI, Network Associates) ~ NOD32 Antivirus System "the world leader of the Virus Bulletin 100% Awards having won more awards (23) than any competing product." ~ BitDefender (BitDefender for ISA 2004 "worked flawlessly"-Peter Lawton).
Trend Micro Damage Cleanup Engine/Template ~ Network Associates/McAfee AVERT Stinger ~ Symantec (Norton A/V) Security Response Removal Tools.
Symantec's Norton Removal Tool

Content Filters : mod_dnsbl apache module ~ Websense Web, E-mail and/or Instant Messaging filtering for a firewall (Websense acquired SurfControl October 2007) ~ ContentWatch ContectProtect ~ Secure Computing's SmartFilter (Oct 2003: merged with N2H2's Bess and Sentian. Jan 2006: merged with CyberGuard's Webwasher URL Filter) and Webwasher SCM Suite (URL filter, A/V, anti-spam, SSL scanner, etc.)
Client-side Proxies : Proxomitron web filtering proxy server or the open-source "clone" Proximodo ~ Internet JunkBuster Proxy and Guidescope
Website proxies (to bypass local firewall restrictions) : Box of Prox.

DNS Poisoning / Anti-Pharming : NGSEC's AntiPharming denies users (even Administrator) to write to the Hosts file or change DNS settings; monitors DNS replies (TCP and UDP) and compares results with multiple secure name servers.
Ketil Froyn's DNS Poisoning via trusting unsecure response DNS cache poisoining.
Microsoft's Description of the DNS Server Secure Cache Against Pollution setting and How to prevent DNS cache pollution.
NGS Gunter Ollman's The Pharming Guide Understanding & Preventing DNS-Related Attacks by Phishers (PDF)

KeyLogger Detectors : KL-Detector or SnoopFree Privacy Shield (both free) or PrivacyKeyboard ($60) offer strong protection against software and hardware keyloggers; no spyware database to update and no scanning time necessary.

Anti-trojan Programs : TrojanHunter highly rated. ~ AVG Anti-Spyware (formerly ewido security suite) ~ BOClean ~ Online-Armor.

Malware Behavior-based Blocker : Panda Software TruPrevent. ~ StarForce Safe’n’Sec ~ Prevx1 (free for home use) or the old Prevx 2.1 freeware.
DiamondCS Process Guard "the only program available that can actually prevent the installation and infection of all known rootkit stealth trojans." (v3.2)

Rootkits : Review: Six Rootkit Detectors Protect Your System
(Rename the following executibles with random names before running them in case the installed rootkits detect default names)
McAfee Rootkit Detective ~ Microsoft Research Strider GhostBuster Rootkit Detection. (Compares all-file list inside infected Windows with the list from a clean WinPE CD to detect diffences: hidden spyware files and the size increases of keylogger data files)
Antirootkit.com's List of Rootkit Detection & Removal Software ~ Sysinternals RootkitRevealer can also find an installed ROOTKIT such as YYT_HAC or Hacker Defender or NTIllusion (Phrack 62) which requires only a non-Administrator, limited user account. ~ Joanna Rutkowska's invisiblethings.org scanning utilities ~ F-Secure BlackLight Rootkit Elimination Technology. ~ Xfocus Team IceSword anti-rookit tool. ~ GMER (freeware; Poland; similar to RootkitRevealer and Sysinternals Process Explorer) ~ DarkSpy Anti-Rootkit ~ iDEFENSE Labs HookExplorer ~ BitDefender RootkitUncover.
Unix/Linux: chkrootkit and Rootkit Hunter
FAQ: Alternate Data Streams in NTFS
Rootkits: Subverting the Windows Kernel (Paperback) by Greg Hoglund and Jamie Butler.

Microsoft Windows Security : 1-866-PC-Safety to reach Microsoft's Product Support Services in the U.S. (other countries) No charge for support calls associated with security updates.
Microsoft Update (replaces Windows Update but doesn't include Office Update). IE with Administrator rights and ActiveX still required. ~ How to read the Windowsupdate.log file.
TheHotfixShare.net share hotfixes.
How to install multiple Windows updates or hotfixes with only one reboot.
How to prevent re-prompting "Do you want to restart now or later?" after installing an Automatic Update on Windows XP. (Email me if you know how to do this on Windows 2000.)
Windows XP installation guide Creating a custom install CD ~ RyanVM's MSFN Files Page single download for XP Post-SP2 updates.
WinUpdatesList displays the list of all Windows updates and files updated by hotfixes; list can be copied to clipboard.
Profile and Subscription Center Manage how Microsoft communicates with you and select from available notifications, newsletters and alerts. ~ Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer 2.1.1 and Extended Security Update Inventory Tool and Security Guidance Kit v1.0.
HappyTech.net's Microsoft Security Bulletin Checklists
Javacool Software's Spyware Blaster, Doc Scrubber, MRU-Blaster, Spyware Guard, Windows Media Player Scripting Fix, etc.
Black Viper's Windows Services to safely set to Manual or Disabled.
Frank's lists of Windows 2000 Services to Disable and Windows XP SP2 Services to Disable.
SpeedyVista.com for Windows Vista services. ~ Smart PC Utilities' Vista Services Optimizer ~ Game XP optimize the performance of Windowx XP for gaming.

WinPatrol highly rated.
MVPs.org - Blocking dangerous websites with a Hosts file (linux update script) and hpguru's Hosts file (also for Mac OS) and Peter Lowe's YoYo AdServers HOSTS and Mike's Ad Blocking Hosts file. Auto-update from multiple sources, delete dupes, enable/disble: HostsMan for Windows.
Spyware Guide sets the Registry killbit for all bad ActiveX controls.
Eric L. Howes Privacy and Security Page IE-SPYAD, AGNIS, etc.
Mobo's Window clinic
deepFreeze to restore Windows to a preset Windows configuration during each reboot. Good for classroom labs. Compare with Microsoft's SteadyState for Windows XP
Windows XP Network Diagnostic Tool ~ Counterexploitation LSPFix Repairs Winsock 2 settings caused by buggy or improperly-removed Layered Service Provider software that result in loss of Internet access. ~ Dial-a-fix (DAF) repairs common Windows issues such as Windows Update, SSL, Microsoft Installer, etc.
sudowin sudo for Windows (SANS whitepaper states this is better than suDown (though it doesn't require .NET Framework), MakeMeAdmin, WinSUDO and SUperior SU.)
AMUST 1-Defender 2.0 free; allows users with administrative rights to run IE, Outlook, and Messenger with Least Privileged User Account (LUA).
Thierry Zoller's Secure-it (download from here) (Also Sniff-em, Purge-it and Harden-it) Secure/harden Windows. Includes MSDN's DropMyRights to run IE and OE without Administrator privileges. See also MakeMeAdmin.
Desktop Standard's PolicyMaker Application Security to specify specific (legacy) applications that can run with administrator rights while signed in to Windows with a Limited/Restricted User Account. Try it if the following doesn't work: Add the User's account to have full control of the program's installation folder (usually located under Program Files) and/or to the program's branch in the Registry.
Windows XP: Run secpol.msc as Administrator, browse to Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options\System objects, change default owner to Administrators group. Install new software only with Adminstrator account and use it with a User account.
But if the Administrator account is hidden from the logon screen: Regedit HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\Winlogon\SpecialAcconts\UserList and create (or edit) a new DWORD with a Value Name of Administrator and value data of 1 (hexadecimal).
To disable the automatic "hidden shares" (for example, c$, d$, admin$, and IPC$): Regedit HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters\ and create (or edit) a new DWORD with a Value Name of AutoShareWks and value data of 0 (hexadecimal) and do the same for AutoShareServer. (Note: ignore the LanmanWorkstation branch; it's a network redirector; only the LanmanServer branch is used for creating/disabling shares.)
How to use the RestrictAnonymous registry value in Windows 2000. (Note: Not necessary for Windows XP SP2; instead consider changing the Security Option "Network access: Shares that can be accessed anonymously" by deleting all entries.)
Misc. Win2K/XP Registry hacks

Windows XP :
Turn on "Data Execution Protection" for all programs and services: Control Panel -> System -> Advanced [Tab] -> Performance Settings -> Data Execution Protection [Tab] -> Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select -> OK
To enable system wide: place /noexecute=OptOut at the end of the "multi" OS line within boot.ini (OptOut means DEP is enabled for all processes, but Administrators can manually create a list of specific applications which do not have DEP applied) ~ See Microsoft's How to Configure Memory Protection in Windows XP SP2.
Doug Knox Windows XP Security Console ~ Kelly's Korner - Troubleshooting Windows XP
Microsoft Shared Computer Toolkit for Windows XP to manage and protect shared/classroom/kiosk computers.

3rd Party Tech Support / Knowledge Bases : Tek-Tips Forums ~ Experts Exchange ~ EventID.net ~ Protonic free fast technical support. ~ PC Help Forum ~ Tech Support Guy (HelpOnTheNet).
DLL-files.com find the most common files that may be missing or corrupted on a Windows computer. (DLL files)
ProcessLibrary.com Find the latest information about spywares, adwares, trojans, viruses, system processes and common applications.
Henri Leboeuf's Errors Messages learn more about an exact message from Windows or Internet Explorer.
MalekTips "Free Computer and Technology Help ... over 2,400 Tips."
Open Source Support Solutions Search for support providers and request bids. ~ freenode.net Primary Groups (IRC)

Firewall Blocking/Directing / IP Port and Packet Analyzers :
IANA and Wikipedia's List of TCP and UDP port numbers
NNSquad Network Measurement Agent (NNMA) attempts to detect reset (RST) packets that may have been injected into a TCP connection by any entity not located at the connection endpoints. ~ ModSecurity HTTP traffic monitoring and embeddable web application firewall.
OpenBSD's PF (includes ALTQ for bandwidth management; also ported to FreeBSD) ~ Peter N. M. Hansteen's Firewalling with PF The most up to date published versions of the Firewalling with PF manuscript. ~ Monitoring PF firewalls for health and performance ~ PF: Firewall Management free chapters of upcoming cancelled book.
IP Filter and FAQ.
pfSense firewall derived from the m0n0wall using OpenBSD's ported Packet Filter, FreeBSD 6.1 ALTQ (HFSC)
FreeBSD Handbook Firewalls PF, IPFILTER, and IPFW (AKA ipfirewall; supports divert packets).
Linux: IPCop and Smoothwall ~ Shorewall high-level tool for configuring Netfilter.
Firwall Builder object-oriented GUI and a set of policy compilers for various firewall platforms; policy/rule editing using drag-and-drop operations.
dummynet a flexible tool originally designed for testing networking protocols, and since then (mis)used for bandwidth management.
AIRlok A 1U server with OpenBSD, security chip, unified GUI to manage features. ~ Armorlogic Profense OpenBSD firewall layer configured to speed up valid traffic and filter out invalid URL's, variables, requests, etc., to your web server.
Firewall Failover with pfsync and CARP (OpenBSD)
Fortinet's FortiGate ASIC-accelerated antivirus firewall (Fortinet was founded in 2000 by Ken Xie, founder of NetScreen which later sold to Juniper for $3.5 billion. Accused of using Linux kernel in FortiOS without credit; GPL violation upheld with injunction in Germany.)
WatchGuard hardware firewalls such as the Firebox X series. (To increase http speed, open policy manager, press CRTL+ALT+SPACE to open the config file, and add options.proxies.http.bufsize : 75000 )
ServGate EdgeForce Unified Threat Management (UTM) Platforms.
DShield.org Internet Storm Center Status, Attacker IP address lookups, etc. "If you use a firewall, please submit your logs to the DShield database." (instructions for auto-reporting)
Sygate Personal Firewall 5.6.2808 bought and discontinued by Symantec November 2005 ~ ZoneAlarm Security Suite (uses CA's A/V and antispam from MailFrontier which was acquired by SonicWALL in February 2006) and reduced prices on PestPatrol, SpamNet, etc. (free after rebates) ~ Panda Platinum Internet Security 2006 version highly rated.
PortsLock firewall integrates with the Windows user authentication system and handles user-level permissions to TCP/IP connections (think user-specific IPsec configuration).
Steve Gibson's ShieldsUP free online firewall port penetration test. ~ TestMyFirewall.com
Microsoft's PortQry version 2.0 and Port Reporter ~ DiamondCS Free utilities such as Port Explorer.
StopListening for Windows 2000/XP will close all open/listening TCP and UDP ports.
Link Logger Link Logger is the premier Windows logging tool for the Linksys, Netgear, and ZyXEL routers and firewalls. See also thier Scans and Resources pages.
Fail2Ban scans log files like /var/log/pwdfail or /var/log/apache/error_log and bans IP that makes too many password failures. It updates firewall rules to reject the IP address.
Narus Semantic Traffic Analyzer used jointly by AT&T and the NSA; also used by ISP's to charge each other for VoIP calls (runs on Linux; see Wired News article)
Multiple-port knocking Netfilter/IPtables only implementation (instead of Knockd). Compare with CipherDyne's fwknop (FireWall KNock OPerator) requires only a single encrypted packet to communicate desired access through a Netfilter policy and/or complete commands to execute on the target system. ~ How to safely connect from anywhere to your closed Linux firewall using knockd.

Port Scanners : Angry IP Scanner for Windows. ~ Foundstone's SuperScan.

Loggers and Log Analyzers : ABLogFile real time log view for Windows with highlighting and .wav notifications ~ syslog ~ syslog-ng supports TCP. ~ rsyslog support for syslog/tcp, writing to MySQL databases fully configurable log file formats (including high-precision time stamps) and soon RFC 3195 support. ~ Kiwi Syslog Daemon for Windows.
BareTail and BareGrep Linux tail and grep for Windows; refreshes the view of log files as they grow; use regular expressions to search through files.
WebLog Expert ~ Sawmill Configurable log analyzer recognizes many formats. ~ Analog "The most popular logfile analyser in the world" ~ splunk> easily navigate all data recorded by your IT systems ~ AWStats free graphical report generator of web, streaming, FTP or mail server stats from Apache, IIS, WebStar, etc. (Written in Perl; GPL licensed) (Wikipedia) ~ Monitoring systems with munin (graphs) ~ HowToForge's Server Monitoring With munin And monit ~ Cacti network graphing using RRDtool's data storage and graphing functionality using MySQL and PHP frontend.
Isoqlog MTA log to HTML usage stats.
Tobi Oetiker's MRTG - Multi Router Traffic Grapher ~ Paessler PRTG Traffic Grapher.

IPS / Intrusion Detection/Prevention/Protection Systems / Host Integrity Monitoring : Zenoss Core Enterprise IT Monitoring ~ osirus Host Integrity Monitor. ~ Nagios host and service monitor designed to inform you of network problems.
OSSEC HIDS - Open Source HIDS Host-based Intrusion Detection System.
Privateeye take action based on combined abuse thresholds recorded by Snort, HoneyNet, IPS, etc.
Determina Vulnerability Protection Suite (VPS) ~ eEye's suite of vulnerability management solutions such as Retina and Iris and Blink ~ Nmap (Network Mapper) free security scanner.
Snort and rules at Bleeding Edge Threats (formerly Bleeding-Edge Snort) ~ A How-To Guide for running snort_inline on FreeBSD. ~ Wireshark (formerly Ethereal) ~ Nessus (v3 faster but closed source) ~ Packetyzer (native Windows GUI based on Ethereal) ~ WinDump and WinPcap ~ tcpdump/libpcap ~ Prelude Hybrid IDS project ~ Ettercap Suite for man in the middle attacks, sniffing, content filtering, active/passive protocol dissection, etc. ~ p0f passive OS fingerprinting tool.
Winfingerprint open source network scanner for Windows.
Hardware: 3Com's TippingPoint IPS (SC Magazine "Best Buy of 2004").
Qualys vulnerability management process/solutions in addition to intrusion detection systems. Tools and Trials: FreeMap, FreeScan, SANS 20 and QualysGuard.
LURHQ Managed Security Services.

Security Articles / Vulnerability Websites / Online Magazines / WebLogs / Podcasts : O3 Magazine The Open Source Enterprise Data Networking Magazine ~ OSNews ~ ITJungle ~ Infosec Writers ~ WindowSecurity.com ~ SecWiz ~ LabMice TechTarget.
NTBugTraq ~ Secunia ~ Full-Disclosure ~ SANS Internet Storm Center - Diary Archive ~ MITRE's CVE - Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures List and OVAL - Open Vulnerability and Assessment Language ~ OSVDB Open Source Vulnerability Database.
The NSA Operating Systems Guides.
TWiT This Week in Tech podcast.
Windows Secrets Newsletter - Windows update tips and WinFind search engine. ~ SC Magazine For IT Security Professionals.
USENIX Association, their ;login: magazine, and the SAGE Special Interest Group.
LOPSA The League of Professional System Administrators.
UNIX REVIEW monthly online mag since 2000. (Unix/Linux)
TechNet's Server and Domain Isolation Using IPsec and Group Policy.
WindowsITPro's A Secure Wireless Network Is Possible and Wired 802.1x Security Go wireless to protect your wired network. ~ SecurityFocus: Cracking WEP: Dead Again ~ NetStumbler Verify Wireless LAN setup and coverage, detect rogue access points, WarDriving, etc. ~ inSSIDer network scanner for Windows Vista and windows XP
Aaron Margosis' Weblog The Non-Admin blog - running with least privilege on the desktop.

Wi-Fi / Wireless Access :
Microsoft's Securing Wireless LANs with PEAP and Passwords and The Cable Guy - Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 Data Encryption and Integrity (August 2005) and The Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2)/Wireless Provisioning Services Information Element (WPS IE) update for Windows XP w/SP2
Brian Livingston's Wi-Finally: wireless security that actually works.
Core Copetence Wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) Resources (Lisa Phifer's Wireless CORner) and Wi-Fi Security Tools.

Microsoft Exchange Server :
Exchange Server All-In-One Tools Download (ExAllTools.EXE 06.05.7408 9/21/2004) and individual Downloads for Exchange.
Microsoft Identity Integration (MIIS)
Upgrading Exchange Server 5.5 to Exchange 2003 in a Medium-Sized Organization.
Management Pack Configuration Wizard GUI to configure Exchange 2000/2003 Management Pack, including test mailboxes, message tracking and monitoring services. (Ex2K/2K3)
Prevent SMTP relaying with Microsoft Exchange Server.
Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool v2.9.0.1 12/8/2005 (Win2K/2K3/XP)
Exchange Server 2003 Outlook Profile Update after moving mailboxes across Exchange organizations or administrative groups.
How to turn off ESMTP verbs in Exchange 2000 Server and in Exchange Server 2003
Using Exchange as a Backup MX Server for Another Domain
Slipstick (all) ~ MSExchange.org (all) ~ Evan Dodds Weblog (Ex2K/2K3)
DumpsterAlwaysOn Recover items that are not transferred to Outlook's Deleted Items folder. (Ex5.5/2K) ~ Suppress NDR's. (Ex5.5)
Turn off 8-bit MIME (8BITMIME) in Win2k/2003 Server (required when it smart hosts to Ex5.5) ~ Changing the TCP Port Used for SMTP Mail (Ex5.x) ~ Monitor IMS, MTA and x400 queues. (Ex5.5)
The Ed Crowley Server Move Method (Ex5.5)
Exchange IMF (Intelligent Message Filter) uses Microsoft's SmartScreen spam filtering. IMF Update v2 is part of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 SP2. ~ IMF Archive Manager.
SMTP relay behavior in Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Exchange Server.
How to optimize memory usage in Exchange Server 2003.
Exchange email archiving: GFI MailArchiver ~ CommVault's QiNetix DataArchiver ~ IBM's DB2 CommonStore ~ C2C Archive One ~ Symantec Veritas Enterprise Vault ~ Quest Archive Manager.
Exchange email non-rewritable/non-erasable archiving: EMC Centera ~ HP StorageWorks RISS (Reference Information Storage System).

SMTP : RFC 2821 Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (replaces RFC 821) and RFC 2822 Internet Message Format (replaces RFC 822) ~ RFC 2544 SMTP Service Extension for Authentication ~ RFC 2487 SMTP Service Extension for Secure SMTP over TLS (Transport Layer Security) ~ Internet Mail Architecture Internet Draft (Dave Crocker).

Anti-Spam : Why Sender Callout Verification, Sender Verify, Callbacks, SAV is abusive.
Al Iverson's Spam Resource and DNSBL Resource and DNSBL Statistics ~ Spam is that Which We Don't Do ~ Challenge/Response Systems (why C/R is bad) and Justin Mason's An anti-challenge-response Xmas linkfest
How to get email headers Instructions to open headers for various email clients and services like Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, Eudora, Lotus, etc.
SPAM-L LISTSERV mailing list dedicated to "Spam prevention and Discussion" by mail admins. ~ SPAM-L Archives.
Declude's Free tools
IANA's Root-Zone Whois Information - Index by TLD Code ccTLD country codes and corresponding country names. See also ISO 3166 Code lists.
The DNSBL countries.nerd.dk and their 127.0.n.n country code results can be used to detect which country with a single DNS TXT lookup to reversedIPaddressOctets.zz.countries.nerd.dk
MAAWG Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (AOL, Cloudmark, Google, Comcast, Earthlink, Yahoo, etc.)
Karmasphere and their VisiBL visual reputation service with input from CBL, PhishTank, SpamCop, SURBL, URIBL, etc.
Spamikaze uses spamtraps and other data to automatically build a DNSBL (GPL'd).
Vamsoft ORF - Open Relay Filter ($100/per year for upgrades) binds to a Microsoft smtpsvc (e.g. IIS SMTP 5 or 6 transport level or Windows Server 2008) allowing filtering such as: A/MX record check, rDNS regex, inclusive/exclusive white/blacklists for email addresses and IP addresses or keywords, cacheable DNS blacklists (SpamCop, Spamhaus, NJABL, PSBL, SORBS, etc.), Charset Blacklist, Tarpitting, maintains a duration-customizable triplet Greylist database (blocks p&d/spambots/zombies), broken sender FQDN, regex customizable HELO domain blacklisting (e.g., blacklisting non-bracketed IP addresses used as HELO/EHLO), SPF1 record lookups--all performed at either the "Before Arrival" filtering point (before delivery of message header/body/attachments) and/or the "On Arrival" filtering point (when the message DATA/body/attachments arrive). It also has customizable On Arrival-only actions (Drop/pretend protocol failure, Redirect, Tag) based on regular expressions, lookups of body website links against SURBL and URIBL, and external agents such as ClamAV.
SMTP tar pit feature for Microsoft Windows Server 2003
XRecipientList for MS Exchange 2000/2003 event sink.
Mailshell Exchange Plugin routes tagged messages to recipient's custom subfolder; free.
Spam Filter ISP similar to ORF but costs $600 and the Norman A/V plug-in costs $400/yr.
MailScanner open source; see intro and Julian Field's blog
Bruce Gingery's Turnaway mini SMTP daemon to tell unwanted connections to "go away"
Symantec Brightmail Antispam 17 filtering technologies including spam signatures, heuristics, reputation filters, and language identification.
SpamGourmet free accounts such as sometag.x.user@spamgourmet.com where x is the number of messages you want to receive (upto 20) and user is your spamgourmet username.
InBoxer (Outlook only) ~ Spam Bully ~ SpamFilter ~ SPAMfighter free; over 4 million PC's report on spam ~ Cloudmark Desktop (formerly SafetyBar and SpamNet)
MailWasher Server open-source, multi-platform, individual white/blacklists. (Server version doesn't appear to have the stupid spamming/bounce "feature" of the non-Enterprise Mail Washer.
Anti-Spam SMTP Proxy Server (ASSP) whitelists, Bayesian, and basic anti-virus filtering; Perl; GPL. Compare with amavisd-new and qpsmtpd.
CMS Praetor spam filter / content security / antivirus (feature list)
OpenBSD's spamd (man page)
dspam open-source statistical anti-spam filter with Bayesian Noise Reduction, Markovian discrimination, etc.
SpamBayes open-source trainable statistical scoring Python app with optional Outlook plugin.
IronPort's SenderBase Email Reputation Service (research senders, identify legitimate sources of email, etc.) ~ TrustedSource.org ~ dnswl.org DNS Whitelist of known legitimate email servers ~ Return Path's Sender Score Certified (formerly Bonded Sender; IronPort is no longer in partnership with Return Path as of April 2006)
BoderWare Security Network IP address reputation lookup and email notification service.
Declude "List of All Known DNS-based Spam Databases"
MailPolice domain lookup blocklist and email filtering services
Commtouch Recurrent Pattern Detection Technology (RPD) (requires IE5.5+ and uses ActiveX plug-in for Outlook ; used by many such as WatchGuard's SpamScreen) and Untangle.
SpamCop IP blacklist database to check incoming mail attempts. Please report daily to them any spam not already blacklisted. ~ How To Automate Spamcop Submissions ~ WWW::Mechanize::SpamCop ~ OLSpamCop's SpamGrabber free SpamCop submission toolbar for Outlook. (Compare with SpamSource; other tools listed on SpamCop's FAQ)
Barracuda Reputation Block List (BRBL)
EmailReg.org used by Barracuda and others; $20/yr; confirm by adding CNAME for a serialized subdomain of your registered domain, pointing to emailreg.org
HostedScripts Anti-Spam Link to this page of random email addresses to send email harvesting bots to a loop-o-junk.
Vipul's Razor - statistical and signature-based spam confidence test based on reputation of submitters of spam samples to their network.
DCC Distributed Checksum Clearinghouse.
The SpamBouncer spam filter that runs under Procmail.
Bayesian filtering: SpamBayes ~ POPFile ~ K9 (active forum)
Bogofilter advanced Bayesian filgering; uses wordlist stored in BerkelyDB
The Apache SpamAssassin Project open source spam filter. ~ InstallingOnWindows ~ SpamAssassin for Win32 ~ spamc32 derived from WinSpamC ~ SARE (SpamAssassin Rules Emporium) ~ Perceptron rule-weighting algorithm instead of a GeneticAlgorithm ~ WebRedirectPlugin for SpamAssassin; fetches web pages linked to in messages and provides their contents in a pseudo-header that can be used in custom header rules. ~ Mail::SpamAssassin::Plugin::Shortcircuit Shortcircuiting a test will force all other pending rules to be skipped if that test is hit. ~ OcrPlugin ~ FuzzyOcr ~ ImageInfo ~ TextOCR for spamassassin 3.1+
EximConfig configuration and ACL files preferably used in conjunction with SpamAssassin and the SA-Exim patch (Exim SpamAssassin at SMTP time).
Backscatterers.org (powered by UCEProtect) and Backscatterers.com listings ~ SpamLinks.net Preventing Backscatter See also Bouncing messages do no good, Spam Filter Server Addons, etc.
PMilter Pure Perl implementation of the Milter protocol used by Sendmail, including drop-in replacement for the Sendmail::Milter interface. ~ uses Sendmail::PMilter which uses the SpamAssassin libraries with merely the 20_uri_tests.cf rules file (relatively light) to strip the URI's from a message and check them against multi.surbl.org and black.uribl.com and reject any messages that contains blacklisted URI's ~ SnertSoft milter-link.
Postfix: policyd-weight policy daemon for postfix. Score DNSBLs (RBL/RHSBL), HELO, MAIL FROM, Client IP Addresses before any queuing is done. ~ Postfix Monitoring With Mailgraph And pflogsumm (RRDtool frontend mailgraph by David Schweikert and pflogsumm by Jim Seymour) ~ Jim Seymour's suggestions/examples for Postfix anti-UCE configuration (Aka: Postfix Anti-UCE Cheat Sheet). ~ spam-stats.pl count and classify discard: and reject: lines in postfix mail logs.

Greylisting : Greylisting.org ~ Greylisting Whitepaper by Evan Harris. Compare with NoListing and FakeMX.org (SpamAssassin OtherTricks wiki) ~ Links to (Greylisting) Implementations and Information ~ Puremagic's greylisting/schema/whitelist_ip.txt. Compare with ORF's Greylisting IP Exceptions.
Greylisting for Postfix: Postgrey ~ SQLgrey ~ Gld ~ Gld howto Greylisting for Postfix on Debian and Gentoo ~ gps - greylist policy service for postfix.

URI / URL Deobfuscator / Link Extactor : Mail::SpamAssassin::Plugin::URIDNSBL SpamAssassin has extensive deobfuscation code. For speed, use an empty rules directory. ~ Mail::SpamAssassin::SpamCopURI ~ HTML::LinkExtractor ~ HTML::SimpleLinkExtor.

Anti-Phishing : PhishRegistry monitors the Internet for malicious copies of a website and provides weekly reports. ~ Anti-Phishing Working Group ~ DSL Reports Phish Tracker ~ PhishTank collaborative clearing house about phishing and malware.
Steve Basford's Sane Security phish.ndb and scam.ndb phishing and scam signatures for ClamAV. See also Malware Block List and MSRBL-SPAM.ndb and MSRBL-Images.hdb.

Regular Expressions / Regex : Chris Schmidt's Regex Creator / Evaluator ~ The Regex Coach (Windows, Linux/x86, FreeBSD) experiment with (Perl-compatible) regular expressions interactively. ~ Regular-Expressions.info ~ Txt2regex Regular Expression Wizard using built-in Bash commands.
~ RExT Regular Expressions Tester Firefox extension to test regular expressions.
Sender Policy Framework (formerly Sender Permitted From) / SPoofs Forgeries / SPF : SPF Setup Wizard Create DNS records specifying the permissible origins/sources of messages which use your email domain name so others can block spoofs/forgeries. Spammers tend to avoid forging domains that have published SPF1 records.
(Compare with defunct CSV - Certified Server Validation.)
Common objection: SPF breaks forwarding. Solutions: SRS: Sender Rewriting Scheme or Return Path Rewriting.
Microsoft's Sender ID Framework SPF Record Wizard ~ How to Add an SPF Record in Win2000 and 2003 Server DNS
Vamsoft's SPF Checker (and SPF Syntax Validator) ~ Kitterman.com's Python Based SPF Record Testing Tools.
libspf2 libraries for Sendmail, Postfix, Exim, MS Exchange, etc. to implement SPF checking.
List of Broken SPF Records and the major reasons.

Yahoo DomainKeys / DKIM : Yahoo! FAQ Which mail transfer agents (MTAs) support DomainKeys?

IP Calculators / Subnet Calculators / CIDR conversion : Chris Schmidt's Subnet Calculator ~ IP Workshop Pro ~ SolarWinds Subnet Calculator and TFTP server ~ Network Calculators online ~ Famatech's Advanced IP Calculator ~ IP CIDR / VLSM Calculator ~ ijack.net IP Subnet Calculator ~ jodies.de IP Calculator ~ WildPackets IP Subnet Calculator for Windows.

IPv4 Address Space Management : phpIP Management ~ IPSpace.

IP Address Lookups / Whois / DNSRBL / Relay BlackLists :
jwhois and Jwhois for Windows.
IANA's INTERNET PROTOCOL V4 ADDRESS SPACE allocation page. ~ RIPE NCC Service Region ~ world map of the major IP Address Registries RIPE NCC, ARIN, APNIC, AfriNIC and LACNIC.
ARIN American Registry for Internet Numbers (IP Addresses) ~ Kloth.net for DIG and NSLOOKUP allowing you to specify nameserver. ~ DNS Stuff IP, domain and SPF record lookups, URL deobfuscator, etc. (see: How to Obscure Any URL) ~ MxToolbox includes free blacklist monitoring ~ DNS Report and email delivery test tool. ~ drbcheck Dr. Jorgen Mash's DNS Database list checker ~ robtex swiss army knife internet tool (Multi-RBL check, etc.) ~ OpenRBL DNSBL, Whois, Route ~ rwhois ~ rwhoisd.
The Team Cymru Bogon Reference Page ~ The Spamhaus DROP "Don't Route Or Peer" List.
open-whois.org list of domains which are privately (or anonymously) registered, e.g. through services such as Domains By Proxy, or Moniker Privacy Protection.
The Day Old Bread List DNSRBL contains domains registered within the last five days (shouldn't send email yet).
CMS BL-Monitor "Free Visual Tool to Monitor DNS Blacklist Server Effectiveness and Responsiveness"
BW Whois command-line; lots of features. Example usage: BWwhois --shift 1 --stripdisclaimer 203.57.241.101 (See also Deobfuscation and Analysis tool by Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz)
Network Solutions Enhanced WHOIS Directory Covers multiple WHOIS databases; search by domain name, nic handle, IP Address. Use VeriSign Whois Search for .com, .net, .edu., .cc., .tv., and .jobs ~ PIR (Public Interest Registry) .ORG WHOIS Search for .org ~ InterNIC Whois for .aero, .arpa, .biz, .cat, .com, .coop, .info, .int, .mobi, .museum, .name, .pro, and .travel.

Web Hosting and Domain Name Registration : WebHost Magazine Buyer's Guide ~ HostReview ~ FindMyHosting.com ~ 1&1 (cheapest) ~ LunarPages RedHat Enterprise Linux 3 on Dell PowerEdge 2850 servers (dual Xeon 3.2Ghz and 4GB RAM) and fast customer service. ~ Pair Networks web hosting on FreeBSD with Telnet/SSH access. ~ BraveNet.com free webhosting (50MB storage, 1.5GB monthly bandwidth and easy website builders). ~ Aplus.Net (makers of PDF2Web).
Pool.com "Our Deleting Domains service allows you to backorder domains for free! We will monitor expiring and deleting domains every day and will attempt to secure the domains you want as soon as they become available." If the domain is currently with Network Solutions, then also use SnapNames.
Instant Domain Search and DomainsBot to quickly find available domain names, slight variations, synonyms, etc.
Sedo huge domain market place.

DNS / Domain Name Servers / BIND / Dynamic DNS : Comparison of DNS server software ~ Unbound validating, recursive, and caching DNS resolver (C; BSD) ~ Traditional DNS Howto ~ RFC 1912 - Common DNS Operational and Configuration Errors ~ DNS for Rocket Scientists online book used as basis for Apress' Pro DNS and BIND. ~ DNSSec.net ~ ISC BIND ~ BIND9.net ~ Secure BIND Template ~ Two-in-one DNS server with BIND9 how to configure BIND9 DNS server to serve an internal network and an external network at the same time with different set of information using View. ~ DNS server setup on GNU/Linux NS theory and onfiguration guidelines on GNU/Linux and OpenBSD using BIND and NSD.
MyDNS free DNS server for UNIX; serves records from MySQL (HOWTO article: Running A MySQL-Based DNS Server: MyDNS) or PostgreSQL ~ PowerDNS also serves records from MySQL or PostgreSQL; used by Register.com, Schlund.de (1&1) and Tucows. See PowerDNS Express web based DNS management. ~ NicTool GPL'd web-based DNS managment. See also IPplan.
DNS.net (DNS RD) DNS Resources Directory (and their comparison page of Unix-based DNS).
Granite Canyon - The Public DNS ~ ZoneEdit ~ NeuStar Ultra Services (formerly UltraDNS.com) ~ OpenDNS ~ EveryDNS ~ EasyDNS ~ DynDNS ~ No-IP.com ~ TZO ~ DynIP ~ dnsExit.com ~ ODS Open Domain Server.
Microsoft's How to prevent DNS cache pollution for NT4, Win2K and Win2K3 Server.
DNS Resolver Queried IP Check Registry Hack to ensure Windows clients accept DNS query results only from the IP address of the queried DNS server.
D. J. Bernstein's djbdns DNS cache, server (see tinydns) and client used by Lycos, citysearch.com, pobox.com, 1.85 million .com's, directNIC, MyDomain/NamesDirect, Interland, Dotster, Easyspace, Namezero, and Netfirms. Like qmail, author offers unclaimed $500 security hole reward since at least 2001.
rbldnsd small and fast DNS daemon especially made to serve DNSBL zones inspired by Dan J. Bernstein's rbldns program found in the djbdns package. Windows port: Wrbldnsd - Rbldnsd for Windows.
Roller Networks secondary DNS, backup MX, SMTP redirection, SMTP filtering, etc. ($25 donation for advanced services such as Greylisting)

Windows Server Microsoft Windows Server 2000/2003 Operating System Management monitors processor, memory, disk health, availability, and key performance metrics (2000/XP client version) ~ Windows 2000 Resource Kit tools (Daniel Petri)

Windows 2003 Server Resource Kit Tools ~ Administration Tools Pack ~ Tools for Troubleshooting ~ Windows Server 2003 Security Guide

Network Scanner : GFI LANguard Network Security Scanner ~ NetScanTools Pro ~ SoftPerfect Network Scanner.

HTTP proxy/traffic examiner/viewer/sniffer : HttpWatch ~ Fiddler PowerToy for IE.

IIS Web Server utilities :
Serving the Web : Nine Tips to Enhance IIS Security : Securing your IIS 6.0 installation
Microsoft Anti-Cross Site Scripting Library V1.5
ServerMask Web Server Anonymization and Obfuscation (IIS 4/5/6)
Microsoft's TechNet default resource page for Internet Information Services 6 (Win2K3 Server) See tools for Securing IIS, Migration from v5, Resource Kit, Server Performance Advisor, etc.
Securing IIS 5 and 5.1 (Win2K Server) ~ Securing IIS 6
IISShield (alternate link) free application layer firewall for IIS better than IIS Lockdown 2.1 and its built-in URLscan 2.0
UrlScan v3.1 for IIS 5.1 (XP), 6 (2003) and 7 (2008)
FastCGI Extension for IIS6
Hackerbasher Diverts attacks to a dead end and records traffic in a single log.
Microsoft's SYN flooding attack protection feature (Win2k Registy hack)
Configuring FTP in Isolation Mode (Win2K3 IIS6)
Microsoft's Script Encoder and GreyMagic Online Script Decoder
N-Stalker's N-Stealth IIS and Apache website vulnerability scanner; free download.
eEye's SecureIIS

FTP Client / FTP Server : WinSCP freeware SFTP and SCP client for Windows ~ FileZilla FTP and SFTP and Server version. ~ SmartFTP ~ FTP Commander ~ CoreFTP ~ Pure-FTPd ~ ProFTPD Highly configurable GPL-licensed FTP server (not compiled for MS Windows, but runs in Cygwin). ~ vsftpd "Probably the most secure and fastest FTP server for UNIX-like systems." (used by ftp.redhat.com, ftp.openbsd.org and ftp.suse.com) ~ wget for Windows (stable; page links to newer version here).

File Download Manager / Website Copier : Free Download Manager Resume incomplete downloads and download pieces simultaneously to increase throughput. ~ HTTrack website copier for offline viewing and archiving (WinHTTrack for Windows and WebHTTrack for Linux/Unix/BSD).

SEO / Search Engine Optimization / SEM / Search Engine Marketing : SEOmoz Beginner's Guide to Search Engine Optimization and their Search Engine Ranking Factors.
High Rankings Advisor articles.

Website Utilities : reCAPTCHA service that helps to detect bots and digitize books and newspapers
.htaccess Editor online ~ WebGUI website platform; easy CMS (Perl; GPL'd) ~ myIPneighbors lists domains at an IP address
mon.itor.us Free web site monitoring ~ WebSitePulse remote monitoring service for web apps and round-trip email tests. Compare with Pingdom.
Gigaloader (formerly Megaloader) Server stress tester.
HTMLTrim highly customizable HTML/XHTML/XML pretty-printer and fixer for Windows that uses HTML Tidy.
CSS contents and browser compatibility chart.
CSS Optimizer ~ Clean CSS ~ Flumpcakes ~ Icey CSS Compressor
Browsershots submit a webpage to see what it looks like in dozens of browsers. ~ See also Adobe BrowserLab.
HTML Validators (CSE 3310, Netmechanic, Link Scan, Bobby (now directs to Watchfire's WebXACT), W3C, Dr. HTML, weblint, MOMspider and Webxref) ~ HiSoftware accessibility monitor site test ~ WAVE Accessibility Tool ~ UITest.com ~ OCAWA Accessibility audit of one page ~ Accessibility Valet Demonstrator.
Dead links / check links / link validators: Xenu's Link Sleuth (Windows) ~ Dead-Links.com or W3C Link Checker.
WebXACT free online service to test web pages for quality, accessibility, and privacy issues.
Nuetool's StripFile can remove comments and unnecessary data from GIF, JPEG and PNG image files and HTML.
FavIcon from Pics online creator ~ IconEdit32 create Favorite (Bookmark) icons that can include all valid combinations of size and color depths. ~ Compare with IconEdit Pro.
Gary Keith's browscap.ini (browser capabilities databases) "to create pages that are free from browser-specific design limitations, more consistent across all browsers, or highly specialized based on the visitor's capabilities."
Paros a proxy (written in Java) for web application security assessment. Data between client and server can be intercepted and modified.
Page Snooper retrieves and displays the HTML source code of a web site.
PageLock prevent viewing source or copying images.
ScanAlert Hacker site seal received after their security certification results in more customers.
Spam Proof eMail Address Generator creates a picture of your email address; specify font style and color. ~ The Hivelogic Enkoder keeps the email address clickable ~ Syronex Anti-Spam Tool javascript encoding with optional challenge ~ John Haller's Obfuscate Mailto 1.01 email address not clickable but remains visible if JavaScript disabled.
dmoz Mozilla's open directory project. Submit your site's URL and if listed after human vetting, many search engines will start crawling and indexing your site.
Google Analytics (formerly Urchin Web Analytics) "shows you how people found your site, how they explored it, and how you can enhance the visitor experience."
Foundstone's SiteDigger Searches Google's cache of a website to look for vulnerabilities, errors, configuration issues, proprietary information, etc.

Web Design / Content Management Systems / CMS : Drupal ~ Serendipity PHP Weblog/Blog software (BSD licensed) ~ TinyMCE Javascript HTML WYSIWYG editor control (LGPL) ~ SOLMETRA SPAW Editor web based in-browser WYSIWYG editor control.
10 CSS Tips from a Professional CSS Architect
CSS Cheat Sheet
Free open source web design templates: OpenWebDesign.org ~ OpenSourceTemplates.org ~ OpenDesigns.org ~ OSWD.org ~ FreeLayouts.com
thePeoplesToolbox sorted by user votes ~ Web Design from Scratch ~ Web Design Library "Designer's One-Stop Resource"
CMS Watch / The CMS Report a comprehensive overview of Web Content Management products and best practices.
CMS Matrix easiliy compare CMS tools.
Seth Gottlieb's "epic whitepaper" on Content Management Problems and Open Source Solutions.
Open Source Content Management Systems (CMS) in Java
TYPO3 "free Open Source content management system for enterprise purposes on the web and in intranets."
Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Dreamweaver and/or Contribute. ~ webEdition CMS for PHP, MySQL, XML, XHTML, etc. ~ GlobalSCAPE's PureCMS. ~ "Joomla! is one of the most powerful Open Source Content Management Systems on the planet."
Plone open source intranet/extranet/portal server, document publishing system, groupware tool; over 50 language translations; built using Zope.

Revision Control software (comparison) / SCM (souce content/control managment) / CVS / Concurrent Versions System / Version Control System / Subversion / SVN : Subversion aka SVN; command line interface. ~ Version Control with Subversion online book ~ TortoiseSVN SVN interface integrates with Windows Explorer and comon file dialogs ~ eSvn QT GUI for Subversion ~ RapidSVN GUI for Subversion written in C++ using the wxWidgets framework ~ WebSVN PHP based web interface of Subversion repositories ~ KDESvn subversion client for KDE ~ SyntEvo SmartCVS and SamrtSVN ~ Syncro SVN Client cross platform; full/productive SVN interface. ~ more at Tigris.org.
Git - Fast Version Control System (used for the Linux kernel). ~ FileHamster for Windows.
MediaWiki.org

Enterprise Content Managment / Records Management / Document Management : Interwoven ~ Hummingbird.

Web Browsers : Run IE6 or IE7 on Windows 2000/XP for testing: Virtual PC 2004 SP1 and Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image (IE6 and IE7) ~ free Virtual PC 2007 for Windows. ~ How to get IE 5.0, IE 5.5, IE 6.0 and IE 7.0 (release) running concurrently on Linux.. See also User Agent String Utility version 2 for IE7 to pretend/emulate IE6.
Mozilla's Firefox (FAQ) (latest Patches for various versions, Release Candidates, and Betas or the latest nightly builds).
Silent install Firefox by adding -ms after the .exe
FrontMotion Mozilla Firefox MSI and optional Administrative Template/lockdown support.
MozBackup creates backups of Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, Mozilla Suite and Netscape profiles. Backup and restore bookmarks, mail, contacts, history, extensions, cache etc.
See the patching record timeline of publicly available "in the wild" vulnerabilities with IE compared to 0 exploit days with Firefox and Opera: A Year Of Bugs by Scanit NV.
Firefox Extensions: Update Scanner Monitors web pages for updates. Useful for websites that don't provide Atom or RSS feeds. ~ NoScript asks permission to run JavaScript and Java; remembers selections ~ Tiny Menu ~ CustomizeGoogle ~ FireFTP ~ Encrypt This! ~ Zotero cite sources / research citations ~ Google Browser Sync ~ Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer ~ It's All Text! specify an editor for an edit box such as Gmail's compose. ~ IE Tab Embedding Internet Explorer in tabs. ~ Advanced Dork right-click access to advanced Google operators ~ FormFox mouse over the final Submit button to reveal the destination and if it is https/secure/encrypted ~ Skype Web Toolbar converts telephone #'s to click-and-call #'s ~ Adblock Filterset.G Updater - Firefox Extension ~ ODFReader - Firefox Extension ~ VideoDownloader Download videos from Youtube, Google, Metacafe, iFilm, Dailymotion, embedded movies, mp3s, flash, quicktime, etc. ~ Mozilla Archive Format - Firefox Extension allows complete web pages to be saved in a single archive file. Uses RDF to save page meta-data. It also allows pages to be saved in a seperate MHTML compatible format for interoperability with IE systems. ~ Web Developer Firefox enstion adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools. (Author's website) ~ Firebug web development ~ RefControl ~ LiveHTTPHeaders ~ EditCSS
John Haller's Portable Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, AbiWord, GAIM, etc. Run these apps from portable media (CD, USB thumbdrive, iPod, etc.)
Tab Mix or Tabbrowser Extensions or Tabbrowser Preferences. Tab Preview for Firefox 1.5 shows a small preview of tab/page contents while the mouse hovers over a tab.
XULPlanet XML User Interface Language. Not to be confused with the FOX Toolkit (Free Objects for X) a C++ based class library for building cross-platform GUI's.
Prevent Javascript from hiding Firefox's XUL tool/menu/status bars to making spoofing obvious: Slashdot.org post 1 and post 2
To enable Windows automatic authentication like IE does, eliminating the need to click on login confirmation buttons, enter about:config in the address bar and add http://sitename.com to network.automatic-ntlm-auth.trusted-uris (and possibly network.negotiate-auth.delegation-uris and network.negotiate-auth.trusted-uris for some sites).
Netcraft Find out what software websites are running, which have the longest uptimes, etc. Free download: anti-fraud and anti-phishing Netcraft Toolbar (IE and Firefox) Better than Corestreet's Spoofstick and the Earthlink Toolbar featuring ScamBlocker.
scanit browser security test (IE or Firefox; temporarily disable pop-up blocking for the site)
Opera web browser. Small, fast, standards compliant (e.g., passes Acid2 Browser Test). Free version no longer contains ads. Less than 4MB in size, yet hightly configurable GUI, saves Bookmark (Favorites) sessions, email client, etc. ~ Web Developer Toolbar & Menu for Opera ~ Opera W3-Dev Menu.
Evolt.org IE 6 standalone (run IE6 concurrent with IE7)

NewsReaders / RSS Readers / Podcasting : XanaNews for Windows. ~ NewsGator / FeedDemon's FeedStation (more secure than others because in addition to stripping out ActiveX, VB and OnLoad events like most reader/feeders, it restricts downloads to default media file-type extensions yet can be manually modified to include new safe extensions.) ~ Omea Reader ~ RSSOwl open-source; multi-platform ~ Bloglines personal, shareable online RSS blog page (part of Ask Jeeves) ~ BlogBridge free, open source (Windows XP, Mac OS X and Linux) ~ NewsGator Online (web based)

Web Proxy / Web Cache : memcached (used by Digg, Slashdot, and Facebook) ~ Microsoft's ISA Server 2004 (Internet Security and Acceleration Server) ~ Google's Web Accerator for broadband connections (Cable, DSL, T1, etc.)
PHProxy to bypass firewall and other proxy restrictions
Cotse.net Email, Anti-spam, Web hosting, Web proxies, etc.
Squid (Unix/Linux) and squidGuard combined filter, redirector and access controller plugin for Squid ~ Squid for Windows ~ Proxify.

Text Editors / HTML Editors / WordPad and Notepad replacements : ~ NOTEPAD++ based on SciTE ~ Geany ~ UltraEdit ~ Notepad2 ~ EtherPad share a link with others to edit the same document using color-coded highlighting for each person. ~ FCKeditor lightweight HTML text editor for webpages with Word-like features ~ ListXP opens files that WordPad thinks is in use/locked. ~ TextPipe Pro ~ HTML-Kit with over 440 free plugins. ~ Acme SAC from Rob Pike / Plan 9 / Inferno. ~ EditPad Lite and Pro (Windows, Linux) ~ metapad small, fast, free. ~ EditPad Pro, PowerGREP, RegexBuddy ~ EditPlus ~ JOE Joe's Own Editor (like Wordstar) ~ gedit the official text editor of the GNOME desktop environment. ~ Kate (KDE Advanced Text Editor) text editor for the KDE Desktop Environment. ~ jedit programmer's text editor (Mac OS X, OS/2, Unix, VMS, Windows) ~ JED Editor ~ Leo general data management environment, outlinging editor, project manager, etc. (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X) ~ Crimson Editor with line numbers, syntax highlighting, etc. ~ PSPad ~ Intype for Windows (similar to TextMate for Mac).
~ Codetch Gecko based (like Firefox) code editor. ~ VIM and gVIM improved versions of the vi text editor distributed with most Unix systems. Wikipedia Vim. Cream for Gvim (see shortcuts).
Emacs. Wikipedia Emacs ~ CEDET Collection of Emacs Development Environment Tools. ~ ECB Emacs Code Browser. ~ The Woodnotes Guide to Emacs for Writers (Also by Randal Wood: Easing the Pain of Coding Avalon Documents with jedit) ~ WhizzyTeX minor mode for Emacs or XEmacs, a bash shell-script daemon and some LaTeX macros. ~ Graph-TeX for drawing graphs. ~ MiKTex for Windows ~ LyX Document Processor ~ GNU TeXmacs ~ pdfTeX ~ TeXShop Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later ~ XeTeX Mac OS X 10.3 or later ~ CSV2LaTeX converter ~ LaTeX2HTML ~ AUCTeX extensible package for writing and formatting TeX files in GNU Emacs and XEmacs. ~ Configuring Unicode support in Emacs ~ Zile small Emacs clone.
~ XEmacs Emacs with GUI support.
HTMLAsText Batch convert HTML to text by removing tags and formatting output according to preferences.
Convert XLS Convert Excel to/from to many file types including CSV, XML, HTM, TXT, SLK, WKS, DBF, Lotus and others. GUI and command line batch conversion.
Nvu web editing environment based on the Mozilla platform and its Gecko layout engine. Binaries for Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and FreeBSD. (KompoZer Nvu's unoffical bug-fix release).
TSW WebCoder for Windows (v5 free).
Evrsoft First Page 2006 for HTML, XHTML, PHP, ASP, Cold Fusion, Javascript, CSS, SSI and Perl.
Hex editor: XVI32 or Hxd Freeware Hex Editor for Windows (self-contained executible; no installation Registry entries)
XML Marker edit XML files in color coded and expandable tree views.

Diff / Merge / Compare : WinMerge ~ KDiff3 compare with Meld ~ Guiffy ~ vimdiff (diff gvimdiff diff-mode) ~ ColorDiff

Microsoft Office : Office Update
Microsoft LookOut version 1.30 free Outlook addin from Microsoft to quickly search e-mail, contacts, calendar and filesystem (Google for lookout130.exe)
Express ClickYes Automatically clicks Yes to the Outlook dialog box indicating another program is trying to access your email address to send a message.
Outlook Thread Compressor for Outlook 2000 and higher. (Microsoft's Outlook Code Samples page contains a link to threadcompressor.exe which expands the individual Visual Basic project files).
Word Viewer 2003 (view Word 97 through 2003, Microsoft Works or WordPerfect docs) ~ Excel Viewer 2003 (view Excel 97 through 2003 spreadsheets) ~ PowerPoint Viewer 2003 (view PowerPoint 97 through 2003 presentations) ~ Visio 2002 Viewer (view Visio 5, 2000, or 2002 drawings/diagrams) ~ Visio 2003 Viewer (view Visio 5 through 2003 drawings/diagrams; requires Win2K, WinXP or 2K3 Server).
Microsoft Excel Excess Formatting Cleaner Add-in
ASAP Utilities 300+ Excel utilities ~ ExTools ~ MrExcel.com index of the articles and tips you will find at the "Big Three" Excel sites (200+ articles from MrExcel, 185 articles from Chip Pearson, 75+ articles from John Walkenbach) ~ My Excel Pages -- David McRitchie.
Office 2000 Resource Kit.
TechHit's EZDetach, MessageSave, AutoRead, etc. Add-ons and Custom Rule Actions for Outlook. ~ Personal Message Store (PST) Export Utility PMSEU exports Internet messages out of Outlook and preserves their headers ~ Pocketknife Peek to safely see an Outlook message header and HTML.

Tweaking / Tuning / Optimizing Microsoft Windows : JScreenFix fix stuck pixels and remove burn-in.
ClearType for WinXP Turn it on and tune it in. (Tuner requires IE/ActiveX)
LCD Calibration screens The LCD Resolution Trick. Black and white pixel matrix to display full-screen on an LCD monitor before pressing its calibration button to result in crisper text.
PowerToys for WinXP ~ Tweak UI 1.33 ~ Compare with Creative Element Power Tools and Fresh Devices' Fresh UI.
PC Wizard ~ TuneUp Utilities ~ iolo's System Mechanic.
WinXP SP2 Support Tools ~ Win2K3 Server SP1 32-bit Support Tools
DirectX 9.0c End-User Runtime for multimedia and games.
User Profile Hive Cleanup Service speeds up a slow Log Off or Shut Down (Win2K, Win2K3 and WinXP.)

Fax Servers : GFI FAXmaker for Exchange/SMTP ~ FaxBACK NET SatisFAXtion ~ Captaris RightFAX ~ FaxCore (uses .NET) ~ HylaFAX "The world's most advanced open source fax server" ~ Esker Fax for Unix/Linux/Exchange/Notes.

Windows Registry Backup / System State Backup / Monitor Installation Changes : System State backup using Windows Backup in Windows 2000: Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Backup | Backup tab | checkmark System State. For Windows XP, install ValueAdd/Msft/Ntbackup/Ntbackup.msi from the Windows XP installation CD.
Epsilon Squared's InstallWatch and InstallRite. ~ 2BrightSparks' InstallSpy and FingerPrint to monitor changes to file sytem and registry.
ERUNT The Emergency Recovery Utility NT and NTREGOPT Registry Optimization for Windows NT/2000/2003/XP.
How to Use the Backup Utility to Back Up Files and Folders in Windows XP Home Edition
How To Use Backup to Back Up Files and Folders on Your Computer in Windows XP
How to back up, edit, and restore the registry in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003
How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting

Disk Clone / Drive Image / Drive and File Backups : Mozy Remote Backup ~ DropBoks ~ Omnidrive ~ box.net ~ Freedrive ~ JustUpIt ~ Ewedrive ~ Data Deposit Box
DriveImage XML freeware for Windows XP/2003/Vista/WinPE CD. Acronis True Image (v11 best price; v8 free) ~ PC Inspector cone maxx by CONVAR (Windows; free) ~ Clonezilla GPL; uni and multicasting. ~ BootIt Next Generation partitioning, imaging multi-booting; supports NTFS and 9x/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/Servers ~ EASEUS Partition Master ~ Partition Logic free hard disk partitioning for Windows. ~ g4l hard disk and partition imaging and cloning tool. ~ g4u (free) ~ HDClone (free Boot CD) ~ r-tools Drive Image ~ Symantec Symantec Norton Save & Restore (improves and adds features to Ghost 10.0; previous Ghost version was merged/replaced with code from PowerQuest Drive Image) ~ Symantec GoBack (formerly Roxio's GoBack). ~ Symantec Backup Exec 10 (formerly Veritas Backup Exec 9)
NovaStor NovaBACKUP inexpensive; encyption option. ~ Computer Associates BrightStor ARCserve Backup (formerly Cheyenne Backup).
~ CleverSafe GPL'd; stores across 11 grid nodes, 5 of which may go bad before data loss. ~ BackupPC GPL'd; On WinXX the standard smb protocol is used to extract backup data (Linux/POSIX/BSD/Solaris) ~ Amanda and Zmanda ~ EMC Insignia Retrospect formerly Dantz Retrospect; PC Magazine Editor's Choice ~ SimpleTech StorageSync (Standard Edition is free). ~ 2BrightSparks' SyncBack freeware. ~ Genie Backup Manager ~ Bacula ~ Novosoft Handy Backup ~ BackupAssist ~ StoreGrid ~ Cobian Backup ~ SiteVAULT website backup.

Fast disk based file server backups : Dirvish (used at OSU's OSL) ~ duplicity (tar-format; GnuPG encrypted) ~ rsnapshot (Perl; uses rsync and hard links)

Hardware Monitor / Benchmarking / Diagnostics / Check Disk / CHKDSK / S.M.A.R.T. :
Memtest86 A stand-alone Memory Diagnostic. Compare with memtest86+ ~ Microsoft Windows Memory Diagnostic.
CPU-Z freeware that gathers information on some of the main devices of your system.
SIW - System Information for Windows
SiSoftware Sandra benchmarker. (eg., is the CPU really a 3.0Ghz Pentium 4 as claimed?)
Microsoft's Performance Monitor Wizard.
EVEREST Home Edition hardware diagnostics and memory benchmarking. Compare with AIDA32.
Alex van Kaam's Motherboard Monitor Heat/Temperature, Voltage and Fan RPM monitor for Windows.
Conky system monitor for Linux. See also htop interactive process viewer and Iotop (python).
HDD Health uses Self Monitoring and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) ~ Speedfan monitors voltages, fan speeds and temperatures, SMART, etc. ~ SimpleTech PassMark DiskCheckup Drive monitoring (Windows; free; non-resident) ~ Active SMART Hard drive diagnostic and failure prediction using SMART. (Windows; $25; memory resident).
Foundstone's free tools.
Alex van Kaam's Motherboard Monitor.
Lm-sensors Linux system hardware monitoring.

Boot CD / System Rescue CD : Bootdisk.com utilities ~ bootdisk.info / bootcd.info ~ Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD ~ SystemRescueCd ~ Trinity Rescue Kit password resets, edit registry, NTFS read/undelete/write(limited), 2 antivirus scanners, etc. (Mandrake / Mandriva) ~ Knoppix Live CD (Debian GNU/Linux) ~ Frenzy (FreeBSD) ~ Ultimate Boot CD Consolidate as many diagnostic tools as possible into one bootable CD ~ Windows Ultimate Boot CD.
USB boot: Tom's Hardware Windows In Your Pocket ~ WeetHet - Boot from USB Flash drive ~ Linux bootable USB key HOWTO ~ Boot KNOPPIX from an USB Memory Stick.

Disk Recovery / Drive Recovery / Data Recovery / Undelete :
Brian Kato's Restoration small; requires no installation ~ Recuva (from makers of CCleaner) ~ CDCheck ~ Roadkil's Unstoppable Copier ~ IsoBuster CD and DVD data recovery ~ TestDisk and PhotoRec GPL'd ~ PC INSPECTOR Free File Recovery, Smart Recovery (reconstruct lost data on memory media), e-maxx, clone maxx (free disk cloning), task manager and fs guard. Not free: Print HTML (ActiveX avoids print dialog boxes) and WatchIT (2-second drive restore PCI or USB device).
Smart Data Recovery supports FAT and NTFS.
Runtime Software GetDataBack
dd_rescue copy data from one file or block device to another. (Linux; GPL) and GNU ddrescue.
Steve Gibson's SpinRite 6.0 supports NTFS and moves the drive's read head to approach and discern data in troubled spots from different angles and velocities.
Excel Rebuilder AKA Excel Workbook Rebuilder (from vbUsers.com) ~ cimaware Office/Access/Excel/WordFix ~ OfficeRecovery (AKA Recoveronix) product list including FreeUndelete, Exchange Server, Money, etc.
VirtualLab Data Recovery Software and iDriveRepair (BinaryBiz) ~ R-Studio Data Recovery Software (rtt; r-tools technology)
O&O DiskRecovery V3.0 ~ Ontrack Data Recovery (big-name, but expensive) ~ DriveSavers.

Wipe Free Disk Space : Jetico's BCWipe invoke either the US DoD 5200.28-STD standard or the Peter Gutmann wiping scheme to truly delete deleted files. (Windows, Linux and Unix)(The very popular Heidi Eraser hasn't been updated for awhile.) ~ DBAN: Darik's Boot and Nuke boot-up disk (Linux) for PC's to securely wipe everything from a hard disk (prevents data recovery). ~ Try File Shredder or Tolvanen's Eraser or AnalogX's SuperShredder or UltraShredder for single files.

Zip / Unzip File Compression / Exraction : 7-Zip free (GNU LGPL) ~ PeaZip open source ~ Universal Extractor ~ ZipGenius ~ IZarc free and easy ~ PowerArchiver ~ bxAutoZip for Outlook and Outlook Express; automatically compresses attachments. ~ WinZip ~ Universal Extractor

Batch Scripting Languages : ScriptLogic Desktop/Server Managment and KiXtart. ~ Windows Script 5.6 for Win2K and WinXP and Windows Server 2003.

Windows (program/package/application) Installers
dXLoader .net app which synchronizes/updates/installs files or programs over the network/Internet according to configurable schedule.
UPX the Ultimate Packer for eXecutables (Windows and Linux).
Mark's Sysinternals Blog: Single-image download and execution with no setup program.
Microsoft's Windows Installer XML (WiX) toolset builds Windows installation packages (eg., MSI and MSM) from XML source code. ~ How to use the Orca database editor to edit Windows Installer files (such as removing the unnecessary VersionNT > 500 restiction from Windows Defender so it installs on Windows 2000)
Microsoft's Windows Installer Redistributable 4.5 (for Windows XP SP2, Vista, Server 2003 and 2008 (See 3.1 v2 for Win2K SP3)(Note v2 was released 5/12/2005) (version included in WinXP SP2 is 3.0) or 2.0 for Win95, Win98 and ME or 2.0 for WinNT SP6a or Win2K
Microsoft's Windows Installer CleanUp Utility
Macrovision's FLEXnet InstallShield and InstallAnywhere, DemoShield, etc. ~ Altiris's Wise Package Studio, Wise for Windows Installer, and Wise Installation System ~ Ethalone's Ghost Installer ~ Clickteam Install Creator
Free: Inno Setup (official site) ~ Advanced Installer ~ NSIS Nullsoft Scriptable Install System.
Book: Definitive Guide to Windows Installer

Microsoft .NET : Foundstone's free .NET Security Toolkit (Validator.NET, .NETMon and SecureUML template tools).

Windows Application Programming : Borland's Delphi 2005 "all of the Windows languages and SDKs you need in one environment for modern Windows rapid application development (RAD)" C#, .NET Framework and Win32 support for GUI, Web, database, modeling and ALM. ~ MinGW import libraries and header files for use with GCC to build native Windows applications; now with added extentions to the MSVC runtime to support C99 functionality.

Testing Tools : SoftwareTestingWiki

Developers : Dev Shed publications, forums, programming content.

Bug Tracking : Comparison of issue tracking systems ~ JIRA Issue tracking and project management ~ Flyspray The Bug Killer.

Relational Databases : Wikipedia's Comparison of relational database management systems.
Column-oriented DBMS for read-mostly databases such as data warehouses and library catalogues.
Microsoft Access: Allen Browne's Tips and Converting from Access 97.
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition. See Comparing SQL Server Express with MSDE (its predecessor). ~ Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition with Advanced Services (5/31/2006) ~ SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition.
IBM DB2 Express-C (and here)
MySQL (FTP source site) (book: The Definitive Guide to MySQL 5, Third Edition (Definitive Guide) ~ Using Excel to analyze MySQL data.
InnoDB transactions, row level locking, hot backup, and foreign keys for MySQL (acquired by Oracle October 2005). ~ Alpha Five V6 easily build web accessible database applications. "leapfrogs over its competitors" PC Mag, March 2005. See also their Data-2-the-Web for MySQL to easily use MySQL. ~ Ingres open source (GPL) database; over 20 years of business use (CA sold to Garnett & Helfrich Capital November 2005)
PostgreSQL (pgsql) highly scalable SQL compliant and open-source object-relational database management system. ~ SQLite a small C library that implements a self-contained, embeddable, zero-configuration SQL database engine. ~ Sleepycat Software's Berkeley DB "the leading open-source development database in the world with over 200 million deployments." (not a relational database) ~ Mini SQL (mSQL) "a light weight relational database management system capable of providing rapid access to your data with very little overhead." ~ Slony Slony-I is a "master to multiple slaves" replication system with cascading and failover. ~ EnterpriseDB based on PostgreSQL; runs many Oracle apps unchanged.
PG Lightning Admin GUI Administration program designed for use with Postgresql 7.4 and up.
DbVisualizer The Universal Database Tool.
IBM's Informix and Cloudscape (open-sourced as Derby; compare with H2) ~ Sybase.
PEAR DB Database Abstraction Layer.

HTTPD / Web Servers / Microsoft IIS replacements : lighttpd BSD licensed ~ And-HTTPD static webserver/file linker; $2000 security guarantee; LGPL licensed ~ LiteSpeed Web Server Standard is free. See benchmarks ~ Zeus Web Server "dominated web server benchmarks over the last 10 years"-wikipedia ~ Sun Java System Web Server (formerly Sun ONE Web Server, before that iPlanet Web Server, and before that Netscape Enterprise Server) Supports JavaServer Pages (JSP), Java Servlets, Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP), PHP, ColdFusion and CGI. ~ Cherokee HTTP Server (Wikipedia) ~ See Apache links below.

Apache and MySQL and PHP Installation Kits / AMP / WAMP (Windows) / LAMP (Linux) :
Apache Software Foundation's HTTP Server Project (HTTP Daemon) open-source web server for Linux, Unix and Windows hosting more than 68% of the web sites. ~ Apache Server Resources (e.g., Using .htaccess Files with Apache).
Pete Freitag's 20 ways to Secure your Apache Configuration (Google cache)
HTML embeded scripting languages: PHP Syntax borrowed from C, Java and Perl. Write dynamically generated pages quickly.
Databases: MySQL the most popular open-source database and the fastest growing database available on more than twenty different platforms including Linux, Mac OS X, UNIX and Windows.
Installation kits: WAMP5 Setup package for (W)indows (A)pache (M)ySQL (P)HP including phpMyAdmin (Alternate link) and SQLitemanager.
SourceLabs AMP stack "Integrated, Tested and Certified Apache, MySQL and PHP"
HotScripts Installation Kits including PHP Read kit summaries, ratings, reviews, or select other categories such as ASP, Python, XML, etc.
BigApache for Windows is a free Enterprise Ready Server. It is suitable for the professional use or for the program development of Html / PHP / Mysql / Perl / Apache::ASP /Python / or Java projects (JBoss with Tomcat)."

PHP : php.net (official website) ~ PHP 5 Power Programming book.
Zend Platform, PHP Framework, Collaboration Project, etc. "the only robust PHP production environment that ensures your applications run smoothly at all times"
CakePHP rapid development framework using ActiveRecord, Association Data Mapping, Front Controller and MVC.
phpLens "PHP application server that runs on PHP4 and PHP5; quickly create database-driven web applications; present data as html tables with facilities to create, edit, paginate, search and delete records."
PECL PHP Extensions and its sister, PEAR, PHP Extension and Application Repository.
IBM developerWorks Going dynamic with PHP and Recommended PHP reading list.
The PHP Resource Index ~ PHPBuilder.com ~ PHP Freaks.com ~ ADOdb Database Abstraction Library for PHP (and Python).
eAccelerator free open-source PHP accelerator, optimizer, encoder and dynamic content cache.

Configuring Tomcat5 and Apache2 with Virtual Hosts using mod_jk
BlueDragon runtime server-side products deploying CFML (ColdFusion Markup Language).
Smith Project freeware cross-platform ColdFusion engine written entirely in Java.

Program Source Code Search Engines : Google Code Search ~ Krugle ~ Koders ~ Codease ~ codefetch ~ All The Code.

Source code documentation generator / Reverse Engineering : Doxygen ~ e-trace tree view of function calls ~ The Source-Navigator IDE ~ Understand for C++ reverse engineering, documentation and metrics tool for C and C++ ~ IDA Pro Disassembler and Debugger ~ Process Stalker and IDA Pro plug-ins ~ SABRE BinDiff identifies identical and similar functions in different binaries.

Find errors in source code : Coverity ~ AutoTest

General Programming teaching/lecture/classroom clips : MIT's Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs Video Lectures and online textbook ~ Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation ~ Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation ~ Learn Lisp From MIT—for Free! (MIT's OpenCourseWare) ~ COMMON LISP: An Interactive Approach.

All-purpose Programming and Scripting Languages :
ActiveState's free ActivePerl, ActivePython, and ActiveTCL and Komodo IDE.
Python (wikipedia) ~ Dabo Desktop Application Framework written in Python atop the wxPython GUI toolkit ~ Python Learning Foundation categorized tutorials, book reviews, podcasts, etc. ~ Dive Into Python free book and good links. ~ Magnus Lie Hetland's Instant Python crash-course from author of several Python books ~ TurboGears Python-based framework for Rapid Web Development. IBM developerWorks Python Web frameworks, Part 2: Web development with TurboGears and Python. Compare with Django (larger base and high-profile programmers). ~ Jython (Python in Java). ~ IronPython written in C#; for .NET and Mono. ~ A First Look at IronPython: Where Python meets .NET
Perl is "the most popular web programming language due to its text manipulation capabilities and rapid development cycle." (Windows, Unix/Linux and Mac) ~ CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) (over 500 3rd-party modules) ~ Catalyst MVC framework for web development. ~ The nms Project (Not Matt's Scripts).
Ruby object-orientated interpreted scripting language. ~ Ruby-Doc Ruby documentation project community ~ Mongrel Ruby web server ~ RubyCentral "a growing web resource for everything to do with the Ruby language." ~ IBM's Ruby off the Rails and Crossing borders: Exploring Active Record (the persistence engine behind Ruby on Rails) by a former Java-only dev. ~ Rolling with Ruby on Rails ~ Using Ruby on Rails for Web Development on Mac OS X. See also Rolling with Ruby on Rails and What Is Ruby on Rails also by Curt Hibbs, and RubyOnRails.org.
An introduction to Ruby on Rails for DB2 developers.
book Ruby for Rails : Ruby Techniques for Rails Developers. Mongrel a fast HTTP library and server for Ruby that is intended for hosting Ruby web applications of any kind using plain HTTP rather than FastCGI or SCGI. It is framework agnostic and already supports Ruby On Rails, Og+Nitro, and Camping frameworks.
Check out #rubyonrails on irc.freenode.net
GCC the GNU Compiler Collection, includes front ends for C, C++, Objective-C, Fortran, Java, and Ada, as well as libraries for these languages (libstdc++, libgcj,...).
IBM's C and C++ Compilers support AIX, Linux, Mac OS X, z/OS, z/VM and iSeries.

Image Editing Language : ImageMagick free (BSD-licensed) software to create, edit and compose bitmap images in many formats via CommandLine or programming interfaces for Perl, C, C++, Python, PHP, Ruby, Tcl/Tk or Java. (download page) ~ GraphicsMagick (branched from ImageMagick 5.5.2; MIT-style Licensed) ~ Examples of ImageMagick Usage (Version 6) ~ Python Imaging Library Handbook (2003 Edition)

Application Server / Middleware / IDE :
The non-profit Eclipse Foundation's Eclipse Platform IDE written in Java under the common public license (royalty free source code and world wide redistribution rights) supporting a multi-language/platform/vendor environment. ~ EasyEclipse Distributions prepackaged releases of Eclipse for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
SWIG (Simplified Wrapper and Interface Generator) connects C/C++ with Tcl, Perl, Python, Ruby, Guile, PHP, Java, C# etc.
Jakarta Tapestry ~ IBM developerWorks In tune with Tapestry, Part 1
JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA Java IDE with factoring, J2EE support, Ant, JUnit and version controls integration.
Code::Blocks The Open Source, Cross-platform, Free C/C++ IDE (built with wxWidgets).
Gambas kind of a Visual Basic for Linux.
The (SchemeWay) project to develop commercial quality Eclipse plugins for the Scheme programming language.
Jetty Java HTTP Server and Servlet Container (small, fast, high load performance)
Apache Geronimo J2EE server/container project. (WebSphere Application Server Community Edition is based on this.)
JOnAS Java Open Application Server provides support of J2EE 1.4
Morfik Web applications unplugged; allows developers to use a visual design environment and a high-level language of choice to create applications comprising only of HTML and Javascript. Create web applications that run on the desktop after being unplugged from the web.
Mono Project open-source project led by Novell for running and developing modern applications (eg., iFolder) on more than just the Windows platform, and can run existing programs targeting the .NET or Java frameworks. (based on the ECMA/ISO Standards; supports ASP.NET) ~ DotGNU Portable.NET suite of free software tools to build and execute .NET applications, including a C# compiler, assembler, disassembler, and runtime engine. (GNU/Linux, Windows, Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, and MacOS X) ~ Mainsoft's Grasshopper converts compiled ASP.NET project into Java byte code. ~ IKVM.NET JIT-compiles Java byte code to run on Mono.
ZeroC Home of Ice (the Internet Communications Engine) a modern alternative to object middleware such as CORBA or COM/DCOM/COM+, with support for C++, Java, Python, PHP, C#, and Visual Basic.
Trolltech's Qt a comprehensive C++ application development framework, which includes a class-library and tools for cross-platform development and internationalization.
BEA WebLogic Platform winner of numerous Reader's Choice Awards by Java Developer's Journal and Web Services Journal. See also BEA JRocket high performance JVM for x86 and BEA's M7 Workshop Studio (formerly NitroX) product of Mansour Safai.
Apache Jakarta Tomcat (formerly BEA Weblogic's) is the servlet container used in the official Reference Implementation for Sun's Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages.
IBM's WebSphere Application Server, Commerce, Studio, etc. (Linux)
Sun Java's (formerly Javasoft) NetBeans.org development products such as NetBeans IDE and NetBeans Platform (NetBeans open-sourced by Sun in mid-2000).
JBoss JBoss Enterprise Middleware System (JEMS) J2EE compliant, open-source Application Server, Eclipse IDE, Apache Tomcat, Hibernate.org, etc.
Oracle's JDeveloper Java IDE.
Sybase's EAServer open application server with support for J2EE, PowerBuilder, C/C++ and CORBA components.
Zope open-source application server used by hundreds of companies and thousands of developers (written in Python).
Apple's WebObjects RAD environment with web services, data access and page generation capabilities.

Java : Sequoia (formerly known as the Clustered JDBC project) provides high availability and performance scalability for databases.
IBM developerWorks Facelets fits JSF like a glove and SWT, Swing or AWT: Which is right for you?.
GNU Classpath essential libraries for supporting the Java programming language GPL licensed with exception.
Winstone Servlet Container provides servlet functionality without the bloat that full J2EE compliance.

JavaScript : Yahoo! Developer Network (Design Pattern Library, JavaScript Developer Center, PHP Developer Center, Python Developer Center, User Interface Library, etc.
MochiKit suite of JavaScript libraries. ~ Dojo Open Source JavaScript toolkit.

AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) / XMLHttpRequest
Google Web Tookit GWT - Build AJAX apps in the Java language; Java classes front-end converted to browser-compliant JavaScript and HTML. ~ IBM developerWorks Ajax for Java developers: Exploring the Google Web Toolkit.
AJAX and SAJAX without ActiveX.
AJAX: Is your application secure enough?
Google AJAXSLT implementation of XSL-T in JavaScript.
java.net DWR (Direct Web Remoting) easy Ajax for Java.
ZK - Ajax but no JavaScript event-driven, XUL-based, Ajax-embedded, all Java framework to enable Web apps the rich user experiences.
Echo2 new Ajax-based rendering engine; removes the developer from having to think in terms of "page-based" applications; instead uses conventional object-oriented and event-driven paradigm for UI evelopment. Knowledge of HTML, HTTP, and JavaScript not required. Applications may be hosted using any Java servlet container.
IBM developerWorks Mastering Ajax, Part 1: Introduction to Ajax ~ Mastering Ajax, Part 2: Make asynchronous requests with JavaScript and Ajax ~ Mastering Ajax, Part 3: Advanced requests and responses in Ajax.
Generalized AJAX Response Handling for XML Content
JSON JavaScript Object Notation is a lightweight data-interchange format. (Slashdot post)
JSON-RPC a remote procedure call protocol similar to XML-RPC yet simpler.
JSON-RPC-Java allows JavaScript DHTML web applications to call remote methods in a Java Application Server (remote scripting) without the need for page reloading.
JSONRPC Perl Module that implements JSON-RPC with most ideas were borrowed from XMLRPC::Lite and provides CGI server functionality.
Apple's article The XMLHttpRequest Object.
Mozilla Developer Center: AJAX - Devmo.
IBM developerWorks Ajax for Java developers: Build dynamic Java applications
IBM developerWorks Rich Ajax slide shows with DHTML and XML (Ken Burns Effect)
O'Reilly ONLamp Ajax on Rails.
ZK open-source Ajax Web framework that enables rich UI for Web applications with no JavaScript and little programming.
OpenLaszlo compiles XML and JavaScript into Flash and soon DHTML. Used by Pandora (available only to US unless you use a proxy). ~ What is OpenLaszlo, and what's it good for?

Eiffel : object-oriented programming language. EiffelStudio released under the GPL (April 5, 2006).

REXX : IBM's interpreted programming language (included with OS/2) ~ A Quick Rexx Tutorial ~ IBM developerWorks Script for DB2 Universal Database using REXX: Learn REXX fast and Quick DB2 UDB scripting.

Securing Mac OS X : A Corsair White Paper: Securing Mac OS X ~ Research Systems Unix Group's radmind tripwire ~ NSA Security Configuration Guides.

Virtual Machine Manager / VM / Virtualization / OS Emulation / Hypervisor / Virtual Private Server :
EasyMVX! create complete virtual machines for VMware Player.
Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 ~ Microsoft's Virtual PC for MAC ~ Thursby's DAVE for Mac allows file and print sharing to Windows networks via TCP/IP.
Versora Win4Lin run Windows 2000/XP applications and OS on Linux. ~ CodeWeavers' CrossOver Office runs popular office productivity software such as Microsoft Office, Photoshop and Lotus Notes in Linux. ~ Wine An open-source implementation of the Windows API on top of X and Unix (a compatibility layer for running Windows programs; see 3rd party applications based on Wine) ~ Frank's Corner info for running Windows apps on Linux using Wine. ~ PlayOnLinux Python-scripted front end for wine.
Cedega (formerly WineX) a fork of Wine while under BSD license; tuned to run games on Linux and Mac.
VirtualBox x86 virtualization; cross-platform; GPL'd.
FreeBSD Jail ~ sysjail userland virtualisation supporting systrace library; for OpenBSD and NetBSD.
Linux-VServer Project. Compare with OpenVZ for Linux.
Linux Virtual Server built on cluster of real servers.
Virtuozzo for Windows & Linux Server Virtualization.
Serenity Virtual Station (SVISTA)
Parallels Desktop for Windows/Mac/Linux.
VMware Supports the most host and virtual OS's on one PC (2/2006: VMware GSX Server know called VMware Server and is free) ~ VMware Player free software that enables PC users to easily run any virtual machine on a Windows or Linux PC. VMware Player runs virtual machines created by VMware Workstation, GSX Server or ESX Server and also supports Microsoft virtual machines and Symantec LiveState Recovery disk formats. ~ VManager freely create new virtual machines and modify existing vm's. ~ If you create a "pre-allocated" virtual disk (as opposed to dynamically growing), you'll end up with a text file "something.vmdk" that provides disk geometry and points at a raw bit dump "something-flat.vmdk". VMware (Workstation 5.0, anyway) can use an existing dd dump if you create a .vmdk file that refers to it. Here's how. ~ Browser Appliance Virtual Machine free Firefox and Linux (Ubuntu) virtual machine for use with the free VMWare Player for safe/sandboxed Internet browsing.
UML The User-mode Linux Kernel. (Wikipedia)
Xen virtual machine monitor; fast, secure, open-source virtualization that allows multiple OS instances to run on a single physical client or server. Supports modified guest OS and unmodified guests using hardware virtualization support on the latest Intel VT enabled processors. Offers near native performance for guest OS and live relocation of guests between servers. (Wikepedia)
QEMU open source processor emulator which achieves a good emulation speed by using dynamic translation. (Wikipedia) See also the QEMU Accelerator Module and KQEMU - KDE GUI For QEMU.
Bochs IA-32 Emulator Project open-source IA-32 (x86) PC emulator written in C++ that runs on most popular platforms. Includes emulation of the Intel x86 CPU, common I/O devices and custom BIOS. Can be compiled to emulate a 386, 486, Pentium, Pentium Pro or AMD64 CPU including optional MMX, SSE, SSE2 and 3DNow! instructions. Can run most Operating Systems inside the emulation including Linux, Win95, DOS and NT4.
Cygwin A Linux-like environment for Windows consisiting of a DLL providing Linux API emulation and a collection of command line tools. ~ UnixKit for Windows A compilation of free Unix utilities for Windows (unlike Cygwin, does not require installation). ~ GNU utilities for Win32 Uses Microsoft C-runtime msvcrt.dll instead of emulation such as Cygwin.
ReactOS open-source ground-up Windows XP compatible OS incorportating some reverse engineering by Wine.
Mac-on-Linux is a linux/ppc program which makes it possible to run Mac OS in parallel with Linux.
IBM's SoulPad a portable storage device (such as USB 2.0 disk) loaded with an auto-configuring host OS (simliar to a Linux "Live" CD) that launches a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMWare Workstation) which restores an ecrypted session of a guest OS (Windows, Linux) and its apps (Word, Firefox).
A Sysadmin's Unixersal Translator (ROSETTA STONE) a simple HOWTO chart for over a dozen operating systems (not Windows).

SMB / CIFS / SAMBA : Samba Open Source/Free Software suite providing file and print services to all manner of SMB/CIFS clients such as Windows. ~ jCIFS The Java CIFS Client Library. ~ Implementing CIFS The Common Internet FileSystem - covers Micsrosoft SMB/CIFS, NBT, NBNS/WINS, Network Neighborhood, Samba, etc.

Plan 9 : Grave Robbers from Outer Space: Using 9P2000 Under Linux use of the Plan 9 distributed resource protocol 9P under the Linux 2.6 operating system. ~ Plan 9 Resource Sharing for Linux ~ Plan 9 from User Space (aka plan9port) is a port of many Plan 9 programs from their native Plan 9 environment to Unix-like operating systems.

Linux : Kernel.org
Linux Documentation Project ~ Linux From Scratch ~ Linux Newbie Administration Guide ~ Rute User's Tutorial and Exposition.
IBM developerWorks' Boot loader showdown: Getting to know LILO and GRUB ~ Dual Booting Linux and Windows NT/2000/XP (lilo) ~ SYSLINUX, PXELINUX, and ISOLINUX lightweight bootloaders ~ LinuxPrinting.org HOW-TO's and recommendations for Linux/Unix/BSD/Solaris/OSX.
LinuxCOmmand.org Learning the shell, writting scripts, etc.
LinuxLinks sorted by category.
Man (command manual) pages: Unix Man ~ Red Hat 9 Man.

Package managers : autopackage ~ klik

BSD and Linux Admnistration : Webmin using any browser that supports tables and forms (and Java for the File Manager module), setup user accounts, Apache, DNS, file sharing, etc. (written in Perl 5) ~ Puppet vs. Cfengine "Cfengine is currently the most widely deployed configuration management tool. In many ways, Puppet can be thought of as a next-generation version of cfengine..."

IEs 4 Linux Internet Explorer for Linux (using Wine)

Linux-NTFS Project : access NTFS; includes Ntfsresize. See [announcement] ntfs-3g: open source read-write driver (2006-07-14). Compare with Paragon NTFS for Linux and their Mount Everything.

Linux Debugging : Valgrind debug and profile linux programs, detect many memory management and threading bugs. ~ DUMA (Detect Unintended Memory Access) stops your program on the exact instruction that overruns (or underruns) a malloc() memory buffer. DUMA is a fork of Bruce Perens' Electric Fence library.

Linux Security enhancing / hardening kits and notes : LinuxSecurity.com
SecuriTeam.com
Slashdot posts recommendations 9/28/2005.
NSA's SELinux Security-Enhaned Linux (incoporated into Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora Core) limits/sandboxes the impact of breaches.
Novell AppArmor Powered by Immunix
RSBAC Rule Set Based Acess Control.
PaX / grsecurity attempts to block/prevent breaches. Incorporated into grsecurity, Adamantix (formerly known as Trusted Debian), and Hardened Gentoo.
Bastille Hardening Program for Red Hat, Fedora Core, SuSE, Mandriva, Debian, Gentoo, HP-UX, Mac OS X.
LinuxExposed Basic Hardening Linux article.
Securing Debian Manual by Javier Fernández-Sanguino Peña.
Openwall Linux (OWL) OpenBSD-style security-enhanced Linux server operating system (no X server) by Alexander Peslyak, A.K.A. Solar Designer, the maker of John the Ripper password cracker.
Trustix Secure Linux security-enhanced and stability-augmented Linux distribution for servers.
Argus Systems Group PitBull LX and PitBull Foundation Suite.
Trusted Computer Solutions.
David A. Wheeler’s Personal Home Page (Secure Programming for Linux and Unix HOWTO -- Creating Secure Software; Flawfinder source code scanner; Securing Microsoft Windows; etc.)
Emery Berger homepage with a focus on memory management.

Small Linux distros : CrunchBang Ubuntu based using lightweight Openbox and popular codecs ~ SliTaz (30MB) ~ Damn Small Linux (50MB) ~ Puppy Linux (60MB) ~ Finnix LiveCD for system administrators; based on Debian test ~ VectorLinux based on Slackware. ~ dmoz list of tiny Linux distros.
Math specific distro : The Quantian Distribution
Penetration Testing / Pen-test Linux distros : Knoppix STD Security Tools Distribution. ~ PHLAK Professional Hacker's Linux Assault Kit; derivative of Morphix. ~ BackTrack combines Whax and Auditor distros; based on Slax.
Incident Response and Forensics : Helix Live CD combines Whax and Auditor distros; based on Slax. (EnCase Forensic court-validated for forensic investigation.)
Source based Linux distros : Gentoo Source-based Linux with Python-based (now C based?) package manager called Portage in the tradition of BSD ports.

Debian GNU/Linux APT (DEB) package management Linux distros : Debian (weekly CD builds and weekly DVD builds) ~ Debian Backports - recompiled packages from testing (mostly) and unstable (in a few cases only, e.g. security updates), so they will run without new libraries (wherever it is possible) on a stable Debian distribution. ~ Debian Administration System Administration Tips and Resources.
book: The Debian System Concepts and Techniques
Knoppix and Knoppix LiveCD ~ Kanotix bleeding edge Debian/Knoppix ~ Xandros Linux distro from Corel group with WinXP-like user interface, a file manager that rivals SAMBA and Windows Explorer, and simple-click Debian package management. ~ Hacking Xandros Desktop Home 4.0 using http://www.debian-multimedia.org repository.
Linspire (formerly Lindows) and freespire Even the CNR (click and run) Service is free (Aug 2006) See How is CNR different from apt-get? ~ MEPIS and SimplyMEPIS ~ Ubuntu Debian with Gnome desktop and 6-month support lifecycles. ~ Ubuntu Unleashed free online book ~ Enable Smooth fonts on Ubuntu Linux ~ The Perfect Setup - Ubuntu 6.10 Server (Edgy Eft) (Apache 2.0, MySQL 5.0, Postfix, BIND9, proftpd, Courier-IMAP and Webalizer) ~ Ubuntu Live CD: Gnoppix. KDE Ubuntu: Kubuntu ~ EasyUbuntu script installs totem-xine, w32codecs, libdvdcss, RealPlayer, Flash, Java, Skype, nVidia and ATi drivers, etc. Compare with Linux Mint and Medibuntu and Automatix and BUMPS. (Automatix home page) See wiki.ubuntu's CommonCustomizations page.
nUbuntu (security based) and Fluxbuntu are use Fluxbox. ~ grml Debian-based Live-CD for sysadmins / texttool-users.

Red Hat Package Management (RPM) Linux distros : Novell's SUSE Linux (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) / Novell Linux Desktop and SUSE Linux Comparitive Features and Benefits)(alternate link) and OpenSUSE's SUPER (Suse Performance Enhanced Release) ~ See also Sun's Java Desktop System (based on SUSE). Novell Linux Desktop.
Fedora implements SELinux, execshield with NX (NoExecute), PIE (Position Independant Executables), XEN (virtualization), GFS (Global File System), and Fedora Directory Server. ~ RPM Fusion combines freshrpms, Livna, and Dribble package repositories.
Omega Desktop Fedora spin (includes code from Livna)
PCLinuxOS Texstar's active fork of Mandrake/Mandriva 9.2; uses APT and the Synaptic GUI.
CentOS and White Box Enterprise Linux and Scientific Linux - free versions of RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux).
Projects Red Hat started/maintains/supports/hosts/etc: sourceware.org projects ~ Fedora Wiki Project Red Hat contributions to Free and Open Source software.

PacMan package management Linux distros : Arch Linux based on Crux Linux, uses BSD-style init scripts, has fresh PacMan packages ~ Frugalware based on Slackware with XGL & Compwiz for GNOME and XFCE, BSD init scipts, better multi-lingual support, and a heavily patched version of Arch's PacMan.

OpenSolaris kernel distros : Nexenta OS - GNU/Debian/Ubuntu packages/userland and the OpenSolaris kernel. ~ BeleniX OpenSolaris Live CD ~ Blastwave Software DVD (1165 software packages for Sparc and x86). ~ Sunfreeware.com ~ Solaris Express Fully functional high quality snapshots of Solaris with monthly release schedules. (SPARC and x64/x86 platforms) ~ How to install Sun Solaris 10 inside VMware Workstation 5.5

WxWidgets : (not under GPL; formerly "wxWindows") wxWidgets ~ wxDesigner dialog editor and RAD tool.
wyoGuide tutorial for developing well-designed cross-platform applications.

Lightweight Window Manager for Unix/Linux: FluxBox (with LintherBrushed theme) ~ IceWM (with Windows Classic or IceQua themes) ~ JWM Joe's Window Manager written in C and uses only Xlib at a minimum. (Themes and forum) ~ dwm dynamic window manager (<2000 SLOC in C) ~ GDM the GNOME Display Manager (with Soft Flower or Soft Flower Widescreen themes) ~ KDM KDE Display Manager (with Mac OSX Imitation: GNU/Linux theme). ~ EDE - Equinox Desktop Environment.

GTK+ / GTK2 / GIMP Toolkit / GNOME / Xfce : GTK+ ~ GIMP Toolkit and GNOME and Xfce ~ IBM's GTK+ fundamentals, Part 1: Why use GTK+? ~ gtkmm official C++ interface for GTK+ ~ Xubuntu derivative of Ubuntu based on Xfce.

Qt / KDE : Trolltech's Qt ~ Qt (toolkit) and KDE.

Linux apps for K Desktop Environment / KDE : Konqueror Web Browser and File Manager. ~ Krusader twin panel (commander style) file manager. ~ KOffice free, integrated office suite for KDE. ~ Wireless Assistant for connecting to wireless networks. ~ Kile an integrated LaTeX editor environment. ~ KDevelop-Project IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for KDE. ~ Cervisia GUI frontend for the version control system CVS. ~ bksys framework based on scons for detecting the environment, compiling applications and installing them. It replaces the whole GNU autotool chain (automake, autoconf, aclocal, autoheader, libtool) and only depends on Python. ~ Quanta Plus a highly stable and feature rich web development environment (cf. Nvu). ~ klik provides an easy way to download and use software for most major distributions. ~ Baghira a Mac OSX theme for QT/KDE. ~ digiKam digital photo management. ~ Kaffeine full featured Media Player. ~ KMPlayer Video player plugin for Konqueror and basic MPlayer/Xine/ffmpeg/ffserver/VDR frontend for KDE. ~ amaroK music player. ~ MythTV PVR (Personal Video Recorder). ~ K3b CD/DVD Kreator. ~ Configuring KDE Slashdot post. ~ KDE-Look.org eyecandy for yor KDE desktop. See SuperKaramba and Kroller themes. ~ KDE Edutainment Project educational software. (See also Tux Paint, Tux Typing and GCompris.) ~ KStars Desktop Planetarium. ~ BibleTime Bible study software.

Linux Firewall/VPN/Intrusion Protection/Antivirus/Spam Filter/Content Filter : Astaro Security Linux. Compare with eSoft InstaGate and Untangle.

BSD / Berkeley Software Distribution / Unix : OpenBSD (BSDanywhere LiveCD) The most secure network/Internet operating system (W^X write xor execute, randomized library base addresses, Propolice, privilege seperation, systrace (official website) for fine-grained control over syscalls for any application, and more.) and contains the best software packet filter/firewall. See Theo's Exploit Mitigation Techniques presentation. ~ YaifO Yet another installer for OpenBSD; installs OpenBSD remotely via secure shell (no need of keyboard or serial console)(doesn't work if PC has multiple bootable operating systems) ~ PF and pftop curses-based utility for real-time display of active states and rule statistics for pf ~ OpenBSD's network stack (SecurityFocus interviews 3 devs about ICMP protection) ~ Firefox and OpenBSD ~ OliveBSD OpenBSD live CD. ~ OpenBSD Support - User document project ~ WGBLinks.net's OpenBSD 101 ~ OpenBSDsupport list of docs ~ IBM developerWorks Take a closer look at OpenBSD ~ OpenBSD Ports weblisting ~ pkg_search copy and search through the packages listing locally and searches locally.
FreeBSD fast server OS. See Choosing the FreeBSD Version That Is Right For You. ~ FreshPorts.org ports for FreeBSD ~ Demonology.net's FreeBSD Update Binary Security Updates for FreeBSD ~ The Complete FreeBSD book online and revised.
FreeBSD's Security officer Colin Percival's FreeBSD Update automatically builds, distributes, fetches and applies binary security updates. ~ Portsnap securely download a compressed snapshot of the FreeBSD ports tree and then extracts. ~ Binary Security Updates for FreeBSD from maker of Portsnap. ~ portaudit checks if installed ports are listed in a security vulnerabilities database. ~ FreeBSD VuXML Vulnerabilities and eXposures Markup Language - Documenting security issues in FreeBSD and the FreeBSD Ports Collection. ~ portversion checks version against ports database. similar to pkg_version(1), but is optimized for portupgrade(1) and runs much faster than pkg_version(1)
DTrace for FreeBSD ~ DTrace Tools ~ Top Ten DTrace (D) Scripts
FreeNAS The Free NAS Server (Network-Attached Storage) supporting: CIFS (samba), FTP, NFS, RSYNC protocols, local user authentication, Software RAID (0,1,5) with a Full WEB configuration interface. 16MB in size; based on m0n0wall. (Compare FreeNAS with Openfiler and CryptoBox.)
OpenBSD encrypted NAS HOWTO with software RAID.
PC-BSD built on FreeBSD, adds graphical installer with KDE prebuilt. (Unofficial Installing and Configuring PC-BSD). Compare with DesktopBSD also based on FreeBSD and KDE with a graphical installer. ~ TrustedBSD trusted operating system extensions to FreeBSD.
Firefly BSD commercial version of DragonFly BSD which is based on FreeBSD-4 series and has improved TCP/IP networking and employs light weight kernel threading (LWKT). ~ GoBSD.com community network dedicated to DragonFlyBSD.
PureBSD OpenBSD and FreeBSD resources.
NetBSD runs on the most hardware platforms.
BSDForums.org

TCP/IP Internet Protocol Suite : The TCP/IP Guide.

Secure Socket Layer / SSL / Secure Webserver : Investigations about SSL ~ The SSL Protocol Version 3.0 Internet Draft. ~ OpenSSL open source SSL v2/v3 and TLS v1 toolkit. ~ OpenSSL Documentation ~ See also mod_SSL the Apache interface module to OpenSSL. ~ Apache-SSL secure webserver based on Apache and SSLeay/OpenSSL ~ Stunnel Universal SSL Wrapper.
Certificate Authority / CA : See RapidSSL (GeoTrust) (or cheaper reseller or its 2+ year promo codes which make it easy to guess the 1 year code) for single-root (unchained) SSL seals less expensive than Thawte or Comodo and especially Verisign or Network Solutions.
Secure Shell / SSH : OpenSSH free/open source secure shell (produced by the OpenBSD team to avoid licensing issues). ~ Not necessarily better than commercial version tectia SSH (from SSH Communications Security), as pointed out by this Slashdot post.
DenyHOSTS a script to discovering a repeated attack host and update /etc/hosts.deny to prevent future break-in attempts. Compare with tb-sshdfilter which tries to improve upon DenyHOSTS such as using stdout instead of syslog.
Ostiary Simple, Secure Remote Script Execution.
OpenSSH Public Key Authentication Public Key Setup | Configure ssh-agent Process | Agent Forwarding.
SSH tricks ~ Using ssh-agent with ssh and An Illustrated Guide to SSH Agent Forwarding ~ Kerberos 5 authentication without password

VPN : FreeS/WAN implementation of IPSEC & IKE for Linux. Compare with Openswan and strongSwan. ~ Creating secure wireless access points with OpenBSD and OpenVPN
OpenVPN (OpenBSD HOWTO). ~ Implementing IPsec on OpenBSD (3.8; good IPsec intro) ~ Zero to IPSec in 4 minutes (OpenBSD 3.8 ipsecctl) ~ ISAKMPD using X509 certificates Allow mobile users (dynamic IP addresses) to join a VPN. Sample configs for OpenBSD and MS Windows 2000 are provided. ~ Dmitry Dvoinikov's Nest IP VPN tunnel for BSD Unix. See also Global Internet Freedom Consortium partners' popluar anti-censorship client software packages and Dmitry Dvoinikov's HTTHost / HTTPort to bypass proxy restrictions by sending all through HTTP. ~ nat-traverse uses UDP to traverse NAT gateways ~ MobiKEY USB key; remote desktop access; no client install; good security; expensive ~ LogMeIn Hamachi a zero-configuration virtual private networking application with an open security architecture and NAT-to-NAT traversal capabilities. (Windows 2000/XP and Linux) ~ Hamachi VPN Solution (Running Hamachi as a Windows service) ~ tinc VPN daemon, zlib or LZO compression, OpenSSL encryption, add nodes via configuration files, bridge segments, supports IPv6.

Remote Desktop Access : ~ TeamViewer ~ 3am Labs' free LogMeIn avoid firewall port forwarding issues (formerly "Remotely Anywhere") ~ Gbridge VPN, RDP/VNC via google account ~ MyIVO (Instant Virtual Office; free) ~ QnextMyPC (free) ~ CrossLoop (free; data transfer too) ~ Fog Creek Copilot ~ Citrix Online's $20/month GoToMyPC. See also WebEx PCNOW (formerly MyWebExPC) (non-Pro version is free).
GNU Screen "fullscreen console multiplexer which permits a user to multiplex one terminal into multiple terminals. Thus screen allows the user to perform several additional tasks over a normal terminal." (Screen: Tips & Tricks) See also: Ratpoison a simple Window Manager modeled after GNU Screen.
TightVNC or UltraVNC Virtual Network Computing (alternate site also at SourceForge.net) Faster screen updates than WinVNC/RealVNC and TridiaVNC due to video driver hook between framebuffer and VNC server. ~ PuTTY free Telnet/SSH Client. (portaPuTTY doesn't use the Registry) ~ Tunneling VNC over SSH ~ Tunnelling VNC over SSH with PuTTY ~ PuTTYcyg a patched version of PuTTY used as a local Cygwin terminal instead of the Windows console, xterm, or rxvt.
Fastest display protocol: NX technology: NoMachine NX and FreeNX (freshmeat link) (Compare with VNC and Citrix ICA and Microsoft RDP.)
2X TerminalServer for Linux install ThinClientOS on thin or fat (PC) clients and connect via RDP, ICA, VNC or NX to virtual desktops on the TerminalServer running OpenOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird, etc. Compare with the free LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project).
ThinStation based on Netstation.

File Synchronization : syncplicity Everyday sync, backup, and sharing as simple as can be.
DeltaCopy "Windows Friendly" wrapper around the Rsync program.
iFolder Enterprise Server works similar to Windows Offline Folders; GPL'd; requires Mono. ~ Unison File Synchronizer GPL'd; Windows, Solaris, Linux, OS X, etc. ~ Easy Automated Snapshot-Style Backups with Linux and Rsync.

Darknets / Dark Web / Virtual Network / Private Network sharing / Friend-to-Friend / F2F : Grouper freely share files with upto 30 invited users. (From the makers of the Spinner radio channels program now called Radio@Netscape). ~ The Free Network Project ~ WASTE.

File Systems : OpenAFS distributed filesystem for file sharing, providing location independence, scalability and transparent migration capabilities for data. ~ Reiser4 (V3 is default for SuSE, Lindows, FTOSX, Libranet, Gentoo, Xandros and Yoper) ~ OpenSolaris ZFS ~ Red Hat's GFS (Global File System) for a cluster of computers.
Linux FUSE Filesystem in Userspace. Mount/implement a fully functional filesystem in a userspace program.

LDAP / Directory Server / AD / Active Directory alternatives : Novell's eDirectory (good alternative to Active Directory) and Novell Identity Manager (formerly DirXML). See also Novell OES (Open Enterprise Server) and Novell ZENworks Suite to manage group policies and this Slashdot post.
OpenLDAP open source implementation of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol.
Red Hat Directory Server (Netscape DS, AOL Directory Server) (used at DoD). ~ LDAP made easy with SLES: SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server An Introduction to LDAP.
Red Hat's Fedora Directory Server (rewrote encumbered parts and open sourced Netscape Directory Server 4.0).
Sun Java System Directory Server Enterprise Edition (formerly Netscape DS / iPlanet DS; now heavily developed by Sun)
SLAMD Distributed Load Generation Engine Java app for stress testing and performance analysis for LDAP, HTTP, SMTP, IMAP, or databases via JDBC.
Apache Directory Server embeddable LDAP server written in Java "designed to introduce triggers, stored procedures, queues and views to the world of LDAP which has lacked these rich constructs"
phpLDAPadmin.

Mail Server / MTA / Mail Daemon / Exchange replacements / Exchange alternatives :
Email/mailbox format converter: Transend Migrator (formerly UniAccess by ComAxis) converts Outlook, Louts Notes, cc:Mail, MHS, CompuServe 2.0, Calypso Mail, DaVinci Mail, ExpressIT, GroupWise, Notework, etc., and can convert address books, calendars, and tasks.
The Open-Source Outlook Connector Project
Email retrieval: Getmail recommended over Fetchmail.
Email transfer from MUA to MTA: msmtp.
Appliances: Mirapoint's RazorGate (secures Exchange, Notes, and GroupWise) and Message Server (99.999 reliability; integrates A/V and anti-spam; hardened FreeBSD)
hMailServer for Windows; free.
Ipswitch Collaboration Suite (ICS) provides e-mail and real-time collaboration, calendar and contact list sharing.
Open Source Microsoft Exchange Replacement Platform (OSER)
Zarafa Outlook sharing and Webaccess Exchange Replacement
Sun Java Enterprise System & Sun Java System Suites such as the Sun Java Communication Suite ($50 per employee per year).
Sun Enterprise Messaging Migration Service "mobilizes Sun intellectual capital to provide a smooth, expert transition from Microsoft Exchange 5.5 to advanced Sun Java System communication and collaboration products." ~ Java Enterprise System 2005Q4 Deployment Examples and Technical Notes Collection >> Escaping Vendor Lock-in: Life After Microsoft Exchange.
Novell Linux Small Business Suite Support for up to 100 users and 3 servers.
Novell GroupWise Migration Utility 2.0.1 for Microsoft Exchange.
Novell GroupWise Import Utility 2.0 for Microsoft Outlook.
Hula Project open source calendar and mail server project led by Novell and uses parts of their NetMail. The next version of Netmail is codenamed Maui (stable releases beginning the end of 2006) and will be based on Hula (frequently updated) and integrated with opensourced iFolder.
NetWin SurgeMail
Zimbra Collaboration Suite Open Source Project (Acquired by Yahoo 9/2007).
Scalix Server (formerly HP Openmail) drop-in replacement for Exchange with LDAP replacing AD. Enterprise Edition included with Xandros Server.
InfoWorld's Scalix and Zimbra By Mike Heck March 23, 2006.
Citadel Outlook IMAP support; connector (MAPI?) in beta.
Merak GroupWare Server for Windows or Linux; full Outlook integration.
ExchangeIt!
Gordano Messaging Suite GMS Mail (formerly NTMail) offers optional full Microsoft Outlook integration (like Scalix and Sun Java Communication Suite)
@Mail Webmail Client / Webmail Server for Linux, Unix and Windows. Exchange replacement. Used by Hostway, PlusNet, Los Alamos National Laboratory, US Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, etc.
The Horde Project webmail program IMP (PHP IMAP/POP3), contact manager Turba, calendar manager Kronolith.
phpGroupWare (formerly webdistro) open source groupware server with Calendar, Addressbook, Projects Manager, Todo List, Notes, Newsgroup and Headlines Reader, Filemanager, etc.
OpenGroupware.org open source groupware server (formerly LSOffice and SKYRiX 3).
eGroupware.org web-based groupware suite (Kolab Server and Kolab clients such as Kontact) developed on a custom set of PHP-based APIs. Currently available modules include: email, addressbook, calendar, infolog (notes, to-do's, phone calls), content management, forum, bookmarks, wiki.
The Kolab Groupware Project Kolab-XML storage format is fully open and avoids MAPI/TNEF allowing for seamless support of mixed clients environments (Outlook/KDE/Web).
SUSE LINUX Openexchange Server 4.1 and the newer OpenXchange / Open Xchange / Open-Xchange 5 (not bound to SUSE Linux).
Bynari Insight Server packages Postfix, LDAP, Cyrus IMAP, web GUI admin, and webmail server. Also Insight Connector (and Insight Address Book) for Bynari Insight Server, Cyrus-IMAP, or Courier-IMAP.
qmail "Second most popular MTA" used by NetSol, Verio, PayPal, Pair Networks, and MessageLabs. See the programmer Dan Bernstein's $500 qmail security hole guarantee unclaimed since March 1997. Qmail has some issues fixed by qmail.org's netqmail. ~ qpsmtpd - a flexible smtpd daemon written in Perl; originally written as a drop-in qmail-smtpd replacement, but now it also includes a smtp forward and a postfix "backend". See also: newbie manual, HOWTO, The future of qmail and QMTP and MXPS.
CommuniGate runs on over 30 platforms. "most scalable" "email and calendaring, to instant messaging, VoIP, Conferencing Server and IP PBX"
Courier-IMAP "a GPLed qmail"-Russ Nelson. Fast, scalable, enterprise IMAP server that uses Maildir (a fast and efficient directory-based mail storage format used by Qmail and as an alternative by Exim and Postfix which avoids locking issues when accessed by multiple apps.) (Slashdot fan)
Postfix - like Sendmail, but easier to administer. ~ Postfix Add-on Software ~ Filtering spam with Postfix: Effective ways to reduce unwelcome mail (HELO restrictions) ~ Tummy.com vPostMaster Postfix package.
Exim GPL'd; developed by University of Cambridge; extremely configurable yet easy to read configs. Similar to Smail 3. (Exim not as secure as qmail and Postfix: Slashdot post).
GNU Mailutils
Binc IMAP (C++; short; maildir rather than mbox support)
Carnegie Mellon's Cyrus IMAP Server.
Dovecot secure IMAP server "offering 1000€ for the first person to demonstrate a remotely exploitable security hole in Dovecot." (22 Jan 2006) (Slashdot proselytizer)
Perdition: Mail Retrieval Proxy a smart POP/IMAP proxy that connects users to the "right" POP/IMAP server. See also their High Capacity Email paper regarding clustered server farms.
eMailman's Linux/Unix mail server links.

MUA / Webmail : SquirrelMail standards-based webmail package written in PHP4 with pure PHP support for the IMAP and SMTP protocols, and all pages render in pure HTML 4.0 (no JavaScript required).
Sylpheed and Sylpheed-Claws (see Wikipedia)
Novell Evolution groupware (e-mail, calendaring, tasks and contact management).

CRM / Customer Relationship Management / Contact Management : SugarCRM inexpensive; open source (Slashdot post). Compare with vtiger ~ CiviCRM for advocacy, non-profit and non-governmental groups ~ freeCRM.com online ~ Highrise ~ Salesforce.com ~ OrangeCRM HR Information Systems (HRIS) ~ NetSuite CRM and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning - financials, order and inventory management) ~ OpenBravo Web based ERP for SMEs ~ Compiere ERP & CRM. ~ SQL-Ledger ERP (Perl) and fork: LedgerSMB.
Maximizer (review) ~ Avidian's Prophet for Outlook. (review).
ACT! ~ GoldMine. E-commerce : osCommerce popular PHP 4.1+ open-source (GPL) online shopping cart project.
Help Desk Issue Tracking: OneOrZero ~ RT : Request Tracker (Perl) ~ the Trac Project (Subversion) ~ roundup (Python)

Bulletin Board / Forum / News Server / Newsgroups / NNTP : phpBB open-source bulletin board package based on PHP and either MySQL, MS-SQL, PostgreSQL or Access/ODBC. ~ Apache Java Enterprise Mail Server (a.k.a. Apache James) pure Java SMTP and POP3 Mail server and NNTP News server. ~ SmartNewz NNTP News Server can run as service (circa $31).

Open Source Software Index / Open-Source Repositories : ubuntu's List Of Open-source Programs (LOOP) for Microsoft Windows Operating Systems ~ SourceForge.net largest repository of open-source code and applications. freshmeat largest index of Unix and cross-platform software, themes and Palm OS software. ~ MrTAXI (PalmOS; see QuickBits, FastCPU, JackFlash, JackSprat). ~ jSyncManager Java Palm sync solution for your PalmOS. (Slashdot post by project manager)

Exams / Tests / Quizes / Q&A : MCSE BrainDumps ~ BrainDumps.com ~ Vellosoft PEST ~ TechExams.net

Linux and Unix Certifications : The O'Reilly School of Technology online certifications ~ Sun Certified System Administrator for the Solaris OS ~ BSDcertification.org the BSD Certification Group ~ Linux Professional Institute LPI Certification ~ Ubuntu Certified Professional ~ IBM developerWorks Linux Professional Institute (LPI) exam prep ~ CompTIA's Linux+ ~ Red Hat's RHCT, RHCE and RHCA ~ Novell Training Services Certifications.

Security Certifications : SANS Institute's GIAC (Global Information Assurance Certification) ~ CompTIA's Server+ ~ Cybertrust certified (formerly TruSecure Certification) ~ ICS2's CISSP and SSCP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional and Systems Security Certified Practitioner) ~ EC-Council Certifications such as Security5 (International Council of E-Commerce Consultants) ~ SCP's SCP's SCNP and SCNA (Security Certified Network Professional and Security Certified Network Architect) ~ ISACA's CISA and CISM (Certified Information Systems Auditor andCertified Information Systems Manager) ~ COMSEC's C2SP (COMSEC Certified Specialist Program)
Forensics Certifications

Encryption / Cryptography / PGP / GPG : FireGPG Firefox extension to encrypt, decrypt, sign or verify the signature of a text; works with Gmail.
University of Washington's Computer Science & Engineering: CSE P 590TU: Practical Aspects of Modern Cryptography (Winter 2006)
For Email: S/MIME and OpenPGP summary comparison. ~ wikipedia S/MIME ~ wikipedia Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) and GNU Privacy Guard.
Enigmail Encrypt/sign mail when sending, decrypt/authenticate received mail. Supports GnuPG and the OpenPGP Alliance.
GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) a complete and free replacement for PGP. ~ AxCrypt AES-128 File Encryption and Compression for Windows. Compare with the very tiny dsCrypt. ~ TrueCrypt Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows XP/2K/2K3 and Linux.
WinPT Windows Privacy Tools is a collection of multilingual applications for easy digital encryption and signing of content. GnuPG-based, compatible with OpenPGP compliant software and free for commercial and personal use under the GPL.
Iron Key encrypts file as a self-extracting executable; no software needed to decrypt.
Cypherix's Cryptainer and Secure IT encrypted virtual drive containers and encrypt attachments without the need for the recipient to have Cryptainer.
D. J. Bernstein's Cryptography online intro. (maker of qmail and djbdns)
Salsa20 encryption function (also called Snuffle 2005) by Daniel J. Bernstein. Allegedly easier to implement than AES and the encryption key is not vulnerable or guessable via cache timing attacks.
Applied Cryptography Second Edition by Bruce Schneier (look for 5th printing).
RC6: RSA Security ~ The Code Project ~ Jetico's BestCrypt data encryption supports RC6 for Windows platforms.

Password Crackers : L0phtCrack 6 (from original devs before LC was bought by @stake and LC5 was bought and dropped by Symantec)
To increase password security for Windows networks with no 9x clients: Microsoft's How to prevent Windows from storing a LAN manager hash of your password in Active Directory and local SAM databases.
Default Password List for routers/switches ~ Router Passwords
ChromePass for Google Chrome Web Browser ~ Mail PassView (email clients) ~ Mac OS X Password Recovery ~ Dialupass (DUN/RAS/VPN) ~ MessenPass (instant messenger apps) ~ Network Password Recovery (Win98/ME/XP; not Win2K) ~ Protected Storage PassView (Outlook, IE, MSN Explorer)
Offline NT Password and Registry Editor Reset the password of any user on NT/2K/XP. ~ Unlocking Windows NT/2000/2003 Domain Controllers ~ How to reset the Domain Admin Password under Windows 2003 Server
Austrumi Linux bootable ISO image small enough for a Business Card size CD (50MB). Simply enter "boot: nt_pass" (no quotes) to change any Windows password.
Passware - Office Key, MS Money, Password Unmasker, etc. ~ John the Ripper password cracker for many OS's. See SecurityFocus interview with author, Solar Designer. ~ Last Bit software password recovery and security ~ Password Crackers, Inc.
Symantec Pulls Plug on L0phtCrack March 2006 ~ SecWatch.org Download Archives -> Password Crackers (LC5 and more) ~ LCP 5.04 ~ ELCOMSOFT.COM's Proactive Password Auditor (formerly Proactive Windows Security Explorer) faster than LC5 and Password Recovery Software
Rainbowcrack.com rainbow table precomputation. ~ Ophcrack the time-memory-trade-off-cracker for Windows using rainbow tables. (check for latest at SourceForge link) ~ BackTrack Linux security live distro ~ GData An Online MD5 Hash Database containing over 12M entries; over 7 languages, 35 topics, and common mutations to words that include numbers and capitalizatiion.
echo -n "trustno1" | md5sum [5fcfd41e547a12215b173ff47fdd3739]

3rd Party Firmware and Drivers : Firmware to make DVD players region free (ignore Region Codes and DRM)
Rockbox for MP3 players such as the iPod supports more codecs and many other features.
Linksys WRT54G GL and GS and Netgear WGR614L and ASUS WL-500gV2 ~ DD-WRT wireless firmware enhancements.
OmegaDrivers.net unlock features and increase performance of ATi and NVIDIA video cards.

Grid Computing : IBM developerWorks Grid in action: Introduction to GridShell.

Best Enterprise Hardware : NetApp Storage ~ Foundry Networks ServerIron Application and Web Switches.

Hardware RAID Controllers : look for SATA2 or SATA II (Native Command Queuing (NCQ) and hotplugging), S.M.A.R.T., battery backed cache, etc. ~ wikipedia on RAID ~ Get the pros and cons of SATA II (SATA-IO) ~ 3ware ~ Adaptec ~ Promise ~ HighPoint Technologies

VoIP / PSTN / PBX phone systems : TestYourVoIP.com will make a call from wherever you are to one of our U.S. or international test locations and report the results for free. (Java)
ENUM / tElephone NUmber Mapping and e164.org free public ENUM service.
Asterisk The Open Source Linux PBX. ~ AsteriskNOW ~ astGUIclient suite of software for Asterisk systems primarily using Zap/IAX/SIP trunks/phones. ~ Trixbox (AKA Asterisk@Home) "enables the home user to quickly set up an Asterisk PBX. A web GUI makes configuration and operation easy." ~ Asterisk Tutorials including TrixBox and FreePBX. ~ Asterisk Logger ~ AsterWin IE ~ voip-info.org Asterisk summary and links.
Yate - Yet Another Telephony Engine ~ Xorcom Rapid Debian distro with pre-configured Asterisk. ~ FreePBX standardized implementation of Asterisk that includes a web-based configuration interface. ~ OpenPBX "a better Asterisk. We forked Asterisk due to issues with the Asterisk management."
GNU Telephony meta project that supports the GNU Bayonne telephony application server.
FreeSWITCH open source telephony application written in C; can also be used to interface with other open source PBX systems such as OpenPBX, Bayonne, YATE or Asterisk.
Fonality PBXtra Call Center for $1000 to $2000. (Fonality acquired Trixbox AKA Asterisk@Home early October 2006)

DVD (disc media, software, movies) : DVD Price Search (movies)
DVD Frequently Asked Questions (and Answers) (revision of the official Internet DVD FAQ for the rec.video.dvd Usenet newsgroups).
Why DVD+R(W) is superior to DVD-R(W).
Note: DVD+R discs should have bitsetting (booktyping) option set before burning to maximumize compatibility especially with pre-2002 drives.
dvdisaster project burn on supported CD/DVD with ECC (error correcting codes).
DVD Media Guides -> Blank Media and Quality FAQ. (Rima.com has best deal on first-class Taiyo Yuden brand.)
Windows software to play encrypted movie DVD's: CyberLink's PowerDVD or interVideo's WinDVD.
DVD Shrink free software for Windows to make copies of DVD's.
VideoHelp.com DVD player hacks to play all region codes and Region free tools such as the free DVD Region Killer.
DVD Region+CSS Free, DVDFab, DVDIdle Pro (Formerly called DVD Region-Free) (DVD Idle loads the DVD data to a cache and feeds this to your player software to avoid DVD spinning wear throughout the movie playing.) See their free DVDFab Decrypter removes all protections (CSS, RC, RCE, APS, UOPs and Sony ARccOS) while copying.
CD / DVD Burning Software: Nero ~ Roxio ~ DeepBurner ~ UltraISO ~ DVD-R Tools for CD-R(W) and DVD-R(W) devices ~ DVD Flick burn media files to DVD player format ~ K9Copy rip DVDs on Linux.
free: CDBurnerXP and InfraRecorder and BurnAware Free.
Virtual CD / DVD: SlySoft Virtual CloneDrive (Windows)
The Pioneer Region Free DVD firmware page.
To play encrypted DVD's on Linux/Unix, install the libdvdcss2 library.

Audio/Video Codecs and Drivers : Fluendo Webshop purchase multimedia codecs and plugins for Linux/Solaris ~ Free-Codecs Latest audio/video codecs and tools.
illiminable Ogg Directshow Filters (Windows).
Media Convert ~ SUPER (Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer) converts a wide range of audio and video files. (W98, WinMe, W2k, WinXP)
4Front Technologies Open Sound System a set of device drivers that provide a uniform API across all the major UNIX architectures.

Audio / CD :
MusicGiants download songs in Windows Media Audio Lossless (1100 kbps; around $1.29 each; EMI, Warner, Sony/BMG, Universal)
Pandora a customized streaming station; a music discovery service designed to help you find enjoyable music. Compare with Jango, Last.fm, Songza, finetune, Grooveshark, Slacker, and Deezer.
How to disable the autoplay / autorun feature of CD drives in order to prevent malware and DRM (Digital Rights Management) software from installing. Or install the Tweak UI 1.33 (Windows)
Exact Audio Copy for reading audio CD's better than normal Windows programs; less susceptible to distortion from scratches and various DRM copy protection schemes. (Windows)
Adobe Soundbooth
VioLet Composer music composer for Win32
Rosegarden closest native equivalent to Cubase for Linux (and CakeWalk.com's Sonar)
Audacity multitrack audio editor and recorder for BSD, Linux, MacOS and Windows. ~ WavePad Sound Editor for Windows or Mac ~ KRISTAL Audio Engine (Windows) ~ Wavosaur (Windows) ~ Ardour (Linux) ~ Snd sound editor for Linux.
AllOfMP3 Listen to samples or purchase 192 Kbps MP3's. (10 to 20 cents each) (FAQ)
ID3-TagIT batch edit ID3 TAGs in MP3 files.
CDex for ripping and converting audio tracks.
Ogg Vorbis VorbisHardware support and flac free lossless audio codec support.
freedb2.org Album / Tracks / DiscID database.

Remove DRM / Dubious Restriction Methods : doubleTwist desktop enables you to easily share media with friends and sync with popular devices. ~ FairUse4WM circumvent PlaysForSure DRM for both Windows Vista and Zune software versions. ~ hymn (Hear Your Music aNywhere) (formerly called PlayFair) and their newer Jhymn removes Apple's FairPlay DRM from iPod/iTunes pre-version 6. Also see QTFairUse6, myFairTunes7, and Requiem. See Privatunes to remove personal information from iTunes Plus tracks.
iTunesSync allows any MP3 player to sync with iTunes.

Video :
Videos and Webcam Streams (Flickr of video) : YouTube ~ Yahoo! Video ~ Revver ~ Vobbo ~ vimeo.
Capture Streams : KeepVid ~ GetASFStream ~ get_iplayer ~ get-flash-videos
Real Alternative Play RealMedia files without having to install the huge/unsecure RealPlayer/RealOne Player.
QuickTime Alternative Play QuickTime movies without having to install the official QuickTime Player.
MSU Lossless Video Codec
Avidemux free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding
Microsoft's Windows Media High Definition Video (WMVHD)
Video Resolution - An Overview Where the eye meets the screen... (About.com 2-28-2005)
Free and open-source MPlayer for Windows and Linux. See also FFmpeg.
VideoLAN "Free software and open-source video streaming solution for every OS" including VLC media player VideoLAN Client; multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg,...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols; Windows/Unix/Linux/MacOSX.
SnapStream Beyond PC highly-rated personal video recorder software for Windows.
WinMorph image morphing and warping software.
MainConcept's MainActor for Windows and Linux.
LiVES Linux Video Editing System.
Diva Video editing software for the (Linux) Gnome Desktop.
PiTiVi edit audio/video projects based on the GStreamer framework.
Cinelerra "Movie studio in a Linux Box" Capturing, compositing, and editing audio and video with sample-level accuracy.
Linux DV Digital Video for Linux.
Elisa Media Center open source media center and personal video recorder for GNU/Linux and Unix (runs on top of the GStreamer multimedia framework)
MythTV PVR for Linux. See also MySetTopBox.TV and their KnoppMyth distro or MythTV on Fedora or MythDora.

Webcam / Videocam Monitoring :
PY Software Active WebCam and PYSoft Broadcaster record and broadcast from multiple cameras and detect motion.

Flowcharting / Org Charts : LucidChart online colaborative (free) ~ Network Notepad network diagrams (free) ~ SmartDraw (highly rated) ~ Novagraph Chartist (featureful, inexpensive) ~ Pacestar EDGE Diagrammer and WizFlow Flowcharter (easy, inexpensive) ~ Human Concepts' OrgPlus (popular) ~ OrgChart Professional ~ Dia (*nix and Windows; inspired by Visio) ~ Microsoft Visio.
Online: Gliffy.com and Flowchart.com

Picture / Photo Manager / Image Viewer / Image Editor : Photoshop Express free online. ~ Adobe Photoshop Video Tutorials - Best Of
Adobe's Understanding Digital Raw Capture (PDF)
HDR: High dynamic range photography ~ qtpfsgui combines various exposure shots to create an HDR image
VectorMagic upload an image to vectorize (smooths rough/blocky images).
imgSeek photo collection manager and viewer with content-based search; draw an image and it displays the photos with similar characteristics.
scanR pictures/images sent to doc@scanR[dot]com are converted into readable PDF files and faxes.
Fotosearch / Photosearch search 700,000+ images from 50+ stock photography, illustration and video footage publishers. ~ EveryStockPhoto indexing 283,000+ free photos. ~ Yotophoto search engine for free-to-use photos and images (over 250,000) ~ StockVault.
Wikimedia Commons free photographs, diagrams, animations, music, spoken text, video clips, etc.
Microsoft Photo Story 3 (WinXP)
Microsoft RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer (WinXP) ~ RawTherapee raw image editor.
Resizr online image resizer ~ Image Resizer and other Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP ~ Image Resizer Powertoy Clone for Windows supports more versions ~ Real World's Picture Resizer ~ VSO Image Resizer.
Riya uses face recognition to automatically tag photos.
StudioLine Photo Basic
XnView and Nconvert view/convert 400 graphic formats (Windows, Linux, Unix, MacOS) (Alternate link).
Omniformat free document conversion utility between 75 file formats including HTML, DOC, XLS, WPD, PDF, JPG, GIF, TIF, PNG, PCX, PPT, PS, TXT, Photo CD, FAX and MPEG. Requires free PDF995. Optional Optical Character Recognition Module to convert scanned images to text.
IrfanView image viewer, batch editor, html thumbnail page creator, etc. (See also thumbalizr)
PhotoPlus - Image and Photo Editing Software.
FastStone Image Viewer converter and editor.
Adobe InDesign and Photoshop ~ Photoshop Tips & Tricks
QuarkXPress
GIMP Image Manipulation Program. Separate CYMK support for The GIMP. (To resemble Photoshop's UI: gimpShop and Photoshop-ish Keyboard Shortcuts for The Gimp 2.2 ) ~ UFRaw read and manipulate RAW images; can plug into Gimp.
CinePaint 8 to 32-bit per channel color core; used by Sony Pictures Imageworks; formerly Film Gimp. (Linux)
Krita painting and image editing application for KOffice.
Autodesk Maya (Windows/Linux/OS X; Autdesk acquired Alias January 2006)
PageStream desktop publishing/page layout program for Windows, Linux, Mac)
Scribus Open Source Desktop Publishing (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux) (basically an InDesign or QuarkXpress substitute)
Pixel image editor (basically a Photoshop substitute) for Windows, Linux, MacOSX, BeOS/Zeta, MorphOS, QNX, eComStation, SkyOS and DOS.
Xara Xtreme vector graphics program for drawing, illustration, photos, etc. (Linux and Mac)
JPEGCrop to crop without losing quality/changing compression.
Metrix plug-in for Adobe Photoshop to color scheme match a set of photos.
PictureCloud upload pictures taken around an object for conversion into HTML and Flash Player video.
Photo stitching: Google SketchUp ~ Microsoft Image Composite Editor ~ AutoStitch Capable of seamlessly stitching together separate pictures of a panorama. ~ Autopano automatically stitches images into a single image as large as 300,000 x 300,000 pixels using 300 pictures (Mac or PC). ~ RealViz Stitcher, ImageModeler, VTour, MatchMover, MMTrack, ReTimer, StoryViz, Movimento.
3D Photo stitching: Microsoft Image Composite Editor and Photosynth (Photosynth lab) (old demo video).
3D Terrains: VTP - Virtual Terrain Project VTP Enviro interactive runtime environment. ~ OpenSceneGraph open source high peformance 3D graphics toolkit; C++ and OpenGL. Windows, OSX, Linux, IRIX, Solaris, FreeBSD. ~ Terragen scenery generator for Windows and the Mac OS; free for non-commercial use.
Corel's Paint Shop Pro (formerly owned by JASC Software) (Much cheaper than QuarkXPress, cheaper than Adobe Fireworks and Adobe Photoshop CS2 though about the same as Photoshop Elements.)
Gallery 2 open source web based photo album organizer. (PHP 4)
GQview image browser.
Command line image viewers: feh ~ QIV Quick Image View.

CAD / Computer Aided Drafting / Graphics Editors / Graphs / 3D modeling : White_dune VRML97 tool ~ Bryce 5.5 free 3D modeling for Windows or Mac ~ Ivan Johansen's Graph for Windows; GPL'd. ~ Google's SketchUp ~ Autodesk's AutoCAD (see Open Design Alliance statement on the use of its technology by Autodesk) ~ IntelliCAD ~ CADopia ~ PythonCAD ~ CYCAS ~ QCad (2D) ~ ARCAD ~ ICAADS ~ solidThinking FORMA, DESIGN, VANTAGE ~ SolidWorks ~ PTC Pro/ENGINEER ~ ~ KeyCreator (formerly CADKEY) ~ UGS NX Design CAD ~ Mastercam ~ Bentley's OpenDGN ~ Open CASCADE Technology ~ VariCAD ~ GiveMePower GmbH PowerCAD, FelixCAD and CeCAD ~ BricsCad ~ IBM's CATIA.
Blender 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback (open source).
Autodesk 3ds Max ~ MAXON CINEMA 4D ~ SOFTIMAGE|XSI - The Character Production Software ~ Inkscape SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) Editor (basically an Illustrator substitute).
Art of Illusion 3D modeling and rendering studio (Java) ~ K-3D ~ Moonlight|3D.

Math / Mathematics : SAGE: Open Source Mathematics Software ~ The R Project for Statistical Computing (wikipedia) and S-PLUS ~ fooplot.com online graphing ~ SpeQ ~ free, small, extensive math program for Windows ~ Maxima and wxMaxima ~ Scilab ~ GNU Octave ~ Euler ~ SciPy and http://numpy.scipy.org/">NumPy ~ Newt ~ GeoGebra ~ FreeMat ~ GAP - Groups, Algorithms, Programming a System for Computational Discrete Algebra. ~ Maplesoft's Maple ~ Mathcad ~ MATLAB ~ Mathematica and MathWorld mathematics resource site. ~ SYSTAT SigmaPlot. ~ gnuplot ~ Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms ~ Elementary Calculus: An Approach Using Infinitesimals ~ A Problem Course in Mathematical Logic.

Torrent / Bittorrent : Comparison of BitTorrent software ~ Fenopy Fake Finder fake torrents and trackers.
Tribler find .torrent files hosted among peers instead of a centralized site btjunkie the largest bittorent search engine ~ The Pirate Bay ~ mininova
LimeWire ~ uTorrent many features; small size ~ Torrent Swapper open source ~ Transmission ~ Grokster ~ Morpheus ~ eMule ~ BitTorrent ~ Deluge light-weight, cross-platform ~ Azureus open-source Java BitTorrent client that blacklists IP addresses of those who poison downloads, send corrupt blocks, or offer fakes. See also SafePeer and PeerGuardian, Bluetack B.I.S.S. and Protowall, and TrustyFiles blocklist. ~ AnalogX BitPump ~ BitComet (Windows) ~ DC++ open source client for the Direct Connect network.
Ted the Torrent Episode Downloader finds TV episodes. (Requires Java Runtime Environment and a bittorent client like Azureus, µTorrent or Bitcomet)

PC/laptop/notebook recovery/monitoring software : Gadget Theft for iPods, Flash Drives, Digital Cameras, etc.
Adeona free and open source ~ LaptopLock free for now ~ Absolute ComputracePlus or LoJack for Laptops (LoJack formerly "Laptop Retriever") to have a stolen computer "phone home" to a Monitoring Center and work with local authorities. Computrace Personal Edition available from IBM and Toshiba. ~ Orbicle Undercover (Mac OS X) ~ CyberAngel Security Software ~ zTrace Gold. Remotely lock/wipe a PDA/phone: bluefish Central (Palm/Treo) ~ sCPsOFT's remotePROTECT and PDAKill.

Miscellaneous :
WhoCrashed Windows crash dump analyzer.
ShellExView Shell Extensions Manager; disable right-click options.
AnyDVD (HD) Removes the BD+ protection from Blu-ray discs. ~ DVD43 decrypts DVDs on the fly for Windows ~ HandBrake rips DVDs ~ MEncoder command-line; based on mplayer.
Removal tool to fix .NET Framework install failures
Openbravo POS (point-of-sale) in Java.
DarkSquall.com linux/unix command line tools for Windows.
Video Cards: increase speed and unlock features with RivaTuner or ATITool for ATi video cards.
OCS Inventory NG (Open Computer and Software Inventory Next Generation) ~ Spiceworks free IT Management Software.
Microsoft Windows Environment Variables
How to fix: NTLDR is missing, press any key to restart
WinIPs small executible tasktray icon to select network IP configurations.
Prio - Process Priority Saver for Windows.
turboexplorer.com all new free Turbo C++, Turbo Delphi, Turbo Delphi for .NET and Turbo C#. ~ Free Pascal.
OpenVMS and PointSecure the leading provider of security and auditing solutions for OpenVMS systems. Highly recommended by HP, our solutions have been declared virtually unhackable at Defcon's Capture the Flag (2001)
Bruce Perens' Open Source Series.
OpenCyc and ConceptNet : commonsense concepts and relations, natural-language-processing toolkit, reasoning engine.
JA-SIG CAS (Central Authentication Service) an authentication system originally created by Yale University to provide a trusted way for an application to authenticate a user.
The Windows XP Command Line, Batch Files, and Scripting
Viewing Word files at the command line with Antiword, Catdoc, and wvWare.
Synergy contol various computer operating systems with a single mouse and keyboard and shared clipboard.
NetLimiter 2 Monitor per-process in/outgoing Internet traffic monitoring tool for Windows 2000 and later.
The Definitive BIOS Optimization Guide
Microsoft Windows Sysinternals (Systernals acquired by Microsoft 7/2006) Process Monitor ~ Similar to Process Explorer: Igor Nys' Process Viewer for Windows ~ Dependency Walker free; builds a hierarchical tree diagram of all dependent modules.
DesktopStandard's PolicyMaker highly-rated extension to AD/Group Policy. (See also their Free Tools and GPOVault).
XXCOPY xtra features than xcopy (eXtended Xcopy). TeraCopy faster, pause & resume, error recovery, interactive file list, shell inegration
FART Find And Replace Text command line utility (grep like) for Windows.
Uninstall Microsoft (Java) Virtual Machine.
Bulk file renaming utilities for Windows (batch file rename) listed at NoNags, such as Advanced Renamer and Lupas Rename and Flexible Renamer and Rename Master.
GoodLink server software provides the look and feel of Outlook for both Palm and Windows PDA's with over-the-air installation (no desktop software needed).
GFI Network Server Monitor scan the network for failed services and optionally restart them (freeware if monitors less than 4 servers).
HOW-TO - Ethernet Cables Crimp your own.
Programmer's Paradise a wide variety of technical and general business application software (nicely categorized).
SlickRun free floating command line utility for Windows. Assign command aliases or words to launch programs, websites, etc. Compare with Launchy.
SpectorSoft's Spector Pro computer monitoring software for Windows that doesn't require Administrator privileges to run; records keystrokes and takes screen snapshots of any User's activity.
Blat Win32 command line utility that sends eMail using the SMTP or NNTP protocols.
DriverGuide.com Your guide to finding device drivers.
Data conversion online.
Yahoo! del.icio.us social bookmarks manager - categorize favorite sites with keywords and share your collection. See also TopTaggers (formerly CollaborativeRank) to search the links of Del.icio.us users whose links were subsequently bookmarked by others and rewarded a higher search result ranking.
DisplayMate Demo sample screen shots for Windows to test monitor/display quality.
Michael Johnson's Software Delete files dated on or before N days ago (compare with DelDate), Master Copy improvement over XCOPY, etc.
MARC - The Mailing list ARChives 13+ million emails across almost 1500 mailing lists.
Famatech Network Utilities Free Advanced IP Scanner, IP Calculator, Port Scanner and LAN Scanner.
Mohawke's Best of the Best Free and Open Source Software Collection from Dark Artistry
Fyodor's Insecure.org - Top 75 Security Tools (2006)
Astalavista.com Information Security Portal Utilities, papers, Top 50 Security Tools list, etc.
Dave Navarro's CMD Tools.
WhoLockMe Explorer Extension shows what program has a lock on a particular file (NT/2K/XP).
Unlocker by Nitch Collomb
Gibin Software House - MoveOnBoot, DirMonitor, Mount, etc.
GNUWin II Selection Free GNU programs for Windows.
Metasploit Framework Remotely install VNC server or inject DLL's into memory via thread of remote OS exploit without saving to disk.
LaBrea "Sticky" Honeypot and IDS Use spare IP addresses to efficiently waste the connection resources of worms.
Chess : FICS Free Internet Chess Server (150,000+ registered users) ~ Pawn (Windows) ~ Arasan (Windows and Linux) ~ NagaSkaki (Windows) ~ Flash Chess online; requires Adobe Flash player.

Flight Simulators : FlightGear Open-source, multi-platform. ~ X-Plane and Space Combat. ~ ORBITER ~ Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 ~ FlightSim.com.

Around Portland, Oregon : Portland.CraigsList.org Computer Services ~ Oregon Computer Consultants Association ~ Portland Area .NET Users Group (PADNUG) ~ PDXLUG Portland Linux User Group ~ Portland Linux/Unix Group ~ The Portland Group PGI High-Performance Compilers.
NW Netcom Cabling Installation Services ~ Fry's Electronics ~ FREE GEEK Community Technology Center and Thrift Store (Recycling).


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