Some anti-virus programs cause more problems than they solve. Avast! Home Edition anti-virus is thankfully not one of those as it exceeds expectations while remaining free. Lightweight, vigilant and most importantly, effective, this could be the answer to your prayers if you’ve had no luck finding a virus checker you like.

The developers make a point of stressing that this program is strictly not for institutional use – it is designed specifically for the threats most home users face daily. Their philosophy is that efficient home virus protection is essential in preventing users one day being struck by a serious global virus. What impresses you immediately with Avast! is its vigilance. It’s likely that within minutes of installation, you’ll receive a pop up alert due to a Trojan or virus that had been incubating on your PC. If not, rest assured that it won’t be long before Avast! sets off its trademark siren and alerts you that something has been detected. The latest version of

Avast’s antivirus kernel promises 100% detection of ‘In-the-Wild’ viruses (viruses already spreading between users) and excellent detection of Trojan horses. Avast! provides 24 hour protection via its ‘On-Access’ scanner but you can initiate manual scans via the fairly simple user interface. You can start additional modules from here, such as the Virus Chest, Updater or Log Viewer. Another great feature of Avast! is the option to change the skin of this interface. The developer website features practically hundreds of distinctive designs made by aficionados and even offers a guide to designing your own.

Something often overlooked by major virus checking packages is P2P applications installed on your PC but Avast! covers this with a P2P and Instant Messenger shield. Whilst chat applications themselves do not impose any serious security risks in terms of viruses, their less sophisticated file sharing methods can easily lead to virus infections if not properly monitored. With so many infected files on P2P networks such as Kazaa and eMule too, it’s also good to know that Avast! won’t let you open them without quietly checking them first.

The program also features both a Web and Network shield that constantly monitors traffic. The Web Shield acts as a transparent HTTP proxy and is compatible with all major web browsers. One of the truly outstanding features of Avast! is that unlike heavyweights such as Kaspersky or Norton, you hardly notice it working in the background. This is because of a unique feature the developers call ‘Intelligent Stream Scan’ that scans objects on-the-fly, without needing to cache them locally. Even the virus updates are unobtrusive. Avast! downloads the updates gradually and only those that are absolutely essential instead of the whole database. You receive a ‘Virus database has been updated’ voice message every time this has been completed along with a small popup which you can turn off if it annoys you.

There really is little to fault Avast! on in a market that is saturated with too many ineffective virus checkers. Although it doesn’t guzzle resources, if you’re running it on an older machine, you might find it slows you down. Some new users also complain that conducting a simple manual scan is more complicated than it should be but if you’ve spent anytime with virus checkers, you’ll realise that its more than worth your while getting to know this excellent program.

Download Avast! Home 4.8.1227 in Softonic

How many times have you tried to save streaming media locally but realised you don't have the appropriate tool? Net Transport (NetXfer) can do just that for you. Net Transport downloads MMS and RTSP streaming in multiple threads with perfect video & audio quality.

There are some other great features, like "Site Manager" which allows you to keep the active connection with the remote servers. In addition, the support for both SSL and SSH is hardly found in other upload/download tools.

Main Features:

• Simple but powerful "File Manager" to categorize and manage downloaded files
• Simple multi-user management
• Inbuilt "Site Explorer" lists the directory structure of the remote server
• FTP reuse mechanism uses one connection to get different files from the same site
• Assign every working thread a different proxy to break certain site restrictions
• Proxies with NTLM authentication can penetrate local firewall, like Microsoft ISA 2000
• Adjust the bandwidth usage of Net Transport
• Monitor browser click
• Can automatically shutdown the system or hang up the modem
• NTLM authentication is supported for both MMS and RTSP
• Use multi-threads for both MMS and RTSP to significantly reduce the time of downloads
• Automatically parse streaming script such as .asx, .smi to acquire real URLs
• Support SSH encryption for both HTTP and FTP
• Flexible "Scheduler Manager"

Download Net Transport (NetXfer) 2.62.468 in Softonic

High speed Internet connections are quite common now but that doesn’t mean we don’t sometimes need some help when it comes to downloading game demos, videos, MP3 collections and other big files. So, even if you’re enjoying the fastest router in the neighborhood, take a look at Internet Download Manager, because it really has a lot to offer.

This excellent app will take care of all your downloads from the moment you install it on your PC. You can add new download tasks from the program’s interface but the usual thing is to let it capture the links. This means that every time you click on a certain file type (which can be specified through configuration options), IDM will handle the download for itself rather than letting the browser do the job. It’s a really handy option because everything is automatic: no changing from one app to another, no copying and pasting links, just no hassle at all. Also, it works with all major web browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera.

Once IDM captures the link, you can either start to download the file right away or add it to a download list for later, which can be a good alternative if you need all of your bandwidth for the moment and plan to leave the computer on during the night. Downloads can be classified into custom categories right before starting them and can also be resumed if the connection is lost or broken for some reason.

As regards download speeds, Internet Download Manager does meet expectations, although it all depends on your Internet access. That is, don’t expect to download at the speed of light if you’re still using one of those old-fashioned 56K modems. Anyhow, IDM achieves quite satisfying download rates as a result of establishing multiple thread connections to servers. Also, it displays a small window with some interesting information about the download process: transfer rate, data downloaded so far, time left and a neat progress bar for each thread.

The program’s configuration menu displays a wide range of functions and tools devoted to handling your downloads, such as checking files for viruses directly from IDM with your own antivirus system or limiting the amount of bandwidth used by the program. There’s also support for server authentication and proxy, FTP and HTTPS servers.

The fact of the matter is, we couldn’t really find anything wrong with Internet Download Manager. It does its job and does it pretty well, so even if your Internet connection speed is far beyond the usual limits, you should definitely give it a try.

Download Internet Download Manager 5.12.11 in Softonic

Morpheus is one of those age old P2P applications and, with support for Gnutella, eDonkey, Bittorrent and many others, probably the most versatile you can find on the market. The new version aims to turn the P2P client into the ultimate multimedia application. Does it succeed?

Morpheus has gone through a complete facelift and the new version brings a newer interface. The window is divided into 4 tabs: search results, my files, podcasts and Morpheus online, giving you an idea of what it considers important. A pane on the left side allows you to create playlists or keep track of searches and videos – although strangely not music. Morpheus lets you also sync all your downloaded files to import them automatically to iTunes. Oddly enough, the chat tool is now hidden at the top of the interface, next to help and preferences.

Morpheus wants to appear as a multifaceted app, not just a simple P2P program. It includes an embedded browser, Morpheus Online, from which you can check-out the internet or find new files to share while you’re downloading. This is particularly useful when you’re looking for new podcasts. By clicking on the podcast page button in the podcasts tab, you will be taken to Morpheus’ own podcast library. While it’s not as star studded as the iTunes library, it’s full of varied and original content. The podcast tab is wisely divided into podcast and episodes, so you can browse through what you’ve downloaded. However we were quite confused by the whole podcast downloading procedure. The progress bar is hidden in the file window of the My Files tab. Why didn’t Morpheus leave this in the podcast section?

Morpheus has also beefed-up its security. You can now select your antivirus application to automatically scan downloaded files. The program also includes solid parental control so you can enter hazardous terms into the block list to avoid your kids searching for violent or pornographic material. You can also add a password to make sure you control who has access to Morpheus. The application also introduces UDP technology to improve the performance of downloads and allow secure file sharing between 2 firewall protected PCs.

This new version comes with many interesting enhancements, but not enough to get us overexcited. Add to that the many drawbacks we found in the application. The interface for example is way too clunky, and it’s safe to say that lies in the two large ads at the top and the bottom of the program (which disappear if you buy the Pro version). The “My Files” tab has an additional file window at the bottom, which adds to the confusion in the interface. The one click burning function is something we were eager to try out but was nowhere to be seen.

However hard Morpheus tries at integrating cool features like web browsing or podcasting, we figure the application should only be used for what it’s good at i.e.P2P downloading. The program gives access to all the P2P networks, even Bittorrent, and the new version introduces safer and quicker transfer thanks to UDP technology. The other extra features in the application like the library structure or web browser felt a bit awkward, and therefore failed at turning the program into a true multimedia application. Let’s hope Morpheus gets it right in the future.

Download Morpheus Basic 5.5.1 in Softonic

Cabos may not be as famous as Limewire or eMule but it remains a very good peer to peer file sharing client.

In fact, users of Limewire will immediately find the similarities in Cabos' interface. Your network, downloads and uploads are easily accessible from the menu on the left. Elements in these sections will be displayed in a list in the center of the interface. The search box on the top left is the best way to look for content, and given that Cabos makes use of Gnutella, the third biggest peer to peer network, you're guaranteed to find what you're looking for. Thanks to iTunes integration, you can search for tracks or videos stored in Apple's media player directly from Cabos.

The peer to peer client may not have any advanced features and you may not always benefit from ultrafast connection speeds, however it remains a very simple to use P2P application. What worries us though is that the client has not been updated for a while, and could be in need of some improvements.

Cabos is an easy to use P2P client which makes use of the third biggest peer to peer network, Gnutella.

Download Cabos 0.7.9 in Softonic

Teleport Pro is a fully automated, multithreaded, file-retrieving Web spider. The program gives you the ability to completely download a Web site, browse it offline, create a mirror of the site, search the site for files of a certain type, and then download the list of files and their URLs.

This new release has automatic proxy configuration, an Add to Favorites feature, an improved Copy URL feature, and the ability to copy multiple URLs. It has also improved the relinking system, which is now faster at managing tightly linked sites (100 links per page). The program also has improved the disk-free space calculation and now works around the Windows 95 OSR2 bug.

Program highlights:

• Download all or part of a website to your computer, enabling you to browse the site directly from your hard disk at greater speeds than if you were to browse the site online
• Create an exact duplicate, or 'mirror' of a website, complete with subdirectory structure and all required files
• Search a website for files of a certain type and size
• Download a list of files at known addresses
• Explore every website linked from a central website
• Search a website for keywords
• Make a list of all pages and files on a website

Download Teleport Pro 1.54 in Softonic

FTPGetter is an automated ftp program which is intended to upload or download files between ftp servers and your local or network workstation drives using file masks, i.e. when neither exact file names, nor their numbers are known.

File batch processing using masks will allow you to flexibly adjust list of files that are to be uploaded to the ftp server or downloaded from it. Built-in task scheduler will duly start the tasks that you created.

FTPGetter can work simultaneously with any number of ftp servers using multithreaded processing technology. FTPGetter supports a direct connection to ftp servers, as well as connection through a FTP, SOCKS or HTTP proxy server.

Download FTPGetter 2.96.0.31 in Softonic

Trillian is an exciting and innovative Messenger application ideal for those who are connected to multiple IM networks and like to customize their programs.

The installation process is a bit lengthy, but once set up, Trillian loads quickly. A set-up wizard guides you through the installation process, like choosing your picture, typing an alias and selecting the different networks you will connect to. One of the most versatile IM clients out there, Trillian allows you to connect to Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, ICQ, AIM and mIRC. To manage your status on each different network you have little round icons at the bottom of the messenger. You can set different states of availability for different accounts. Your IM chats are made secure so you don’t have to worry about anybody eavesdropping on your conversations.

Like most IM clients out there, Trillian serves up videoconferencing, but it uses the QuickTime player to handle your videos. If you and your buddies have webcams, it’s a good way of communicating with each other. The time travel function allows you to replay parts of your webcam chats. Trillian separates contact lists according to the different IM networks you are connected to. You can also choose to create different identities for each of your IM services.

The program has server-less IM to connect with other people in your office or home and send quick messages. The “Instant Lookup” feature is really handy and something we hope to see more of in all IM clients. Right-click on any word in your chats to look up for its definition on the web or Wikipedia.

Trillian is part of the VoIP revolution and lets you make international calls to other VoIP services like AIM, MSN and Yahoo but you won’t be able to make PC-to-phone calls. You can send away messages and SMS to your friends and join a chat room in a click. The “global reconnect” function is useful to reload your connection settings on all of your networks. The “contact message history” function is extremely useful to catch up on what you said to your buddies.

One of the big strengths of Trillian is the wealth of customization tools on hand. You can personalize the interface, change the emoticons and even add new sound packs. With the “Biography” section you can even edit AIM profiles in html. We weren’t too impressed with the default selection of skins and other plug-ins and were furthermore disappointed to learn that you have go to the Trillian site to download new ones. However, there’s a large selection of extra customization tools available online and they’re sorted by popularity for easy browsing.

Versatility and customization are Trillian’s defining aspects. Packed with recent innovations such as videoconferencing and VoIP, and original add-ons like “Instant Lookup” or “global reconnect”, Trillian is a great choice for those of you who want to nest all your IM services into one solid application.

Download Trillian 3.1.9.0 in Softonic

IP Hider masks the real IP of a user, allowing him to browse all kind of pages without ever worrying that the ISPs or any other marketing tool is monitoring your surfing habits or spammers are attacking your computer. The simplest way to do this is to have traffic redirected through anonymous proxies. A proxy server is a kind of buffer between your computer and the Internet resources you are accessing. The data you request come to the proxy first, and only then it transmits the data to you. As a result, the websites see the IP address of the proxy server instead of your own IP address. This tool has a comprehensive proxy list, containing proxies from various countries so that you can choose one from a specific one.

Download IP Hider 3.4 in Softonic

FTPRush is a fast, reliable, powerful and easy-to-use FTP/FXP/SFTP/TFTP client for Microsoft Windows. It allows you to transfer files from local to server, server to local or server to server. It allows you to fully customize the user interface on-the-fly. It allows you to create your own scripts to do automatic jobs... It allows you to do a lot of things.

Features:

• Tabbed Interface for smooth control over multiple active connections.
• GUI Runtime Customization and Integrated Docking; spice up the look of it all with your own style or favorites such as Office 2000/XP/2003.
• Drag-And-Drop files via Explorer-like interface.
• Built-in Task Manager for you to easily schedule all kinds of jobs.
• Allows to setting listing/downloading/uploading account individually into One site and switch them automatically
• On-The-Fly Compression saves your bandwidth.
• Multi-Language support makes FTPRush easily translatable to your native language if it's not already done.
• HTTP Proxy, FTP Proxy, Socks 4 & 5 support; create different proxies and switch between them with a simple mouse click.
• High performance Disk Buffer to decrease disk fragmentation.
• Secure FTP (FTPS) support; protect your data and information through SSL/TLS encryption.
• SSH FTP (SFTP) support.
• TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol) support.
• Synchronize data.
• Built-in Script Engine for you to reap maximum benefits from each one of your transfers; either write your own scripts or choose from an always growing collection.
• Automatic SFV Checking and Reporting functionalities.
• Multiple-Files Renaming tool saves you time.
• Built-in Command Designer for Serv-U/RaidenFTPD/ioFTPD/glftpd; your always one click away from all the basic ftp commands but you can also personnalize them to make everything quicker for you.
• FTP Folders Caching speeds your browsing.
• Wildcards, Regular Expressions and Skip & Allow Lists tools make sure that you transfer wanted data only.
• Search for a file on a server as easily as you would on your own machine with our Advanced File Finder tool.
• IdentD Server support.
• Unicode/UTF-8 Charset support.

Download FTPRush 1.1.0.15 in Softonic

Win32Whois is a free, small and efficient tool that lets you retrieve registration information for a particular domain or website. It takes URL, hostname or IP address and will generate a detailed report listing all the available technical and contact information it can find. The generated report can be saved as a file or used to track down website owners, administrators or spammers.

Additional features:

• Build a detailed report for a domain/website or IP address
• Retrieve contact and DNS information
• Save report to a file
• Supports HTTP, SOCKS 4a/5 Proxies

Download Win32Whois 0.9.13 in Softonic

Advanced Email Extractor (AEE) is designed to extract email addresses from web pages on the Internet (using HTTP and HTTPS protocols) and from HTML and text files on local disks. AEE supports operation through a proxy server and works very fast, as it is able of loading several pages simultaneously, and requires very few resources. It is possible to launch AEE in fully automatic mode through the command prompt.

AEE has various limiters of scanning range, using which you can extract only the addresses you actually need from web-pages, instead of extracting all the addresses present there. You can not only limit scanning depth and width, you also can cut off unnecessary paths using patterns or just delete them from jobs list during operation.

AEE is very flexible and may be used to extract e-mail addresses with owners real names from "simple sites" as well as from web-forums built on scripts and from servers like ZDNet. Also you can use popular search engines (AltaVista, Excite, Yahoo, InfoSeek and many others).

Features not found in other email address extractors:

• 330+ search engines from 36 countries
• Two HTML parsers — Microsoft parser and built-in parser
• Scripting technology to process found emails on fly
• Very flexible plugins technology
• Flexible limiters of scanning range
• Command line mode to automize your work

Download Advanced Email Extractor 2.87 in Softonic

Nsauditor Network Security Auditor is a network security scanner that allows to audit and monitor network computers for possible vulnerabilities, checks your network for all potential methods that a hacker might use to attack it. Nsauditor is a complete networking utilities package that includes a wide range of tools for network auditing, scanning, monitoring and more.

You can discover network services and check them for vulnerabilities, list all TCP and UDP endpoints with their associated process, discover NetBios names, audit MS SQL servers, scan for common Adware traces and more.

The program also includes real-time network packet filtering and analyzing, web proxy scanning, password auditing, intrusion detection system based on security events log analyzer, IP address lookup and more than 40 network tools for scanning, sniffing, enumerating and gaining access to machines, DNS and WHOIS lookups, e-mail validation, HTTP traffic generator and intrusion detection based on security events log analyzer.

Overall, this is a very complete package for a surprisingly low price. The product contains a built-in database of known network security vulnerabilities, which allows you to select the items for scanning and add custom entries.

Download Nsauditor Network Security Auditor 1.6.2 in Softonic

CuteFTP Home transfers files between your PC and remote computers. Whether you're publishing a Web page; downloading the latest digital images, music, and software; or transferring large files between your home and office, CuteFTP Home will get the job done quickly and easily, even if you're a beginner.

Its features are:

• An easy-to-use interface
• A connection wizard, automatic-transfer-resume functionality
• A built-in HTML editor
• A transfer queue
• Directory comparison
• Custom commands
• Firewall and proxy options
• Path bookmarks
• Filtered listings

Download CuteFTP Home 8.0.6 in Softonic

Mask Surf is an all-in-one online privacy solution that lets you protect your identity when surfing the internet and clean your browser traces accumulated on your computer every day. The latter may include the information about your surfing habits, recent websites, how often you visit those sites and files you have downloaded. Mask Surf is available for a small, one-time fee instead of monthly subscription payments, which is typical for anonymous services.

Mask Surf allows you to mask your identity or make it completely invisible to the eyes of other people. You can easily mask or hide the information related to your OS type, browser, system language, as well as the IP address, which you come from. Quick tuning is available from the Options dialog box that you can access by right-clicking on the Mask Surf icon in the tray.

The Options dialog box may also include the list of anonymous proxy servers that you can use to hide your real identity. Proxy addresses should be added by the user prior to surfing the internet. Once you are online, you can switch your proxy with one click even if you use several browsers at a time. You do this by right-clicking on the Mask Surf icon in the tray and selecting the “Change proxy” option from the popup menu.

Download Mask Surf 2.2 in Softonic

Hub80 presents your local files using a permanent web address: http://www.hub80.com/username. Your friends can browse, download, and upload your shared local files using a Web browser at any time anywhere. The shared folders and files are shown in thumbnail, filmstrip, or list format automatically, and users can browse the shared files like using a local Windows Explorer. You can stay behind firewalls and proxies to share and view files. Hub80 also provides 10MB free web space to host files online, and an easy-to-use weblog to publish information.

Download Hub80 2.01 in Softonic

Anyone who ever used the Internet faced annoying popup windows with advertisement. It is virtually impossible to make a program that will eliminate those completely, while leaving those that are useful or even vital for website navigation. Many software companies tried and failed that is why you see more and more of those pop-up windows every day. Pop up Blocker does not close any popup windows; it helps you choose which windows you want to be closed with block list feature. Meaning, the more you use this program less popup windows you see.

The pop-up blocker has 4 types of pop-ups blocking: 100% pop-ups blocking, Pop-ups Block list, Pop-ups Block list with keywords, Limit windows opened. This is one program packed with advanced Privacy Protection Technologies (Prevent your home page from being reset, Go to URL, Proxy settings, Sound effect on close pop-ups, Disable auto suggest, Block messenger spam pop-ups and much more).

Download Pop up Blocker 6.0.6 in Softonic

OpenP2M is a software that lets you store and share files by means of your email account. This is known as PDM, "peer to mail". PDM is similar to P2P protocol, but using the mail server as mediator.

These are some of its key features:

• Support for proxy servers
• Ability to split and merge large files
• RSA 512 bits cryptography protection
• Option to turn off PC after download finishes
• Allows to download simultaneously to several e-mail mailboxes
• Saves list of files already downloaded to avoid downloading them again
• Option to open some file types after downloading them (MP3, TXT, EXE)
• Error detection: it automatically downloads restarts the download of the erroneus bit

Download OpenP2M 0.134 in Softonic

Need fresh anonymous proxies? Looking for lists of HTTP and Socks proxies? Want to be sure about the anonymity level of the proxy servers you use?

Proxy Vampire, a program based on unique proxy search algorithms, will quickly find and check any types of proxy servers for you. It is surprisingly easy to use, yet it can be flexibly customized. The program will automatically select all proxy servers from the sites and forums you specify and checks their validity in a professional way.

The universal search and check of proxy servers allows you to quickly and safely detect all anonymity types: transparent, distorting, anonymous, elite.

A fresh list of Socks and Http proxies free of charge? Proxy Vampire is a free program that will allow you to quickly find elite proxies.

Download Proxy Vampire 2.0 in Softonic

A great tool for any film buff, this program grabs information from the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) in order to keep you informed about anything to do with movies. The app supports a range of different fields from the database, including cover, title, year, genre, score and votes.

Some features of the program:

• Export to Excel file

• 'Clipboard-Grab' mode for movie lookup. Now also supports copying files from Windows Explorer.

• Import lists from DivXmovies.com, DivXCommunity.com and Origons.com

• IMDB login. (Necessary to grab adult titles from IMDB)

• Intelligent automatic movie selection based upon results from IMDB

• Adjustable connection settings

• File details import (Codec-info, Filesize, Bitrate etc)

• Want/Have-list setup

• File Drag and Drop

• Proxy server supported

• IMDB numbers lookup supported

• Field selection (decide what fields to include in grab)

Download IMDB-Grab 0.5.5 in Softonic