Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on October 26, 2007 by CyberNet.

I received a tip the other day from “S” who was letting me know that Webroot is giving away free licenses for their firewall software. This is for a limited time only, and I’ve already requested several licenses of it for myself. All you have to do is fill out a form with your name, email, and so on. Within seconds of completing the registration you’ll receive a download link and product key in your email. That’s right, this $20 software is completely free, and it comes from the same company who makes the respected Spy Sweeper software.

I’m sure you’re wondering what I think of the Webroot Firewall. As you probably know it is pretty slim picking right now when it comes to free Vista firewalls. Previously we’ve taken a look at PC Tools Firewall Plus, Zonealarm, and an early release of Comodo 3. Comodo has always been my firewall of choice, but the final version isn’t due out until sometime in November.

I got Webroot installed on my machine today (big screenshot gallery at the end of this article), and the registration key that I was sent worked perfectly. The first thing that I noticed after installing it is that the interface is extremely clean and well organized. I didn’t feel overwhelmed, and most importantly it didn’t bombard me with messages to approve Internet access for my running applications. Why’s that?

From what I gather the Webroot Firewall learns from how you use the computer. It “automatically develops a baseline profile of your normal PC usage based on system variables such as CPU utilization, thread count, and others.” When there is any unusual activity going on you’ll be the first to know.

One of the other things that I like are the three configurable profiles that leave you just one-click away from changing your security settings. Maybe you want different settings when you have your computer at work as compared to home? Webroot makes that possible. You can even set it up to block websites, which might be just the thing you need when you’re at work and trying to be productive.

Because of the sheer simplicity of the program I would say that this is a great application to use. I didn’t have to configure a single thing after getting it installed, and I was never bothered with annoying popups. When Comodo makes its way out the door in final form I’ll be sure to compare all of the free Vista-compatible firewalls, but until then I say that Webroot is the best alternative. But you better get your license key today because the deal may not be going on much longer!

–Features–

• Stealth Mode Feature
• Email Protection
• Advanced Packet Filtering
• Malicious Process Blocking
• Port Monitoring and Blocking
• Custom Protection Profiles
• Lock down your PC
• File and Printer Sharing
• Comprehensive Internet Activity Log

–Screenshots–

CLICK ANY SCREENSHOT FOR FULLSIZE IMAGE

Webroot Firewall – Free for a limited time
Thanks to “S” for the tip!

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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Wi-Fi Sync is quite the gem (at least we think so) but it had some limitations — namely, it only worked on OS X for desktop, and only with iPhone / iPod touch. Developer Greg Hughes pinged us earlier today to let us know he’s thrown the gates off such restrictions. The jailbroken app now works for both iPads and Windows — XP, Vista, and 7. The desktop client is free to download but it still cost just a hair under $10 for the appropriate mobile device. Worth the price of breaking free from wires? Your call.

Wi-Fi Sync now compatible with Windows and iPad originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on January 07, 2009 by CyberNet.

About 6-weeks before the end of each year some DonationCoder members start planning out what kind of app they’d like to create for the NANY (New Apps for the New Year) challenge. The end result has to be offered for free, and this year 44 coders pledged to release a program. Out of those coders 35 different apps have been created.

After browsing through all of the apps I have to say that there are a few that could actually prove to be useful. Here are the ones that we really like, and I’ll tell you my favorite at the end of the article.

• Auto Cursor Move – I remember using apps like this to keep my dial-up connection alive when I was younger. With it you can “schedule” mouse clicks or keyboard strokes, which can save a bunch of time. In my case back when the Internet was in its infancy apps like this would auto-click the “stay connected” dialog that would annoyingly popup to disconnect an idle connection.
• Crazy Little Fingers – When little kids get in front of the computer all they want to do is poke around the keyboard. They don’t care what data they erase or what critical files are removed. With this app you don’t have to worry about that happening. It will lock the keyboard, and will actually interact with the kids depending on which keys they pressed.
• DropCommand – This will let you drag and drop files onto the Vista command line to have it automatically enter in the file’s path for you.
• Fried Babelfish – A quick desktop tool that uses the Google Translator to convert text from one language to another. The nice thing is that it is designed for a two-way conversation where you’re constantly translating back and forth between two languages.
• Multi Photo Quotes – This is a screensaver that shows off photos in your collection along with some quotes. It supports multiple monitors, has panning/zooming effects, and much more.
• PowerCircle – This is a unique way to show the remaining battery power left on your notebook. It definitely earns my “clever design” award.

And I’ll save what I consider to be the best for last. It’s called JustCloseSomeTasks, and it’s designed to monitor how often you’re using the programs you currently have open. With a quick press of a hotkey you can see all applications that have been inactive for a specified period of time, and in a few clicks you can close them all. This is a great tool for anyone who finds themselves overwhelmed with the number of windows they have open.

Congrats to DonationCoder for another successful NANY challenge, and a big thanks to all of the developers who took the time out of their busy lives to make contributions! You can checkout all 35 of the entries here.

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:

Your Week in Review with Sunday’s Summary2008 CyberNet Awards RecapDonation Coder’s New Apps for the New YearWhy I Jailbroke My iPhone 3GWhy Google Apps Falls Short

McAfee’s little issue with a security update that sent Windows XP computers far and wide to a screeching halt was fairly unprecedented as far as anti-virus software goes, and it looks like the company is now taking some considerable steps to make up for the mess it created. Not only is it handing out a free two-year subscription extension to all affected customers, but it will soon be starting a program to reimburse “reasonable expenses” that customers have incurred in repairing their PCs. Complete details on that program aren’t available just yet, but it will apparently be starting “within a few days,” and will involve submitting a reimbursement request to McAfee. Given the number of users involved, however, we’ve got to guess that McAfee won’t be buying folks new PCs, and chances are it’ll take quite a while to get your check in the mail, though we’ll just have to wait to see exactly what McAfee has planned.

McAfee patches customers’ hearts with subscription extension, reimbursement for PC repairs originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Apr 2010 11:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We can’t officially confirm this yet but, We’re hearing from all over that a bad McAfee for Windows XP update is causing computers worldwide to shut down. Apparently DAT update 5958 deletes the svchost.exe file, which then triggers a false-positive in McAfee itself and sets off a chain of uncontrolled restarts and loss of networking functionality. Yeah, wild — Twitter is basically going nuts, and McAfee’s support site appears to be down. There are some fixes floating around out there, but it may be too late — the final tally of borked PCs today may reach into the millions. We’ve already heard anecdotally that an Intel facility has been affected, as well as Dish Network call centers, and we’re sure there are going to be more reports as the day wears on.

Update: McAfee just sent us a statement — they’ve pulled the update from their corporate download servers, and consumers shouldn’t be affected.

McAfee is aware that a number of customers have incurred a false positive error due to incorrect malware alerts on Wednesday, April 21. The problem occurs with the 5958 virus definition file (DAT) that was released on April 21 at 2.00 PM GMT+1 (6am Pacific Time).

Our initial investigation indicates that the error can result in moderate to significant performance issues on systems running Windows XP Service Pack 3.

The faulty update has been removed from McAfee download servers for corporate users, preventing any further impact on those customers. We are not aware of significant impact on consumer customers and believe we have effectively limited such occurrence.

McAfee teams are working with the highest priority to support impacted customers and plan to provide an update virus definition file shortly. McAfee apologizes for any inconvenience to our customers

Ouch — that might be the understatement of the year. We’ve definitely hearing this affects SP2 as well, we’ll keep looking for more.

Update 2: The anecdotal numbers keep rolling in, and they’re not small — 30,000 machines are knocked out here, 60,000 there. Given that the only fixes right now involve techs spending time with each affected machine individually, things could get seriously messy. We’ll keep you updated if you keep us updated, okay?

Update 3: Here’s an official McAfee fix, although like we said, it requires tech to hit each machine in person. We’ll see what the story is for bigger institutions with tens of thousands of seats.

Update 4: We’re told the official fix only helps those who haven’t been hit with the bug yet, so there’s obviously still issues to be sorted out. [Thanks, Tyler.]

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Developing…

Botched McAfee update shutting down corporate XP machines worldwide originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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