Websiteforensics.com » Networking

A few useful tools

Mark MacKinnon — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 05:06:43 +0000

You’ve all been to our Site Admin Stuff page already right? Well, we decided we’d share the following tools we sometimes / always / can’t live without when creating various projects. Enjoy !

Please read through to enjoy our resources!

File conversions
- Zamzar – File conversion – From anything to anything
- Youtube-mp3 – Convert and download youtube video/audio
My name is URL
- Tinyurl – URL Shortener
- ShadyURL – Create alternative “shady” urls
L-Mail – Send letters via this online from anywhere
WhatTheFont – What font was that?
File hosting
- Dropbox
- MediaFire
- Ge.tt
- ZumoDrive
- DepositFiles
Other file services
- FilesTube – Search and Download Files
- MultiUpload – Upload to multiple popular hosting sites with 1 upload
- FileCrop – Search engine for shared files
WhatIsMyIp – Find your IP address – Make sure you’re on the right network…
Stuff to do with emails
- Mailinator – Disposable email
- 10minutemail – Disposable email
- FaxZero – Send/Receive faxes through email
Tools for text
- Scribd – Text hosting, scrapbook for snippets
- PrintFriendly – Make webpages printfriendly
- Lipsum – Filler text – the classic latin passage
Image hosting and management
- Imgur – Best image hosting
- DummyImage – Create dummy images of any format
- VectorMagic – Create vectors from any image
- Challonge – Create tournament brackets
- Tineye – Reverse image search. Great to catching liars!
- CoolUtils Image Converter – Resize images for avatars
Various tools
- Prezi – Because powerpoint slides are boring
- TypeWith.me – Online word document collaboration
- eBuddy – Web and mobile messaging
- Iedone – Online IDE & Debugging Tool
- Readability – Make articles easier to read
- RunPee – Find out when the best time to use the bathroom is during movie
- ShowMeWhatsWrong – Instant Screen Recording for troubleshooting
- Pipl – People search
- Mibbit – Web IRC
- DownForEveryoneOrJustMe – Is google.com down?

DoNotLink.com

Mark MacKinnon — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 06:07:24 +0000

When you create a link to a website this always strengthens its position in search engines. This means that a bad review of a website, or the link to a malicious website makes it more popular. If you’re using social media and you are discussing or alerting others about a website that promotes scams or other questionable business and you link to that site, search engines will, despite your best wishes, improve the offending site’s rank.

With donotlink.com, you can link to sites without giving them any Google juice. Donotlink.com uses three different ways to block search engines from crawling a link including a shortened url. Donotlink.com also has a great sense of humour – See above image!

Information Architects

Mark MacKinnon — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 05:00:50 +0000

Among the amazing data visualizing tools out there, the maps featured by Information Architects have become a favorite among the industry.

Based in Japan, Information Architects’ website produces over 3.4 billion page views per year and their Trend Map has won one of the biggest design prizes out there: it hangs on the wall of practically every big tech office in the world. Interested in your own custom maps? Check out http://webtrendmap.com/

Meraki WiFi Tools

Mark MacKinnon — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 05:00:33 +0000

According to Meraki’s website, they provide networking systems and enterprise-class networking to organizations of all sizes. Their unique cloud-hosted controller architecture provides centralized management and security though an intuitive web interface, eliminating the high costs and complexity associated with traditional networking systems.

While we are not current users of Meraki’s services, we are avid fans of their Web based tools: the WiFi Stumbler, the WiFi Mapper as well as a range calculator and an indoor coverage calculator. Great tools when you work in an environment that is saturated with 2 Ghz services from WiFi to Wireless cameras.

How to turn a simple email into a social network profile

Mark MacKinnon — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 03:29:04 +0000

In this day and age, when you meet someone you don’t exchange twitter accounts or Facebook profiles. Instead, we always end up getting an EMAIL. The Internet’s oldest form of communication is still the most universal piece of information that is exchanged between prospective partners or new acquaintances.

Flowtown.com is a service that will match an email address with Web 2.0 accounts through a simple search feature. Flowtown also offers an import utility for Gmail accounts, csv files (Outlook Exported contacts) or manual input. When opening your account, you will be provided with your own dashboard for easy management.

Flowtown is also a great tool for social media marketing or Twitter marketing campaigns within your trade or social network. In short, this is a wonderful tool for moving from the lowly email to Web 2.0.

On the web: Flowtown.com

Computer Spying Tools

Mark MacKinnon — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 02:26:11 +0000

We do not endorse doing anything that is illegal or violates privacy. However there are cases where it is necessary to conduct investigations: parents have the rights and responsibility to monitor their child’s computer usage and employers have the right to monitor activity on their networks and systems. You need a computer spy system.

This is why products are available as computer spy are available on the market. BrickHouseSecurity.com offers a number of products that give you the ability to monitor networks and machines that fall under your responsibility. This new product will gather passwords, pictures, websites and more even if the end user is not using the administrative account.

Being a computer spy is never to be taken lightly, but you are also responsible for the proper usage of your machines.

High Speed Internet in the South West USA

Mark MacKinnon — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:58:35 +0000

When we – at WebsiteForensics.com – spend our summers in New Mexico between Albuquerque, Las Vegas and Santa Fe, we need a reliable Internet connection so we can telecommute back to Toronto.

Our favorite provider for High Speed Internet in our home away from home remains Qwest. Qwest Communications is not just about being an Internet Provider, they are also a provider for Home phone and long distance phone, cell phones (including plans), VoIP and other communication services.

Qwest Communications International is a large telecom provider that provides services in western US states including Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

Looking for a Gaia Alternative?

Mark MacKinnon — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:39:54 +0000

For those who are interested in an Avatar Community that is anime-themed with a forum and games there is a new kid on the block. In their own words, Menewsha is “an online community where you can create and customise your own avatar, play games, chat on our forums, and make new friends”. Menewsha, is in fact a PG-13 community that is a free service where users can create their own avatars and play a variety of games. In Menewsha, users can earn gold by playing games and contributing to the forums.

Opened to the public on in January 2007 by Josh Buckley (Joshimitsu), the website grew very quickly its launch, and gained a lot of recognition from its fans. Menewsha is a new place to hang out, share your Pixel Art, play Games and customize your Avatar. Warning! Menewsha can be addictive! Games include Chopper Challenge, Snake, Tetris, Harbor Fishing and classics like Asteroids and Space Invaders.

Forums include sections about books, media, roleplaying, word games, avatar chat, art and so much more.

Menewsha has established quite an online presence including Facebook pages, Myspace pages, twitter feeds and much more. Current users are mostly from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia with a new influx from the Philippines, Malaysia and the Puerto Rico.

Disclosure: this article is sponsored by third party advertiser.

Reliable and solid remote access software

Mark MacKinnon — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 03:42:18 +0000

Remote access software is the holy grail of network applications. Unfortunately, too many built-in applications are difficult to configure, lack reliability and offer only a small number of options and limited security.

The field of remote access software has provided clients with a large number of packages, but few offer high-level encryption: 256-bit encryption – the highest in its class. Proxy Network’s Proxy Pro 6 offers peer-to-peer remote access, remote management tools that come in several flavors, from Workstation Edition to the Gateway Edition.

Workstation Edition – Proxy Pro 6 software can reach unattended remote PC’s, can generate hardware inventory remotely, change settings without interfering with remote users and can find all remote in the network.

Gateway Edition – This edition offers the ability to organize large numbers of machines into groups, strong authentication using SSL, multiple collaborative connections and mass deployment.

Screen Recording Edition – This version offers screen captures of a large number of remote machines, unannounced recording, web-based playback and very small recorded files.

A free 30-day trial of PROXY Pro 6 remote desktop software can be downloaded once some basic information is entered into a form.

A full comparison sheet is available for RDP and VNC users who want to compare remote access options, remote control and remote management features.

Disclosure: this article is sponsored by third party advertiser.

Is Bell Canada now hijacking DNS?

Mark MacKinnon — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 05:56:20 +0000

Mistyped URLS or defunct domains are now being redirected by Bell Canada to an ad-rich search page. This new “service” is in fact DNS hijacking and a cheap cash grab by Canada’s ISP. Similar programs have been enacted by other ISPs in the United-States such as Comcast.

Bell’s service, DomainNotFound.ca, does offer an opt-out service by using a cookie: Note: In order for opt-out to work properly, you need to accept a “cookie” indicating that you have opted out of this service. If you use a program that removes cookies, you will have to repeat this opt-out process when the cookie is deleted. The cookie placed on your computer will contain the site name: “www.domainnotfound.ca”.

This practice is not only surprising, it is an invasive service that has only one purpose: to raise advertising dollars for Bell.ca. Disappointing to say the least.