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Optimus Support: Recommended Software
We are often asked what software we recommend. None of these
products are required to maintain your site hosted by us, they are only
are recommendations.
Internet Filtering
Protect your family from porn and other unwelcome web sites
Anti-Virus Software
It's a must to have some type of anti-virus software to protect
your computer. While there are many great products we like these the best:
- AVG
Anti-Virus (Free)
Very good product. Why it is free is anyone's guess. Most likely they
want your email address for marketing purposes or they are planning
on charging after they get a big enough subscriber base. Whatever the
reason, I have found it's a reliable and effective product.
- Norton AV
(Free Trial)
We use this. It's ability to auto update in the background, as well
as scan all incoming and outgoing emails is a plus. While they do charge
a fee, anyone who's lost info due to a virus can tell you an annual
fee is worth the cost 10 times over.
Note: Don't let them talk you into upgrading to System works or any
firewall products. You don't need them (in most cases) and can get an
outstanding free firewall from Zonelabs below.
Spam/UCE E-mail Filter
Stop Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (UCE), also known as spam
before it reaches your PC. (Note: this is a powerful program and you can
delete wanted email is you set the settings too strong).
Firewall
A must for cable and permanent connections to the net. A firewall
keeps people/programs from gaining access to your computer without your
knowledge.
- Zone Alarm (Free)
There is a pro version and a free version. The free version is more
than adequate for home/personal use.
Web Design
If you are going to design your own site, we recommend the following
products:
- Microsoft Frontpage
Great for those with no web experience.
- Dreamweaver
An outstanding program for those who want to create professional looking
web sites.
FTP
If your web design software doesn't have an FTP client built
in, and even when it does, it's a good idea to have a reliable FTP program.
- WS-FTP LE
One of the web's most popular FTP programs. The graphical interface
was designed with the novice FTP user in mind, but there are advanced
features for power users as well. It's easy to set up profiles so you
can easily toggle between commonly visited FTP sites.
- Cute FTP
CuteFTP is a long time favorite and has drag-and-drop capabilities,
bookmarks, auto-rename scheme and resume download, and much more!
Graphic Design
If you use a lot of graphics on your site. These are great programs.
- Fireworks
Get it with the Dreamweaver/Fireworks Suite, or the Macromedia Studio.
Be sure and use it's optimization feature to keep your graphics loading
quickly.
- Adobe Photoshop
The standard -- but pricey. Personally, It's not worth the cost
to me.
- PaintShop Pro
A good and cheaper Photoshop clone.
Flash
Great smooth and professional animations with these Flash programs.
- Macromedia Flash
For serious flash creations, only the original will do.
- Swish
Most users can get by with just swish. It's a cheap way to get quality
flash animation on your site without spending a large amount of money.
Audio/Video
If you are putting audio or video to your site, you will want
to check out these products:
- Windows
Media Technologies
Both experienced web developers and novice streaming media authors
can easily create streaming files, giving end-users instant media playback
instead of requiring them to wait for files to download.
- Cool Edit
An excellent audio editing package, Cool Edit works with over a dozen
different audio formats including AU, WAV and PCM, and has extensive
editing capabilities. The unregistered version lets you use only 2 of
the advanced capabilities at a time, which still gives you a good idea
of the capabilities of the program.
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