Category Archives: Software reviews

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NetDrive… map FTP folders as network drives

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I stumbled across this piece of software some time ago, but never got the chance to review it and mention it on GEEK!.

It basically means you can map FTP folders as network drives on your system and access them in your system’s Computer folder. I find it really useful when I’m away from my main PC and need to access my network drive’s folders in Windows.

It’s totally free, so you might as well go and grab it. The only part of the software that annoys me is that you can’t modify the timeout (to my knowledge) which means it doesn’t work when my network drive is waking from sleep mode.

Go grab it here.

Manage your downloads from your iPhone or iPod Touch

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Manage your overnight downloads without running up the electricity bill!

Do you ever find it annoying when you know you’ve got so much overnight download allowance with your broadband, but don’t want to use it because you’re computer uses so much electricity.

I have that problem regularly. It’s all very well having tonnes of usage allowance between midnight and 9am, but I don’t really want to run my computer overnight as a) it’s a fire hazard and b) it consumes a large amount of electricity.

So, yesterday, I found a solution to the issue. I found an app that will download your files for you and store them on the iPod. Then, when they are done, it will open up a port (8080) that you can browse to on your computer and download the files back locally.

The screenshot below is the file server page that can be browsed to in any web browser on your local network once it is activated within the app (click to see larger size):

I find this app so useful because I can run it all night and it won’t make a sound and won’t cost the Earth. Perfect!

You can get the full version here at £1.19, or get the free version here – but bear in mind that with the free version you can only store 10 files at a time.

Nokia Ovi Suite launched – presumably replaces Nokia PC Suite

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Is Ovi set to take over the world? OK maybe that’s overreacting a little…

Nokia PC Suite today notified me that a new update was available, so I checked it up and realised that a final version of Ovi Suite is now available.

The new Ovi Suite brings a brand new interface that seems to work really well.

Nokia Ovi Suite

It replaces the rather tired and limited interface from Nokia PC Suite, and seems to bring a couple of new features that work well.

For example, it now fully integrates with Ovi accounts and synchronises your photos, contacts and messages instantly.

So far, I really like it. It brings a new tidy look to my phone management, and seems to be fully compatible with Windows 7.

You can go ahead and download it from here, or do an update check from PC Suite and it should come up.

Internet Explorer users are (yet again) at risk

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Will Internet Explorer ever be safe to use?

Once again, users of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer web browser are at risk. Microsoft recently discovered a vulnerability that could allow a user to turn your system in to a fileserver for your private documents.

Most versions of Internet Explorer are affected. Microsoft has said that any system with a version of Internet Explorer lacking “Protected Mode” is at risk. The user is also at risk if “Protected Mode” has been disabled.

Microsoft are yet to release a fix for this vulnerability. They have said that they are unaware of any hacker currently making use of this potentially disastrous hack.

It’s looking as if Microsoft will (at the earliest) release a patch for this problem next Tuesday (the second Tuesday of each month is the day Microsoft usually release their regular patches and updates). However, I doubt they’ll release an update that soon.

Having not used Internet Explorer in a long time, I would suggest you move away from IE as soon as possible if you can. Try something like Google Chrome or Firefox.

Which virtual host do you choose for virtual machines?

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I find this to be a very difficult decision. There are quite a few pieces of software that will, essentially, do the same job. However I seem to believe that some are better than others.

In this post I’m going to try and show which piece of virtual machine software I prefer any why I like it.

If you’re looking for free software (which I generally do – who doesn’t?) you’ve basically got three choices – VMware Player, Microsoft Virtual PC (which seems to be getting outdated, but still works fine), and VirtualBox.

Here’s the order in which I would choose them:

  1. VirtualBox – I have to say I like VirtualBox the most. It’s fast and has a very tidy interface that is easy to use. I tried all three pieces of software on the same machine and it was noticeable that this piece of software was most responsive and most effecient – especially when using Windows guest machines. It doesn’t have the handy quick install feature that VMware has, but the speedy performance definitely makes up for that. Sadly it doesn’t support FAT32 file splitting, which is a shame if the hard drive you want to run it on is FAT32 as you wont be able to make virtual hard drives bigger than 4GB. However, I do think that it does work most efficiently and has the best interface.
  2. Microsoft Virtual PC – Despite the fact that Microsoft seem to be trying to phase this out (with the launch of XP Mode in Windows 7) it is still a very good virtual machine host. It not only has a clean interface, but it’s native virtual disk format supports FAT32 file splitting, so you’ll be able to run virtual hard disks on drives that run FAT32 without the 4GB file size limitation. However, I find it to be quite slow. Even when you are performing simple tasks (such as clicking the Start menu in the guest machine) it can take ages to respond. Also, it seems to be designed more for Windows guests, as it’s “Other” host option is very vague. I like Virtual PC more than VMware, but I’d still choose VirtualBox any day.
  3. VMware Player – This is my least favourite piece of software. Despite it being a very popular company who makes VMware Player, I still think it really isn’t up to regular virtual machine jobs. The main thing I can’t stand about VMware Player is the interface – I find it so clunky and unhelpful. I also find it the slowest of the three in terms of performance. It seems to cope pretty well with most operating systems, but the lack of speed makes VMware annoying at times. It does have the Easy Install feature – which is designed to make OS installation much more simple by automatically running through the process, but I’ve never found that particularly useful.

So there you go – if you want a decent, free virtual machine host I’d recommend VirtualBox to you.