Schvenn.net

For anyone who has a bandwidth cap and needs to monitor it, this is a great utility to use. Now, I prefer to monitor my usage at the router, which of course means that it tracks every device connected to my network. This utility doesn't have that same level of visibility, because of course, it only works on individual Windows PC's and it has to be actually running to monitor traffic, but it's a start. It's the only program of this nature to use that is free and the best one of the bunch, anyway.

Also, if you're looking for a more portable version, the original BitMeter2 application lends itself to this purpose more effectively.

I've stopped using all other Instant Messengers since I found Digsby. It's a multi-platform, skinnable instant messenger with more features than any other. I have it logged into almost a dozen social networking sites, instant messenger services and e-mail accounts, all at once. I've tried Pidgin, Trillian and others, but none compare.

This is a very advanced tool that can be used for diagnosing various DSL modem models, but often more accurately, to diagnose your own DSL line. The author's site unfortunately, is in German, so here's a link to get you started: Use DMT Tool To Log Your Line Stats One more item worthy of mentioning is that there are 8 versions of this tool. So, you'll need to get the one specific to your modem model or chipset.

With Dropbox you can share files across the Internet or backup important documents to the cloud. Dropbox is the premiere online storage solution. You can use it's installable application or just its web interface to manage your files.

I've posted a link to a site that does this as well, but it only allows you to check one e-mail at a time, for a maximum of 3 e-mails, for obvious reasons. The site doesn't want to support SPAMmers. Now, this program allows you to import a list of e-mail addresses and check each one to see if they exist or not. It's not foolproof, but it is a good start. It should help you weed out bad e-mails from newsletters you may send out, or similar lists. Interestingly, the authour also has a Facebook data-miner which will do the same thing. That one is a bit concerning, as well. Obviously, there are privacy concerns there. It's interesting to know that programs like that are so easy to use. However, as a Technical Support agent, I can tell you this particular version of the program, not the Facebook one, is very handy and could come in useful for my team and I several times a year.