Some Helpful Utility Programs

Internet Connection Speed Test

Here's a useful web site that will tell you the Upload and Download speed of your internet connection: http://www.speedtest.net. Note that these results are given in Mb/s which are megabits (millions of bits) per second. Megabits are the common unit of measurement for communication speed. File sizes on your computer are given in MegaBYTES, where there are 8 bits per byte. So a 5 MByte mp3 file equals 40 megabits.

System Security/Port Scan Test

Traffic on the internet is targeted to specific TCP "ports". Ports are simply address designators to TCP services that are provided by your computers and routers on your network. Open ports can be exploited by hackers to obtain unathorized access and use of your computers. Here's a site that identifies any open ports on your computer: http://www.securitymetrics.com/.

Index.dat file Viewer

In addition to cookies that are stored on your computer, Internet Explorer keeps a list of all the web sites you've visited in a file called Index.dat. This is a binary file so you need an index.dat file viewer to see what's stored there. Here's a link to a program called Super Winspy which will display the contents of your Index.dat file: http://www.acesoft.net/download.htm.