®ANTIVIRUS
Here is a really well done antivirus program that is FREE to home users from Grisoft. How do you know it's good? I use it!

®FIREWALL
How do you know your firewall is working? Test it with Shields UP!, they offer several tests to make sure you're protected. Folks trying to hack into your machines don't always want your personal information, they will use it as a repository for illegal software and pornography. Without you knowing, people can be downloading PORN from your computer! We STRONGLY recommend to anyone with a broadband (consistent) internet connection have a hardware firewall in place, NOT a software firewall. With a software firewall, hackers have already made it to your computer! Hardware firewalls are roughly the same price as the software firewalls. Which firewall best for you, contact us, we'll help you out.

®HTML
1st Page 2000 is a tool that lets you create powerful, great looking websites fast, easy and  is "one of the top 3 HTML editors ever made". Enough said?

If you are a FrontPage user, or want to be, you'll find some cool (and very useful) tutorials here and here.

And for the purists our there you will find some great HTML tutorials here, here, and here.

®INTERNET ARCHIVE
This falls under the category of maybe not so useful, but WAY COOL! It is the internet archive, they have archived the entire internet since 1996, you can type "www.anydomain.com" into the way back machine and see what the website looked like on day one, or view a website that no longer exist.

®Network Tools
AnalogX  - a freeware giant, many free tools for networking, system tools and the internet.

MCSE Toolkit - high performance tools for IT professionals.

®MISC.
Domain name registration - GoDaddy  -  do it for just $8.95, why spend $35 if you don't have to.

Before you spend a single dime on computer related equipment visit Price Watch - the place to do comparison shopping for you computer products.

®OFFICE SUITES
There are 2 really good ones available, Software 602 and Open Office. If we had to pick 1, it would Software 602, as it's completely compatible with MS Office, you can open, save and swap files with Microsoft Office users, which is pretty handy.

®OUTLOOK
Security with Outlook is not user friendly, it is almost impossible to change, and can really play havoc with attached files. A plug-in called Outlook Permissions Addin will fix that for you. But be careful with the settings, don't let in bad stuff.

Slipstick is the definitive Outlook and Exchange resource center.

®PALM
Handango & PalmGear - great goodies for your PDA.

®POP-UPS
God I hate those things, do you know anyone who has bought something because of a pop-up ad? This is another product we use ourselves and installed on hundreds of friends, family and client computers called Pop-Up Stopper from PanicWare.

®POWER TOOLS
There are too many useful tools at this site to mention all of them here, but one we use A LOT is Replicator, it will automatically backup files, directories, or entire drives. It copies selected files from one drive/folder to another. Source and Destination folders can reside anywhere on your network. All done on the schedule of your choosing. Thank you Karen.

®PRINT RESOURCES
The only print magazine I get us PC Magazine, which means either it's really good, or I am an idiot.

®SPAM
I am not sure what is more annoying, Spam or Pop-ups, but we'll help you with both. If you use Outlook, this is a product that we use personally and clients and was touted by PC Magazine as the best Spam blocker out there, bar none, called Spambayes. It is from experience that I recommend that you install version 0.7 first, followed by installing the latest, 0.81.

For Outlook Express we recommend a product call MailWasher, but with over 3 million downloads, it's not a big secret.

®WEB RESOURCES
Lab Mice, "the definitive resource for IT Professionals who deploy, manage, and support Microsoft products and services."

One of my favorites is TechTV, another is PCHelpLive.

®WINDOWS STUFF
Hate that Windows makes you confirm the fact that you want to delete something? PTFBN (Push The Freaking Button) is the answer. You hit delete, it's gone, no more "are you sure you want to delete this file?".

Here are some really cool power toys for Windows. Among them is TweakUI, a must-have utility for customizing your system.

Faber Toys is a useful system utility, developed for power users wanting to know what's going on in their Personal Computer.

The most recommended file shredder is Eraser, an advanced security tool that allows you to completely remove sensitive data like passwords, personal information, documents from work, financial records, from your hard drive.

Restoration does just that, it restores files which are deleted AND emptied from the recycle bin by mistake.