If you have a laptop with a wireless (WiFi) capability, then Boingo is an extremely useful tool for detecting and connecting to various "hotspots", and to set up connections for other locations that provide wireless services that you can use. I know nothing about their Hot Spot Service, but the utility program is much friendlier than the dialogs in Windows, or any of the programs that come with WiFi cards, that I have seen to date.
Direct download
Speed up downloading from the Internet
Has kind of an annoying download/registration scheme. Doesn't appear to contain spyware.
Under View/FreshDownload Options/Integration tab, do not choose "Integrate into Netscape Navigator", and do choose "Clipboard Monitoring". Then you can choose to use Fresh Download by right clicking on a link, and choosing "copy link location". When the URL hits the clipboard, Fresh Download will pop up and ask if you want to download the file.
Netscape's integration with download utilities isn't great--the email part of Netscape will attempt to pass attached file URLs to the download manager. These have a protocol of "cid:" which external download managers don't understand. So you are better off not attempting to integrate a download manager with Netscape, if you use Netscape's email.
Avoid all of the viruses that exploit bugs in MS IE and MS OE
Mozilla is the technology behind recent versions of the Netscape browser, which you may have heard of. You get all the non-proprietary features of Netscape in the Mozilla package, and the proprietary features are best avoided unless you have a specific need for them.
I recommend choosing a custom install, without the chat client; I recommend Trillian (below) as a more full-function, and more fun, chat client.
There are a variety of plug-ins and extensions for Mozilla. Two commonly used plugins are the Flash Player and Sun's Java Runtime Environment (JRE) for Windows. Many of the extensions can be found at mozdev.org.
If you prefer separate programs for web browsing and email, Mozilla also produces programs called Firefox, and Thunderbird, which are exactly that. They have their own site now at mozilla.com. I still use the SeaMonkey suite as my primary web browser and email, but have installed the others I now use Nvu, a web page composer spun off from Mozilla suite, in preference to the web page composer that is part of the suite.
Mozilla SeaMonkey description and download page
Mozilla.com
Nvu Web Authoring system
Nvu download page
Needs headset (or microphone and speakers) to use telephony functions. Call other Skype users worldwide free. Works over dialup internet connections (some delay, not as bad as satellite). Works even better over broadband. IM and file transfer work fine, but for pure IM Trillian (see below) is more fun, and more of your friends are accessible... Skype is newer, less universal.
With SkypeOut account containing prepaid minutes, can call any POTS telephone number. You can get a SkypeIn account with your own Skype telephone number, so POTS people can call you. Numbers are not available in all areas, though.
A subscription can provide unlimited calls to US and Canadian numbers for $30/yr.
Chat history, if turned on, can be exported to HTML format by typing
/htmlhistoryinto the chat window text entry area. The other person doesn't see the command, nor do they need to be on-line at the time you do this.
direct download
(one client for all the following IM systems: AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, and IRC)
I suggest using AIM primarily, with MSN and/or Yahoo as backups for when AIM is down for maintenance. I have a separate page of recommended Trillian preferences and another for Trillian usage tips
web site
Software download page: the free version is Trillian Basic
Use the -h option to get a description of its parameters. This can be extremely useful in updating only the modified files to a web site, for example. Or it can be used to clone a web site locally, if you have FTP access to the site. Naturally it is also useful for maintaining FTP sites as well as web sites, and for maintaining any type of remote data that can be accessed via the FTP protocol.
A good enough, and free FTP client, for transferring data to/from FTP servers.
Of course, the command line FTP client, ftp, is already installed with Windows, so for one file, this isn't worth the install. But if you use FTP regularly, it is.
If you want to run your own FTP server, you can also consider FileZilla Server, available at the same web site.
Choose the "FileZilla" package from the "Latest File Releases" section of this page; then choose the "setup.exe" version of the highlighted files on the next page.
VNC allows remote access to your machine for technical support from friendly computer gurus.