Astrohosts Support
Alternative software

FOR PCs RUNNING WINDOWS (98, me, NT4,  2000 or XP)

Some alternative software for those of you tired of that same old funk!

The Microsoft components supplied with the Windows Operating Systems are quite adequate for some people, but for those seeking more sophisticated or specialised software, or simply something less prone to virus attacks, we offer the suggestions which we feel are worthy of your consideration:

BROWSERS
Mozilla Firefox Probably the best web browswer around at the moment. Sadly there are one or two sites around which are written only to work with Microsoft Internet Explorer but most of these will work if you install the prefbar add-on, then you can safely go pretty much anywhere with Firefox
Enigma Browser Small but perfectly formed!
FTP
FTP Voyager Rhinosoft's excellent FTP Voyager is out FTP program of choice. You can download a free 30-day trial version and registration costs from $49.95
E-MAIL
Mozilla Thunderbird The perfect partner to Firefox is a powerful email program which also handles newsgroups with great ease.
Rimarts Becky! 2 Internet Mail We have critically assessed just about every email client available to PC users running Windows. Most are seriously flawed in at least one respect, and in addition the commonly used Microsoft products, Outlook Express and Outlook, are vulnerable to attack by virus, simply because they are commonly used! Becky! 2 Internet Mail by RimArts fulfilled all our criteria. In our opinion the program is also attractive, powerful and surprisingly easy to use once it has been set-up. Becky! 2 can be downloaded as a free 30-day trial and registration costs $40.00
USENET NEWSGROUPS
Forte Agent / Free Agent Agent 2.0 is the top-rated Usenet newsreader on the Internet. Agent is also an excellent POP email client. Whether you are downloading yEnc binaries or responding to email , Agent provides you with all the right features. To get Free Agent try it for free for 30 days. If, after 30 days, you decide not to buy Agent for $29.95 the program will automatically revert to Free Agent.
Newsbin Pro For those who are interested in downloading split or encoded binary files from Usenet, Newsbin Pro must be the ultimate tool. Version 4 includes support for RAR and PAR2 files.
ANTI-VIRUS ETC
Avast! Free and highly effective virus protection. Avast! is unintrusive and like all good anti-virus programs keeps itself regularly updated to ensure maximum protection.
nod32 An excellent anti-virus program which uses very little of your machine's resources to run. A trial version is available to download and registration costs from £23 per year
Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE Plus Ad-Aware provides advanced protection from known Data-mining, aggressive advertising, Parasites, Scumware, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware, Browser hijackers, and tracking components It used to be free but a registered version now costs $26.95

Some of these programs are also available for platforms other than Windows