Software Resources 101
There are literally thousands upon thousands of free and low-cost software products spanning multiple
operating systems. The following is by no means all inclusive and is just a short list of titles that we've found useful
at one time or another or that offer terrific value to the small business owner and employee. Some may have restrictions
on business use, but most do not. As always, spend a little time looking through the End User License Agreement (EULA)
to make sure you're not in violation.
Remote Connectivity
CD/DVD
Utilities
Networking Tools
- Spiceworks (amazing piece of network administration
software for free)
- SolarWinds (great set of pay and
free networking tools)
- Wireshark (used to be Ethereal and pretty
much essential for packet sniffing)
- LAN Sweeper (Nice, but has a lot
of prerequisites (domain controller, W2003+, SQL Server)
Web Servers
- SnugServer (Weird name, but a truly great
piece of software at an unbelievable price!)
- Apache (the #1 website server)(free)
Wireless
Browsers
Graphics Tools
Webpage Design
PDF Creation
Drive Imaging & Ghosting
Backup & Synchronization Software
EMail
Telephony / Conferencing
Document Viewers
- Acrobat (PDF)
- FoxIt (PDF)
- CutePDF (PDF and free for commercial
use! For more power, the pro version is just $49!)
Text Editors
Hex Editors
- Free Hex Editor Neo (a great little
hex editor - they also make some really nice network tools!)
Slide Creation
Presentation Widgets
SMB Specific Resources
- Zoho (not everything is free, but not expensive
either!)
Office Suites
Linux Distributions
- Ubuntu (simply the best Linux based
solution for most small businesses - runs well virtualized in XP Pro with VirtualBox)
Video / Screencasting
- VLC Media Player (includes the ability
to stream a wide variety of formats via a )
- CamStudio (Free)
- Camtasia (Not free or
cheap, but if you need to do online presentations from PowerPoint or screencasts with narration, this is the undisputed
king.
Audio
- Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) (A free kick butt sound editor!)
Anti Spyware / Anti Virus
System Security
Virtualization Software
- VirtualBox (a surprisingly easy to use
and powerful piece of virtualization software from Sun [ the makers of Java ])
- Sandboxie (another great little resource for running applications in their own virtual sandbox)
- VMWare ESXi Hypervisor (powerful,
but be careful to read before installing on an existing partition and be extra sure to check their HAL for hardware
incompatibility issues!)
VoIP PBX
VoIP Testing
Other Software Sources
