Category Archives: How to guide

How to tell if free software is safe

One of the big challenges for home users and small business users is working out if free software is safe to download, this is especially problematic if  you are using a Windows PC.

Here are some tips

Check that its reputable, normally: Free and Open Source

Google the software

• What are others saying about it?
• Look at reviews
• Who makes it?

Where is it downloading from? Always use the approved project download sites: e.g. Get Mozilla programs from:  https://www.mozilla.org/.

Check the licence:

• GPL
• Apache
• MIT

Free software resources

I am often asked where to get safe free software from.

To help, here is a list of sites for accessing some of the more common free software:

 

Free Software

LibreOffice MS Office Alternative

http://www.libreoffice.org/ (includes database)

Calligra Office MS Office Alternative (includes project and database)

https://www.calligra.org/

Mozilla Firefox Internet Explorer Alternative https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/new/

Mozilla Thunderbird (and lightning) MS Outlook Alternative

https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/thunderbird/

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/lightning/

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/using-lightning-google-calendar

Google Chrome Browser

http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/chrome/browser/index.html#eula

Malwarebytes Download

https://www.malwarebytes.org/mwb-download/

(Once installed ensure to uncheck the free trial check box)

GnuCash

http://www.gnucash.org/

Linux

Linux Mint

http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

Linux Xubuntu

http://xubuntu.org/news/14-04-release/

Free website hosting

http://www.labnol.org/internet/host-website-on-google-app-engine/18801/

Free DNS and Content Distribution Network

https://www.cloudflare.com/

Free SSL certificate

https://www.startssl.com/?app=1

Free business email

http://freeola.com/free-email/ or free trial http://www.google.com/work/apps/business/

Web Apps

Google

For Google apps you need a gmail account

Google Chrome has a webstore loaded with free software:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/apps

Microsoft

Microsoft free apps require a microsoft account – you can use any email address to set one up

https://office.com/start/default.aspx#

Five simple tips for choosing good website domain names

We are often asked by business owners to help set up websites and email systems.

But before we can do any of this we need the domain name for the website. This often causes much angst and spinning of wheels.

To help we have come up with 5 simple rules for choosing a website domain name:

1. Short – the shorter the better – this means that it is easy to type without error – one less barrier to people contacting you or getting onto your website
2. Easy to say
3. Memorable and hence easy to search for
4. No hyphens – this means someone else already has the words for your domain name so adding hyphens is second best
5. If you have a .co.uk make sure you get the .com too