checking

Nirsoft's PingInfoView2 is a small and handy utility that network managers, Web site administrators, developers, and even regular folks can use to ping multiple host names and IP addresses and display all the results in one table. You can specify the time interval between pings in increments down to seconds. PingInfoView displays each successful and failed ping as well as the average ping time. Results can be saved as text, HTML, or XML files, or pasted to the clipboard for use in other apps.

This is a compact piece of software that downloads as a ZIP file but requires … Read more

OS X has a few useful built-in correction and substitution functions that you can use when composing documents in various applications. One of these is the option to check spelling as you type, which has been around for a while, but more recently Apple has introduced system-wide character substitution and word suggestion options. While these options are available to applications, they will only work for those coded to take advantage of them. These include Apple's iWork and iLife programs, as well as TextEdit and Safari, but other third-party programs also support these services.… Read more

Spell Catcher is the modern-day descendant of a spell-checking app from ancient times (as a Desk Accessory called Thunder, from 1985), now with powerful, system-wide spell-checking and text-expanding features.

By default, this muscular app tracks every word you type on your Mac, across every application, and provides you with much more than the live visual feedback you get in separate apps with built-in spell-checking. Spell Catcher can give you automatic typo fixing, spoken alerts (for example, pointing out repeated words, or curious spellings with a quick "Curious!"), instant access to the dictionary and thesaurus (with support for multiple … Read more

Entering information in text fields should be smooth and fast, with no pauses or delays of any kind. Despite this, some background tasks if corrupt or otherwise malfunctioning may interfere with typing. One of the most common is OS X's spell checking behavior, but sometimes, the built-in options are not to blame.… Read more

Autorun.inf Check scans your computer and looks for autorun.inf files. The program will remove or back up autorun.inf files.

The program's interface is minimal and contains no instructions or Help file, so we based our summations of its operations and functionality on educated guesses. The About link on the interface takes users to a forum created by the program's manufacturer, but it offers little useful information. Autorun.inf Check's job is to scan your computer for autorun.inf files, which are files that automatically run programs when triggered. You have the option to tell … Read more

Everyone who is anyone, or who would like to be anyone, knows that the apps you have on your iPhone say a lot, well, almost everything, about you.

However, there are a couple of new apps that might truly revolutionize your Christmas and not necessarily in a good way.

The first is called the Background Check App. Not only is it wondrously free, but it also strikes a huge and lasting blow for personal freedom.

You can look around your dinner table this holiday season and, with your usual lithe grace, pull out your iPhone. Using your Background Check app, … Read more

If you've been computing for a while, you've probably encountered Registry cleaners, a class of software that promises to boost your system's performance and security by searching out and eliminating junk and clutter. Used carelessly, however, these programs can wreak havoc by deleting critical files and registry entries.

Registryproductreviews.com is a Web site that reviews Registry cleaners; it claims no product affiliations. However, it does offer one product of its own, PC-CheckIt, a free Registry diagnosis and scanning tool. It differentiates itself from the crowded field of Registry cleaners and editors by merely offering to help … Read more

Rank Tracker SEO Software analyzes the rankings of Web sites with search engines like Google and Yahoo. You select keywords relevant to your site, and Rank Tracker reports their search rankings.

Rank Tracker SEO Software installs easily. There's a Help file that explains how to use the program, but we were unable to tell if Rank Tracker has any other features. We analyzed two Web sites built by amateurs and one popular blog. Not surprisingly, the two amateur sites didn't make any search engine's top 100 list. The program ranked the blogger's first name in the … Read more

eBay Motors is attempting to give used-car buyers a little more peace of mind when purchasing used cars online by offering vehicle history reports through Experian's AutoCheck service.

The AutoCheck report includes information such as frame-damage announcements, major flood damage, and odometer rollback issues. Additionally, the report will include a vehicle history score, which summarizes all the information in a vehicle's history in a numerical score (on a scale from 1-100) that is quick and easy to understand.

We took a look at a few sample vehicle history reports for randomly selected listings and found title history information, … Read more