RWAP Services Reviews of Perl Editors, Video Streaming, Internet Services and Internet Accelerator software

Reviews

Other RWAP Websites
RWAP Software
(supporting the Sinclair QL, Cambridge Z88 and ZX Spectrum)

RWAP Adventures
(Adventure gaming)

Internet Business Angels
(Providing advice to small business)

We do not intend to make this page into an advertisement page, but thought that you would find the following items which we ourselves have found useful (and use), of interest to you. All of this software has been tried and tested by ourselves and is in daily use in developing our software. Frank and independent reviews of the software written by ourselves are also included.  Some of this is operated on a commission basis from when you click the links, but we have not let the idea of money sway our views!!

Perl Editors
There are a vast number of editors and development packages available for the average Perl programmer.  Our Perl scripts are developed using two excellent editors which allow you to test Perl scripts before uploading them to the internet server. For developing Perl on Windows based PC's, we would highly recommend  DzPerl {review} running with ActivePerl , although Maxwell Nairn Andrews' free WinPerl  {review and download} is also excellent for beginners developing small Perl scripts.  

There is also a version of Perl for the Sinclair QL home computer, which may be downloaded from Jonathon Hudson's Site.

Video Streaming
Forbidden Technologies offers video compression software which can be utilised to add high quality streaming video to web-sites, or even to stream videos over GPRS to ARMPocketPC PDAs (such as O2 xda and Compaq iPAQ).  Its main advantage over other types of video streaming is that not only are download times fast and picture quality good, but the player is included as part of the code which means there is no fear that customers will have to spend a long time downloading the latest version of a player, just to watch a short video {review}

Faster Memory for your PC
FreeMem Pro
promises to improve the memory usage on your PC, freeing system resources and increasing speed in general.  We have looked at whether this program does what it promises. {review)

Speed Up Internet Connections
Marketscore are a market research company, who provide some free software to speed up your connection and also software by Symantec to protect your system against email viruses, in return for you agreeing to register as a possible target for their anonymous market research questionnaires.  This gets a lot of promotion on the Internet, but just how good is it? {review)

Propel provide a commercial internet accelerator program which seems more reliable and faster than that provided by Marketscore (above) whilst at the same time protecting your privacy more.  The latest version also incorporates a pop-up and advert blocker, as well as speeding up file downloads. (review)

OnSpeed offer a similar product to Propel, at a much lower cost, but lacks some of the nicer features and is more restricted in the range of applications which it supports (review)

Finding a Low Cost Web Hosting Package
Having searched the internet for a high quality low cost web hosting package, we believe that iPowerWeb are the market leader.  However, there are other low cost internet website hosting companies available - which ones are worth trying? (review)

Remote Control of your PC from anywhere in the World
Another useful utility is the much heralded GoToMyPC which enables you to securely access and use your PC from any Web browser anytime, anywhere (including mobile devices). Unlike Windows XP's Remote Assistance, which requires host users to acknowledge an invitation and permit full access, a computer with GoToMyPC can connect to an unattended host. On-the-fly screen blanking and keyboard locking let you thwart intruders.  A free trial version is available for download  {review}.

Internet Service Providers
Telewest Broadband offer an excellent internet service, along with cable TV and phone lines, all at much cheaper rates than BT.  Internet access is offered on standard dial-up accounts (either pay as you surf or unlimited access for a monthly fee) or Broadband which is an always on connection, offering either 10x faster access (512Kb per second service) up to even 40x faster access (2Mb per second service) than standard 56Kb per second dial-up modem access  {review}

Making Money from the Internet??
It would be nice to make money from surfing the internet, or to get money back on purchases made over the internet.  Well, there are actually ways of receiving some credit for any purchases which you make over the internet as well as ways of winning money and working from home. We review some of the more popular schemes for earning money (including competitions, on-line games, paid email, working freelance and loyalty schemes). {overview}

Internet Advertising / Affiliate Programs
One of the main methods of making money out of the internet is through adding advertising to your website (there are one or two small adverts on our own web-site).  In order to do this, you will need to become an affiliate of the companies whose products you wish to offer (unless you are willing to offer free advertising).  The easiest way of doing this is to join one of several affiliate marketing schemes - this is a overview of some of the schemes available and our experiences {review}.

Visitor Tracking and Statistics
If you run a website, it is important to be able to know not only how many people visit your site, but also where those people come from, which links to your website work and which pages each visitor is interested in.  The IndexTools program allows you to keep a close track on each visitor to your website as they navigate around the site. {review}.

Digital Television and Phone Packages
We have looked at the services which you can expect from one of the main cable TV and telephone operators (Telewest Broadband) and compared them to those provided by NTL and BSkyB together with BT.  Find out about free interactive services and TV email without dial-up charges  {review}

Telephone Service Providers
There are lots of companies out there who promise cheaper telephone calls than BT - we compare the services and range of offers available and see whether they match up to their promises {review}

Posting Parcels
Are the Royal Mail the only means of shipping parcels available for the ordinary person?  We look at an alternative here. {review}