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Sen. Charles Schumer wants online companies to switch to a more secure protocol to better protect consumers who access Web sites via public Wi-Fi hot spots.

The New York Democrat yesterday issued a call to such companies as Amazon and Twitter to switch their default pages to HTTPS from HTTP to help prevent cybercriminals from stealing online passwords and credit card numbers over public Wi-Fi networks. In his request, Schumer said that programs such as Firesheep allow even hackers with no programming skills to easily capture usernames, passwords, browsing history, and other private information from unsuspecting users in spots with … Read more

File transfer protocol (FTP) tools are among the oldest Internet software, yet they're still some of the most useful programs to have around, especially since today's FTP clients do so much. Case in point is BitKinex, a free FTP manager from Barad-Dur. It's a full-featured FTP client that not only transfers files but also synchronizes directories and performs server-to-server mirroring and backups; a Secure FTP (SFTP) client that accommodates all available secure protocols and also offers multiple connections and automatic download resumption in secure connections; and a Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) tool with all the … Read more

HTTPWatch Basic Edition is a free browser plug-in that collects and displays information about Web sites. It's a trial edition of HTTPWatch Professional, with which it shares many features, albeit with limitations, mostly for Web sites with nonproprietary log files. The Basic version also displays a logo banner on printouts. Both work with Microsoft Internet Explorer as well as Mozilla Firefox. You can save the information HTTPWatch Basic Edition collects as a log file and view it with an included utility, HTTP Studio.

We downloaded and installed HTTPWatch Basic for Internet Explorer. During the process, we allowed the plug-in'… Read more

Google has begun shipping a feature called False Start in its Chrome browser to speed up secure communications.

False Start essentially cuts out one set of the back-and-forth conversation needed to set up a secure channel between a Web browser and Web pages. Such secure channels use technology called SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) or TLS (Transport Layer Security), and a Web site using it shows an address beginning with HTTPS rather than HTTP.

"The latest releases of Chrome now enable a feature called SSL False Start," said Google programmer Mike Belshe in a blog post Sunday. "As … Read more

Help is on the way for Web surfers who run the risk of having their Facebook, Twitter, and other Web accounts hijacked over unsecured Wi-Fi networks and other security issues that result from sites not using encryption.

A Web security mechanism called HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) is making its way through the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) standards process, and two of the major browsers are supporting it. Web sites that implement HSTS will prompt the browser to always connect to a secure version of the site, using "https," without the Web surfer having to remember to … Read more

We're big fans of open-source, cross-platform, portable freeware, especially when it's in the form of an especially flexible and useful tool like muCommander. It's a Java-based file management utility that handles just about anything you can throw at it: ZIP files (all kinds), FTP, ISO, SFTP, SMB, NFS, HTTP, e-mail messages and attachments, browser bookmarks, themes and skins, and much more. It offers full credentials management, keyboard shortcuts, compatibility with Apple platforms, checksum calculation, and some 20 languages. Since it's an open-source project, it's evolving new features and capabilities all the time.

This program's … Read more

Google plans to use Chrome as a tool to reform the Web by encouraging use of a technology the company says will reduce data-transfer delays.

The technology, called False Start, has the potential to reduce one round of back-and-forth communications between a browser and a Web server when establishing an encrypted connection. That's a significant time savings--about 7 hundredths of a second for communication across the United States and 1.5 tenths of a second from California to Europe.

Even better, unlike many protocol improvements that could improve communications, it doesn't even require changes on both sides of … Read more

EPO Consulting's XML Transmitter is a powerful tool for developing and testing Web services. It will POST or GET XML messages using HTTP to a Web server and display the server's response. It's a handy addition to your Web management toolkit.

The program's configurable interface includes links advertising the developer's other products along the top edge, though registration removes them. The interface itself is efficient and attractive, with a look that sets it apart from typical Windows applications. Separate Directory and Server panes keep things tidy. There's a PDF-based Help file and Web-based assistance, … Read more

Internet downloading got a major boost from bit torrents and the widespread availability of broadband, but conventional Web-based downloads are still limited by single-thread technology. Download Commander from Heitmeijer is a downloading application that uses the familiar HTTP protocol but enables multiple simultaneous downloads via multithreading, so instead of downloading each file on a Web site, you can download them all at once. It will also save various credentials so you don't have to re-enter them constantly.

Download Commander integrates itself with Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser. Right-clicking a Web page calls up the context menu with Download … Read more