I have been using many open source or free utilities/software which can beat their commercial contenders for sure, and I would like to share them here with you on this blog post.Best free / open source download manager: I have been using Free Download Manager since long and it's worth a try. It is great, consistent and has been up to the expectations all the time till day. I believe download manager is must have and FDM is the best. It is open source (GNU License), Ads free and what more we can ask for? Let me list down some of the features from it's latest version FDM 2.5.

  • Included BitTorrent support
  • Upload Manager
  • Flash Video download
  • Audio/Video preview
  • Speed selection
  • Site Explorer
  • and the most exiting Remote Control (Let's you control download from remote machine using a http client)

Free Download Manager Free Download Manager

Best FTP / SFTP client(s)/Server:

WinSCP: It's one of the best and open source FTP program available. WinSCP is open source and it is better then commercial alternates like SmartFTP or CuteFTP. I have used many of them but now prefer to use only WinSCP. It's free and download and run executable is available as well so if it's required to download at Client's server then also no hassle.

FileZilla: This is another great piece of open source solution which is both FTP Client and FTP Server, what more we can ask for? FileZilla Client is available for all platforms while FileZilla Server is available as Windows download only.

Best Remote Help/Screen Sharing/ Meeting:

Although at Office whenever I need to Assist someone remotely or do a Web Meeting I use GoToAssist and GoToMeeting, but I have used some of the following services at one time or another or tried sometime for experimenting. Yes, I do LogMeIn regularly to connect to my remote servers when can't do MSTSC (Microsoft Remote Terminal)

LogMeIn Free: LogMeIn Free is a powerful product with very ease of use and proven technology and is being used by professionals. Even in free usage you can sign up/register unlimited number of computers in one profile. You can create multiple groups for better management under one group. This works great for Remote Assistance and one to one screen sharing, we can set speed and quality as per our requirement while working with LogMeIn.

DimDim: Works for conferencing and allows to join 20 users in a meeting/conference while using as free service. It's easy (browser based), but screen sharing quality we can't expect as much as Citrix GoToMeeting. But yes it does allow sharing of screen, documents (PPT), Websites, Whiteboard. As well as there is a option to call on conference number or attendees can communicate using Microphone and speakers. I believe they will improve quality day by day.
The big point is that it's open-source: meaning that you can download source and host your own portal for your organization, I believe it's biggest positive point because with that speed and quality will be dependant on how much Internet bandwidth you provide and your server configuration.

Yugma: Yugma is free Web Meeting and Conferenceing service. It let you invite 10 attendees while using it as free registered user. Skype and Outlook plugins are available. You can use it under Windows, Mac and Linux (beta). I believe they are improving their quality of service but it has been long time I used it now.

Please share free/open-source tools you are using.

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