The portable software monitors a network adapter for Internet traffic. It automatically saves select Internet file types to a custom storage location so that those files remain on the system even if the browser cache itself is deleted.

It is necessary to configure the capturing on the first start of the program.

You can define the base folder where all downloaded Internet files are stored in and the file types that you want to capture. Available for selection are among others image, video, audio and text file types.

The capture method supports three different methods. First raw sockets which is not as reliable as the others, and then WinPcap Packet Capture Driver or the Network Monitor Driver, both available for free on the Internet. All network adapters of the computer system are displayed in the same configuration menu. If multiple are installed it is up to the user to select the one that needs to be monitored.

WebSiteSniffer from that moment on monitors the Internet traffic on the system. It displays all host names, the number of files and file types, the transferred size and the storage location in the interface. It is possible to stop the capturing at any time with the F6 key or a click on the stop button in the toolbar.

Selected items can be saved as text, xml or csv files on the system. The reporting options hint at other uses, like creating reports or logs for specific websites or projects.

Users who want to download Internet files can configure the program to only specific file types like image formats. There is unfortunately no filter available to restrict the downloads to files of a certain size or resolution.

Windows users can download the monitoring software WebSiteSniffer from the Nirsoft website. The program is compatible with all recent 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system. Please note that some Windows users may need to run the program with elevated privileges if they want to select the Raw Sockets capturing method.

Unpack Monitor on first glance offers a similar feature set. The program can monitor one or multiple folders on a computer system. Archives that are moved or copied into those folders are automatically extracted based on the application’s rule set.

Unlike the previously reviewed software though, it supports additional formats like 7z, ISO and HJ splitted files.

New directories are added via the Add Directory button in the main interface. This opens a folder browser where the directory can be selected. Once that is done the monitoring configuration window opens where the monitoring and extracting can be configured.

Here it is possible to select a different unpack folder, the scan interval and unpack options. Unpack options range from permanently deleting archives after unpacking to scanning subfolders and launching third party programs. It is furthermore possible to monitor only specific archive types in the folder.

Some Windows users may need to run the program with elevated privileges. If they do not, they won’t see the monitored directories in the program interface. Unpack Monitor displays information about all directories that are monitored in the main program window.

This includes the directory that is monitored, the status and scan interval. The status bar highlights current unpacking jobs. The program supports the use of a default password list, which can be handy to auto-extract password protected archives on the system. Another helpful feature is the ability to stop extracting more files if the hard drive space on the destination drive falls below 1 Gigabyte.

You can minimize the program to the system tray after the initial configuration. The program will continue to monitor and extract archives based on that configuration.

Unpack Monitor is a portable program for Windows users who want to automate their file extraction tasks. The program is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system. It can be downloaded along with the program source code from the developer website. (via)

The free monitoring software is a sophisticated program with lots of options. Each web page that you want to monitor is configured as an alert in the program.

The application supports three different monitoring types.

• Monitor the website (or webpage) availability – Checks if a website is up or down
• Monitor the webpage update – Checks if updates have been posted on the selected website
• Monitor the appearance of specific words – Just like the standard monitoring option, but will only post alerts if content on the web page matches or does not match specific words.

The first two options should be self-explanatory. The third can be used for some interesting things. I for one use something similar to monitor the Ghacks database. I run a script on the site that returns ok or down on the page, depending on the status of the database. I then use a monitoring software to check for the word ok or down on the page. This way I can check if the database is up and running.

It does not have to be something as sophisticated than this, obviously. You could use the option to monitor a web page for new posts from a specific writer or topics, or to get a notification if a price drops on an online shopping website.

The monitoring rate can be set to specific hourly and minutely intervals, e.g. once per hour, or once per day.

All alerts show up in the main program window where they can be paused, edited or deleted easily.

It is possible to open a web page in the program directly, for instance to find specific words that you monitor the page for.

Notifications show up as popups on the desktop. It is optionally possible to add sound notifications for each alert individually. The web page monitor will automatically load the changed web page in its interface to highlight the changes

Notipage is a handy web page monitoring software. You can download the program’s latest version from the developer website. It is compatible with all recent 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system.

The free software Gameplay Time Tracker tops Steam’s time tracking capabilities by supporting pretty much any game that is playable on the PC. The program runs semi-automatically in the background. It monitors fullscreen applications on the system automatically assuming that all of them are games. A blacklist is provided to block certain fullscreen applications which are not games, or games that you do not want tracked, from being tracked by the application.

It is furthermore possible to add games to the whitelist, which can be handy to monitor games that are not automatically recognized as such by the Gameplay Time Tracker application. The third monitoring option supports browser-based applications. This works by adding websites to the browser-based applications list. Supported are the four major web browsers Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Google Chrome.

Detected games are added to the database automatically. It is still up to the user to add information that are not filled out by the process. This may include a product description, notes, the game save folder or the release date of the game.

Game statistics are displayed for all games in the My Games tab in the program interface. The tracker lists the program name, total and last run time as well as the total number of times the game has been started on the system.

The daily statistics tab confusingly displays statistics for the last 365 days of gaming. Here it is possible to display the full game run time per day, the daily game run count or controller specific statistics.

A right-click on the program icon in the taskbar displays a context menu with options to launch the main program window or to stop or restart the game monitoring.

Users who do not want their input devices monitored can disable this feature in the program options. There they can also disable the autostart entry.

Gameplay Time Tracker can be helpful for users who would like to monitor the time they play games. This can be useful to control the gaming to avoid spending to much time gaming.

Windows users can download the latest version of the game tracker from the developer website. The program is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system. It was tested on a 64-bit edition of Windows 7.

Here is how it works.The surveillance software can be installed on one or multiple computer systems, which can be added to groups for better controlling. It is then possible to access the captures made by the systems over a local network or the Internet. Even better, iSpy offers options to view access and control the cameras and microphones over cell phones.

The monitoring software has several requirements that need to be installed or configured before it can be used. It for instance requires that the Windows Media Video 9 VCM codec is installed on the system to record video with the application. It furthermore asks the user to run a local server on the computer to access the cameras, saved videos and audio locally. An alternative is to create a free account at the iSpy developer site which is needed to access contents over the web. There is also an intranet server version that is available commercially aiming at schools, campuses, corporations or private residences.

It is then possible to add cameras and microphones that will be used for the monitoring.

iSpy Features

• Install iSpy Server and publish your webcam to other instances of iSpy, over your network and to the web
• Connect and monitor as many cameras and microphones as you like. Import and export object lists to share with colleagues.
• Customize movement detection areas on your cameras
• Detect, highlight, track and record movement
• Detect and record sound
• Run any program or send an email or SMS alert when movement or sound is detected / is not detected
• Receive email movement alerts with attached frame grab images from your webcams
• Periodically receive image grabs via email from your webcams
• Connect to any device, even webcams attached to other computers with JPEG, MJPEG, IP Cam, webcam and AVI file support
• Watch live and recorded media over the web (through this website and over your local network) and also via mobile devices
• Access and control iSpy remotely
• Schedule sound and video capturing to start and stop automatically
• Time-lapse record from any camera
• Motion track and count moving objects
• Connect multiple instances of iSpy and iSpy server running on different computers to this website and view all aggregated media online
• Create groups, invite friends and share access to your webcams and microphones

As you can see, iSpy offers a lot. It takes some time to configure the surveillance software correctly. Core features are the ability to monitor video and audio locally and remotely, the notification options, automatic sound and movement detection and the ability to use cell phones to access the controls and recorded video / audio.

ISpy offers a lot for a free software. Users who want to test the surveillance and monitoring software can download it from the project homepage over at Developer In A Box. The software requires the Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0, and will run on 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

The monitoring software combines monitoring of various PC activities, reports and an alerts and warnings system under its hood. It supports monitoring of websites visited, program launches, web searches, emails sent and received, keystrokes, instant messenger chat logs and screen captures of the computer desktop.

• Every Program launched: when program was started/ended, what is the program name, what is the text in program title;
• Every Web site visited: the web site address, when it was, even the IP address;
• All Web Searches: what was this search for;
• Computer usage time;
• All E-Mails sent and received;
• All Web Mails sent and received on HotMail/LiveMail, YahooMail, Google GMail, AOL Web Mail;
• Instant Messengers chat and conversations via Windows Live Messenger, AOL, Yahoo/ICQ, Jabber, etc;
• All keystrokes typed;
• Record screen captures in color and high resolution with highest compression rate available;
• Total network traffic.

BlackBox Security Monitor displays an add computer wizard on first run which can be used to add the local PC or another PC in the network to the list of monitored systems. The add computer menu is available from the program’s main interface at anytime should the need arise to add additional PC systems. It is furthermore possible to monitor all or only specific users of a system.

blackbox security monitor

The program lists all monitored computer systems and users in the left sidebar. Reports and the getting started page are listed there as well. Selecting a user or computer displays the relevant information on the right side.

Both the user and computer listings display the information in a tabbed interface divided into sections like programs, websites or emails. Date and time are presented on the screen with options to take a look at a specific date or time frame to see the activities during that time.

Several reports can be created after clicking on the reports entry in the left sidebar. Among them options to list the most popular websites, programs and web searches.

• User Activity report;
• 10 Most popular programs;
• 10 Most popular Web sites;
• 10 Most popular searches on the Web;
• 10 Most active Instant Messenger users;
• 10 Most active E-Mail users;
• Program launched report;
• Web sites visited report;
• Alerts/Warnings generated report.

Alerts can be configured to instantly notify a user by email or cell phone on specific activities including program launches, web mails or websites visited.

BlackBox Security Monitor offers enterprise grade functionality, currently for free. The program is available for both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Check Host is a free application for Windows that can be used for this monitoring purpose. The software program offers two methods of checking servers and services: Ping and Socket Connection. Ping will perform a simple ping to the selected hostname or IP address while a socket connection needs to be configured with a protocol (TCP or UDP) and a port.

It is furthermore possible to define the interval in which the checks are performed and the timeout which will trigger notifications if those have been configured.

Speaking of which; The program supports desktop and email notifications and starting a program or batch file whenever a server check produces a timeout. The same options are also available when the service or server are available again.

All services and servers that are monitored are displayed in the main interface of the software along with their description, hostname or IP address, method and time the last check was performed.

Some or all of the checks can be paused at anytime and a double-click on a row will open the configuration for that specific service or server again.

The options contain the interesting feature to write a protocol to a file which can be a great way of analysing server availability over time. It is here that the user needs to configure the SMTP server if emails are selected as part of the notification setup.

Check Host is a basic service and server monitoring software for the Windows operating system. It requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0 and can be downloaded directly from the developer’s website. It is compatible with most editions and versions of Microsoft Windows including Windows 7.

The system administrator can monitor and record activity on all client computer systems. The default username and password are mouse and tikus. New user accounts with distinct rights can be created in the software program easily.

The admin interface itself is divided into different sections that include Internet, Printing and Reports among other sections. The Internet section opens the Internet monitoring system that displays the status of every computer system the client version of the monitoring software is running on.

A click on a system will display the current status (vacant or occupied), the IP address of the PC and additional information like the work duration on the system.

The Internet cafe monitoring software comes with basic remote PC commands. It is for example possible to send messages to one or several of the client PCs and to logoff, reboot or shutdown the client PCs.

MC3 Cyber Cafe Software is an easy to use monitoring software program that is best suited for Internet cafes. The administrator might need some time to get used to working with the software program as it offers functionality that goes beyond Internet connection monitoring.

The Home version which can monitor four client computers is free to use. Other versions are available for a price that can monitor more client systems.

The main interface of the monitoring software is divided into a quick server check option at the bottom which can be used to check if services such as HTTP, FTP or POP are running on a IP or domain. The networking monitoring software will automatically display the results in the same interface. Probably more interesting than the quick check function is the option to add servers permanently to the monitoring tool.

The user needs to enter a server name which is used for identification and a server address which is usually an IP address. A list of services are preselected and will be checked unless unchecked by the user. Alerts can be enabled or disabled in the same interface as well. These do have to be configured separately and can inform the user by email, screen message, executing a program or playing a sound.

There is also the possibility to add http url checks next to the default services that can be monitored by Open Monitor. This allows a user to specify an url, port, alerts and words that the page should include or exclude. This can be used for example to verify that a page is up by checking for a word on that page that is always appearing. Can also be used to run scripts that output a simple message in the end, e.g. a database check that is displaying ok if the database is up and running.

Open Monitor is a straightforward, easy to use, network monitoring software that can monitor popular services. Alternative programs are the server monitoring software IT Service View, Newt, the website monitoring software SiteMonitor or the Microsoft Network Monitor.

It only takes a minute to select the folders or services that should be monitored. The functionality is limited to the following. Services can be monitored and the computer program can try to restart them if they are not running. It will notify the administrator after a set amount of failed attempts.

Folders of connected hard drives can also be monitored by FS Guard. It is possible to monitor them for size changes. If the size changes the system administrator will be informed as well.

The software is compatible with Windows XP and Windows Vista and will most likely run on Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 as well although that is not mentioned on the developer’s homepage. It Pros will miss features that they are used to work with like executing programs or taking screenshots of the situation.

The monitoring software FS Guard might come in handy on the other hand for users who are satisfied with these basic options.