Intro
From time-to-time I come across sites that really help out, and ones that true, might be found quickly in a Google search, but some offer capabilities you may not have even realized existed.
The links
So without further ado, here they are. They need some organizing yet!
Is this site accessible from china through the Great Firewall of China?
https://www.chinafirewalltest.com/?siteurl=drjohnstechtalk.com
– Geographic location finder for any IP address. There are zillions of them out there. Some are overly aggressive with advertizing so be wary. Here’s a really good one that shows your IP and perceived location without the ads: https://www.vpnmentor.com/tools/ipinfo/
although I normally use https://ipinfo.io/ .
Formula plotter (math) – very nice
https://www.desmos.com/calculator
Naming Convention
Everyone is pretty familiar with these two-letter codes. Theer is also a 3-letter convention as well. But what is much less well known is the UN way to designate almost every single location on the planet with a 3-letter code:
UNECE 3-letter place/city/town codes
Click on a country and it will show you all the 3-letter codes.
This is not the same as the IATA airport codes! It is more extensive.
Networking
Check your speed by downloading one of the large files from ftp://speedtest.tele2.net/ such as ftp://speedtest.tele2.net/50MB.zip .
Reputation links
– Reputation information for any mail server. Just plug in the IP. Will also show what blacklists the server is on and the reputation of others servers on that segment. I think it’s run by Cisco. http://www.senderbase.org/
– Reputation of any URL, sponsored by Bluecoat, makers of the free edition K9 Webfilter. http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/sitereview.jsp
Webmaster links
– archive.org will show what your site looked like in the past, sometimes even years in the past.
Now retired: – www.alexa.com, to see how unpopular your web site is. Retired by Amazon May 2022! Not sure if there is an equivalent…
– Say you see a photo on a web site and you want to know if it was used elsewhere, or if the site cropped it
– Open source information and knowledgeable discussion. http://www.softpanorama.org/
-Is this web site(s) up?
https://httpstatus.io/
Generating a custom favicon
https://favicon.io/ is an honest broker. you can generate a favicon from letters (e.g., CPP). There are lots and lots of options.
Security
-0 Patch (I learned of this 12/2023) may be an option to get continued securtity coverage when your Windows 10 support runs out in October 2025. https://0patch.com/
-This is a very good article discussing the Windows 10 to Windows 11 upgrade options for those whose hardware doesn’t support Windows 11: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/when-windows-10-support-runs-out-you-have-5-options-but-only-2-are-worth-considering/ar-AA1lFA82?cvid=4d6aafa9d73448dbc024424b335d1451&ocid=winp2fptaskbarent&ei=15
-Good discussion of ongoing security matters, though too heavily weighted on Social networking. Articles daily with interesting reader comments. http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/
– Web site malware checker. http://sitecheck.sucuri.net/scanner/. I’ve used it once. I guess it’s OK, but probably not nearly as thorough as commercial products. I guess it doesn’t look for vulnerabilities, just malware.
– urlquery.net, a service for analyzing and detecting web-based malware
IT
– most under-appreciated blog by an IT professional, networking concentration. http://drjohnstechtalk.com/blog/ Hey, I can toot my own horn!
– Screen-sharing application join.me
– Ookla’s Down Detector gives the status of hundreds of major web sites. https://downdetector.com/
Home User
– Best broadband speed test. https://fast.com/ It’s simple, but doesn’t shower you with aggressive ads.
– speedtest also looks good. https://speedtest.net/
Another better alternative to speedtest.net (again no aggressive ads) is https://speedtest.expereo.com/
I think nperf.com may be the best, however. https://nperf.com/
Prevent your neighbor’s WiFi SSIDs from being offered to you: https://www.howtogeek.com/331816/how-to-block-your-neighbors-wi-fi-network-from-appearing-on-windows/
– Permanent HTTP site – will never be https: http://neverssl.com/. It can be hard to find a site that doesn’t run SSL these days so this can be useful, e.g., when you want to sign on to guest Wifi such as hotels offer.
Find an Android phone: http://google.com/android/find
Programmers
Here’s a really good introduction to REST API by Microsoft: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/best-practices/api-design
Computer and Linux Hobbyist
– Cheapest low-power Linux computer. http://www.raspberrypi.org/. At about $35 this looks really interesting for the hobbyist.
Towards a Responsible and Ethical Internet
– a search engine that doesn’t track! I just heard about this on Marketplace. Unfortunately it’s not as sophisticated as Google with type-aheads. I checked a few searches that should bring up some of my blog posts and – they did – so it must have some reach into obscure web sites duckduckgo.com
And another I’ve just learned about: https://www.startpage.com/
Security
Check out how many times yuor email address and other info about you have been leaked on the Internet. It’s enlightening and also depressing: https://haveibeenhacked.com/
A victim of Identity Theft?
Go to this checklist maintained by the Federal Trade Commission: https://IdentityTheft.gov/