Neil J. Rubenking

About

Neil Rubenking served as vice president and president of the San Francisco PC User Group for three years when the IBM PC was brand new. He was present at the formation of the Association of Shareware Professionals, and served on its board of directors. In 1986, PC Magazine brought Neil on board to handle the torrent of Turbo Pascal tips submitted by readers. By 1990 he had become PC Magazine's technical editor, and a coast-to-coast telecommuter. His 'User to User' column supplied readers with tips and solutions on using DOS and Windows, his technical columns clarified fine points in programming and operating systems, and his utility articles (over forty of them) provided both useful programs and examples of programming in Pascal, Visual Basic, and Delphi. Mr. Rubenking has also written seven books on DOS, Windows, and Pascal/Delphi programming, including PC Magazine DOS Batch File Lab Notes and the popular Delphi Programming for Dummies. In his current position as a PC Magazine Lead Analyst he evaluates and reports on client-side operating systems and security solutions such as firewalls, anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-spam and full security suites. He continues to answer questions for readers in the ongoing 'Solutions' column and in PC Magazine's discussion forums.

DeviceLock Blocks Data Thieves

SmartLines DeviceLock blocks security breaches cause by insiders copying sensitive data to removable media. Whether on one computer or the entire network, the administrator can restrict access to USB drives, writable CD drives, floppy disks, and other potentially insecure devices, as well as serial, parallel, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections. Permissions can be based on time […]

ZoneAlarm Security Suite 5

ZIFFPAGE TITLEAt a Glance Company:Zone Labs Inc., www.zonelabs.comPrice:$69.95 direct (includes one year of updates, support, and service); $24.95 a year thereafter. Pros:Enhances existing firewall, outbound program control, e-mail, and privacy protection. Adds integrated antivirus, secure instant messaging, and filtering of undesirable sites. Automatic Program Configuration drastically reduces confusing alerts about programs attempting to access the […]

ZoEmail Locks Out Spam

ZoEmail is a Web-based e-mail service that makes two ambitious promises: Youll never get spam, and youll never miss valid mail. It accomplishes this feat using a mature and thorough implementation of the disposable e-mail address (DEA) concept. The service offers just about everything youd expect in a stand-alone e-mail client: address book, spell-checking, user-defined […]

Avoid Accidentally Replying To Spammers

If you use Microsoft Outlook, heres a tip that may help eliminate some spam. Unless you check all the setting options in Outlook, you might unknowingly be replying to spammers. How? Select Options from the Tools menu, click on the E-mail Options button, then click on the Tracking Options button. Make sure that Always send […]

Ircas Alarm 2

Ircas Alarm, from Rombouts Electronics, turns your Webcam-equipped PC into a burglar alarm. When the camera detects motion, the software notifies you by e-mail, SMS, or WAP-enabled phone. You can then log in to the built-in server and view images saved by the software. External hardware, such as key switches, door/window alarms, and emergency buttons […]

PC-Mac PasswordVault 2.0

Lava Softwares PC-Mac PasswordVault 2.0 stores username and password information for Web sites in a secure but easily-accessible software vault. Users need only remember the master password—and if they do forget it, the product allows recovery through a series of personalized questions. The programs data is easily exported for backup or transfer to another computer. […]

PrivacyKeyboard for Workstations 3.1

PrivacyKeyboard for Workstations 3.1 from Raytown Corp. LLC protects against all types of software- and hardware-based keyloggers. It protects privacy by blocking suspicious activities, such as keystroke capture, screen capture, and copying text from the screen. To evade hardware-based keyloggers, it provides a secure virtual on-screen keyboard. As a result, it can block both known […]

More on Locking Windows XP Quickly

The article “Quickly Lock the Computer” offers a workaround for the fact that you can no longer lock a Windows XP machine by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del followed by Enter. Quite a few puzzled readers wrote in, because they found this key combination still works for them precisely the same way it did under Windows 2000. Why […]

Preview: Inside the Windows XP Service Pack 2 Beta

Microsoft will release Service Pack 2 for Windows XP (both Home and Professional) in the first half of 2004. Our look at the beta version, released to testers in December, revealed a number of interesting security enhancements in Web browsing, e-mail, and networking. The beta is, of course, a work in progress—the final version may […]

Restrict Browsing to a Single Domain, Revisited

Your advice in the issue of June 17 regarding browser restriction to a single domain is fairly extreme. Most browsers (IE and all Mozilla flavors, at least) have a built-in feature that will accomplish this task much more easily. Just set your browser to use a nonexistent proxy server. In IEs Internet Options dialog, go […]