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Oops! Excuse my fat fingers! The thread title needs to say "Three (3) VERY Useful Applications that are Free!".
In any event, I have recently found 3, excellent free applications that I believe everyone can use. The first one, AppCleaner, is an easy way to get rid of ALL the files associated with a piece of software that one wants to get rid of. This page tells you how to use it (along with having a clickable link to download it):
http://osxdaily.com/2012/02/15/delete-applications-mac-os-x-appcleaner/
Note the different versions, depending on which OS one is using.
The second one, Trash It!, is a fabulous tool that lets one get rid of either "problematic" items, or a large collection of things. One can get it from here:
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/8214/trash-it!
The final one can be an excellent tool to determine which is the fastest DNS server in one's "area", and thus speed up internet activities. It is called "namebench", developed by Google. One can get it from here:
https://code.google.com/p/namebench/downloads/list
I have run this twice on my Mac Mini so far, and even though the DNS server designation, 127.0.0.1, is for my ISP (Comcast), namebench has now twice shown me that there are two other DNS servers that are significantly faster, either Google Public DNS-2, 8.8.4.4, or Qwest-2 US, 205.171.2.65. The one for Google was shown last night when I ran the program. Qwest-2 was the result from running it just a few minutes ago. According to the program, those two are just about neck & neck.
I am located near Seattle, WA, so of course for other locations, the results could most likely be different. Additionally, the program does take some time to run (about 5 to 7 minutes). Finally, when I ran it from my MacBook Air ("connected" via Wi-Fi), the DNS entry was (and makes sense) for my Netgear router, 192.168.1.1, and namebench did find one "outside" DNS server that was slightly faster.
I plan on running the program one more time (on my Mac Mini), and if either of the same two come up, I'm going to change that server address in the DNS Servers "field" from the one for Comcast to either the one for Google, or the one for Qwest. Also, not sure how such a change on my Mac Mini affect the speed on my MacBook Air (maybe little to no effect).
In any event, I have recently found 3, excellent free applications that I believe everyone can use. The first one, AppCleaner, is an easy way to get rid of ALL the files associated with a piece of software that one wants to get rid of. This page tells you how to use it (along with having a clickable link to download it):
http://osxdaily.com/2012/02/15/delete-applications-mac-os-x-appcleaner/
Note the different versions, depending on which OS one is using.
The second one, Trash It!, is a fabulous tool that lets one get rid of either "problematic" items, or a large collection of things. One can get it from here:
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/8214/trash-it!
The final one can be an excellent tool to determine which is the fastest DNS server in one's "area", and thus speed up internet activities. It is called "namebench", developed by Google. One can get it from here:
https://code.google.com/p/namebench/downloads/list
I have run this twice on my Mac Mini so far, and even though the DNS server designation, 127.0.0.1, is for my ISP (Comcast), namebench has now twice shown me that there are two other DNS servers that are significantly faster, either Google Public DNS-2, 8.8.4.4, or Qwest-2 US, 205.171.2.65. The one for Google was shown last night when I ran the program. Qwest-2 was the result from running it just a few minutes ago. According to the program, those two are just about neck & neck.
I am located near Seattle, WA, so of course for other locations, the results could most likely be different. Additionally, the program does take some time to run (about 5 to 7 minutes). Finally, when I ran it from my MacBook Air ("connected" via Wi-Fi), the DNS entry was (and makes sense) for my Netgear router, 192.168.1.1, and namebench did find one "outside" DNS server that was slightly faster.
I plan on running the program one more time (on my Mac Mini), and if either of the same two come up, I'm going to change that server address in the DNS Servers "field" from the one for Comcast to either the one for Google, or the one for Qwest. Also, not sure how such a change on my Mac Mini affect the speed on my MacBook Air (maybe little to no effect).
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