Symantec's Fast Find Great Web Help

   With 80-gazillion internet utilities out there, it is not hyperbole to say that Symantec's FastFind is one of the most useful programs you can have for surfing and using the World Wide Web.
   FastFind is a suite of programs which allow you to do a number of things which are, frankly, pretty useful if you want to really use the web. Some of the components of this suite – such as WebFind – are to be found on the 'net itself. But I found WebFind to be more accurate than most of the tools available for multiple searches online and some of the information to be more available.  
   Here is where everything begins. When you start the program, this "menu" appears on screen.
   Let's look at some of the more useful components of Internet FastFind one at a time.

WebFind
   WebFind uses eight search engines to look for information you desire on the 'net. What is different about this, as opposed to some of the similar utilities which are available on-line is its ability to tailor your queries to the individual search engines to bring in optimum results. It also displays progress, so if you think you have enough information and it is not done, you can stop the program at any time and get what results there are.
   Probably the best feature of WebFind is that it actually creates an HTML page with the results and then saves it. This means you can recall the page you used at any time and use it again. In addition, it takes a little time to remove duplicates, which is one of the my biggest headaches of some of the traditional stand-alone search engines.
   Of course there is a relevance index number, but another major feature is that WebFind will check the accuracy of a reported link (at the "cost" of about a second per link). Is this worthwhile! It is a tremendous time-saver.

Net FileFind
   What's an Archie? Veronica's boyfriend. Reggie and Jughead's best friend. And your best friend, too, for finding a file. Unfortunately, the Archie servers are pretty difficult to use "in the flesh."
   Net FileFind uses Archie servers (you select the one closest to you from a list in the program) that help you find any file which may be hiding out there on the 'net. No foolin'! Suppose some buddy says he found some freeware called foo-bar.zip, but can't remember where it was. Just use Net FileFind and ask it to come up with that file name. It will.
   You can use this for other things, too. Because Net FileFind accepts wildcards, you can look for graphics files (*.gif), audio files (*.au) and all sorts of other things. If the friend mentioned in the paragraph above couldn't remember the whole file name, but knew it was "foo-something," you could search for it with foo*.zip or foo*.* – rather nifty.

Notify
   I love Notify. It monitors web sites (and, for that matter, folders on your hard disk) and alerts you when there have been changes. You can then just pop into the site and see what's new.
   As for the web, Notify monitors a single page. You should set it to the page where you are looking for changes. It does not monitor pages displayed within frames.
   A tremendous feature of this program is that it will also place a "notify" button in your web browser, if you want. When you get to a page you wish to keep track of, just click on the button and set the time you want the check to be made. This means it is impossible to mess up the typing of the URL about which you are interested.

Live Update
   I mention this as a major feature of this program because it will, some day, be the way every program is kept current. Just click on this option and your computer will connect with Symantec's, determine if you have the latest version of the program, download any updates and do whatever it takes to update the program.
   Cool. Great. Easy.

Other Elements

Patch Connect
     Simplifies the task of finding new patches and drivers for your system. Believe it or not, it monitors your system and then can connect with the appropriate place on the 'net and search for the latest patch, driver or whatever.

Web Launch
     Without even having to launch your browser, it will connect you to your "favorite" web sites. This program places an icon in your system tray and one click will open the favorites list.

Easy FTP
     This is an "easy" FTP (File Transfer Protocol) application which lets you upload and download from FTP sites. FTP is what you actually use to "get into" your own web site to change pages and so forth.

EasyZIP
     This program integrates ZIP technology into the Windows Explorer so you can zip up and unzip files. It is a nice application but, of course, does not have all the bells and whistles of a program such as WinZip.

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