Archival Software -- WinZIP, WinRAR, WinACE, Part 3

Yesterday's newsletter was a real whopper; I must have spent over 6 hours writing it.

Incase you missed it, yesterday's article was about WinRAR, WinZIP, and WinACE. I briefly overviewed how archiving software can be used to compress multiple files into a single large file, and then split (if necessary) into pieces to be stored on smaller-sized media for backup purposes.

The truth is, knowing how to extract (or compress) an archived file is essential, especially in today's world of online computing. WinRAR, WinZIP, and WinACE are not freeware, which is why I asked Infopackets Readers to send me their picks for an alternative.

I received quite a few suggestions already. Many of the suggestions were varied -- and am continuing to receive more new suggestions as I write this newsletter.

To be honest with you, there's a lot more people reading this newsletter than there was a few months ago. After weeding out about 4,000 inactive email addresses from the subscriber list in November, readership to this newsletter hit 35,000 in December of 2002 and now is up to 45,000 this month (February, 2003). I want to make sure that I don't miss out on any good freeware titles, so I'm going to wait at least another day before I share the picks.

A new video and eBook tutorial is also in the works.

Archiving can be frightfully confusing to new users, so I asked Infopackets Readers if they would like me to make a video and eBook on all there is to know the topic. The response has been strong, so the plan will be to go ahead with that once the freebee picks have been aggregated and presented.