Welcome to Gaia! ::

These sites should be a first stop for any search.

Search Engines

Google
The Search Engine. So popular, ubiquitous, and useful, that it has graduated to a verb.

All The Web
A good search engine for slightly off the beaten path answers, catches some results that Google misses.

DMOZ - Open Directory Project
Search capabilities vary, but the associated directories are incredibly useful.

Mooter
Cluster-based search results, quite odd at first.

Dicy
Another cluster/phrase based search engine.

General Knowledge

Wikipedia
A massive user-edited repository of factual information, often contains incredibly detailed amounts of information on a topic.

Acronym Finder
Need to know what IPv6 stands for? Want to find out what the heck ARP is? Confused by RFC? Come here to make sense of alphabet soup.

OneLook
A meta-search of many online dictionaries. So useful you might just defenestrate your old dictionary.

Urban Dictionary
Want to know what a particular bit of slang means? Interested in words other people have invented? Urban Dictionary has it.

General Technology

How Stuff Works
Illustrated explanations of how things work.

Local

Hamachi
A Free WAN/VPN program.

Internet

ARIN WHOIS Database
For looking up IPs in North America, check here.

RIPE WHOIS Database
European IP lookups.

APNIC WHOIS Database
Asia and Pacific Islands IP lookup.

LACNIC WHOIS Database
Latin American IP lookup.

AFRINIC WHOIS Database
African IP lookup.

DNS Stuff
A collection of on-line tools for testing DNS, WHOIS lookups, reverse lookups, and more.

DSL Reports
Covers a wide range of networking subjects, including guides for routers, networking software, and software that uses those networks.

Internet Health Report
A quick reference of the status of every US tier one provider (network backbone).

Reviews

Freeware

Mozilla Diagnostic
Having trouble with Firefox, Thunderbird, or The Mozilla Suite? Use this.

Download.com
A good general downloads site, a little bit of everything. Patches, shareware, freeware, and trial-versions.

MajorGeeks
Lots of software that can help you fixing your computer, from updates, diagnostic, fixers, cleaning, recovering to nifty help tools.

Bootdisk.com
Boot disks and CDs for any OS.

OS-Specific

[][]Linux

[][]DistroWatch
[][]If you need a specific distro, or just want to see how many there are, DistroWatch has all the public releases listed, both as downloads,
[][]or CDs sent to your home (for a small fee).
[][]It also offers reviews, and links to communities for Linux (And the different distros.).

[][]Linux Distribution Chooser
[][]A small test to help you chose a Linux distro, the downside is that it contain less then 20 of the more mainstream distros.
[][]But it should be able to help point you in the right direction.

[][]Slackware
[][]A minimalist Linux distro. Powerful and lightweight.

[][]Ubuntu
[][]Designed as a user-friendly Linux distro. You can order free CDs shipped to you as well.

[][]Gentoo
[][]Gentoo is a power-user distro.

[][]The Linux Documentation Project
[][]A diverse list of HOWTOs and man pages for all things Linux.

[][]Apple OS X

[][]Microsoft Windows

[][]Startup Applications List
[][]What you may find in the startup list, and what it is.

[][]DLL Library
[][]Provides detailed information about common DLLs.

[][]Dll Files
[][]Missing a DLL file? Try finding it here.

[][]Process Library
[][]A list of processes which may be running in Windows, and what exactly they are.

[][]XP, from A to Z
[][]Like the title says: Windows XP, A to Z.

[][]BartPE builder
[][]A live-CD for Windows XP and 2003, native NTFS support.

[][]Annoyances.org
[][]If it concerns any windows OS you can find information about it here, lousy search engine though.

[][]Microsoft Server 2003 Trial
[][]A 180 day trial of Windows Server 2003. If you need an OS temporarily, and want Windows.

[][]Other OSes

[][]ReactOS
[][]An open-source fully Windows-compatible OS. Still under construction.