No web site on the Internet is particularly unique. Below is a list of other
"tester" web sites.
- Java competes with Flash for making interactive web pages.
Macromedia (the Flash vendor before Adobe purchased the company) has
a
Flash tester web page (they don't call it that). This page tells
you the version you have installed, but does not tell you if it is the
latest or not. Incomplete Flash version history:
- As of April 9, 2008 the latest version is 9,0,124,0
- As of December 18, 2007 the latest version is 9,0,115,0
See
Update your copy of the Flash player now. And do it the right way from December 21, 2007
and Problems updating
the Flash player in Firefox from December 22, 2007.
- As of July 10, 2007 the latest version is 9,0,47,0.
- As of December 9, 2006 the latest version is 9,0,28,0.
- As of July 1, 2006 the latest version is 9,0,16,0.
- As of March 20, 2006 the latest version was 8,0,24,0.
- As of October 2005 the latest version was 8,0,22,0.
- As of June 2004 the latest version was 7,0,19,0.
- As of September 2003 the latest version was 7,0,14,0.
- As of March 2003 the latest version was 6,0,79,0.
- As of February 3, 2003, the latest version of Flash for Windows was 6,0,65,0.
Note: If your computer has the Flash Player version 8.0.22.0 or earlier,
you should upgrade to get important bug fixes.
- Macromedia has another page which tests for both
Flash and Shockwave. Note that if JavaScript is disabled in your browser, this page will incorrectly report
that Flash is not installed. I haven't tested this with Shockwave.
- Sun used to have two Java tester pages, but they are now consolidated in a single page at
java.com/en/download/help/testvm.xml. At times, the two
pages provided different results. To manually check what the latest version of Java is, I suggest the
downloads page. The audience however, for this page is
computer nerds. Look for the "Java Runtime Environment (JRE)" download.
- OLD: The first old tester page Verify your Java
Software Installation displayed the version of Java installed on your
computer. I didn't check this very often, but prior to September 2006 it correctly identified the latest version.
As of September 2006 however, it didn't. A machine with version 1.5.0_06 was identified as having the latest version.
At the time, the latest version was 1.5.0_08.
- OLD: The second old tester page Test
your Java Virtual Machine was the reverse (alternate
link). Prior to September 2006 it would incorrectly report that the latest version of Java was
installed when it was not. In July 2005 it reported version 1.4.2_06 as the "latest" when it was at least
four versions old. In February 2006 it reported 1.5.0_04 as the latest, which it was not. However, in
September 2006 it correctly reported that 1.5.0_06 was not the latest version. It didn't however, say what the latest
version was.
- I don't know of an Apple QuickTime tester. If you go to the main
QuickTime for Windows page on a computer without QuickTime with IE, you
will prompted to install the QuickTime ActiveX control. Firefox will tell
you to install the missing plug-in. If your computer has QuickTime
installed, I don't know a web page that reports the installed version.
Download the latest
QuickTime for Windows from Apple.
- Testing VRML plugins: cic.nist.gov/vrml/vbdetect.html
- Cyscape also has a very
complete web browser report in their BrowserHawk
demo page. It shows the Java version and vendor and, for Microsoft JVMs, it
shows the build number. In addition, it reports the installed version of Flash, Director, QuickTime,
Acrobat, Real Player, Windows Media Player and much more.
- Mickey Segal has a Configuration
Test for Java that is very similar to the Version page here
- Another Java tester is available at gemal.dk
as part of their BrowserSpy
- A low end Java tester is available from upshot.com
- Click and Learn has a browser tester in German that tests
Java, Flash, Acrobat, Windows Media player and more.
- ScanIt has a web browser
security tester (a bit off this subject, but good to know)
- www.mailtester.com validates an
email address and reports on the email server
- www.dnsstuff.com offers domain name
tests, IP tests and hostname tests
- PC Pitstop has an ActiveX
tester, very similar in concept to the Version page on this site. Martin
Heller has one too.
- Testvirus.org allows you to send a harmless test virus to any email address. If
your mail server or email hosting provider is running anti-virus software, these emails should get blocked.
- The Configuring Your Web Browser page on
this site, can be considered a JavaScript tester. At the top of the
page it identifies your web browser. This is done using JavaScript. My
personal web site also has a
page with a built-in JavaScript tester that reports the version of
JavaScript used by your web browser. Instructions for enabling JavaScript in
IE can be found here.
- Analyze Your Internet Privacy at
privacy.net has a Java tester and much more.
- Test your popup blocker at
