Yahoo! Messenger (http://messenger.yahoo.com/) - The official Yahoo! Messenger site.
Yahoo! Messenger for the Web (http://webmessenger.yahoo.com/) - The official Yahoo! Messenger site.
Yahoo! Chat (http://chat.yahoo.com/) - The official Yahoo! chat site.
Login to Yahoo! (https://login.yahoo.com) - The entry point for all of Yahoo's! services. Since regional servers were taken down, this is the only way to validate a user.
Yahoo! Messenger Blog(http://blog.messenger.yahoo.com/) - This is the Messenger developer blog. It mostly holds warm and fuzzy low tech information but every now and then a gem floats to the surface.
Venky's World (http://www.venkydude.com/articles/yahoo.htm) - This is the absolutely first article that I saw when I first started researching the Yahoo! Messenger protocol. Some of the information is outdated but it still contains some very useful information.
libpurple (http://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/WhatIsLibpurple) - libpurple is the backend interface for Pidgin.
libyahoo2 (http://libyahoo2.sourceforge.net/) - As far as I know this is the largest and most widely accepted open source library for Yahoo! Messenger. It is used in such programs as Ayttm and a variety of other open source Yahoo! Messenger alternatives. I don't think the project has been active for some time now but it is still a great source for understanding how the Yahoo! Messenger protocol works.
jYMSG (http://jymsg9.sourceforge.net/) - jYMSG is a Yahoo! Messenger API written in Java.
Net::YMSG (http://cpan.uwinnipeg.ca/htdocs/Net-YMSG/Net/YMSG.html) - Net::YMSG is a Yahoo! Messenger API written in Perl.
Pidgin (http://www.pidgin.im/) - One of the most prominent multi-protocol messaging application in the open source community. If you need Yahoo! on Linux then this is what you are looking for.
Yahelite Forum (http://www.yahelite.org/forum/) - YahElite has a strong following of supporters and it shows in this forum. Not completely technical and flames can sometimes pop up but still a good resource.
WackyB (http://www.wackyb.co.nz/) - Certainly not the most technical Yahoo! site but a few interesting things here. This is where I found the Yahoo Messenger 7.0 Menu Update 3.5 and Yahoo Multi Login for 7.0.0.437 programs. They are not very receptive to the darker side of Yahoo! so any questions posted here should be above board.
Bot-Depot (http://bot-depot.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=44) - Site devoted to Yahoo! bots.
OurChat (http://ourchat.org/index.php) - This is a support site for YahElite, CheetaChat, and YAM among others. The site has regular news update and a good forum.
Buddy Spy (http://www.buddy-spy.com/) - Do you want to know if someone is hiding from you on your buddy list? If so start Buddy Spy and find out. Buddy Spy uses several methods and packets to find is someone is invisible. Note: due to some recent protocol changes Buddy Spy does not work as well as it once did.
Pika Bot (http://ntek.astahost.com/) - Pika Bot is the product of another Astahost member, turbopowerdmaxsteel. This is a highly advanced Yahoo! chat bot that intelligencely responds to requests.
MessenPass (http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/mspass.html) - This is a handy tool that can recover the password from almost any messaging client including Yahoo! The only problem for me is Norton detects it as a virus (which it isn't) and deletes it.
unsakred (http://unsakred.net/) - This is from the maker of Buddy Spy. He has some very interesting comments and hacks to share.
WackyB Yahoo! Pipe (http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=DhEM2Z_d2xGysKZy1vC6Jw) - Story aggregation service created by some folks at WackyB and hosted on Yahoo! Pipes.
This is a list of various "booter" sites that I have come across. Due to the nature of these sites, they may be infrequently updated, contain viruses, and simply drop off the face of the Internet at any moment. I have tried my best to keep only the best sites but you should always use caution.
Viprasys (http://www.viprasys.org) - A massive amount of downloads and a very active forum.
Yahoo-Owned (http://www.yahoo-owned.net/Home/) - This site is associated with one of the users in the Yahoo! Coder's Cookbook forums, ph3nology. I have asked permission for a link and he has been kind enough to grant my wish. Repository of booters, mic lockers, account lockers, and much more.
Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2005 (http://www.microsoft.com/express/2005/) – 2008 is the latest release but you cannot open a pre-2008 project file without converting it first. I keep all of the versions installed so I can work with older projects without a project upgrade.
Microsoft Visual Studio 2003 (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/default.aspx) – 2003 never had an Express edition but I also keep it loaded.
Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms950417.aspx) – Visual Studio 6.0 is no longer supported (you will find strong evidence of this when trying to install in on a Vista machine) but I keep it around for the occasional Visual Basic 6 project that I need to look at. If you are still programming in Visual Basic 6 then you should seriously consider switching.
VMWare Workstation (http://www.vmware.com/) – There is nothing like having a separate machine beside you when you are trying figure out a protocol or debug a program. An arguably better solution is to have a virtual machine running within your own operating system. I use VMWare Workstation to test my programs on different operating systems, isolate suspicious code, and to run separate instances of Messenger for protocol debugging. VMWare Workstation is not free but a great investment.
Wireshark (http://www.wireshark.org/) – Wireshark is the premier open source packet capturing utility for Linux, Mac, and Windows. Wireshark takes some time to learn but there is nothing else like it and a must have for any protocol analysis.
Fiddler (http://www.fiddlertool.com/) – Fiddler is a HTTP/HTTPS capturing utility similar to Wireshark but only captures web traffic and only captures Internet Explorer Internet API calls. Fiddler is very handy when capturing Yahoo! web pages because you can target POST strings and documents very quickly. An unexpected side effect of Fiddler’s IE hooks is the ability to capture traffic from any Visual Studio project. Fiddler does capture https traffic but you should configure it according to http://www.fiddlertool.com/Fiddler/help/httpsdecryption.asp for the best results.
Adobe Dreamweaver (http://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver/) – I use Adobe Dreamweaver for the ycoderscookbook.com site but it is also a very valuable programming tool. An effective way to understand a web page capture is to capture it in either Fiddler or Wireshark and then paste the HTML into a WYSIWYG editor such as Dreamweaver. I used to use Microsoft FrontPage but it is now obsolete and I prefer the better CSS capabilities in Adobe Dreamweaver.
Winspector (http://www.windows-spy.com/) – This is a more powerful version of the spy++ application that shipped with Visual Studio 6. It is not made by Microsoft but you will instantly recognize the similarities to spy++. Winspector shows the class, window title, and a whole slew of other programming properties of any window on the Desktop. I used Winspector extensively while programming YCC Cam Cap.
Web Design Group(http://www.htmlhelp.com/reference/css/) - One of my great helps as I waded into the murky waters of CSS.
SecurityFocus (http://www.securityfocus.com/) - SecurityFocus keeps an updated list of security related articles and a list of vulnerabilities.
Microsoft Security Bulletin (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/current.aspx) - Get the latest Microsoft security bulletin releases
SecLists (http://seclists.org/) - Security mailing list archive hosted by insecure.org, the makers of NMAP. This pages contains links to all the major security mailing lists. All the new exploits, bugs, etc. hit this list before anywhere else.
darkReading (http://www.darkreading.com/) - Security news.
Tor (http://tor.eff.org/) - An anonymous Internet communication system. Tor uses second generation onion routers to create a stealthy internet connection. Tor is sponsored by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
Proxy Switcher (http://www.proxyswitcher.com/) - One of the better proxy scanner programs on the market.
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) (http://www.eff.org/) - The premiere organization fighting for freedom on the internet. EFF has many worthy projects like killing the Patriot Act.
Avast! (http://www.avast.com/) – Free to non-businesses antivirus that works well. I have been using in on all of my machines for years and is much better on resources than Norton or McAfee.
Sunbelt Personal Firewall (http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/home-home-office/sunbelt-personal-firewall/) – This firewall is a somewhat free firewall that I use. It has a trial that runs out after 30 days but the remaining functionality is more than enough for me. I used to use ZoneAlarm free but had a nasty problem under Vista and will never recommend it again.
WinRAR (http://www.rarlab.com/) – The only archive (.zip, .rar, and any other format you can think of) utility.
TrueCrypt (http://www.truecrypt.org/) – Open source encryption software that allows you to put unbreakable encryption on a container or your entire operating system.
Process Explorer (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx) – A much more powerful version of the Window’s Task Manager.
SpyBot (http://www.safer-networking.org/index2.html) – If you don’t know what it is then you need to get it right now!
Filezilla (http://filezilla-project.org/) – The best and free FTP client.
allSnap (http://ivanheckman.com/allsnap/) – A great free utility that will make the windows on your desktop snap together and to the edge of the screen.
VLC Media Player (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/) – This is a media player that will play just about anything you throw at it.
SpaceMonger (http://www.sixty-five.cc/sm/v1x.php) – A free utility that lets you visualize the contents of your hard drive by drawing squares that are directly proportional to the size of the files on it. You can quickly see where your 500 Gb went by seeing the 200 Gb of movies that you forgot about.
Carbonite (http://www.carbonite.com/) – An online backup utility. I pay for this on a yearly basis and I haven’t had to use it but the reason that I started using it is because I wish I had it after a hard drive failure.
Slashdot (http://slashdot.org/) - /. Is the latest geek news.
techdirt (http://www.techdirt.com/) - Critical commentary about current events.
XKCD (http://xkcd.com/) - Funniest stuff on the planet.
