Just had a comment on a post where the original link was out of date (well, it was two years old). Rather than try to remember the source of the software that was named in the broken link I just went to the 'WayBack Machine' of web archives at
http://www.archive.org/web/web.php. I typed in the broken link (complete with parameters), and there was the original article with the key information I required.
It doesn't always work but it's a great resource when you're running out of options.