I always snipe manually - I use two tabs on Firefox, one with my bid entered and ready to go, the other, watching the clock. This way you can reliably hit the last 3-4 secs. I got outbid by a guy the other day, who had feedback of over 100, and I got an email from him saying "I'd been winning that all week, and then you had to try to steal it in the last seconds? You bloody idiot. Now I have to pay twice as much for it!". I was astonished. He still got a bargain.

Anyway, I didn't know there were sniping programmes that were free. Recently, I've missed out on several things because I couldn't be there at the end. That said, in the last two days, I've got cycling shoes for £2.20 and a bike for £11.50, even though I was out at the time.