Today, I am sharing the some tiny but important applications from my networking Apps folder. These are very handy tools for a Network Administrator. I hope you will enjoy this article and found informative. Although, some of products are licensed:(, but we have to respectful to anti-piracy laws. You can find trial versions or torrents of these licensed products for testing and education purposes. Here is short reviews and features imitates from their websites.
SoftPerfect Network Scanner
SoftPerfect Network Scanner is a free multi-threaded IP, NetBIOS and SNMP scanner with a modern interface and many advanced features. It is intended for both system administrators and general users interested in computer security. The program pings computers, scans for listening TCP/UDP ports and displays which types of resources are shared on the network (including system and hidden).
In addition, it allows you to mount shared folders as network drives, browse them using Windows Explorer, filter the results list and more. SoftPerfect Network Scanner can also check for a user-defined port and report back if one is open. It can also resolve host names and auto-detect your local and external IP range. It supports remote shutdown and Wake-On-LAN.
Key Features
- Pings computers and displays those alive.
- Detects hardware MAC-addresses, even across routers.
- Detects hidden shared folders and writable ones.
- Detects your internal and external IP addresses.
- Scans for listening TCP ports, some UDP and SNMP services.
- Retrieves currently logged-on users, configured user accounts, uptime, etc.
- You can mount and explore network resources.
- Can launch external third party applications.
- Exports results to HTML, XML, CSV and TXT
- Supports Wake-On-LAN, remote shutdown and sending network messages.
- Retrieves potentially any information via WMI.
- Retrieves information from remote registry, file system and service manager.
- It is absolutely free, requires no installation, and does not contain any adware/spyware/malware.
PuTTY
PuTTY is an SSH and telnet client, developed originally by Simon Tatham for the Windows platform. PuTTY is open source software that is available with source code and is developed and supported by a group of volunteers.
You can download PuTTY here.
GFI LAN Guard Network Security Scanner
GFI LanGuard Network Security Scanner is a network security and vulnerability scanner used by small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) all over the world. GFI LanGuard provides a complete network security overview with minimal administrative effort, while also providing remedial action through its patch management features. Easy to set up and use, GFI LanGuard acts as a virtual consultant to give you a complete picture of your network set-up, provide risk analysis and help you to maintain a secure and compliant network state faster and more effectively. GFI LanGuard assists you in patch management, vulnerability assessment, network and software auditing, asset inventory, change management, risk analysis and compliance.
Its complete features you can found here on product’s web site, being license and paid software you can find its pricing here. If you want to test it, you can find its trial version here.
Net Monitor for Employees Monitoring
Net Monitor for Employees Professional allows you to see screens of computers connected to the network. This way you can observe what your employees are doing. Additionally, you have the ability to take control of a remote computer by controlling the mouse and keyboard. You can record remote computers screens even when you are not monitoring them. When your employees need instructions, you can show them your desktop. To increase your efficiency the console now include several tools that can be executed on all or just selected remote computers. When you need attention you can send a message to employees and/or lock the remote computer.
Features:
- Displaying a live picture of a remote computer.
- You can take control of a remote computer by controlling its mouse and keyboard.
- More remote screens can be displayed in a table.
- Computers can be organized in computer groups (e.g. classrooms)
- A remote screen can be zoomed to an actual size.
- The name of the connected user is displayed.
- Record remote computers screens to AVI files.
- Show your desktop to students
- Power off, restart, hibernate, suspend remote computers
- Log off desktop users
- Lock workstation
- Control screensaver
- Block internet
- Multi-monitor support
- Control over running processes
- You can lock selected remote computers
- You can display a message on selected remote computers.
- When lower bandwidth is required, the refresh interval can be enlarged.
- Automatic connection to a remote computer is optional.
- Settings for the agent are encrypted and password protected.
- Connection to a remote computer is password protected.
- Access to monitoring the console is password protected. If more users use the same computer, different profiles and access passwords can be set.
- More monitoring consoles can be connected to the same remote computer – you can monitor your students from different locations.
- Application can optionally use encrypted communication.
- Agent can be remotely installed.
- Fast users switching is supported.
- Monitor and control thin clients (TS, RDP).
It is also licensed application but you can try it before buy. Product’s Website
PassMark WirelessMon
WirelessMon is a software tool that allows users to monitor the status of wireless WiFi adapter(s) and gather information about nearby wireless access points and hot spots in real time. WirelessMon can log the information it collects into a file, while also providing comprehensive graphing of signal level and real time IP and 802.11 WiFi statistics.
Features:
- Verify 802.11 network configuration is correct.
- Test WiFi hardware and device drivers are functioning correctly.
- Check signal levels from your local WiFi network and nearby networks.
- Help locate sources of interference to your network.
- WirelessMon supports the MetaGeek Wi-Spy (2.4i, 2.4x and DBx) useful for finding interference from non 802.11A/B/G/N devices transmitting on the same frequencies
- Scan for hot spots in your local area (wardriving)
- Create signal strength maps of an area (also known as heat maps)
- GPS support for logging and mapping signal strength
- Mapping can be performed with or without a GPS unit
- Correctly locate your wireless antenna (especially important for directional antennas).
- Verify the security settings for local access points.
- Measure network speed & throughput and view available data rates.
- Help check Wifi network coverage and range
- A feature-rich, value-for-money alternative to NetStumbler.
Its pricing are as follows:
Professional Edition: US$49.00
Standard Edition: US$24.00
You can try it for 30 days Download
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