5 Tools That Every Network Administrator Should Have

Every network administrator has their own set of tools that they like to use

on a daily basis to help them do their job. Here I list 5 tools I like most.

Network Analyzer - There

are actually to sniffer applications that I keep in my toolbox, WireShark and Capsa Network Analyzer. Each program can

satisfy my different needs,the difference is that Wireshark has more functionality when it comes

to filters. But Capsa Network Analyzer, from my point of view, is the user interface. It presents

the data in an extremely easy-to-read way, such that you don’t need to be a hard-core network

engineer to see what’s happening. and the pretty graphs will make me happy.

PuTTY - PuTTY is a very versatile telnet application for use when you spend a

lot of your day working on Cisco equipment. PuTTY allows a number of different ways to connect to

a piece of equipment including Raw, Telnet, Rlogin, SSH, and with the newest version of PuTTY

Serial connection. The newest Serial option becomes very handy for network administrators since

HyperTerm is no longer available with Windows Vista and you still need a serial connection for

new routers and switches. PuTTY is also very customizable and can be run from a USB drive without

installing anything onto the computer.

PumpKIN - PumpKIN is a free FTP server program that you can download and use

to host your computer as an FTP server. I use this program main for transferring Cisco images

back and forth from the switch or router to my computer. This program become very valuable when

you have a switch or router down that you need to get back up quick.

MAC Scanner Pro - Colasoft MAC Scanner Pro has some advanced features,apart from scanning MAC

addresses and IP addresses, the most pratical feature is that it allows users to export or print

the scanning results.

NetStumbler - NetStumbler was one of the first "Wardriving"

programs you could get to pick up other people's wireless networks. I use this tool on a regular

basis for the opposite reason, I want to be able to check for rouge access points on my network.

I simply use this little tool and walk around all of my offices and see what wireless devices pop

up. I have found a couple of employees who wanted to work out side or away from their office and

added a wireless AP so they could.

So those are 5 tools I believe every network administrator should have in their toolkit. For

their ease of use, small size, and versatility they made my top 5 tools.

5 Things Our IT Department had to skip

In last blog, we have talked about the 5 items our IT department must do even in the big recession, in addition to the things we can't do without, there are many more things we had to skip. We are not exactly happy to stop doing these things but desperate times cry for desperate measures and since these activities are something we can do without we had to either quit them, or drastically reduce them:

• No purchases of new hardware. Though it is not precise to say that we haven't bought a single piece of hardware in the last year, we have definitely cut hardware spendings. For the time being we do not plan to make major hardware purchases.

• Capital expenditures. Capital expenditures are another budget item we had to drastically shrink. We had schedules projects but the current economic situation made us have second thoughts and now capital expenditures are on hold.

• Software that is nice to have but we can do without it. Similarly to hardware and capital expenditures, some major software expenses had to be cut. Yes, there are many products, for instance accounting, HR, or ERP modules, which are great to have but we'll go for them when the economic outlook is less gloomy.

• Standardization. You know that IT people generally hate when they have to deal with bureaucracy and standardization, so if there is an item, we are happy to skip, this is standardization. More or less we skipped all standardization-related activities except those, that are related to regulations compliance. Standardization is put on hold, especially if it requires investment or other resources.

• No infrastructure upgrades. We are not exactly happy about this one but since there are more important items we can't skip, we had to significantly reduce the planned network upgrades. Some of the projects in this area are put on hold, while others are canceled.

It wasn't easy to decide what to skip and what to keep but when times are tough, it is not possible to pretend that everything is OK and go on as planned. We hope that we are right in our choices and time will show if we did wise choices or not.

James Ackland is Author of this article from www.Colasoft.com.

About Colasoft Co., Ltd.
Ever since 2001, Colasoft has been dedicated in providing all-in-one and easy-to-use network sniffer software for network administrators and IT managers to monitor network activities, analyze network performance, enhance network security, and troubleshoot network problems. Up to now, more than 5000 customers in over 70 countries trust the flagship product – Colasoft Network Sniffer as their network monitoring and troubleshooting solution. Colasoft also offers four free network utilities: Colasoft Packet Builder, Colasoft Packet Player, Colasoft MAC Scanner, and Colasoft Ping Tool. Learn more about Colasoft and its solutions, please visit http://www.colasoft.com/.