Got any of your own that you prefer? Share them in the comments!
Most of these are tools that I use daily at my job.
IT System Inventory and Monitoring
Spiceworks - Windows based. Smooth graphics, easy to use, great support (review)
Open-Audit - (used to be called 'Winventory') Windows or Linux based. Great because you can easily customize it, and it can do some things Spiceworks cannot...namely adding custom software entries based upon your own criteria (review)
Remote Desktop/ControlRoyal TS - Support for RDP only, but is VERY fast and easy to use. This is very well put together. Revision 1.5 is the last freeware version (review)
Terminals - Features support for RDP, VNC, ICA, Telnet, SSH, VMRC and RAS! This one is gaining favor with me :)
Logmein - Remote control any PC over the Internet without remote prompting (logmein)
Crossloop - Easily remote control a non-technical user's computer by installing a single app and having them share their remote access code (review)
TCP/IP Tools
SoftPerfect Network Scanner - Scan a subnet, IP range, or a single IP for details about ping stats, open shares, printers, open ports, SNMP info, etc. Also features an easy right-click ability to connect to the PC via HTTP, telnet or Windows Explorer (review)
WireShark - Packet sniffer/monitor/network protocol analyzer.
Putty - secure telnet to your network devices. Customizable and small.
IReasoning MIB Browser - Use this to browse the various SNMP properties of your network devices. Great if you are trying to figure out that OID for monitoring purposes.
Random network toolsNet Tools - a HUGE collection of a variety of network tools...whois, finger, encrypt files, password generator...the list goes on, and on, and on... :)
Productivity
Synergy - Seamlessly work on two computers at once with one keyboard and mouse (review)
File transfer/FTPFilezilla - Constantly improved FTP program, easy to use, more features than some paid programs. Features a server program as well.
WinSCP - Also easy to use, WinSCP features a couple additional secure-transfer options that FileZilla does not.
Active Directory/Windows NetworkingAD Explorer - Quickly browse and view or edit your AD LDAP structure.
ADRestore - Undelete tombstoned AD objects.
AccessEnum - Quickly export file/folder permissions with little work on your part (review)SpecOps GPUpdate - A plugin to your ADUC, you can right-click a single or set of multiple computers to restart, logoff, shutdown, or force the computer to re-pull applicable group policies. New version allows remote Windows Update (review)
Netwrix Inactive Users Tracker - List users that haven't logged on for x days, email a report (review)OldCmp * - Find, report and disable old computer or user accounts. Very powerful.
Text editor
PSPad - Syntax highlighting, endless features, HTML cleanup and much more (review)
Other toolsBareTail * - Monitor logfiles in real-time, following the last logged entries as they process (review)
Microsoft Scriptomatic 2.0 - Get WMI information from remote or local computers...a must have if you write VBScript, JScript, or Perl based system administration scripts.
Universal Extractor - Extract contents from just about any kind of file, setup executables, Zip/Rar (and others)...very handy!
AutoIT - VERY quickly and easily write automation scripts, small programs and routines. Lots of built-in macros (review)
Spotlight on Windows - View a dashboard of system-specific info, complete with red/yellow/green highlights to help you drill down to problem areas quickly (review)
See my 'Home Computer Freeware List' for more general programs...(i.e. zip archiving, CD/DVD burning, etc.)Got any more? Share them in the comments!
16 comments:
I use Angry IP Scanner (http://www.angryziber.com/w/Home), tho not used any of the IP tools you've got listed. Will give them a go when I get back to the office.
I often use pstools from sysinternals, dumpsec (For AD cleanup) among others.
-EDP
A few you might want to add to the list..
Lansweeper - http://www.lansweeper.com/
Kinda like spiceworks/openaudit but lightweight. Works well, basic.
Kwok - http://www.kwoksys.com/
I use this as a central repository for information. Used to have .xls, .doc, .pdf etc files scattered all over. Works well once you figure out AD auth.
SysInternals Utils - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx
Can't live without these..
Excellent post!
Heres some of the tools I use:
Log Me In Rescue
ERD Commander disk
Unknown devices
Belarc advisor
TRid http://mark0.net/onlinetrid.aspx
Exchange Best practice analyzer
Great post!
I second Lansweeper (http://www.lansweeper.com/). It doesn't try to do everything, it just does what it's supposed to very well (software/hardware inventory). Spiceworks seems to be getting all the love.
Sysinternals Suite (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/0e18b180-9b7a-4c49-8120-c47c5a693683.aspx)
Zenoss Core (http://www.zenoss.com/) for network monitoring. Definitely has a steep learning curve but the virtual appliance makes it more accessible.
Also useful, WinDirStat (http://windirstat.info/), Unlocker (http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/)
Let's not forget ImageX (http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/a8848521-b3ca-4c6c-81f0-6954f671cfe01033.mspx?mfr=true) for imaging, replaced Ghost for me.
Oh yeah, few more..
Notepad++
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
Use this daily, tabbed editing, syntax highlighting
WinMerge
http://winmerge.org/
Handy for comparing files, directories.
Hi ROb,
It's a long time since I wrote a line to u.. but it's always a good time spending the reading of your blog By the way, I worked a little, little bit on MAnagePC
http://www.managepc.net and it's really simple, nice with some interesting features..
Have a lokk on it.
Red Erik
nice article. thanks for sharing.
ManagePC http://managepc.net is great for finding out what's installed where and mRemote http://mremote.org is the best connection manager (rdp, vnc, ica ...) by a miles
Lots of good tools. Really have to recommend opsview - http://www.opsview.org to monitor you network and devices. Based on the nagios backend its a very powerful monitoring tool that can be distributed across a number of sites and slave servers report into a master in your DC or Head Office.
Scite is a nice text editor (personal preference is the SCITE CVS - http://amip.tools-for.net/SciTE-CVS.exe
Sysinternals tools have been mentioed a lot but two that I find most useful are AutoRuns (http://live.sysinternals.com/autoruns.exe) to remove unwanted startup items and psexec (http://live.sysinternals.com/psexec.exe) is very useful if you want to kill off some sessions on a Win2k server you need access to.
Personally I would also recommend from a security standpoint, Untangle and or Astaro. Both are more then just a router, gateway etc and I couldn't trust my network without them!
A good Synergy alternative: Input Director http://www.inputdirector.com. It seems to be a little easier to setup and configure and it's still actively being updated
nmap, allows you to find devices on the network and to scan for open ports.
my other favorite tools has already been listed. :-)
I found LogMeIn to be a very confusing remote access software program, and the help center was very frustrating. Have you tried other applications for contractors that you liked?
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