Find Out the Top Network Administrator Tools

Packet Sniffers/Network Protocol Analyzer

With packet sniffers and network protocol analyzers, you can monitor network activity, analyze network performance, enhance network security, and troubleshoot network issues.

1, Colasoft Packet Sniffer - http://www.colasoft.com/ Colasoft Capsa performs real-time packet capturing, 24/7 network monitoring, advanced protocol analyzing, in-depth packet decoding, and automatic expert diagnosing. It allows you to get a clear view of the complex network, conduct packet level analysis, and troubleshoot network problems.
2, Ethereal – http://www.ethereal.com/
3, EtterCap – http://ettercap.sourceforge.net/
4, Snort – http://www.snort.org/
5, WinDump / TCPDump - http://www.tcpdump.org/wpcap.html/
6, DSniff – http://naughty.monkey.org/~dugsong/dsniff/

Scanning Tools
1, Nmap – http://www.nmap.org/
Nmap is a port scanner. A port scanner scans for open ports, such as 80 (http) or 25 (SMTP)

2, Sam Spade – www.samspade.org/
Sam Spade is a multi network query tool with many extra built in utilities, even a tool for spam. It includes utilities such as ping, whois, traceroute, and finger

3, NetScanTools Pro ($199) –http://www.netscantools.com/nstmain.html
NetScanTools Pro Edition is an integrated collection of internet information gathering utilities for Windows Vista/2008/2003/XP/2000. Use it to research IP addresses, hostnames, domain names, email addresses, URLs automatically** or with manual tools.

4, SuperScan – http://www.foundstone.com/
SuperScan has the primary purpose of scanning an IP range. It supports extremely fast Host Discovery lookups as well as TCP and UDP port scans thanks to its multi-threaded and asynchronous techniques.

UserManagement - http://www.tools4ever.com/
Complete user account management featuring advanced user creation, modification, removal, mass creation/removal and delegation of administrative tasks. The UserManagemeNT Suite consists of three modules, Professional, Import and Delegation. These modules can operate independently or seamlessly integrated with each other.

AdminMagic - http://www.tools4ever.com/
Full control: Using AdminMagic, you can take over and control users' desktops from your own workstation. Featuring complete mouse and keyboard emulation, you can execute programs, login/logoff, modify device drivers and reboot all from a central location. You can also take screenshots of remote desktops and store/print them for later use. Remote users will not be interrupted and can continue working as they always do.

Advanced System Optimizer - http://www.systweak.com/
Advanced System Optimizer is a system tweaking suite that includes around 30 tools to improve and tweak your PC's performance. It offers an attractive and easy to use interface that organizes all tasks into categories and provides graphical statistics whenever possible. The tools include junk file cleaner, memory optimizer, system information, system files backup, file encryption, safe uninstaller, duplicate file finder, taskbar manager and much more. Advanced System Optimizer also includes an Internet tracks eraser with cookie manager and secure deletion, and even a desktop sticky notes application. Overall, a great bundle that offers a wide range of system tools with extra benefits that are hardly ever found.

Monitor Your Network Traffic with Colasoft Packet Sniffer

Importance of Network Monitoring

Reading network traffic is essential for system administrators, network engineers, and security analysts. At some point there will be a need to read the network traffic directly instead of monitoring application level details. Examples of situations that might require monitoring network traffic are, auditing network security, debugging network configurations, and analyzing usage patterns. For this task we use network monitoring software, or packet sniffers, that sniff the traffic your computer is able to see on the network. What exactly your computer can see really depends on how the network is laid out, but the easiest way to figure out what it can see is just start sniffing.

The most common tool to do the job is readily available. One of the most popular and easy – to - use tool for monitoring network traffic is Colasoft Packet Sniffer.

How to Monitor Network Traffic

As a packet sniffer, Capsa make it easy for us to monitor and analyze network traffic in its intuitive and information-rich tab views. With Capsa's network traffic monitor feature, we can quickly identify network bottleneck and detect network abnormities. This article is to discuss how we can Monitor Network Traffic with Capsa's network traffic monitor feature.

1, Monitor Network Traffic in "Summary"
tab

"Summary" is a view that provides general information of the entire network or the selected node in the "Explorer". In "Summary" we can get a quick view of the total traffic, real-time traffic, broadcast traffic, multicast traffic and so on. When we switch among the node from the explorer, corresponding traffic information will be provided.

(pic 1. monitor-network-traffic-in-summary)

2, Monitor Network Traffic in "Endpoints" tab

In "Endpoints" view, we can Monitor Network Traffic information of each node, both local and remote. With its easy sorting feature we can easily find out which host is generating or has generated the largest traffic.

(pic 2. monitor-network-traffic-in-endpoints)

3, Monitor Network Traffic in "Protocols" tab

"Protocols" view will list all protocols applied in network transmission. In "Protocols" view we can Monitor Network Traffic by each protocol. By analyzing network traffic by protocol, we can understand what applications are using the network bandwidth, for example "http" protocol stands for website browsing, "pop3" stands for email, etc.

(pic 3. monitor-network-traffic-by-protocol)

4, Monitor Network Traffic in "Conversations" tab

In "Conversations" tab we can Monitor Network Traffic by each conversation and the figure out which conversation has generated the largest network traffic.

(pic 4. monitor-network-traffic-by-conversation)

5, Monitor Network Traffic in "Matrix" tab

"Matrix" is a view that visualizes all network connections and traffic details in one single graph. The weight of the lines between the nodes indicates the traffic volume and the color indicates the status. As we move the cursor on a specific node, network traffic details of the node will be provided.

(pic 5. monitor-network-traffic-in-Matrix)

6,Monitor Network Traffic in "Graphs" tab

If we want to get a trend chart of the network traffic, then we need to use the "Graphs" tab. "Graphs" view allows us view network statistics dynamically in different chart types, such as ling chart, bar chart, and pie chart. By selecting "Utilization" we get a real-time traffic trend chart.

(pic 6. monitor-network-traffic-in-graphs)

As we can see, with Capsa we can not only Monitor Network Traffic in convenience, but also analyze network traffic in deferent levels, thus enables us quickly and efficiently detect network abnormities and troubleshoot network problems.