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Ron Barrett

Netinfo: 15 network tools wrapped into one supercharged utility

By Ron Barrett on Wed, 11/26/08 - 12:17pm.
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Checking on Network bottlenecks is usually done by a common set of tools. Of course any of these tools are built in to the operating systems. However, they are commonly used in a command line format with zero or limited reporting capabilities. These tools are often run one at a time as well. So what if you could use these tools and even see the results all in the same workspace.

Netinfo provides the answer putting together a collection of 15 common network tools that can help you analyze potential network issues or provide help in getting answers on where the trouble lies.

Netinfo includes the following tools in one package:

  • Local Info – get the systems IP & MAC address
  • Connections - get local TCP/IP connections and their foreign connection IP address
  • Ping - verify network connectivity to another IP address
  • Trace – verify a list of routers between your system and the destination system
  • Lookup - perform forward and reverse DNS lookup queries
  • Finger - Displays information about users currently logged on to a specified server
  • Daytime - get the local time of day for any remote host
  • Time – get the time from a remote time server and synchronize with your system
  • Quote - view quotations from a remote Quote server
  • HTML – get the HTML header code and the page data for any Web page address
  • Scanner - Scans for host names for a particular range of IP addresses
  • Services - Lists the available network services (HTTP, Telnet, DNS, SMTP, and so on) for a particular host.
  • E-mail - Allows you to verify any e-mail address
  • Web Center - Displays available online tools, how-tos, tips, and news

Netinfo lets you multitask and use several tools at once. It works on all Windows platforms from Windows 95 – Windows Server 2008. It features an easy to use interface and is relatively inexpensive. You can get a free demo version of Netinfo at http://netinfo.tsarfin.com/netinfo/download.html

Or save $40 and use the command line

0
By jkirby (not verified) on Tue, 12/02/2008 - 10:07am.

All of this can be done from any unix-like command line and has come free with every such system for decades. If you need GUI, there's the free Network Utility that has shipped on every OSX system, also for over a decade. Did I mention it's also free and not $39.95!

If you have to use windows there's Cygwin, Crossover, VirtualBox, ESXi, or any number of windows shell command extension tools.

Sad, really.

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About A Better Windows World

Ron Barrett is president of RARE-TECH, an IT Training and consulting company. He has been a technology professional for over a decade, working for several major financial firms and dotcoms. Barrett is a specialist in network infrastructure, security and IT management.

He is a co-author of The Administrator's Guide to Microsoft Office 2007 Servers, How to Cheat at Administering Office Communications Server 2007, and the Real MCTS/MCITP Exam 620 Preparation Kit and has been a contributor to Windows 2000 Enterprise Storage Solutions and Exam Cram �70-244-Supporting & Maintaining NT Server 4.

He has also contributed to several industry magazines and was featured in the book Tricks of the Windows Vista Masters. He has worked for Microsoft writing research and analysis documents for Windows Server 2008, Windows HPC, and PerformancePoint Server 2007. He has also created screencasts on Windows Server 2008 Administration for Linux Admins.