Other tabs of interest include the Connections tab that is displaying all open connections including the remote IP address, the local port and the program that is using that connection. There is also an option to display UDP listeners, remote computer names and internal connections.

The traffic tab will display traffic statistics of each network adapter in realtime including incoming and outgoing bytes, errors and load. The four last tabs display detailed IP, TCP, UDP and ICMP stats. These are excellent for in depth information about the computer network but usually not that useful to most users.

The information can be copied to the Windows clipboard or saved to disk in a text file. Users who are interested in an excellent lan monitor can find additional information and downloads at the website of the developer of the program.

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Networx offers several network and bandwidth related tools in its interface. It will place an icon in the Windows system tray after download that will open a bandwidth monitor on left-click and the context menu with all the available modules on a right-click.

The bandwidth monitor will display useful information about the bandwidth consumption of the computer system including daily, weekly and monthly reports, an overview of today’s bandwidth consumption, custom bandwidth reports, dial up sessions and hourly rates. Data can be exported and backed up among other things. This module gives the system administrator a quick overview of the bandwidth consumption of the computer system.

Networx offers additional modules that aid in the network monitoring process. This includes a speedmeter which can measure the network’s (or network devices) throughput. The tool is basically a speed test that will monitor the current network traffic and display the current, average and maximum transfer rates.

It is furthermore possible to setup a bandwidth quota and trigger alerts if 80% of that quota has been used. It is also possible to configure the quota to only cover upload or download bandwidth and set it to be a daily, weekly or monthly quota.

Ping, traceroute and netstat commands are available from the context menu of the network monitoring software as well. The options are quite extensive and allow the user to select an individual networking adapter to be monitored, configure notifications or define on and off peak hours.

Networx might not be the most sophisticated network monitoring software but it proves to be a nice solution for single computer systems.

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Inexperienced computer users on the other hand might want to take a look at the Simple Static IP networking tool which allows them to set a static IP address with a few clicks of the mouse button.

A user who wants to set a static IP address needs to select the network adapter from the pull down menu on top of the application’s interface. Simple Static IP will then display the current settings of the network adapter including the assigned IP address, subnet, gateway and DNS server.

A click on Enable Static IP will configure a static IP address for the selected network adapter. It is possible to keep the DNS settings or use the router or the Open DNS servers as the dns server for the network adapter. It is also possible to randomize the static IP address by clicking on the Randomize New IP button in the interface.

Simple Static IP is compatible with the following Microsoft operating systems: Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 2008.

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The information are divided into tabs located at the top of the interface which leads information about network adapters, TCP / UDP statistics, IP statistics, ICMP statistics and general information.

Each tab contains in depth information. The network adapters tab for example lists dns servers, the maximum transmission unit, the network adapter name, hardware address, IP addresses, default gateways and more than 20 additional information about each network adapter.

Adapter Watch comes with the usual Nirsoft options to export the network adapter information as HTML reports. Additional options include changing the auto refresh rate, displaying data sizes in bits or bytes and the ability to release and renew IP addresses for selected network adapters.

The computer program is compatible with all Microsoft NT operating systems since Windows 2000 including Windows XP and Windows Vista. They are said to run under Windows 9x as well but some information about the network adapters might be displayed incorrectly there.

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The Mac Address Changer might also be useful to change the Mac address regularly to avoid identification. After starting the software program it displays the connected network adapters in a pull down list on top. It provides the means to generate a new random mac address for the selected network adapter or enter one manually.

It is also possible to pick a manufacturer from another pull down list to add the manufacturers code at the beginning of the Mac address. The last six digits are 123456 which can be replaced with a combination of the user’s choosing.

The Mac address changing software program provides access to advanced options which are available by clicking on the IP Extras Features link in the main interface.

Those are best kept alone by inexperienced users as they can cause networking problems easily if changed to the wrong or incompatible values.

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In this article I am going to introduce you to the system-config-network tool that ships with the Fedora distribution. The specifics of my particular installation are:

• Fedora 10
• GNOME 2.24.3

Generally speaking networking in Linux is a no brainer. Especially when your machine receives its IP address via DHCP, it’s almost always just “plug and play”.? There are, of course, times when you have to configure your machine manually to use a static IP address. For this the system-config-network tool comes in very handy.

Starting the Tool

From the GNOME desktop go to the System menu and click on the Administration sub-menu. From there click on the Network entry (not the Network Device Control) to start up the tool. You will need the root password to start (and use) this tool.

system-config-network

As you can see (in the image to the left) the tool has a very user-friendly interface.? there are four main sections:

• Devices: This lists the devices associated with physical hardware on your machine.
• Hardware: this lists the actual networking hardware on your machine.
• DNS: The hostname and DNS servers needed for your network.
• Hosts: This allows you to add entries to the hostname routing table (/etc/hosts).

Configuring a New Device

Device Type

The first thing you need to do is to click the New button to begin the device setup wizard.

You will have six different types of devices to choose from. Most likely you will be configuring an Ethernet or a Wireless connection.

Once you have selected the type click the Forward button.

Let’s configure an Ethernet connection.

Which Hardware?

If your particular network card isn’t listed then most likely drivers haven’t been installed on your machine. Fortunately Linux has reached a point where most network cards are supported.

Select the card you want to configure and click the Forward button to continue on with your network configuration.

Network Settings

The next step is to actually configure the settings for your hardware. In this example a Static IP address is to be configured.

Enter in all of the relavent information for your network configuration.

Once you have completed this configuration click the Forward button to move on. The next screen only serves to review the information you have configured. Once you have reached that window, if the information is correct, click Apply to complete the setup of your network device.

You are probably asking yourself “Where is the DNS configuration?” Good question. The answer is simple. From the main window click on the DNS tab to reveal the location of DNS information for your network. Most likely it’s not there yet. On that tab you can edit the hostname of the machine and the primary, secondary, and tertiary DNS addresses. You will notice a lack of a Save button on this tab. In order to save this information you have to go to the File menu and click the Save entry.

Activate Your Interface

Go back to the main window and click on the Devices tab. Now select the interface you want to activate and click the Activate button to start the device. If you do not have access to the Activate button that means you have to go back to the devices tab, select the hardware you want to be able to activate, and click the Edit button.What you need to do is to click the “Allow All Users To Enable and Disable The Device” entry. Now save the changes (File | Save) and go back to Activate the device.

Your network device should now be up and running!

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Free IP Switcher [via Tech Malaya] is the perfect tool for this situation. It offers a one click change of the network settings that require no reboot. Probably the fastest solution if you connect to different networks regularly.

What I really like is the feature to import the current network settings which spares you from the hassle to add them to the IP Changer as well. Different IP settings are available in tabs in the program and it only takes two clicks to activate another configuration.

The program offers several additional settings that can be added if needed besides the obvious ones like IP, DNS and Proxy. The Computer Name and the Workgroup can be changed as well as the default printer of the system. Last but not least it is possible to set the DNS Domain and a Wins Server.

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