gHacks technology news » network

Karen’s Lan Monitor

Martin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:50:41 +0000

Karen’s Lan Monitor is a lightweight Windows application that can display various information about a computer system’s network adapters and related information. The application is divided into multiple taps that display the various information. The default tab will list all available network adapters and their settings including the adapter’s speed, type, physical address and about a dozen additional settings like DHCP and WinS status.

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.

Tags: lan monitor, network, network adapter, network monitor, windows software

Network Profile Switcher

Martin — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 14:56:05 +0000

Computer users who regularly work in different locations that require specific network connection settings are used to change network settings like the network adapters IP address, gateway or DNS servers quite frequently.

The network management software Network Switcher offers a better solution to manually changing network settings. It can store multiple network profiles allowing the user to switch between network profiles easily whenever the need arises.

Each profile that is created in Network Switcher contains two network connections that contain various networking parameters including the IP address, DNS servers, the subnet mask and the default gateway. It is furthermore possible to enable the option to obtain IP addresses from DHCP servers.

Network Switcher is limited to the TCP/IP protocol and extensible through plugins. One plugin, to disable the Internet Explorer proxy, is provided by the developer of the software.

The software is Open Source and the source code is supplied with the download of the networking software.

Network Switcher requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0 and is compatible with Windows XP or newer Windows operating system.

It seems that the developer has discontinued development of the software program.

Tags: network, network connections, network profiles, network switcher, Open Source, windows software

Local Area Network Speed Test

Martin — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:56:22 +0000

Network administrators and home network users need to check the speed of the local area network during installation but also from time to time to make sure that the speed matches the expected speed of the lan. This is important for a variety of reasons including overal network performance and discovering slow network nodes that can have a impact on services.

LAN Speed Test is a portable software program to test the speed of a local area network. The program will display the name and IP address of the computer that is it running on. Tests are started with a click on the Start Test button. This will open a file browser to select a folder the data should be read from and written to. This should be on a different computer system so that the actual lan speed is tested.

The program will ask for a file size of the file that will be written and read in the second step of the lan speed test configuration. It will then write the file to the target location, clear the Windows file cache, read the file back, clear the cache a second time, delete the file and display the results of the speed test.

The results can be printed but not exported to a file. Lan Speed Test is available from the developer’s website. It is compatible with all Microsoft operating systems including Windows 7 (not sure about 64-bit though).

Lan Speed Test via Addictive Tips

Tags: lan, lan speed test, local area network, network, portable software, windows software

Control Computer Hardware And Workstations In A Computer Network

Martin — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:07:28 +0000

AdminDeviceLan is a computer software program for the computer network that can be used to control computer hardware devices and workstations. The program comes with an admin and client interface that need to be installed on the computer systems. The admin interface obviously needs to be installed on the computer of the system administrator while the client interface needs to be installed on all computers of the computer network.

The admin can then control the computer systems that run the client software and are connected in the computer network. The admin can use the interface to get an overview of all client computers that are currently connected. Basic options include issuing a ping or tracert command. The major functions on the other hand become available after clicking on the Package Work button.

This menu gives the administrator the option to enable or disable cd-rom drives, flash (read only) devices, floppy drives and flash drives. It is furthermore possible to restart a connected client computer or synchronize the time between computers. The client version of the software program uses less than three Megabytes of computer memory while running which is perfectly acceptable for a software of this kind.

Passwords can be added to the server version of the software to protect it from unauthorized access. AdminDeviceLan is definitely not the most sophisticated tool to control hardware devices in a computer network but it handles its tasks nicely.

Tags: admindevicelan, computer hardware, computer network, control hardware, network, network software, windows software

Network Monitoring Software Networx 5 Released

Martin — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 07:43:25 +0000

Our review of Networx 4 dates back to October of last year (see Network Monitoring Software NetWorx). The developer of the network monitoring software was busy between then and now and released regular updates to the monitoring software. Yesterday version 5 of Networx was released and the version bump gave us the excuse to take another look at the software program.

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.

Tags: bandwidth, bandwidth monitoring, monitor network, network, network adapter, Network Monitoring, Network Monitoring Software, networx

Network Monitor Experts Extension For Microsoft Network Monitor

Martin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:13:27 +0000

Version 3.3 of the Microsoft Network Monitor has been released a few months ago. The Network Monitor application has been designed for capturing and analysing of network traffic. The new version of Network Monitor added a few exciting features to the network monitoring software including the ability to add so called Experts – standalone applications – to the software which analyze data captured by Network Monitor.

Three Network Monitor Experts have been released so far, the last less than two weeks ago. Available are the Simple Search, Top Users and TCP Analyzer Experts. Here is a short summary of what these Experts do:

Simple Search Lets you search frames and comments for raw ASCII text case-insensitively or with regular expressions.
Top Users Lets you determine the heaviest users of network bandwidth.
TCP Analyzer This tool analyzes network traces of Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connections.

The Experts can be downloaded separately and need to be installed before they can be used. It is recommended to close the Network Monitor before installing the add-ons. The Experts become then available in the Experts menu on top of the program.

Microsoft Network Monitor is offered as a free download for 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system.

Tags: microsoft network monitor, network, network an, network analyzer, network capturing, network monitor, network monitor experts, Network Monitoring Software, windows software

Online Network Troubleshooting Analyzer Netalyzr

Martin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:42:19 +0000

Network Troubleshooting can be one of the most frustrating tasks especially for the average computer user. There is always the question where to start the troubleshooting process. The Windows operating system comes with troubleshooting wizards that usually do not help at all except for the most basic of troubles that users can run into. But problems in the form of forgetting to plug in the network cable are not as common as slow or corrupt downloads, page loading errors or Internet connection drops. Those on the other hand are much harder to come by and troubleshoot.

The ICSI Netalyzr is a new beta online network troubleshooting analyzer that can analyze various aspects of a computer’s network connection. It is made up of a Java applet that has to be executed on the user’s system. The benefits of a Java Applet are that it is system independent and that it can access and analyze the computer’s hardware and other aspects of the computer system.

The analysis will take a while and an in depth network troubleshooting report will be generated and presented to the user in the end.

The network troubleshooting report is divided into two sections. The first reports on noteworthy events and is further divided into major abnormalities and minor aberrations. The second section displays the detailed network troubleshooting report that is colored for easier access. Entries with red backgrounds describe network problems while green backgrounds display unproblematic network elements.

Each title in the report is clickable leading to a short explanation of how the tests are conducted. Related articles can be found about Network Bandwidth and Network Monitoring Software.

Tags: netalyzr, network, Network Monitoring, network troubleshooting, network troubleshooting analyzer, pc, troubleshooting

Remote Server Monitoring Software DreamSys Server Monitor

Martin — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 12:29:38 +0000

DreamSys Server Monitor, once a commercial remote server monitoring software, is now available as a free download from the developer’s homepage. The user still needs to enter registration information after installation. They are however available on the homepage without the need for registration or any other kind of data grabbing. The Server Monitor application can be used to monitor servers over a network or the Internet.

The system administrator starts by adding new servers that should be monitored to the application. Required information are a unique name, the server address and the monitoring type. Available monitoring types are TCP / IP, Ping or Services. Additional information might be required depending on the type selected. A TCP / IP monitoring for example requires a port that can be added in the same interface.

The events and notifications that can be configured are quite extensive. Events can be configured for positive and negative results. Positive results – meaning the remote server is up and running – are limited to playing a sound or running a command while negative results (server down) include the additional options to reboot the computer or start a service.

Three notification types are available. The administrator can be informed by email, message box or net message.

Specific parameters for every server can be configured in the Configuration View tab. It allows the user to change the monitoring interval, configure the connection timeout, set the mail server and enable the logging of events.

DreamSys Server Monitor can be used as a Internet or network monitoring software. It lacks some of the features of advanced monitoring applications that offer website or database monitoring but could be enough for administrators who do not need that functionality.

Tags: dreamsys server monitor, internet, network, Network Monitoring Software, remote server monitoring software, server, server monitor, Server Monitoring Software, windows software

Fing Network Discovery Software

Martin — Sat, 30 May 2009 08:45:02 +0000

The network discovery software Fing has been born out of the ashes of the much acclaimed Look@Lan network monitoring and discovery software. The project is still in an early stage and comes with a command line version for the Microsoft Windows, Linux and Apple Macintosh operating system. This might turn away users who do not like working with the command line. The interactive mode that has been build into the network discovery software on the other hand might convince them to give it a try nevertheless.

Fing can be run with a single command from the command line or started in interactive mode which basically consists of a series of questions and simple answers provided by the user. The first question for example after starting the interactive mode is about the mode the software should run in. Options are discovery, scan or infos.

Discovery: Will start the network discovery module. The user has to pick a network adapter and answer several additional questions. Fing will generate a network discovery report in the end.
Scan: Provides the means to scan a remote host, will display ports, services and firewalls running on that server.
Infos: Displays information about local and remote networks.

Fing offers a selection of output formats such as text, html or csv that can either be displayed directly in the console or saved in a file on the local computer system.

Verdict:

Fing is a fast network discovery tool for command line junkies. The export functionality and speed are excellent, a graphical user interface would be desirable nevertheless.

Tags: fing, linux software, mac software, network, network discovery, network discovery software, network monitor, remote host, server, system administrator, windows software

Network Monitoring Software Open Monitor

Martin — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:14:01 +0000

Open Monitor is an Open Source network monitoring software for the Windows operating system. It comes with the option to monitor multiple local and remote servers and notify the system administrator if services or programs are not accessible.

The main interface of the monitoring software is divided into a quick server check option at the bottom which can be used to check if services such as HTTP, FTP or POP are running on a IP or domain. The networking monitoring software will automatically display the results in the same interface. Probably more interesting than the quick check function is the option to add servers permanently to the monitoring tool.

The user needs to enter a server name which is used for identification and a server address which is usually an IP address. A list of services are preselected and will be checked unless unchecked by the user. Alerts can be enabled or disabled in the same interface as well. These do have to be configured separately and can inform the user by email, screen message, executing a program or playing a sound.

There is also the possibility to add http url checks next to the default services that can be monitored by Open Monitor. This allows a user to specify an url, port, alerts and words that the page should include or exclude. This can be used for example to verify that a page is up by checking for a word on that page that is always appearing. Can also be used to run scripts that output a simple message in the end, e.g. a database check that is displaying ok if the database is up and running.

Open Monitor is a straightforward, easy to use, network monitoring software that can monitor popular services. Alternative programs are the server monitoring software IT Service View, Newt, the website monitoring software SiteMonitor or the Microsoft Network Monitor.

Tags: monitoring software, network, network monitor, Network Monitoring Software, network software, open monitor, Open Source, server monitor, server monitoring, windows software

Display Information About Network Adapters

Martin — Mon, 25 May 2009 10:52:28 +0000

Adapter Watch is a portable software program that can display information about all physical and virtual network adapters that are installed on a computer system. The computer program can be started right after downloading and unpacking it to the computer system. It will scan the computer system for connected network adapters and display in depth information about each of them.

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.

Tags: adapter watch, network, network adapter, network adapters, nirsoft, portable software, windows software

Anonymous VPN Announced By Pirate Bay

Martin — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:55:14 +0000

The guys operating the popular Bittorrent tracker called The Pirate Bay have announced a new anonymous VPN (virtual private network) service named ipredator mocking the new Swedish anti-piracy legislation Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (ipred). Users from all over the world can use the virtual private network to stay anonymous while connected to the Internet. The service itself is currently in beta and invite only. It is expected to be released to the public before April 1st.

Only a handful of additional information are known about the service at this time. It is expected to cost about $5 per month which is a more than acceptable price considering the bandwidth requirements to run such a networking service. They state that they do not log traffic data of any kind which would make it impossible to identify the connections made by a user of the service in case of a server seizure.

It is very likely that the new service will come under heavy traffic the minute it becomes public. Similar services such as Relakks were not able to cope with the massive signups after they have gone public.

Interested users can enter their email address to be informed when the anonymous virtual private networking service goes public.

Tags: anonymous, anonymous internet, anonymous vpn, ipredator, network, relakks, the pirate bay, virtual network, virtual private network, vpn

Mac Address Changer

Martin — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 14:17:03 +0000

Rarst ran a little review of the MAC address changing software program Mac MakeUp today. If you have not checked out his website you might wanna do so as he constantly covers interesting tools and services there. Back to the software program. Mac MakeUp is a portable software for the Windows operating system that can change the Mac address of a network adapter. The Mac address can be described as a parameter that can be used to identify network adapters. You might have heard about them in the context of wireless networks and Mac address spoofing.

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.

Tags: mac address, mac address change, mac address changer, mac makeup, network, network adapter, portable software, windows software

Network Monitoring Software Newt

Martin — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 18:02:01 +0000

Newt is a network monitoring software similar to the previously mentioned network monitoring software Networx or Look@Lan. The network monitor uses a multithreaded scanning engine to scan all remote computers and domains to retrieve information about them. The information itself is shown in a spreadsheet like table-format that can be exported into various formats including html, text or csv.

The information that are displayed after the network scan are – among others – computer names, IP addresses, operating systems, uptime, MAC address, domain name and user name. The collected data can be sorted in numerous ways. The free version of NEWT has a few limitations like only being able to scan and monitor 25 computers, no SNMP device detection or multithreaded IP Range discovery.

Next to the computer analysis it is possible to send a few commands to remote computers in the network. It is possible to send messages, ping computers or to turn them on or off remotely.

The network monitoring software is compatible with most Microsoft operating systems including Windows XP, Windows Vista and even the soon to be released Windows 7.

Tags: monitor network, network, Network Monitoring, Network Monitoring Software, newt, remote computer, windows software

Internet Maniac Networking Software

Martin — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 22:56:06 +0000

Rarst reviewed an interesting networking software today on his excellent blog (you should check it out if you are interested in tech). Internet Maniac is a old school networking software that has not been updated in ten years. Old software does not necessarily have to be bad or outdated especially if it deals with elements that have not changed in the last ten years as well.

Internet Maniac combines a set of networking tools in its interface. The portable software provides access to functions like traceroutes, pings, host lookups, whois information, lookup IPs or domain names and more. Every option is directly accessible from the main interface.

A click on an option will usually display a second window that can be used to enter data, say a domain name for Whois. The same window will also display the results of the function directly in its window.

The tool is completely portable and requires less than 5 Megabytes of computer memory. The homepage of the developer has been deleted a long time ago. You can download the latest available version of Internet Maniac right here at Ghacks (internet maniac).

Tags: host lookup, internet maniac, network, network software, networking, networking software, ping, portable software, traceroute, windows software, winsock

Network Security Analysis With Network Miner

Martin — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:05:45 +0000

Network Miner is a portable Open Source network security analysis tool that can monitor the traffic of a connected network adapter in the Windows operating system. It utilizes a build in passive network sniffer / packet capturing tool that can detect IPs, hostnames, operating systems, ports and various other information of every connection. The network security tool requires the – separate – installation of WinPcap to function properly and reliable.

The main purpose of Network Miner is data collection for future analysis (such as forensic evidence analysis) rather than collecting data regarding the traffic on the network. Information are grouped by host rather than by packets or frames although it is possible to switch the view modes easily in the software interface.

Network Miner can – among other things – extract files and certificates transferred over the network. This can be used to save media files that are streamed across the network.

Another interesting ability is the extraction of user credentials – that is usernames and passwords for supported protocols which are then displayed in the credentials tab in Network Miner.

Tags: network, network forensics, network miner, network security, network security analysis, network sniffer, network software, Open Source, packet capturing, portable software, windows software

Network Bandwidth Monitor

Martin — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:50:19 +0000

If you have to pay per Megabyte transferred or only have a limited amount of free traffic until you have to pay for additional Megabytes transferred then you might want to use a network bandwidth monitor to always have up to date traffic figures to avoid having to pay more than needed.

ShaPlus Bandwidth Meter is a small lightweight network bandwidth monitor for Windows operating systems that monitors the traffic of selected network adapters in real-time. The bandwidth monitor displays a small always on top window by default which displays the the current bandwidth usage as well as that of the day and the month in either Megabyte or Gigabyte.

The transparency of the window can be changed and it can be moved freely around on the computer screen. The last available option is a window that is showing the bandwidth usage per month separated into download, upload and total.

The network bandwidth monitor uses roughly six Megabytes of computer memory when running in the Windows System Tray. The display of the bandwidth meter window does not change that number noticeably.

Tags: bandwidth meter, bandwidth monitor, internet traffic, monitor bandwidth, network, network adapter traffic, network bandwidth monitor, windows software

Always VPN To Watch HULU And Similar Services

Martin — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 06:40:17 +0000

There is only one possibility to be able to access content that is restricted to select countries on the Internet: Virtual Private Networks. They basically route your traffic through their web servers so that the destination only communicates directly with their servers. If those servers are located in the country you want to access the content from then you normally can do so without difficulties.

Hotspot Shield was the Virtual Private Network that everyone was talking about. Mainly because it offered free access to their network albeit with limited bandwidth usage before they cut you off. Always VPN could be a viable alternative to watch Hulu or listen to Pandora from outside the United States.

The Virtual Private Network is easy to setup and can be downloaded as a client for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac OS X or Linux. Once the software has been installed the Virtual Private Network connection can be started from the Start Menu in Windows.

Users get the choice between compatible and faster editions and can also change the configuration if they want to tweak it further. Tests with Hulu and Pandora were successful. A lot of buffering was going on though which could have been a temporary problem or caused by the increasing popularity of the service.

There is one more “thing” that has to be mentioned. The Virtual Private Network is displaying advertisement on top of each web page to finance the service.

Always VPN can be a viable alternative to Hotspot Shield, especially if the latter service is not working for you or if you already used up all of your bandwidth and want to continue watching or listening to those services.

Tags: always vpn, hotspot shield, hulu, network, pandora, virtual private network, watch hulu

ZoneScreen Finally Gets 64-bit Update

Martin — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:03:17 +0000

It pays off to pay attention to the discussion going on at the Donation Coder forum. A one year old thread was reactivated with the information that ZoneScreen was updated recently adding 64-bit support to the amazing computer program that can extend the desktop display using displays of other computers.

ZoneScreen offers two possibilities. The first is to mirror a computer desktop on another computer while the second extends the screen of the first computer. The only requirements are at least two computer screens and a network connection between the two computers. The software developer provides download versions for most Microsoft operating systems beginning with Windows 98 up to Windows Vista and even a Windows Mobile 2003 version.

So what could you possible do with this? It would be possible to run an application on a Pocket PC next to your PC, for example the Task Manager or an email program which would still display information while using another application in full screen mode.

It basically works by running ZoneScreen in server mode on the main computer and in client mode on the other computer.

The data that is send over the network is not encrypted which should be taken into account when using ZoneScreen.

Tags: desktop, monitor, network, share desktop, share monitor, windows software, zonescreen

Network Monitoring Software NetWorx

Martin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 10:58:30 +0000

Networx is the second network monitoring software on review at Ghacks in the last months. It was recently released in version 4 which is compatible to all Windows operating systems since Windows 98 including 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows XP, Vista and Windows Server 2008.

The network monitoring software can be used to monitor incoming and outgoing bandwidth of selected network adapters and connections. Traffic is shown in graphs and logged in a file for further processing. Reports are extensive and provide access to daily, weekly, monthly and custom reports.

A realtime network traffic graph visualizes the incoming and outgoing traffic. Notifications can be used to perform actions under configured conditions. They can be configured to run so called actions when network traffic drops or rises above a certain level. Possible actions include running a software, displaying visual and sound alerts or to drop the connection.

Networx includes network information and testing tools like netstat that display all applications currently using the network connection. The application uses roughly 10 Megabytes of computer memory in minimized state.

Tags: bandwidth, netstat, network, network bandwidth, Network Monitoring, Network Monitoring Software, networx

gHacks technology news » network

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