Click to See Complete Forum and Search --> : Top 5 Network Tools
beetlespace
11-02-2005, 10:37 AM
What are the top 5 network tools you just can't live without!?
I'm about 3-4 weeks away from being thrown into a situation where I will be in charge of setting up a network and maintaining it. Probably about 5-6 PCs and a server. Most likely a mixed OS situation.
If you can think of more than 5, PLEASE feel free to list as well!
please do not post non-techinical/non-help junk in our help forums. these types of posts belong in /dev/random. please _read_ the forum descriptions before you post the next time. thank you.
gnuoob
11-02-2005, 04:02 PM
http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=05/10/26/215206
/. 11-1-05 :)
je_fro
11-02-2005, 05:24 PM
I use Ethereal all the time. That and netcat.
beetlespace
11-02-2005, 07:23 PM
please do not post non-techinical/non-help junk in our help forums. these types of posts belong in /dev/random. please _read_ the forum descriptions before you post the next time. thank you.
Sorry, I thought I WAS posting in the right forum!
I posted in software and this has to do with software. It's not just a random post.
But anyway, thanks je_fro for your input. I'll definitly check out those two pieces of software.
dkeav
11-03-2005, 08:33 PM
are you asking for diagnostic software, or are you asking what software we use in our network infrastructure, ie file servers, print servers, gateways, dhcp ect ect?
beetlespace
11-03-2005, 10:29 PM
are you asking for diagnostic software, or are you asking what software we use in our network infrastructure, ie file servers, print servers, gateways, dhcp ect ect?
Sorry not to specify, but mainly software tools to help with installation and configuration of a network. Maybe even monitoring to make sure things are running as they should be once installed.
dkeav
11-03-2005, 11:13 PM
still kinda generic there bub
if your wanting tips on network design just tell us what you have to work with, and what you need/want out of your network
ideally your going to start with a firewall/gateway/router and dhcp server in a box, i prefer to use openbsd and PF for this, an old pentium 1 with two nics works perfect, i even use some old pentium one laptops i got off ebay for making firewalls
next you will probably want a fileserver and print server, needs to be decent box pentium 3 or so, as much memory as possible (512+ or so) and as much storage as you need, the more clients you have obviously the more powerful of a box and resources you need
for fileserving most of us use samba for setting a SMB/CIFS network which will work with almost all modern OS's, if you were going to use a *nix only network NFS might be a better solution, but samba is more versatile and flexible for mixed networks, most of us use CUPS for print serving, its fairly straight forward to setup and supports most modern OS's as well
other trivial things are not really needed but on larget networks come in handy, including user managment with openldap which can be integrated into samba
transparent cache proxy on your router comes in hand in cutting down bandwidth if your clients surf a lot, you can combine content filtering as well to cut down on the baddies getting in on your windows machines that have ummm how shall i put it nicely, weak browsers? ;)
as your network grows you might want to include a local DNS server for network name resolution and improved burst speeds over the internet
serving to the internet is a whole other matter, but running a webserver/email would probably want to use another seperate box on your network that is behind your firewall and utilizing port forwarding
any other tips not covered would have to be preceeded with a less generic question