Misc. Networking Tools

WinSock XP Fix offers a last resort if your Internet connectivity has been corrupted due to invalid or removed registry entries. It can often cure the problem of lost connections after the removal of Adware components or improper uninstall of firewall applications or other tools that modify the XP network and Winsock settings. If you encounter connection problems after removing network related software, Adware or after registry clean-up; and all other ways fail, then give WinSock XP Fix a try. It can create a registry backup of your current settings, so it is fairly safe to use. We actually tested it on a test machine that was having a Winsock problem due to some Adware removal, and after running the utility and rebooting, the connectivity was restored.

NetSetMan allows you to quickly switch between pre-configured network settings. It is ideal for people on the road, that have to connect to different networks all the time, and need to update their network settings each time. NetSetMan allows you to create 6 profiles including IP address settings, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway and DNS servers. The custom settings are saved in tabs, and you can simply select your settings and click a button to update your network configurations. Free version is limited to 6 network profiles, which is more than enough for personal usage.

CurrPorts allows you to view a list of ports that are currently in use, and the application that is using it. You can close a selected connection and also terminate the process using it, and export all or selected items to a HTML or text report. Additional information includes the local port name, local/remote IP address, highlighted status changes and more. Other features include logging of changes, custom filters and more.

Simple Port Forwarding is a tool that makes it easier to manage the port forwarding settings in your router. You can add new port configurations manually or select from a range of pre-configured ports for many popular applications and apply the settings directly to your router configuration. The program interfaces with the web interface of your router and basically automates the process of navigating to the correct page and entering the values. It is compatible with a wide range of routers, including most Netgear, D-Link and Linksys models as well as some other manufacturers. Simple Port Forwarding also includes additional features that allows you to set a static IP address, test your port forwarding settings, manage Windows Firewall port exceptions and access to online help and guides.

Remote Desktop Manager enables you to manage all your remote server connections from a single interface. It supports Microsoft Remote Desktop, Terminal Services, VNC, LogMeIn and Team Viewer, Ftp, SSH, Telnet and others. All your connections can be conveniently accessed from the tray icon and you can switch between them from the integrated connection viewer (optional). Other features include support for VPN connections, dual monitor support, user favorites and more.

Port Detective is a simple tool, that helps you find out what ports are blocked by your router/firewall or ISP. It comes pre-configured for the most commonly used ports, and you can also add your own ports to the list. The program is intended to check the availability of common ports for the purpose of self-hosting, as many ISPs are blocking these ports to prevent users from running public web servers, mail servers etc. on their home computers.

FDBGET allows you to retrieve the forwarding table entries of switches (layer 2 devices) for a specified SNMP community and produces a list of MAC addresses connected to the interface.

HostsXpert (formerly Hoster) is an editor for your HOSTS file that enables you to replace entries, merge HOSTS files, swap 127.0.0.1 entries with 0.0.0.0 and more. The program is mainly intended for hands-on adware, spyware and ad blocking. HostsXpert includes a built-in text editor (memopad) to edit the file contents, an option to download and merge block files (MVPshosts, hpHosts) and a function to backup and restore the original HOSTS file. Standalone program, non install required.

WirelessNetView is a small utility that monitors wireless networks that are available within the reach of your adapter. For each detected network, it displays SSID, Last Signal Quality, Average Signal Quality, Authentication Algorithm, Cipher Algorithm, MAC Address and other information. The program can run in the system tray and optionally alert you with a beep if new networks are found.

CIP is a HOSTS file manager. that allows you to add frequently visited pages to your HOSTS file to speed up your browsing (a little) by eliminating the need for frequent DNS queries. CIP resides on your taskbar for easy access. It it will find the hosts file in use by your system and open it automatically if it`s there.

Network Notepad is a utility for drawing interactive network diagrams, with user definable management features such as point and click telnet, FTP, HTTP and Ping. The objects can be selected from the supplied library and dragged into the diagram, where they can be linked together using different link styles. The diagrams can be linked with other diagrams and you can also call any third party application with the IP address or object name supplied as the argument. The diagram can be exported as bitmap file.

Hostess has been designed to help you easily maintain your Hosts file for the purpose of blocking servers rather than for its original purpose of quicker DNS lookups. It stores the host names in an indexed database, eliminating duplicates and placing hosts into logical groups that can be ordered for efficiency. Hostess has powerful import, export and search features and can even create a registry file for adding domains to the Internet Explorer restricted zone.

The Advanced IP Address Calculator is a utility that lets you to calculate every aspect of your subnet configuration with just a few mouse clicks. It was designed for network administrators who needs a fast way to determine subnets.

Port Mapper is a very simple command-line port mapper (port redirector, that is able to work in the hidden mode. It accepts parameters for local port, remote IP, remote port and logging.

AnalogX PortMapper allows you to map and port on your computer to any IP address and port on another machine; not only that, you can limit access based on the incoming IP address! Here is an example: Let`s say you have a web server running on machine2 but no Internet connection for that machine. People could still access the web server (or any other server) on that machine if you run Portmapper on (online) machine1 and direct all incoming requests for port 80 to the IP address of machine2. It`s like Call Forwarding for servers.

Speed up your internet connection by caching DNS requests. AnalogX FastCache is a caching DNS server that runs on your local machine and handles any DNS request that your computer makes. Every time you launch a web site, send an email or perform any other internet activity, your computer needs to lookup the domain name from your ISP s DNS server. It only takes a couple hundred milliseconds per request, but these seconds can add-up over time or slow you down if DNS response is slow. FastCache caches the results for a configurable number of days, so you don t have to waste time on repetitive DNS lookups. Additional features include tandem request (query primary and secondary at once), detailed statistics and more. Please note: This is a DNS proxy and requires you to change your network settings to use localhost (or IP of the machine) instead of your normal DNS entries. It requires some basic networking knowledge.

Emsa Bandwidth Monitor is a small and simple bandwidth monitor that lets you monitor your internet connection speed, total traffic and average download/upload speed. The program runs in the system tray, supports transparency and also provides additional information for each of your network interfaces.

AnalogX TSDropCopy is a simple, yet extremely useful tool for server administrators that access a remote Windows 2000 server via Terminal Services. While Terminal Services is great, it does not offer any file transfer features, and even the optional ResourceKit add-on only provides very basic functionality. TSDropCopy however changes all that and brings Windows drag and drop, as well as convenient "Sendto" option, that allows you to transfer files directly to the remote server from your Windows Explorer menu. Or simply drop the file onto the transfer window, and let TSDropCopy do the rest. The program can also map different drives paths between different servers and clients, making it simple to move files without any hassles. A must-have for Terminal Services users!

LanCalculator is a tool to calculate subnet addresses and masks, including broadcast address, net address, net prefix and net mask inversion which is used in the access control lists (ACL) of Cisco network equipment. The program can display the data in binary, hex, and decimal values.

Emsa Port Blocker allows you to block TCP requests from/to your computer. The program should not be mistaken with a firewall, as it does not actually prevent access to ports, but merely terminates the connection if it matches a specified rule. The program can either block incoming requests, or optionally prevent outgoing requests to specified ports as well. May be useful as a temporary solution, or for testing purposes.

Keyboard Network LEDs is a tiny program that lets you monitor network activity (upload/download) from the ScrollLock and NumLock indicator lights on your keyboard. Each LED can be assigned either upload or download activity, and it will flicker when network traffic is detected.

OEWakeUp is a small and simple tool, that allows you to send a WakeOnLAN packet to remote computer on the network (if supported by NIC). In addition, the program retrieves the MAC address of the machine as well as organization name and address (if available).

Hosts Toggle is a tool for users that make frequent use of the Windows Hosts file. It allows you to easily switch between multiple Hosts settings, or even to `turn off` (rename) the Hosts file temporarily. The small (open source)program runs as an icon in the system tray and allows quick access to edit the Hosts, back it up and to load a different Hosts configuration.

Host Administrator is a simple but very useful to tool to edit the Windows HOSTS file. Just run the program and it will automatically detect and display the content of the HOSTS file and allow you to easily edit the entries, remove them or add new ones.

QRoxy is a small and handy tool that allows you to switch between different proxy settings, without using the IE configuration dialogs. The program runs in the system tray and enables you to switch between different proxy settings by simply selecting them from a menu. QRoxy can also be run from the command line.

HostsMan is an application to manage your Windows HOSTS file. It is mainly intended to block specific domains (mostly advertising servers) by redirecting them to localhost, but can also be used to add any other domain/IP combination that you want to be included in the HOSTS file. In addition to the editing features, HostsMan can prevent other programs from writing to the HOSTS, import and merge Hosts files, resolve IP addresses and mark potential hijack entries. This program assumes that you have basic understanding of the HOSTS functionality.

ProxyBag is a simple but efficient tool to validate a list of proxy servers. It can import proxies from an online site or directly from a text file you provide. It then checks the proxies not only for connectivity but also tests if they can actually access a specified web page. In addition, it checks the proxies anonymity using the ProxyJudge script, and can remember bad proxies and exclude them from future checks.

Colasoft Ping Tool is a graphical ping tool that supports multiple IP addresses (or domains) and present the ping statistics in an easy-to-read 3D chart, that can optionally be saved as bitmap image. Along with the graph, the program also provides text based statistics including packet loss, average response time etc. that can be copied to the clipboard.

Bed`s Printer Switcher is a simple utility that enables you to automatically switch the default printer based on current network you are connected to. It runs in the system tray and can automatically exit once the printer has been switched. No documentation.