This well-known Microsoft tool was already in the 4sysops free admin tool list, but I decided to add a new entry because a new version is now available. The old post was also about Process Explorer, which I reviewed two years ago. I transferred your votes to these articles.

I guess that Process Monitor is in the tool box of many admins, because it is one of the most important troubleshooting tools. The old version, 1.37, allowed you to monitor file system and registry activity. The most important new feature of version 2.0 is that you can now also monitor the network activity of processes.

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Submitted by Jeffrey Botts

From the developers website:

What is NTop-XTRA?

When all is said and done, network traffic is a collection of computers talking to each other. ntop will show you - in an easy to digest form - a detailed breakdown of the conversations.

You’ll be able to see which computer is talking to which other computer, and what protocol(s) they are using. If you want to know who is utilizing your server the most then ntop is perfect for you. Do you have a WAN link that is full up and you don’t know why? Use ntop to break the traffic down so that you will see instantly where the bandwith is going.

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TCPView is a free Sysinternals tool from Microsoft allowing you to monitor TCP and UDP endpoints. It has the same purpose as the command line tool netstat that comes with Windows. Contrary to netstat, TCPView is a GUI tool. Usually, it is the first tool I use if strange things are happening on a computer, i.e. if I think that it might have been infected by spyware or other malware.

TCPView lists the process, the local TCP port, the remote address and the state of the TCP connection. If you want to get more details about the program, for example where the exe file is located, you just have to right click and select “Process Properties”. You can also terminate a connection or end the process.
There is a command line version of TCPView (Tcpvcon) which is similar to netstat. TCPView runs Windows Server 2008/Vista/NT/2000/XP and Windows 98/Me.

TCPView

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Wireshark 1.0 is available for download. Wireshark, formerly Ethereal, is in third place on the 4sysops list of free admin tools. Obviously, it is a popular tool although the ranking is not really representative because not enough of you found time to rate the tools. Wireshark 1.0 fixes some security holes, so I suggest upgrading it even though it doesn’t really bring new features. Well, okay there are new features. The first one mentioned in the release notes is that the “About” box finally displays version 1.0. I’ll leave it to you to decide if this really counts as a new feature.

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Network monitoring is certainly an essential part of any system administrator’s work. However, from my experience, it is often neglected. If your boss calls you because he can’t access his emails, it is already too late then. There are so many different monitoring tools out there that I find it very difficult to choose. There are various approaches to network monitoring. To a certain degree it is a matter of taste, but it also depends on your environment and on your work style to consider which tool suits best for you. I had a closer look at PacketTrap’s new version 2.0 of pt360 PRO. I was wondering before what “360” stands for. It became clear after a few minutes when I tried the tool.

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Submitted by David Szpunar - Blog: Lakeview Information Technology

This free, easy to install tool provides immediate visual, animated feedback on many areas of remote physical system health, with excellent drill-down details as well. The graphics are easy to understand, with a lot of information just on a server’s overview page. It also provides optional Event Log monitoring and alerts with specific filters. The holistic graphical overview of one system’s present physical state is unmatched by any other free tool I’ve encountered.

NOTE: I wrote a review of this on my blog here.

Spotlight on Windows

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Submitted by Edward Lansink

With EndPointScan administrators can actually check what devices are or have been connected to computers in their network and by whom. It’s a free web-based scanner which provides basic functionality of GFI EndPointSecurity – a commercial network security software that helps sys admins control the use of portable storage devices on the network.

EndPointScan

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Submitted by Elisabeth Buford

The FREE pt360 Tool Suite features a unique differentiated centralized dashboard and includes network reporting, diagnostic and monitoring from a single intuitive interface. The FREE solution supports open source tools (i.e. Nagios, MRTG, Cacti), virtual servers, and SaaS (Salesforce.com), and includes essential network diagnostics tools such as Cisco Config, Syslog Server, TFTP Server, SNMP scan, WMI scan, Ping Scan, Trace Route, Port Scan, and DNS Audit. pt360’s dataflow capabilities automatically pass information between tools so network engineers can pinpoint network problems faster and easier than using dissimilar point tools.

PacketTrap pt360 ToolSuite

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The event logs are the first place to check when something goes wrong on a Windows machine. But even more important is keeping a constant eye on the event logs to make sure that you will be informed immediately about problems coming up. The Event Viewer that comes with Windows can only be used for the first purpose. If you want to keep yourself up-to-date about what is going on in your Windows network, you need a third party utility. EventSentry Light from NETIKUS.NET is a great a tool that does just that, and it is free like in beer.

The name would already let you guess that there is also a commercial version. Please, check out this comparison table regarding the differences between the two editions. This review is about EvenSentry Light. Before you try this tool, you should have a general idea of how EventSentry Light works. Even though it is free, its many options might confuse you when you just want to have a quick look at it to see if it suits your needs. This post will give you a first idea about it. I will only scratch the surface of this sophisticated tool, though.

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Did it ever happen to you that your computer was unbelievably slow because your hard disk was so busy? I am sure it did. Sometimes you know the culprit keeping the light of your disk drive blinking like wild. But most of the time you probably wonder what the heck could have a higher priority for Windows other than loading the application you just launched.

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