Many things have been said about Windows 7 and its benefits. However, the talk rarely covered the topic of IPv6. Surely it isn’t a new feature: Vista was fully Ipv6 enabled and an IPv6 network stack exists for Windows XP. But in my opinion IPv6 is worth mentioning when talking about Windows 7.

Most networks today are still based on IPv4 because the Clients are not IPv6 capable. A lot of companies hesitated to migrate to Vista and still run Windows XP without the IPv6 stack. However, this circumstance will change with the release and deployment of Windows 7. Might IPv6, which technically is an old story, become more attention when Windows 7 is deployed en masse?

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Submitted by Peder Vendelbo Mikkelsen

NetworkMiner is a free tool to collect information about hosts “speaking” to the network.

From the publisher:

NetworkMiner is a Network Forensic Analysis Tool (NFAT) for Windows. NetworkMiner can be used as a passive network sniffer/packet capturing tool in order to detect operating systems, sessions, hostnames, open ports etc. without putting any traffic on the network. NetworkMiner can also parse PCAP files for off-line analysis and to regenerate/reassemble transmitted files and certificates from PCAP files.

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NetWorx is a nifty free traffic and bandwidth monitoring tool. It supports usage reporting, speed metering, quotas, graphical netstat (current network connections), trace route, and ping. The tool comes in a portable version that can be easily run on a PC if users suspect odd things are happening to their computers. The tool also has some features that could prove useful in a server environment.

NetWorx places itself in the systray from where all its tools can be easily reached. The following is a brief introduction to each function.

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TCP Analyzer was just added recently to CodePlex, Microsoft’s Open Source platform. It is the first Network Monitor Expert (extension) that was not developed by the Network Monitor team, but from Microsoft Research. It allows you to analyze network traces of Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connections.

Statistical analysis is only useful if you analyze large amounts of data. So if you open a big Network Monitor capture file, keep in mind that the parsing process can take a while, and that it will require your CPU’s full attention. Thus, I would wait until parsing is completed before selecting a specific TCP connection and launch TCP Analyzer from Network Monitor’s Experts menu.­

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In the last post in this series, I introduced the Network Monitor Experts, which basically is a set of plug-ins for Microsoft Network Monitor 3.3. Top Users Expert is an extension that helps you find heavy talkers in a captured trace. “Users” should not be understood literally here. In this context, users essentially are just IP addresses. Top User Experts enables you to analyze how much bandwidth machines connected to your computer are using. This can be useful if your network is clogged and you want to find the culprit. Of course, there are many other scenarios, such as when you have to know how much bandwidth a certain service requires.

Like the other extensions, Top User Expert analyzes a Network Monitor capture file. That is, you can’t apply the tool to a Capture tab. To use Top User Expert, you have to open a capture file first, and then launch the program from the Experts menu.

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Microsoft Network Monitor is probably the only free network and protocol analysis tool that is a match for Wireshark. It still lacks a few features when it comes analyzing stored network traces and that’s where the Network Monitor Experts comes in. At the moment, there are three available Open Source extensions: TCP Analyzer, Simple Search, and Top Users.

These extensions are separate tools that require Network Monitor 3.3. After you have installed them, you will find them in the Experts menu. This menu is only displayed when you open a previously stored file. Today, I will introduce Simple Search and in the next two posts, I will discuss Top Users and TCP Analyzer.

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There are so many free network scanners out there and I am sure you already have one in your toolbox. However, I think SoftPerfect Network Scanner is worth a look, if you are a Windows administrator. The tool has some features that most other free scanners lack. For example, you can retrieve information about available network shares or OS information, and send WMI queries (if you know WQL). Usually, only network inventory tools have such features.

It is convenient to have such Windows-related functionality in a network scanner. If you are scanning your network for open ports, it is useful if you can see what shares are available for a specific account. You can also access the shares from within the tool. By the way, to scan a port range, you have to separate the port boundaries with a hyphen: 1-1024. SoftPerfect Network Scanner’s interface isn’t clear about that. Aside from that, the tool is easy-to-use.

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IP Address Tracker is a new free tool from SolarWinds that provides simple IP address management. It scans your networks and lists all used and unused IP addresses with their DNS names and their response times. SNMP-enabled devices also display the machine type, system name, and location.

IP addresses can be marked as available, unused or reserved and comments added to each host. Each IP subnet has its own tab, which makes it convenient to keep track of all of your networks. The tool’s filters are also useful features. You can restrict its output to available addresses (by default IPs of hosts that didn’t respond), used addresses (IPs of machines that have responded), and reserved addresses (IPs that you mark as reserved).

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Submitted by David Hervieux

Remote Desktop Manager is an application used to manage all your remote connections. Add, edit, delete, organize or find your remote connection quickly. Compatible with Microsoft Remote Desktop, Terminal Services, VNC, LogMeIn and Team Viewer, Ftp, SSH, Telnet and more.

• Support Microsoft Remote Desktop and Microsoft Terminal Services
• Support RealVNC, TightVNC and UltraVNC
• Support LogMeIn Desktop Shortcut
• Support Team Viewer
• Support Ftp
• Support Telnet, SSH, RAW and rLogin

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Do you have to calculate IP subnets every now and then? If you are forgetful like me, then you will scratch your head every time you try to remember how subnet masks, subnet addresses, mask bits, host bits etc. are related. Well, scratching my head doesn’t really help, so I go to this site for another IP math lesson. With SolarWinds Advanced Subnet Calculator, you don’t have to do the math yourself. However, a basic understanding of IP addressing is necessary.

Advanced Subnet Calculator comes with the following tools:

IP address details: Gives you the following information : hostname, response time, hex address, binary address, address class info, and information about the owner of the address

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In my last post I introduced Steel Run As, a free tool that allows you to give standard users the right to run specific programs that require administrator privileges. Today I will show you how this utility can be used to allow standard users to change the network settings. This as an example of how end users can change Windows settings with Steel Run As and how you use the tool in batch scripts.

Perhaps it is not a good example because the easiest way to allow standard users to change the network settings is to add them to Network Configuration Operators group. However, this might give them more rights than you want. Furthermore, you can use batch scripts to automatically set specific TCP/IP settings, for example if an user always has to use the same IP in one location. This way, changing the IP can be done with just a mouse click.

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IPv6 is on the rise; there is no doubt about it. Emerging countries, such as China, are pushing IPv6 because they don’t have enough IPv4 addresses. With DirectAccess, Microsoft has, for the first time, introduced an important feature that requires IPv6. In fact, the number of IPv6 packets in our networks is increasing every day. I think this is a good time to disable IPv6.

Do you find it hard to follow my argument? If so, I assume you are not the one who is in charge of your network’s security. More and more network providers are upgrading their equipment these days to support IPv6. It is only a matter of time before the first IPv6 packets from China knock on your firewall’s door. I hope you know IPv6 well enough to be sure that this won’t mean a threat to your network.The most important rule when it comes to security is to only run services that are really necessary in your environment. Now ask yourself, do you need IPv6 right now? …See!

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Speedtest.net is a website that allows you to test your Internet connection bandwidth to different locations. This can be useful if you work for an international organization and plan to use the public Internet to connect different branches. You can also use this free service to check if your ISP really delivers the promised bandwidth and to find out about the average bandwidth of different regions. Of course

Speedtest.net is very easy to use. You just have to click one of the pyramids. Your web browser will first measure the download speed, and then the upload speed. Most of the pyramids are in the US and Europe, but there are measure points on every continent. You can choose a region in the small window beside the gauge or just drag the big map to region that interests you.

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Superscan is one of the oldest utilities in my toolbox. I still use it every now and then, even though nmap with Zenmap is a much more powerful network scanner. The main advantage of SuperScan is that it is very easy to set up and use. Whenever I am working on another desktop other than my own, and I need a tcp/udp scanner, I always download SuperScan.

If you want to try SuperScan, I recommend changing two of its default settings after you launch it: Disable “Host discovery” and set the “Scan type” to “connect”.

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As admin you are probably used to hackers trying to gain access to your servers. Usually you will just try to keep them out of your network without bothering to figure out who is attempting to hack your servers. However, in some cases it is necessary to track down the person behind an attack. Typically, you only have the IP address from which the attack originated. That’s where IPNetInfo comes in. This free stand-alone tool retrieves all available information about an IP address from the Internet.

There are several organizations which provide such information on the Web. But the advantage of IPNetInfo is that it can query all of them, which can save you some time. These are the organizations to which IPNetInfo sends requests: ARIN, RIPE, APNIC, LACNIC and AfriNIC.

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