eToolz is a nifty GUI tool that allows you to perform a number of network queries: DNS, ping, traceroute, WHOIS, mail-check, HTTP-header, time (NTP), Google pagerank, top level domains and port numbers.
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For some of these queries, you would usually go to the command prompt in Windows; for example, the DNS query would be just nslookup. eToolz allows you to query for A, PTR, NS, MX, and SOA records. The Ping tool offers the options pause, bytes, timeout and count, and traceroute lets you configure the number of hops and the timeout. Even though eToolz is a standalone program (it doesn’t have to be installed), it will store the IP addresses, host names, etc. that you enter, so the next time you want to ping a certain host, you can just select it from a drop-down-list. I think, in most cases, you will be faster with eToolz than with the command prompt tools because it can save you some typing exercises.
You probably know that WHOIS provides domain registration information. Mail-Check allows you to find out information about an email address; for example, which SMTP server receives the mail for this address. An HTTP header query can be useful if you want to gather information about a Web server. For example, you can use this to verify that I am running this blog on a Linux box, even though I am writing here for Windows admins. 😉
Time allows you to query an NTP server of your choice to get the exact time. Pagerank will tell you how Google values a certain web site and the Lists tab provides information about top level domains and TCP/UDP port numbers. If you ever wanted to know the top level domain of “South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands”, you can use eToolz to figure out that it is .”gs”. Searching for port numbers might be more useful for sys admins. Just type in the protocol name, for example ‘http’, and eToolz will tell you what ports are involved. There are more than you may think.
The publisher’s web site is in German, but eToolz also has an English user interface. Just click on “Sprache/Language” after you have launched it for the first time. The link below points directly to the tool. Note that it was compressed in the rar format. You can use 7-zip to uncompress it.
Who archives as rar these days? I thought .zip had become the defacto standard. Ugh… I guess I have to fire up a VM so I can install something to open this.
Who archives as .zip these days? I thought .rar had become the defacto standard of all SysAdmins 😉
Who zips rars these days? I thought them guys would’ve moved to rars with par2 addons by now.
Is eToolz Windows Vista compatible?
I try without success, but i haven’t found any comment in the web site.
Sorry but had problems running it on XP here and the German interface seemed to be present on the menus – this could be me. So I went back to my old faithful Sam Spade (home site seems broken, so Google it to find a download). Been looking for a modern replacement but no luck so far.
Sam Spade “mini-review” – It is a very old app but does a lot of the basic stuff very well (DNS, ping, quick traceroute, dig, whois, SMTP checks and simple web page gets). As it is old the interface is “crusty” and it has one odd bug which is annoying (SMTP check uses MX in reverse order) but it runs on everything up Vista SP1 and Server 2008 (x86, have not tested 64 bit). There are better specialised apps for some functions e.g. PingPlotter for traceroute. N
F-Secure antivirus alert that NetTool.Win32.Etoolz is a riskware…
Kyle/ Leonardo, it seems to me that there are still many who prefer rar somehow, especially open source tools.
Zimo, it works here on Vista. What problems did you have? Sophos didn’t complain about eToolz. What exactly is riskware for F-Secure?
Hugh, you can switch the menus to English as I described in the article. What didn’t work under XP?
Hi Michael,
the problem is probaly generate by anti-virus, it locks eToolz.exe.
F-Secure Client Security 7 (with today updates) reports that eToolz.exe is a riskware with name: “NetTool.Win32.Etoolz”
Bye, and thanks for your blog.
Sorry, i didn’t reply to your question.
This is the F-Secure definition for “riskware”:
“Riskware is software that can pose a security risk that is not malicious by its nature. Such software has usefulness that can assist a knowledgeable user, but can also be bundled and used by malicious software.”
So, it’s evident that there aren’t real problems…
OMG! Are you guys retarded?
What IT professional cant open a RAR file?
Cool tools btw.
Damien, RAR is not a common format anymore and since Windows can’t extract ZIP files, most IT pros don’t have an archive tool installed. It is just annoying if you have to download another tool first before you can get started.
RAR has been common for years. Any good IT pro MUST have & know the tools to do the work. I have heaps of archive tools installed.