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Top 10 network tools all IT pros

should have in their toolbox
By Robert McMillen    |    August 25, 2020

Like a good plumber or electrician, every network administrator needs a good set of
tools in their toolbox to get the job done right. Whether you’re the new guy in the
office or a seasoned veteran, these tools will serve to help you investigate and
troubleshoot countless issues as they arise on your network. Everyone will have their
preference as to which tools they prefer to use, but the ones listed below have been
 chosen for their ubiquity in the general networking industry. Tastes will change and
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around for a
long time and with very good reason.

So, without further ado, here are our top 10 network troubleshooting tools.

10. Ping
Ping is likely the number one utility that every tech pro will use on a daily basis. It
helps us to determine two things: latency and packet loss. Because ICMP is typically
the lowest priority packet in the pecking order, it doesn’t tell us what the problem is.
Instead, it tells us that there is a problem that needs to be addressed. Usually, if there
is either packet loss or latency (or both) this can indicate bandwidth saturation over a
link or even a bad network cable or port on a switch. Regardless, this will almost
always be your first go-to utility when you begin your troubleshooting process. Figure
1 shows ping running in Windows 10.

Figure 1: Ping Tool

9. Traceroute / Tracert
 This is probably second in the top three utilities you’ll use on a daily basis. Traceroute
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Platform
is invaluable for telling us Products
what network Resources
devices are between oneFor IndividuaIs
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point and another,
and gives us some data on what those devices are doing. Some of the extra data it
provides are latency values (min, average and max) and host names of the devices, if
they’re configured to have them. This also helps us to figure out where these “hops”
are, as ISPs typically include some sort of nomenclature to determine which state or
country they’re in. On a private network, this may be less obvious. Traceroute can also
help to diagnose routing issues, especially when we have more than one network
connection to the outside world. Figure 2 shows a tracert in Windows 10.

Figure 2: Tracert

8. Ipconfig / Ifconfig
Rounding out the last three are Ipconfig (Windows) and Ifconfig (Linux / Unix). When
we need to know the IP address(es) of the host that we’re working on, these are the
utilities to use. Not only will it provide IPv4 information, but it will also provide IPv6
addresses, MAC addresses, DNS servers, default gateways and data with regard to
how much traffic is flowing over the interface along with errors and dropped packets.
Figure 3 shows the Ipconfig command in Windows 10.
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Figure 3: Ipconfig

7. Nslookup
This is a great utility for two things: locating the IP addresses associated with a
domain name and checking to see that DNS (Domain Name System) resolution is
working for our host. When we enter www.google.com (https://www.google.com/)
into our web browser, the computer invisibly queries the DNS server to find the IP
address attached to that host name. Nslookup has the ability to not only query our
configured DNS server, but also to query any other DNS server we wish. This can help
us test remote DNS servers for our clients or even for our own ISP. Figure 4 shows a
Windows 10 Nslookup.
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Figure 4: Nslookup

6. Whois
This one is an oldy, but a goody. Sometimes we want to know who owns a domain
name or a range of public IP space. Whois allows us to do this with ease. Whois will
give us details about who has registered a particular domain name and often includes
contact details for the registrar. Finding out who owns a range of IP space can help us
determine where odd traffic on our network is coming from. Windows 10 does not
have Whois installed by default, but it’s downloadable from its website. Many other
free websites also offer this service. Figure 5 shows a Web based Whois.
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Figure 5: Web based Whois Result

5. Netstat
Ever wonder which ports on your hosts are open and listening? Enter netstat. This
utility is especially helpful on servers or hosts that run their own firewalls—like SQL
Server or Apache. Each uses different network ports to communicate. For instance, if
we want to run a web server, but for some reason IIS isn’t “listening” for
communications on port 80, it won’t serve up its web pages to anyone. Netstat also
tells us who else is connected to our host and on what ports. This can be especially
helpful if we suspect that our security has been compromised. We may not see
anything in the task manager, but netstat can help us root out a culprit by showing us
if there are any strange ports active and communicating. Figure 6 shows a Windows
10 netstat.
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Figure 6: Netstat

4. Putty / Tera Term

The need for a remote console cannot be overstated, especially when dealing with
Linux or Unix-like systems. A remote console (or terminal) is a must-have for
“headless” systems that don’t have a desktop environment. The console is a powerful
tool in the right hands and in the Linux/*nix world. It’s absolutely essential for server
tasks. It’s also one of the best ways to get into a network with connectivity problems.
It takes almost no bandwidth to make a connection and terminal software is very
forgiving when it comes to packet loss. Figure 7 shows a Putty session and Figure 8
shows tera term session.
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Figure 7: Putty

Figure 8: Tera Term

  
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3. Subnet and IP calculator

Sometimes we just don’t want to be bothered with doing a whole bunch of binary
number crunching. There are a multitude of downloadable and free web-based IP
and subnet calculators available should we wish to use them. This can be a quick
solution when we’re in a hurry and haven’t memorized the proper subnet for a /30 IP
range. Figure 9 shows an example of one such calculator.

A web-based calculator can be found here: http://www.subnet-calculator.com/

(http://www.subnet-calculator.com/)

A downloadable calculator can be found at Solarwinds, here:

https://www.solarwinds.com/engineers-toolset/use-cases/subnet-calculator
(https://www.solarwinds.com/engineers-toolset/use-cases/subnet-calculator)

Figure 9: Subnet Calculator

 
 2. Speed test
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Getting to know your bandwidth. If you stream a lot of Netflix at home, you’ll be
familiar with the little spinning circle that lets you know that the video is buffering.
Oftentimes, this is due to a lack of bandwidth when your roommate is also streaming
the latest DOTA match on Twitch. Websites like Speedtest.net help us to determine
how much bandwidth we have in and out of our Network. Figure 10 shows an instance
of Speedtest.

Figure 10: Speedtest.net

1. IP Scanner
Having an IP scanner is priceless in a network environment, especially when we don’t
have login credentials to the router. Being able to scan an entire subnet enables us to
find IP addresses of devices that might otherwise elude us. There are many devices
on a network that don’t have a quick interface to tell us what their addresses are such
as printers and scanners. This can also help us to find devices that have mistakenly
been configured with incorrect or duplicate IPs. An excellent IP scanner can be found
below as well as an image in Figure 11.
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Figure 11: IP Scanner

  

I have been using all of these tools for many years. The interfaces have changed on
some, but others (such as command prompt tools) are exactly the same. There are
many switches that come with each tool. For instance, the /t in a ping command does
a continuous ping instead of the four pings it would normally do. With Linux, ping will
continue without the /t. Understanding the use and value of switches will help you
become the fastest and most valued troubleshooter in your office.

For more great tips and demos check out my courses

(https://www.pluralsight.com/authors/robert-mcmillen) or go to my website
http://techpublishing.com (http://techpublishing.com/).

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