Re: Field Engineers Toolkit
- From: "Brian Cryer" <not.here@localhost>
- Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:51:16 +0100
It looks like a useful list. Thank you.
--
Brian Cryer
www.cryer.co.uk/brian
"Kingpinofdisks" <Kingpinofdisks@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:76599755-68D0-4A25-B338-A86B01A9AA70@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
This list was originally intended for the guys I supervised at a Microsoft
Partner, but it really is for every single IT guy – whether roving consultant
or stay-at-one-office engineer. I get tired of watching someone arrive at a
client site, troubleshoot the problem on the Windows boxes & find no issues,
then try to get into to the router/switch/firewall/phone system/wireless
device and fail because they lack the correct tools to a)troubleshoot network
problems, and b)the correct cable to access the devices.
I only include free software here – that means there is no reason for you to
not have all of these programs on your laptop. If you have better commercial
versions of this stuff – great! I don't have the $$ to purchase the
commercial stuff, so I make do with what is freely available on the net.
Hardware
Laptop – c'mon, you knew you needed a laptop to be a field tech, didn't you?
I use an old, used one ($160, Turion 1.8ghz, 1gb RAM, 60gb HD, wireless, 2
usb, 10/100, 15.7” screen) – that is right, no fancy new laptop for me. I
like cheap. As long as it runs either XP or Vista, has a good amount of HD
space, plenty of RAM, a network port, a modem port, wireless capability, and
USB ports, then you are set.
Cable – the 5-in-1 network admin toolkit - http://www.ossmann.com/5-in-1.html
This is a great way to ensure you can access most 'devices', like routers,
switches, and modems. There will be many times in your day you have to
interface with a weird device, and this cable will make you look like a
genius during those times. I carry the 2 DB9 connectors, super-short
ethernet xover, super-short cisco xover, the RJ45 coupler, both ethernet and
T1 loopback, 1 25' ethernet and 1 6' ethernet cable in my laptop backpack.
Screwdriver – kinda obvious, but I have seen field 'engineers' without one,
so I mention it here. I carry a screwdriver that holds 10 bits in the
handle, and a Leatherman Micra – between the two, you can handle the majority
of situations.
Crimper and Ends – you need to be able to manipulate network cable and
telephone cable ends – so you need a crimper and some RJ-11 and RJ-45 ends.
USB Serial Adapter – many laptops now don't have a serial port, so you need
a USB serial port for your laptop – this is a MUST HAVE item in the field
with most laptops.
Software
Windows – yea, I know, you may like a different OS running your PC – but as
a field engineer, I have to be able to interface with just about anything,
and Windows is the best for that job; it has built-in tools galore that allow
me to troubleshoot Windows servers, and the extra software I add allows me to
expand to network devices and *nix with ease. And nope – I don't run Vista –
I still run XP SP3.
Wireshark – http://www.wireshark.org - the only free sniffer/protocol
analyzer I can find for Windows, actually a very capable sniffer with a lot
of neat features – sometimes you just gotta look at raw traffic flow in/out
of various ethernet ports
Terra-Term Pro – http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA002416/teraterm.html -
since Hyperterminal doesn't come with Vista, I had to find a free replacement
for it – TTP seems to work fine with Vista and will give you access to your
serial port to program routers/switches/modems and other such equipment – it
can log your sessions and handle cut'n'paste from your text editor
Wildpackets IP Subnet Calculator – http://www.wildpackets.com – I don't like
doing subnet stuff in my head, mainly because I am old and stoopid now, so I
let the computer do it for me – this little program works well and is free.
Putty – http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/ - a superior
telnet and SSH program for Windows, it is the best way to interface with all
kinds of routers/switches/modems/firewalls/unix(s) using either telnet or SSH
Crimson Editor - http://www.crimsoneditor.com/ - Notepad has zero features.
In the field, you need a text editor that can do 3 major things – edit unix
or dos text files (and translate between the 2 formats), manipulate text in
both blocks and lines, and one that will show you the line/column you are on
– CE can do those things and a whole lot more for free
TFTPD32 - http://tftpd32.jounin.net/ - a free tftp server/client for Windows
– you need this to send/receive config files from all kinds of
router/firewall/modem equipment – this one is free and seems to work well –
it also has a syslog server (to receive diagnostic messages) and a DHCP
server good for testing.
NMAP / Zenmap - http://nmap.org – this is the de-facto standard free program
to scan for other devices on an IP network – useful not only for security
testing, but just to scan a customer network to see what is out there – got a
printer with an unknown IP? Scan for it – got soemthing that has stolen an
IP? Scan for it – did your firewall change work? Scan it.
DIA – http://live.gnome.org/Dia - since I don't use pirate software, and I
am independent, I needed a program that will allow me to draw a diagram a
network – DIA is a free program that has all the symbols necessary to create
a network diagram – if you don't have Visio, you need DIA
SolarWinds - http://www.solarwinds.com/products/freetools/index.aspx – these
guys have a couple of good free tools – both the netflow analyzer (to see
what is happening on your Cisco), and a Wake-on-LAN program to remotely 'wake
up' a computer
SNMP Scanner - http://www.foundstone.com – there are a zillion free tools
from Foundstone, but SNScan is the one I use most – it is an SNMP scanner
that allows you to scan a network for SNMP responding devices – many network
printers, routers, switches, phone systems, etc... will respond to this
scanner quickly.
MIB Browser - http://www.ireasoning.com/downloadmibbrowserfree.php – a great
free MIB browser is available from iReasoning. Most network devices have
SNMP capabilities, and excellent information can be obtained by browsing the
SNMP table – this GUI makes it rather easy.
NetStumbler - http://www.stumbler.net/ - a good program to help you quickly
find wireless access points & their basic information – lets face it,
wireless troubleshooting in an unknown/new environment is difficult enough
already
NetCat – http://www.stuartaxon.com/2008/05/22/netcat-in-windows/ - a nifty
little program that lets you test tcp and udp ports – you can run netcat on a
server (or your laptop) and have it listening on any port you specify, then
run it from a different machine to connect to the first instance – great for
debugging Cisco ACLs or any firewall rulesets
.
- References:
- Field Engineers Toolkit
- From: Kingpinofdisks
- Field Engineers Toolkit
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