Network techs, what are some tools/programs you've found invaluable over the years?

[Sephiroth]

I'm curious what programs/tools people have, and what you guys (and gals) use them for. I'm soon to be finishing up my CCNA and hope to familiarize myself with such programs/equipment before being thrown in the deep end. Any suggestions will be helpful!

 

Currently I use pretty basic stuff; malwarebytes, superantispyware, and ccleaner for generic maintenance and removing tricky programs, Wireshark for monitoring traffic, VirtualBox to test things in without completely screwing myself, and I got the password recovery key 2.0 that Linus did a video about a while back. 

[ARikozuM]

wife.exe

 

It functions as a calendar, phone book, alarm clock, and guide book.

[Electronics Wizardy]

nmap is nice(zenmap is a good gui)

 

set up a pxe boot server with the os's you use for testing, you don't need to have usb's on you.

 

[manikyath]

a coworker that's not a "phat lazy phuck".

 

beyond that, a good pair of ears actually comes a very long way, learning for example what the sound of an arcing power cable sounds (and smells ) like lets you take action before some failures happen, which is something which makes you invaluable for a company  

lets just say my manager at fedex was impressed when i told him i found an iffy power cable only by ear and smell, and upon replacement the pins on the cable were appareanlty just worn down completely. and sniffing out dead power supplies in racks filled with status LEDs has saved the guy's bacon at some point as well.

 

there's a lot of "invaluable" things you dont need tools for, and managers like it when their techs can hear or smell problems, rather than relying on tools that measure for problems, or (like the phat lazy phuck) wait for the failure to happen.

[leadeater]

2 hours ago, Sephiroth said:

Currently I use pretty basic stuff; malwarebytes, superantispyware, and ccleaner for generic maintenance and removing tricky programs

Well throw all these in the trash, zero trust for any one them. Malwarebytes is the only passable one of those 3. Other than AV scanning I manually clean everything, get good at it you need to be. I'll also manual clean after an AV has tried to do it's job.

 

Wireshark is extremely useful.

Hiren's Boot CD is pure awesome for removing/activating administrator password, data recovery, wiping disks. http://www.hirensbootcd.org/

Gdisk to erase disks.

Visio or equiv to diagram/draw stuff out.

NMap

 

Having a decent lab for running VMs and good network equipment helps a lot for self training.

 

Most important of all is know how to troubleshoot properly and thoroughly. 

[Lurick]

4 hours ago, leadeater said:

Having a decent lab for running VMs and good network equipment helps a lot for self training.

 

Most important of all is know how to troubleshoot properly and thoroughly. 

Those, and having people to talk to and bounce ideas off of goes a long way.

[TheCrazyWalnut]

As leadeater said, Hirens is always one thing I keep on a USB on my keys or a disc avaliable for me to you. I also like SpaceSniffer as a graphical view of all the space being used on machines is so much easier than looking around folders and subfolders to reclaim space, even proving to users when their 128GB SSD Machine runs out of space and they have 20GB+ of photos and videos on company machines  A copy of Ninite with the basic runtimes, Rogue Killer and TDSS Killer helps with Virus Scanning (Combo Fix as a download) produkey and the GodMode for Windows (All Control Panel options).

Probably a few more that I use but I don't have my Tech USB with me  

 

 

 

[Brightglaive]

Wifi Analyzer for android

Snort

A tone generator and detector can be handy if the ethernet NIC and switch don't support break detection

GNS router Simulator and IOS images (for testing router configurations)

A packet generator (There are a bunch out there) like Ostinato.

Ethernet Crimping Tool

Screwdriver set

Ifixit kit

Cordless drill

and my 6.5 lb gentle pursuader (aka baby sledge) 

 

ok I threw that last one in for laughs  

 

 

 

[vlamnire]

I second GNS3 very useful for Cisco people.  Not an app but I'd recommend a console to USB cable to administrate routers/switches.

[TheCrazyWalnut]

1 hour ago, Brightglaive said:

and my 6.5 lb gentle pursuader

A good smack has fixed some of my issues before hand

[leadeater]

7 hours ago, Brightglaive said:

and my 6.5 lb gentle pursuader (aka baby sledge) 

 

ok I threw that last one in for laughs  

Well I would say that it is very useful, great for when you get told to do something stupid and you first need to smash yourself in the head.