Alchemy Remote Computing 1.4.3
The program allows you to monitor remote computers and control them in local network without leaving your workplace. An administrator connects to a remote computer via a network and, seeing the desktop of a remote computer on his screen, can run programs and change work settings using his keyboard and mouse. Thanks to the encryption of the data transfer protocol, the use of Alchemy Remote Computing is secure even in wide networks.
http://download.com.com/3000-2085-10218076.html?tag=lst-2-5 , 1.09 Mb

TMeter 4.4.212
Program for counting Internet traffic in office and home networks. TMeter works in real time, i.e. collected statistics are displayed on the screen immediately in graphical or digital form. Thus, you can always see what loads your Internet channel the most. The program has a powerful system of traffic filters that allows you to count only useful traffic. TMeter is distributed in two versions - free and commercial. Their main difference is that in the free version there is a limit on the number of filters used to three. This, of course, is not enough for an enterprise, but it is quite enough for a home locale.
http://www.tmeter.ru/tmeter/TMeter44.exe , 1.5 Mb

Omni VPN 1.7.3
A free utility to protect your computer from unauthorized access. The program serves not only as a regular firewall, but also as a virtual private network (VPN). It allows you to remotely access your computer while protecting it from hackers. OmniVPN even works with dynamic IP addresses.
http://www.tucows.com/preview/295100.html , 11.8 Mb

Network Searcher 3.4
A powerful utility for quickly searching for files and folders on the local network. The program has a fast search engine and allows you to find even hidden system files. With its help, you can search in your favorite networks, domains, groups, folders, while the navigation is very well thought out. You can set several search criteria at once.
http://www.bgsoft.net/NetworkSearcher.zip , 750 Kb

Access Administrator Pro v3.9
A new version of the popular data protection software. Access Administrator has a whole range of useful features, but at the same time is very easy to use, which makes it attractive to users of any level. The program will help you set user groups, access passwords to files and folders. It can also be used to specify the time during which access is possible. The utility will not allow itself to be deleted by anyone who does not know the administrator password.
http://www.softheap.com/download/fr.zip , 960 Kb

1 Click And Lock 2.72
The 1Click & Lock utility provides access to the desktop only after a correctly entered password. In the program settings, you can set automatic launch along with the system, block access to the desktop through the system tray icon, keep statistics on incorrectly entered passwords, etc. The program also blocks the hot reset keys, thereby increasing the protection of your computer.
http://www.softstack.com/download/1cllock.zip , 1.3 Mb

Anyplace Control 2.3
A small (fits on a floppy!) program to control a remote computer. The program displays the screen of another computer and allows you to use the mouse and keyboard to control it. That is, you can work at a remote computer as if you were sitting at it yourself. What's more, you can manage multiple machines at the same time. Anyplace Control is very fast, so you can forget that you are working on a remote computer.
http://download.com.com/3000-7240-10235878.html , 1.09 Mb

WinRet 4.8
A free program for creating backup copies of Windows and Internet Explorer in case of system reinstallation. Usually, before reinstalling, you save all the data that you will need in the future, but each time you forget something. Thus, the Favorites folder disappears, as well as important files recorded in Program Files. With WinRet, you will forever save yourself from such a headache. Among other things, the program makes copies of the system registry, shortcuts, Outlook Express folders, etc.
, 180 Kb

Desktop DNA v4.6
Desktop DNA is a utility for transferring programs from one computer to another. It does not migrate the applications themselves, only keeping settings, registry entries, and so on. The program has a very simple interface and simple settings, so it will not be difficult to determine which files to transfer. If you need to "multiply" a program on a local network, the program can do it simultaneously on several computers. If there is no network, you can save all settings and transfer them using any media: Zip, CD-R, etc. If suddenly, after data transfer, the system does not work correctly on a remote computer, you can restore all settings using the data backup tool .
http://www.miramar.com/Products/Small_Office/Download/index.html , 17 Mb

Fortress 2.12
Fortress is a powerful security system that will help you control all applications running on your computer. Using this program, you can easily detect Trojans, viruses and other harmful applications. As soon as Fortress finds one of these processes, it will be stopped and never run again. When you launch a new application, the program will tell you if it is harmful to the system. In addition, Fortress can be used to determine which programs were running on the computer while you were away, as it records all processes.
http://www.jt-labs.com/FortressSetup.zip , 800 Kb

My Drivers 3.0
A system crash is often due to corrupted drivers. In order not to get into such an unpleasant situation, it is necessary to store a backup copy of system files on your hard drive. You can do this using the My Drivers program. This utility will easily and quickly determine the installed drivers for various devices, and then make a backup copy of them. You can reserve all drivers together, or selectively. In this case, all the necessary files will be placed in a self-extracting *.exe-installer.
http://www.qwerks.com/download/6466/mydrivers.exe , 1.61 Mb

Antiy Ghostbusters Standard Edition 4.37
Antiy Ghostbusters Standard Edition is a powerful information security software. It consists of two parts - an anti-hacker utility and an information security tool. Antiy Ghostbusters Standard Edition can detect and remove various viruses (trojans, worms) on your computer that are masked in the system, damaging the confidentiality of information. In addition, this program allows you to monitor the system, showing information about the status of ports, IP addresses, etc.
http://download.com.com/3000-2239-10161638.htm , 4.69 Mb

Deskbolt 1.1
This program serves to block access to the computer and fine-tune the desktop. With it, you can set a password for access or restrict access to some users. In addition, Deskbolt gives you the ability to customize every detail on the desktop, add a clock display, current username, computer name, or any other text. Using the installed hotkeys, you can turn off, restart the computer or change the user.
http://bashware.thecorecommunity.com/downloaddeskbolt.html , 889 Kb

vuBrief 5.0
This program is used to organize large amounts of data and synchronize files between multiple computers. Can be used both on the local network and when the network is unavailable. In the latter case, an intermediary device is used to synchronize data: floppy disk, FTP server, CDRW, Iomega ZIP, etc.
http://www.vu-software.spb.ru/brief/vu_brief_setup.zip, 3.2 Mb.

P.C. Police 2004
P.C. utility Police is quite true to its name. This program keeps a record of all actions performed by the user: registers links, fixes the applications used, saves data entered into the clipboard, keeps a record of keystrokes, etc. P.C. stats. Police is conducted invisibly to the user, so this program is of particular interest to system administrators and anyone who has to monitor user activity.
http://pc-police.nethint.com/download.htm, 2.5 Mb

Bandwidth Monitor Pro 1.29
A program for collecting statistical data on incoming and outgoing network traffic. The flexible configuration of Bandwidth Monitor Pro allows you to optimize the program for various working conditions, keep track of network traffic for any time period - from session reports to monthly analytical statistics. The program runs in the background, and this practically does not affect the system resources of the working machine. It is of particular interest to system administrators and users who pay for each megabyte downloaded from the network.

10 May 2017

Programs for the system administrator

Managing software and hardware in an enterprise is not an easy task, especially when it comes to a fleet of computers numbering tens or even hundreds of units. In order to speed up the execution of everyday tasks, you will need a special set of system administrator programs. Below we will talk about what tasks you can use certain software solutions.

Equipment inventory

Software for the system administrator, designed for hardware accounting, allows you to remotely collect information about the status and composition of equipment in the local network without the need to analyze each individual PC “in the field”. It doesn't matter if it's just one computer or several hundred.

This procedure typically requires only network/domain administrator credentials. Let's take a look at three of the best accounting solutions for network equipment and computers within the enterprise that will be relevant in the coming years.

This is a centralized hardware inventory application that collects user and technical data about devices on the corporate network. The program can scan Windows, Linux, Mac, ESXi servers and other network devices. You can flexibly generate reports in a tabular format using any category of data on selected computers. It should also be noted that there is a change log that allows you to track any changes in both hardware and software on remote computers.

10-Strike: Computer Inventory

This application allows you to inventory and record hardware. Among the features of this application is the presence of a web interface that allows you to access inventory data from other computers or mobile devices. There is also the possibility of building detailed reports on the information collected during scanning. Subsequently, the information obtained can be presented in the form of convenient pivot tables or exported to an external database.

DEKSI Network Inventory

This useful utility is designed for remote monitoring of the state of the computer park. It allows you to view configurations and write all the necessary data using DataCollector.exe, which works in sync with other applications without slowing down their performance. As a result, you get well-structured information from which you can create reports that can be exported to HTML files, tables, and text files.

Lansweeper Network Inventory

A web-based software solution that provides comprehensive network scanning and diagnostics. Lansweeper monitors the hardware environment on the network and provides information about it in handy reports. There is an opportunity to perform scanning both manually and automatically according to a schedule or by an agent at logon. To do this, you will need to set the appropriate settings, and then all processes will be performed automatically. The program also has the ability to synchronize with Active Directory.

Accounting software

Such programs for the system administrator are essentially centralized data storages about the software installed on computers in the corporate network. These applications also often allow you to track the current status of the licenses used by the company and plan for their renewal. Another interesting possibility of such solutions is the creation of standard sets of software and configurations for certain positions, departments and employees.

This is an extended version of the product we reviewed above. Contains a module that allows you to store and maintain license keys. A structured storage containing all the data about the software on each computer on the network allows you to significantly reduce the number of operations that need to be regularly performed with the computer park (updating and configuring software, accounting for licenses, uninstalling, etc.) that all these operations can be regulated by creating special schedules. For example, a weekly network scan with the TNI 3 can be done automatically without operator intervention.

10-Strike: Accounting Software Pro

With this solution, you will receive all necessary information about the software on users' workstations, without having to get direct access to each of them. Versions of the operating system and applications installed in it, the presence of updates and even suspicious programs on any node of the local network - all this can be found in remote access. In addition, this application automatically monitors all events that occur with user devices connected to the network, providing the operator with information about them via e-mail.

Lansweeper Network Inventory

This utility allows you to keep track of not only hardware, but also software devices on your network. After scanning, detailed reports become available to you, tracking the licensing status of a particular software, as well as the ability to track any changes in the list of programs that have occurred since the last scan. One more interesting feature This utility is the ability to pre-calculate the cost of maintaining or updating enterprise software licenses.

Remote installation and removal of programs

If a company has a dispersed infrastructure, system administrators have to spend up to several days installing the necessary applications for each workstation. To solve this problem, tools such as Total Software Deployment 2 and 10-Strike: Remote Access were created. They reduce the downtime caused by installing and uninstalling apps by allowing you to do it remotely.

With TSD 2, you can deploy, update, and uninstall software remotely on a PC. You can perform these procedures simultaneously on all computers in the network. As a result, all manipulations can take no more than a couple of minutes. In addition, the system administrator can get a list of applications installed on stations within the corporate network.

10-Strike: Remote Access

This tool provides remote access to user PCs, opening up a wide range of options for centralized management. This is an ideal solution for both network management and technical support. It doesn't matter if you are deploying a network or trying to eliminate the consequences of malware activity on a specific computer, the application will be equally useful in each of these cases.

Server and local network monitoring

Programs for the system administrator of this type provide advanced options for monitoring server activity and various network processes. They minimize the amount of manual work an administrator needs to do to check the availability of certain resources, thereby helping to streamline their workflows.

TNM 2 will serve as a budget and effective tool for network monitoring, as well as monitoring the operation of server machines. The program automatically scans the network for vulnerabilities and anomalies, and promptly notifies network operators of detected problems. In particular, for these purposes, monitors are pre-configured - special objects that analyze the correctness of the operation of individual network services.

10-Strike: Network Monitoring

This software product quickly detects unusual network activity, which may be caused by malware intrusion or technical problems. It also provides powerful tools for monitoring hosts, file exchanges, database access, and other interactions between individual network nodes (including IoT-based devices) via the SNMP protocol and a regular web interface.

Free programs for Windows administration. Software for system administrators.

PC Hunter - computer management (processes, registry, autostart...

A powerful, portable tool that gives you a detailed look at how your Windows operating system works. It aims to help experts detect and remove malware though useful information can be found in it by any user of a personal computer.

Windows Service Master - working with Windows services

Displays all services on the system, shows selected service information (including service name, display name, service status, startup type, account, description, binary) and also allows you to stop/start or delete the selected service.

Process Monitor - analyze and optimize Windows startup,

Today I will tell you about a program with which you can analyze the activity of the registry and network file system, processes and threads, as well as enable logging of the operating system startup (logging, that is, enable the creation of a special file by the program, which will record the full progress of the system boot ) and subsequently identify the cause of the long system boot.

CMDTools - convenient management of network commands

Graphical shell for network commands ipconfig, ping, tracert, pathping, route, arp, netstat, nbtstat. You no longer need to keep these commands in your head, the program will remind you of next steps. The built-in scheduler allows you to create tasks in seconds to run console programs and regular Windows applications.

SysRestore - save system state

A free program for creating system snapshots to undo unwanted actions performed by the user or viruses. Using the application, you can save the state of the system and at any time return Windows to a previously saved state.

Restore Point Creator - Save/Restore Win...

The program allows you to easily create system restore points and, if necessary, restore to working condition, if your system does not boot or any features are missing that cannot be returned. Able to work on a schedule, create restore points on specified days and hours.

RollBack Rx Home - system snapshot or restore point W...

A free program whose purpose is to create snapshots of the system, which, if necessary, can be used to roll back and restore Windows, in case of incorrect shutdown of its work or in case of a virus infection. The free version has some functional limitations.

DiskSpaceControl - free disk space monitor

A simple program for monitoring free space on hard disk partitions and promptly notifying the user about it.
Informing the user about the results of the check in a pop-up window. Informing the user about the results of the check by E-mail.

Dism++ - Windows settings management and optimization

The program offers a fairly rich functionality that allows you to clean the system of debris, fine-tune the Windows system. Also, it copes with the removal of critical drivers, allows you to set a lot of parameters for fine-tuning the system, can disable or remove certain Windows components, and much more.

Right Click Enhancer - customize the Windows context menu

A program with which any user will have full control over the right mouse button. Allows you to delete unnecessary and add the menu items you need, shortcuts to programs, files and folders, your own submenus, edit the menu items “Send” and “Create”, as well as add other tasks and functions.

A suitcase of tools is what distinguishes an experienced specialist from a beginner. And in matters related to the administration of Linux, such a suitcase is perhaps the most important thing.

sysadmin programs

In this article, we will not talk about things like Nagios, Puppet, Webmin, or sophisticated Apache log analyzers - you should know about all this anyway. Instead, we'll talk about small utilities that can make your life as a system administrator a lot easier.

tmux

Let's start with the basics of the basics. As we all know, the main Linux administration tool is the SSH client, either from the OpenSSH bundle or standalone like PuTTY or even an Android app. SSH client allows you to open a remote session command line and calmly work with a machine that is thousands of kilometers away from you. The only problem is that this is one session and it does not remember the state.

Tmux solves the problem. This is a terminal multiplexer that allows you to open multiple terminals within a single SSH session with the ability to close the connection while saving state.

It works like this. You connect to a remote machine using SSH, then install tmux on it and run it. A tmux console appears on the screen with a status bar at the bottom and one running in this moment terminal. You can work with it just like you normally would, plus you have the ability to open new terminals with Ctrl+b c and switch between them with Ctrl+b 0..9 or Ctrl+b p (previous), Ctrl+b n (next ).

When you're done, press Ctrl+b d to disconnect from tmux and disconnect from the server. The next time you connect, you run the command

and see all previously opened terminals, applications running in them, command history, and so on. Everything is exactly the same as when disconnecting from tmux. Moreover, it doesn't matter what machine you logged in from the second time, the tmux session will be completely restored.

Tmuxinator

Allows not only to open terminal windows in full screen. He knows how to divide the screen vertically (Ctrl + b%) and horizontally (Ctrl + b "). This can also be used to create something like a "monitoring screen": for example, you can run tmux on a remote machine with three open windows, one of which will have an htop monitor, the other will have a tail utility that displays the latest messages from the desired log, and in another one - the df utility, which shows the fullness of file systems.

At first glance, such a monitor seems very convenient, but what if you need to close it and start tmux with normal full-screen windows, and then reopen the monitor? This can be done with several different tmux sessions. But this is also not perfect option, because on another server you will have to set up the same windows configuration again.

Makes the problem easier. It allows you to describe the desired layout of windows and applications launched in them in the configuration file. This config can then be used to quickly start a tmux session anywhere at any time.

First, let's create a new config:

$ tmuxinator new NAME

Tmuxinator will open the default text editor defined in the EDITOR variable. At the end of the config there will be lines describing the window layout. To get the layout from the example above, remove them and add the following lines:

windows:
-editor:
layout: tiled
panes:
- sudo tail -f /var/log/vsftpd.log
- watch df -h
-htop

This config describes a tmux layout with a single window divided into three panes: latest vsftpd log messages, FS full and htop. It remains only to start the session:

$ tmuxinator start NAME

System administrator tools. Tmuxinator

All configs are stored in the ~/.tmuxinator directory, so they are easy to move between machines.

watch

You may have noticed that in the tmuxinator config I used watch df -h instead of df -h. This is important, because immediately after the partition table is displayed on the screen, df exits, and we need to constantly monitor the disk status. This is exactly what the watch utility allows you to do. It reruns the df -h command every two seconds so the information on the screen is always up to date.

Watch can be used to monitor almost anything: the state of a machine (watch uptime), the contents of files (watch cat file) and directories (watch ls -l directory), can be run under watch own scripts. With the -n NUMBER option you can change the restart interval of the command, and with the -d flag you can make watch highlight changes in the output.

multitail

Another command from the tmuxinator config worth mentioning is sudo tail -f /var/log/vsftpd.log. This command prints the last ten lines of the vsftpd log and waits for new ones. Any admin should be familiar with tail, as well as its counterpart in systemd-based distributions:

$ journalctl -f -u vsftpd

This is the same basic knowledge as the ability to navigate through directories. But tail has a more interesting alternative called MultiTail. In fact, this is the same tail, but in a multi-window version. It allows you to display several logs at once, splitting the screen horizontally:

$ sudo multitail /var/log/vsftpd.log /var/log/nginx/access.log

With systemd and its journald, everything is again more complicated:

$ multitail -l "journalctl -f -u vsftpd" -l "journalctl -f -u nginx"

Even more difficult:

$ multitail -l "journalctl -f -u vsftpd | tr -cd "[:space:][:print:]"" -l "journalctl -f -u nginx | ​​tr -cd "[:space:][:print :]" "

Such a perversion is needed to remove special characters from the logs that systemd uses to highlight lines.

System administrator tools. multitail

MultiSSH

Let's get back to SSH. Sometimes the same command has to be executed on several machines. This can be done, among other things, using the standard features of the shell:

for host in 192.168.0.1 192.168.0.2; do
ssh $host "uname -a"
done

Or use a special tool, such as mssh:

$ gem install mssh
$ mssh --hostlist 127.0.0.1,127.0.0.2 "uname -a

Lsof

Another very important tool for any system administrator is lsof (LiSt Open Files). This utility allows you to find out which process / application has opened certain files. Run with no arguments, it lists all open files and processes. Flags can make this list more specific. For example, to find out which processes are using the files of a specified directory:

$ sudo lsof +D /var/log/

This feature can be very useful when you try to unmount a file system but get a Device or Resource Busy error. In this case, it is enough to kill the processes that have opened files in the specified FS, and you can unmount it without any problems. By applying the -t flag, this can be done in one pass:

# kill -9 lsof -t +D /home
# mount /home

The output can also be filtered using the name of the desired application or user. For example, the following command will show all files, open processes, whose names start with ssh:

And this one will show all the files opened by the user vasya:

Lsof can also be used to list all network connections:

The listing can be limited to a specific port:

Or get a list of all open ports:

$ lsof -iTCP -sTCP:LISTEN

sysadmin tools. Lsof

tcpdump

Any administrator has to solve the problems of network services. And sometimes in this case you can’t do without, which will clearly show how data is exchanged and what can go wrong in this process. It is considered the standard among Linux sniffers, but the choice does not end there. Almost every Linux distribution comes with the tcpdump console sniffer by default, with which you can quickly figure out the situation.

Run with no arguments, tcpdump without further ado starts listing to the console a list of all packets sent and received on all interfaces of the machine. With the -i option, you can select the desired interface:

$ sudo tcpdump -i wlp3s0

To limit the scope of tcpdump to only a specific machine and port, you can use the following construct:

$ sudo tcpdump -i wlp3s0 host 192.168.31.1 and port 53

You can also make tcpdump output not only information about packets, but also their contents:

$ sudo tcpdump -i wlp3s0 -X host 192.168.0.1 and port 80

If encryption is used, this does not make any sense, but using tcpdump you can analyze data transmitted using the HTTP and SMTP protocols.

Another interesting feature of tcpdump is filtering packets based on the content of specific bits or bytes in protocol headers. The following format is used for this: proto, where proto is the protocol, expr is the offset in bytes from the start of the packet header, and size is an optional field indicating the length of the data in question (1 byte by default). For example, to filter only packets with the SYN flag (TCP handshake initiation) set, you would use the following entry:

$ sudo tcpdump "tcp==2"

The tcpdump reporting format is a standard, almost all modern sniffers understand it. Therefore, tcpdump can be used to generate a dump on a remote machine, and then send it to the local one and analyze it using the same Wireshark:

$ ssh tcpdump -w - "port !22" | wireshark -k -i -

sysadmin tools. tcpdump

ngrep

Tcpdump is good for its versatility and variety of possibilities, however, it is not so easy and convenient to use it to search for specific data inside transmitted packets. This task is much better handled by ngrep, which is designed to display network packets that match a given mask.

For example, to find the parameters passed by the GET and POST methods within an HTTP session, you can use the following command:

$ sudo ngrep -l -q -d eth0 "^GET |^POST " tcp and port 80

And this is how you can analyze SMTP traffic on all network interfaces:

$ sudo ngrep -i "rcpt to|mail from" tcp port smtp

VnStat

There are a lot of traffic accounting and statistics accumulation systems. Often they are built right into the remote server management system and allow you to analyze costs using visual graphs. But if you're using the console and all you want is a quick interface statistic, then the best tool is vnStat.

VnStat is able to accumulate statistics on a continuous basis, saving data between reboots, and using it is as simple as shelling pears. First, install the package and start the vnstat service:

$ sudo systemctl start vnstat
$ sudo vnstat -u

From that moment it will start collecting statistics. To view it, just run the following command (replace wlp3s0 with the name of the desired network interface):

$ vnstat -i wlp3s0

Statistics can be specified, for example, display hourly statistics with a graph:

$ vnstat -h wlp3s0

Statistics by day or month:

$ vnstat -d wlp3s0
$ vnstat -m wlp3s0

Using the -t flag, you can get information about the ten days with the highest traffic consumption:

$ vnstat -t wlp3s0

To monitor the current activity on a network interface, vnStat can be run in live mode:

$ vnstat -l -i wlp3s0

In this case, it will show the data transfer rate at the current moment, and after completion of the work, it will display statistics for the entire time of live monitoring.

System Administrator Utilities. VnStat

iptraf-ng

Iptraf-ng is another handy network interface monitoring tool. Like vnStat, it allows you to get detailed statistics on the use of the channel, but the most useful feature is real-time traffic monitoring.

System Administrator Utilities. iptraf-ng

Iptraf visually shows with which hosts data is currently being exchanged, the number of transmitted packets and their volume, as well as flags and ICMP messages. To access this information, select the IP traffic monitor menu item on the main screen.

NetHogs

VnStat and iptraf are handy when it comes to getting data for the entire interface as a whole. But what if you need to know which specific applications are currently communicating with remote hosts?

The NetHogs utility will help with this. This is a kind of analogue of the top/htop utility for network monitoring. You install the utility, and then run it by specifying the desired network interface:

$ sudo nethogs wlp3s0

A list of applications that most frequently communicate with remote machines appears on the screen.

Iotop

Since we are talking about analogues of top, we cannot fail to mention iotop. This utility allows you to see which processes are performing disk read/write operations. It is better to run it with the --only flag, otherwise, in addition to those processes that are currently performing I / O, it will also show some of the other processes that can sleep:

$ sudo iotop --only

System Administrator Utilities. Iotop

Nmon

It's time to put everything together. Nmon combines the capabilities of many of the utilities discussed and allows you to get real-time statistics on the use of the processor, memory, I / O, kernel work, and other data.

System Administrator Utilities. Nmon

Nmon is a console application with a pseudo-graphical interface. It works like this: you run nmon as root, and then add the information you need to the screen. For example, to add information about the processor load to the screen, press c, the occupancy random access memory- m, I/O - d, network - n, processes - t, filesystems - j. This way you can create your own monitor configuration that will display only what you need.

One line

In this article, I tried to bypass the tools that you should already be familiar with. But if you still don’t know about them, here is a short list of what may come in handy:

• top/htop - process monitor, shows those who use the most CPU;
• scp - utility for copying files from and to a remote machine via SSH;
• Nmap - port scanner, allows you to conduct a quick surface penetration test (we already had a detailed article about it);
• netcat is a network Swiss knife that allows you to manually connect to servers that work with plain text protocols: HTTP, SMTP;
• dd is a utility for block copying data, you can dump a file system from it;
• mc - console two-pane file manager.

Instead of a conclusion

Here it should be said once again that this is only the tip of the iceberg, that each admin has his own tools, be sure to add the flexibility of Linux, and so on and so forth. But this article only describes a set of good tools that will make your life easier.

The system administrator is constantly fighting for free disk space. This applies to both user systems and servers. Sometimes you can quickly determine which files are occupying the disk, but when in a hurry (force majeure) or when the problem is not obvious, a free program will come to the rescue - WinDirStat.

With its help, you can quickly determine the size of directories, files, their structure and location on the disk. There are several display modes, among them the familiar Explorer, as well as a graphical representation of the occupied disk space.

Analyzing network packets and troubleshooting network infrastructure is a rather time-consuming task that requires preparation. Wireshark is a free tool that makes learning and analyzing traffic easier with its many features. One look at this software will arouse interest and desire to install this utility for further review. On the pages of the project site will definitely appear materials dedicated to the program Wireshark- stay tuned.

Who doesn't know PuTTY? Perhaps this is one of the few programs that is used by all IT specialists. For those who are not yet familiar with it - here is a multiple description. PuTTY is a terminal emulator. If you need serial connection (COM), Telnet, SSH, TCP, Rlogin is the program for you.

AMANDA Network Backup is a data backup system that uses a basic (central) server and clients for different operating systems: Windows, Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X. At the same time, recording to disks, tapes, and cloud storage. The principle of operation is well illustrated in the figure below:

nmap is a free utility designed for a variety of customized scanning of IP networks with any number of objects, determining the status of objects in the scanned network (ports and their corresponding services). The program was originally implemented for UNIX systems, but versions for many operating systems are now available.

PowerGUI - allows you to simplify the assembly of your own PowerShell scripts to simply select the necessary cmdlets that suit your task and drag them to the right places. Ideal for those who are new to PowerShell but have a basic understanding of the concepts. PowerGUI is an easy-to-use editor that is likely to improve your understanding of assembling more complex and advanced scripts, especially if you're best at absorbing information visually.

.

VirtualBox - lightweight and affordable virtualization for various operating systems (Windows, Linux, Max OS, etc.) Read more about this software.

ClamWin is a free antivirus for the Windows operating system (all editions). The possibilities include:

• Scheduled Scan Scheduler.
• Automatic update of the anti-virus database.
• Antivirus scanner.
• Integration into the Explorer context menu in Windows.
• Plugin for Microsoft Outlook.
• Ability to work from a flash drive or CD without the need for installation.

Of course, there are many antivirus programs, but this product is included in today's article due to open source code and availability.

This add-in allows you to conveniently manage virtual machines in the Microsoft Azure cloud.

Excellent fast multi-platform network scanner.

That's all. Leave in the comments the programs and services that you use in your work. Good luck!