Some useful tools for FREE

(As seen on Symantec Connect 05 April 2011)

I'd like to share the free tools I downloaded from the Internet. These are the tools that I use almost on a daily basis in deplyoment and troubleshooting SEP clients for the past few months. All of these are freeware so you can use it as long as management approves. So, here goes:

• PingInfoView - Used to ping multiple clients by list. Either hostname or IP and you can select either ping once or continous and also set the maximum time to wait before timeout. This one doesn't get detected as a malware by Symantec. I use this with the reports of non-reporting clients to check if they're online before starting up the Sylink replacer. You can copy or export the results into a spreadsheet.
• PSList - a DOS utility from SysInternals that I use to show the running processes. Although you can use the tasklist in DOS which is already available in XP by default. I follow this with:
• PSKill - a DOS utility from SysInternals to terminate processes on local or network PCs. I use this when a certain deployment fails due to a malware or firewall before re-running the SEP install.
• PSExec - another DOS utility used to execute processes remotely. It can also be used to copy files to remote PCs before executing them on network PCs.
• Process Explorer - (ProcExp.exe) a graphical version of PSList/Tasklist. Shows the running processes and their subsequent child processes. Like MS services and MS Task Manager combined. Really helpful should the aforementioned is blocked by some malware. I keep a copy of this in my USB for troubleshooting clients.
• SoftPerfect Network Scanner - Another IP scanner tool. You can check for online clients with this tool. It uses the ping command and can ping subnets or IP ranges. Furthermore, it shows the IE version and network shares found in the client. I use this during deployment to check if the services required for remote deployment are enabled and running. Failed install oftentimes result from the target PC having its RPC service disabled or has a firewall preventing the access to the that service.
• SoftPerfect Networx - A tool used to measure the bandwidth per unit time or total bandwidth used by a PC or server-assuming your company doesn't have one. I have this installed on the SEPM server to check how much data it has sent and recieved. The data can be readily exported in MS Office format aside from text and csv. The console already has bar graphs and a line graphs on its GUI so you can compare the usage from hourly to monthly. The only downside is that it doesn't record the activity when no user is logged in.