LIberkey: 165 free programs.

I love the portable apps movement that's popular right now.  As an IT guy in charge of over 20 computers at work it's nice to have some good software that can be used where you need it.  Yeah, I know it's easier to just create a network drive and access it from each computer. I do that too but for those of you who don't have that kind of access this is a very good solution.

There three flavors of Liberkey.
Basic: 12programs using 120 MB
Standard: 90 programs using 442 MB
Ultimate: 168 programs using 587 MB

I've been using Liberkey Ultimate for a few months now.  It easily fits on a 1 GB flash drive which means I don't have to break the bank to get it portable.  I saw 1 GB drives at Target over the weekend for $5.  I've installed it on a 4 GB drive that I got at Best Buy for $13 so I have room to have additional documents and installations.

Liberkey allows for customized additional software and has it's own "My Documents" where you can store files accessible through Liberkey.  Here's what the default tree looks like. I've added an autorun.inf file which can be created within Liberkey.

 Here is what the Liberkey Tools section contains.

 

This what the main program window looks like.

The Dude: Network Topology

There are more than 20 computers in my network at work and keeping track of who is using which computer and if it's "up" or not is important. Using a Network Topology can be very helpful. I've been using The Dude for 2 years now and I find it increases my network organization 100 fold. It also makes me look really cool when people walk by my office.

(Click image for larger view)

The Dude network monitor is a new application by MikroTik which can dramatically improve the way you manage your network environment. It will automatically scan all devices within specified subnets, draw and layout a map of your networks, monitor services of your devices and alert you in case some service has problems

Some of it's features:

• The Dude is free of charge!
• Auto network discovery and layout
• Discovers any type or brand of device
• Device, Link monitoring, and notifications
• Includes SVG icons for devices, and supports custom icons and backgrounds
• Easy installation and usage
• Allows you to draw your own maps and add custom devices
• Supports SNMP, ICMP, DNS and TCP monitoring for devices that support it
• Individual Link usage monitoring and graphs
• Direct access to remote control tools for device management
• Supports remote Dude server and local client
• Runs in Linux Wine environment, MacOSDarwine, and Windows
• Best price/value ratio compared to other products (free of charge)

Scanning your network is a simple as clicking the "Discover" button. This software is very customizable as you can see from the photo above. The Dude is definitely worth looking into.

See where IPs are located with Visual Route

I've taken some time to study the incoming IP addresses that are logged on our router to see who's using ports 40784, 50225 and 23827. One tool that's fun to use is VisualRoute which places the IP trace points on a map of the world. Below are some examples from the site's Live Demo.


Keep in mind these screenshots are from the demo that's run in Java so the actual program looks different. I chose to show these screenies because I am using the free version which doesn't show data on the world map. However, this software gives the user great ways to display the data.

There are 5 versions of this software including a free version which I use.

Honestly I rarely use this software because there are other traceroutes out there and the only appeal this one has for me is the cool mapping of the planet. It makes me look like one of those geeks in the movies that have some super software to trace an IP to a doorstep of a person and show a satellite picture of the kids playing in the backyard.

Tag team your VNC with mRemote

I know this was covered a week ago on another blog but since I discovered it it has become the blood in my IT network.

mRemote is a full-featured, open source, multi-tab remote connections manager. It allows you to store all your remote connections in a simple yet powerful interface.

Currently these protocols are supported:

• RDP (Remote Desktop)
• VNC (Virtual Network Computing)
• ICA (Independent Computing Architecture)
• SSH (Secure Shell)
• Telnet (TELecommunication NETwork)
• HTTP/S (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)
• Rlogin (Rlogin)

Here's a HUGE list of features.

• Free and Open Source, relist of connections
• Inheritance makes it possible to store properties on folder basis and let the underlying connections inherit this info
• Support for importing connections from Active Directory
• Allows creating nested containers (folders) to categorize connections
• "Quick Connect" feature to quickly open a connection without creating an entry
• "Quick Search" feature to quickly find a connection while typing
• Support for SCP/SFTP (SSH) file
• leased under the GPL
• Panels and tabs allow to group certain connections together, dock them to any side of the window or completely undock them and move them to another screen for example
• Multiple supported protocols (RDP, VNC, ICA, SSH, Telnet, RAW, Rlogin and HTTP/S)
• Easy to organize and maintain
transfers
• Assign icons to connections to easily identify purpose
• Screenshot manager allows to collect multiple screenshots and save them all together or copy them to the clipboard
• View remote session info and log off sessions (RDP)
• Portable
• Auto-Reconnect feature
• "Auto-Update" feature
• SQL Server support
• Show description tooltips when hoovering over connections
• System tray icon with connection menu
• Fullscreen (Kiosk) mode
• Assign global credentials to use when no information is provided on connection basis
• Host Up/Down (Ping) feature shows if the selected host answers to a ping

I have mine set up with folders containing connections to all my servers, printers, routers and WiFi points. I also have folders for what I call Active VNC connections where all the connections are set to interact with the end user. Another folder, called View Only, contains VNC connections set to View only so I can't mess someone up with my mouse while I watch them work. Yet another folder for the classic Remote Desktop Connections.

Once everything is all set up I can connect to remote computers so fast it's like I've been working at that computer all day. And having multiple connections open in the same window is so much better than having a bunch of open windows cluttering up my taskbar.

Even while writing this post I was visited by a coworker who was suddenly missing the shared group calendars in his Outlook. While he was standing there explaining the situation to me I was able to log into his computer and fix the problem within 30 seconds. It would have taken much longer to do this if I had gone to his desk at the other end of the building.

I recommend this free (for now) software to anyone who has to manage multiple computers. I say, "free (for now)", because the author is considering taking the open source program to commercial due to it's popularity. Get it for free while you can.

Virtual Network Connections improve my responce time.

In my 'shop" there are at least 20 computers including laptops and 5 servers. Everyone where I work has their own office with actual doors and being able to get to their computer faster helps keep downtime low. Ultra VNC helps me do just that.

Once I install Ultra VNC on all the machines I can connect to a person's computer within 10 seconds. In some cases I can have a solution in place within the time I could have walked to their desk. This is critical in my workplace especially when I get the "feast" of multiple issues in a short period of time.

What I prefer VNC over Remote Desktop is that I can interact with the current session the user is in. If I want I can enter a session in View Only mode so that my mouse movements doesn't interact with theirs. This is very helpful when a person is telling me they have a recurring issue with a specific software. I can watch what they are doing and see for myself when those errors happen.

My favorite feature is the AutoSize option.  Many people here have 20" widescreen monitors and Ultra VNC does a nice job of shrinking those screens into whatever monitor size I have.

I get phone calls often throughout the day and I can log into a person's computer while they are explaining the problem. I

I use Ultra VNC because it's free. It's fast and easy. If you are able to get this implemented in your network I recommend it.