Windows security toolbox: Network security
Security in the work place begins and ends with the strength of your network security. One
successful attack can lead to information leaks, malware infections and can practically bring your
company's daily activity to a screeching hault. Check out these 12 free tools from
SearchWindowsSecurity.com to prevent these attacks from crippling your network.
Look@LAN Network Monitor |
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Look@LAN Network Monitor is an advanced network monitor, that automatically detects and analyzes
your network nodes, including operating system. The program can monitor the nodes and alert you of
any changes (new nodes, offline nodes etc.). The main window lists all available nodes and detailed
statistics and scan results are available for each individual machine, including a real-time
traceroute report, ping results, active services (open ports) and more. In addition to the
auto-detected nodes, you can also customize the scan ranges and add additional networks.
Additional features include (but are not limited to):
- HTML reports
- Statistical graphs
- Network tree view
- Single node scanning
 Download
Look@LAN Network Monitor
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| Snort - Intrusion Detection |
Snort® is an open source network intrusion prevention and detection system utilizing a rules-driven
language which combines the benefits of signature, protocol and anomaly based inspection methods.
With millions of downloads to date, Snort is the most widely deployed intrusion detection and
prevention technology worldwide and has become the de facto standard for the industry.
Download
Snort here
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| Ethereal |
Ethereal is used by network professionals around the world for troubleshooting, analysis, software
and protocol development, and education. It has all of the standard features you would expect in a
protocol analyzer, and several features not seen in any other product. Its open source license
allows talented experts in the networking community to add enhancements. It runs on all popular
computing platforms, including Unix, Linux, and Windows.
Download
Ethereal
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| SoftPerfect Network Scanner |
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SoftPerfect Network Scanner is a free multi-threaded IP, NetBIOS and SNMP scanner with a modern
interface and several advanced features. It is intended for both system administrators and users
who are interested in computer security. The program pings computers, scans for listening TCP ports
and shows what types of resources are shared on a network (including system and hidden). p>In
addition, it allows you to mount shared resources as network drives, browse them using Windows
Explorer, filter the results list and more. SoftPerfect Network Scanner can also check for a
user-defined port and report if it is found open, resolve host names and auto-detect your local IP
range.
Main features include:
- Fast multithreaded scanning
- Pings computers
- Detects hardware (MAC) addresses
- Detects hidden shared resources (normally not visible on a network) and write accessible
shares
- Scans for listening TCP ports and SNMP services
- Mounting and exploring of found resources
- Doesn't require administrative privileges
Download
SoftPerfect Network Scanner
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| Sysmon |
Network monitoring tool designed to provide high performance and accurate network monitoring.
Currently supported protocols include SMTP, IMAP, HTTP, TCP, UDP, NNTP, and PING tests.
Download
Sysmon
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| LanSpy 2.0 |
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You can use LanSpy to find out who works on a remote computer, what kind of OS is installed or
learn almost anything else about a remote computer in just a few seconds.
LanSpy is made for gathering the following information about a remote computer:
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- Domain (working group) information
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- Transports
| SuperScan v4.0 |
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SuperScan 4 is an update of the Windows port scanning tool, SuperScan.
New features in this version include:
- Superior scanning speed
- Support for unlimited IP ranges
- Improved host detection using multiple ICMP methods
- TCP SYN scanning
- UDP scanning (two methods)
- IP address import supporting ranges and CIDR formats
- Simple HTML report generation
- Source port scanning
- Fast hostname resolving
- Extensive banner grabbing
- Massive built-in port list description database
- IP and port scan order randomization
- A selection of useful tools (ping, traceroute, Whois etc)
- Extensive Windows host enumeration capability
Download
SuperScan v4.0
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| Netcat |
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Netcat is a featured networking utility which reads and writes data across network connections,
using the TCP/IP protocol.
It is designed to be a reliable "back-end" tool that can be used directly or easily driven by
other programs and scripts. At the same time, it is a feature-rich network debugging and
exploration tool, since it can create almost any kind of connection you would need and has several
interesting built-in capabilities.
It provides access to the following main features:
- Outbound and inbound connections, TCP or UDP, to or from any ports.
- Featured tunneling mode which allows also special tunneling such as UDP to
TCP, with the possibility of specifying all network parameters (source port/interface, listening
port/interface, and the remote host allowed to connect to the tunnel).
- Built-in port-scanning capabilities, with randomizer.
- Advanced usage options, such as buffered send-mode (one line every N seconds), and hexdump (to
stderr or to a specified file) of trasmitted and received data.
- Optional RFC854 telnet codes parser and responder.
Download
Netcat
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| Nmap |
Nmap ("Network Mapper") is a free open source utility for network exploration or security auditing.
It was designed to rapidly scan large networks, although it works against single hosts. Nmap uses
raw IP packets to determine what hosts are available on the network, what services (application
name and version) those hosts are offering, what operating systems (and OS versions) they are
running, what type of packet filter and /firewalls are in use, and dozens of other characteristics.
Nmap runs on most types of computers and both console and graphical versions are available. Nmap is
free software, available with full source code under the terms of the GNU GPL.
Download
Nmap
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| TCPView 2.34 |
TCPView is a Windows program that will show you detailed listings of all TCP and UDP endpoints on
your system, including the local and remote addresses and state of TCP connections. On Windows NT,
2000 and XP TCPView also reports the name of the process that owns the endpoint. TCPView provides a
more informative and conveniently presented subset of the Netstat program that ships with Windows.
The TCPView download includes Tcpvcon, a command-line version with the same functionality.
Download
TCPView 2.34
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| NetStumbler |
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NetStumbler is a tool for Windows that allows you to detect Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs)
using 802.11b, 802.11a and 802.11g.
It has many uses:
- Verify that your network is set up the way you intended.
- Find locations with poor coverage in your WLAN.
- Detect other networks that may be causing interference on your network.
- Detect unauthorized "rogue" access points in your workplace.
- Help aim directional antennas for long-haul WLAN links.
- Use it recreationally for war driving.
NetStumbler
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Related information from SearchWindowsSecurity.com:
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This was first published in September 2008
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