Guy's Top 10 Free Computer Utilities Review

Guy's Top 10 Utilities

I will be surprised if you don't find at least one gem amongst this list of tools that have served me well over the last 10 years (and more).  Many are completely free, while others offer a free trial.

1. FreePing 
2. SolarWinds LANSurveyor
3. Xobni (Inbox spelt backwards)
4. PuTTY (Connect to UNIX)
5. WMI Monitor
6. BgInfo (and SrvInfo)
7. Net-SNMP
8. Engineer's Toolset
9. DNS Stuff
10. WinDiff

1) FreePing

FreePing was the first computer utility that I ever used, thus it has a special place in my heart.  It's still wonderful for troubleshooting intermittent connectivity problems.  Here is where you can get a copy of FreePing.

2) SolarWinds LANSurveyor

LANSurveyor will produce a neat diagram of your network topology.  But that's just the start; LANSurveyor can create an inventory of the hardware and software of your machines and network devices.  Other neat features include dynamic update for when you add new devices to your network.  I also love the ability to export the diagrams to Microsoft Visio.

Finally, Guy bets that if you take a free trial of LANSurveyor then you will find a device on your network that you had forgotten about, or someone else installed without you realizing!

Download a Free Trial of LANSurveyor

3) Xobni (Inbox spelt backwards)

Like most people, I use email everyday, however, more than most people, I lose emails.  Enter my trusty servant Xobni.  This desktop utility keeps amazing me with the speed and accuracy with which it finds an email from the merest shred of information which I type in its search box. Try the amazing free Xobni program.

4) PuTTY

One of my biggest computing regrets is not being fluent in UNIX.  To help me overcome this skill deficiency I use the PuTTY computer utility to connect to various UNIX servers that I need to check.

PuTTY runs on a Windows operating system, connects to a UNIX machine, and then opens a window.  From there I can type commands to interrogate the UNIX machine.  While it's also possible to make changes, because of my ignorance of UNIX, I only rarely use that facility.  Download PuTTY and review this computer utility

5) WMI Monitor

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is one of the hidden treasures of Microsoft's operating systems.  Fortunately, Solarwinds have created a WMI Monitor so that you can view these gems of performance information for free.

• Monitor real-time performance metrics on any Windows server or application.
• Leverage a large selection of pre-built and community generated application templates.
• Modify or design your own application templates with the built-in WMI browser.
• This has been one of the most useful computer utilities that I have reviewed.
• Download Solarwinds' Free WMI Monitor

6) BgInfo (and SrvInfo)

In many ways BgInfo in an indulgence.  What this computer utility does is provide interesting, even crucial information about your operating system, and then displays it as a wallpaper on your desktop.

BgInfo is indeed one of my favourite tools, but it's also an example of a selection that will lead you to a whole suit of other utilities.  In this case it's Mark Russinovich's Sysinternals Suite of classic network tools.  Download BgInfo

7) Net-SNMP

I use Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to monitoring network devices such as routers.  Net-SNMP is a whole suite of applications that I have started to use for collecting information from such network devices.  A Net-SNMP policy is a set of rules and filters which decide what actions are necessary for that packet.  For example, you could base roles on: router, firewall, switch, web server or UNIX servers.  The net-policy policy distribution daemon (np-distd) then actions the appropriate rules and filters.  See a more comprehensive review of this crucial computer utility Net-SNMP.

8) Engineer's Toolset

The Engineer's Toolset v10 provides a comprehensive console of utilities for troubleshooting computer problems.  Guy's says it helps me monitor what's occurring on the network, and teaches me more about how the system literally operates.  Download your copy of Engineer's Toolset.

9) DNS Stuff

Regarding DNS and email, here is an program which will give you an online check of your email domain.  This utility pinpoints what's wrong with settings and offers steps to fix the problems.  Run a free health check on your domain and mail server.

10) WinDiff

WinDiff is a relatively insignificant and uninspiring computer program.  However, I love it because it brings to life a wonderful troubleshooting idea.

• Take a snapshot of a clean configuration.
• Make the change, force the error.
• Take another snapshot.
• Compare the two snapshots, find the difference, and solve the problem.

WinDiff is also worth its place in my top ten because it reminds me of all the wonderful and unsung tools that Microsoft provides for free.  See here for WinDiff and so much more.

One Man's Meat is Another Man's Poison

Here is the scene, it's a Windows training course, the delegates and Guy are chatting informally waiting for stragglers to arrive before I start the session.  The discussion gets around to which Resource Kit tool has the shortest name.  Nobody could beat two letters OH (Open Handle), however all those present agreed that it was a rubbish utility.

Then, one of the delegates rolled up a little later than the others, thus he was unaware of the previous review of computer utilities and surprised us by extolling the virtues of OH.  He went on to explain that the secret was to use the OH +otl (Object Type Lists) switch.  The rest of the delegates were entranced while he regaled us of how Open Handles had helped him cure a file sharing / violation problem.  I could not help smiling and thinking to myself, hmm... 'One man's meat is another man's poison'.

My point is that, you may find that WinDiff or BgInfo is not the sharpest tool in the box, but if you look at the rest of the utilities in the Windows Server Resource Kit you WILL find a tool to solve a problem or speed up a task. At an even higher level, realize that other Microsoft products also have 'ResKits', for example, Exchange 2007 and SQL.  Perhaps you now realize why I encourage you to look at all the tools in the Download areas and fill you boots with goodies.

Summary of Guy's Computer Utilities Review

Many of these computer tools are completely free.  Some are designed for small networks, but also have a bigger commercial or industrial version.  To me this is good because we small-time operators benefit, while bigger enterprises get a chance to try before they buy.  The rest of the computer tools offer free trials.

More Free and Trial Network Software

Here are Guy's reviews, recommendations and download links for handy utilities.

  ● NetFlow Monitoring   ● ipMonitor   ● Engineer's Toolset   ● Orion NPM   ● Orion APM   ● IPAT

  ● Free NetFlow Traffic Analyzer   ● Review Kiwi Syslog Analyzer   ● LANsurveyor Review   ● Orion IPAM

 *