Regillo Consulting Group – Business Computing Solutions
Securing your computing environment does not stop at user rights and permissions, anti-virus, firewalls or switches. There are a whole range of products out there to protect your infrastructure. This list is FREE tools that support a more secure and reliable Windows networked environment. Please let us know if there is something else deserved mentioning.
We take no responsibilities for using this software.
FREE Network Security Tools
Ethereal is a free network sniffer. It allows you to examine data from a live network or from a capture file on disk for further analysis. You can interactively browse the capture data, viewing summary and detail information for each packet.
Ettercap is a multipurpose sniffer/interceptor/logger for switched LANs. It supports active and passive dissection of many protocols (even ciphered ones) and includes many features for network and host analysis.
Netstumbler is the best known Windows tool for finding open wireless access points. More advanced users may want to try Kismet (below).
Kismet is an 802.11 layer2 wireless network detector, sniffer, and intrusion detection system. Kismet will work with any wireless card which supports raw monitoring (rfmon) mode, and can sniff 802.11b, 802.11a, and 802.11g traffic.
Nmap (“Network Mapper”) is a free utility for network exploration or security auditing. It was designed for large scale networks, but works fine against single hosts. Nmap uses raw IP packets to determine what hosts are available on the network, what services they are running, what OS and version, packet filters/firewalls in use, etc.
Although geared more for advanced users, we can’t skip on mentioning Nessus.
Another tool worth mentioning is the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA). This free Microsoft product can scan your network or individual workstation for security misconfigurations and security vulnerabilities.
Excellent FREE Tools Links:
Insecure.org offers the Top 75 Security Tools List. Make sure to check this one out.
Goldenseal Studios has an excellent collection of FREE network tools here!
The Sysinternals web site provides you with advanced utilities, technical information, and source code related to Windows 9x, Windows Me, and Windows NT/2000/XP/2K3/Vista/Win7 that you won’t find anywhere else. Microsoft must agree, as they acquired Systernals!
There is a nice collection of FREE Network Management Tools from SolarWinds here!
Foundstone.com has a nice collection of FREE Network Security Tools available!
Other Tools and Utilities:
Anti-Virus: Sometimes, nothing can be more devastating on your computer than a virus. We define viruses as anything that causes undesirable operations on a PC.
Stinger is a stand-alone utility used to detect and remove specific viruses. It is not a substitute for full anti-virus protection, but rather a tool to assist administrators and users when dealing with an infected system.
Spyware/Adware/Junkware, etc. are usually never detected by anti-virus or security scans as technically, you have allowed this software to be installed, and others without your consent, from malicious scripts on web pages, etc. This violates not only your privacy, but also slows down your system. Spybot is the best free program we’ve seen!
Firewalls are designed to protect your PC from hackers. Hardware the best, but software can still control the door to your computer and allow only traffic that you understand and initiate. Application control allows you to decide which applications can and cannot use the Internet. Download FREE Firewall Software Here!
Please email ANY comments or suggestions for this page!
