Net Tool Box

Sharware; £20

Current Version: 3.1 (July 18, 2005)

Net Tool Box is a full set of networking tools for network administrators, software developers and enthusiasts. It can perform all sorts of tasks, from simple DNS resolution to full-blown host interrogation. You can graphically map the location of an IP address, you can traceroute to almost any computer on the Internet, and you can use the terminals to perform protocol analysis and development. Version 3.1 features the following enhancements:

• [NEW] Rewrote Ping, Ping Scan and Traceroute to work fully x-platform. Windows 98/ME Note: Requires WinSock 2.
• [NEW] Added a contextual menu (right-click/ctrl-click) for IP addresses. You can now bring up a menu on practically any IP address shown throughout Net Tool Box providing information and options.
• [NEW] Added preferences option to remember tool presets. This will retain things like timeouts and port ranges betweeen sessions. Also added 'Reset' button in preferences to revert these presets to their defaults.
• [NEW] Added an 'out-of-date' warning to Mapper on first run. Caida's NetGeo database, which Mapper uses to retrieve network loactions, is no-longer maintained.
• [CHG] Removed Authorize facility to save a lot of headaches. You can authorise manually still if you'd like. See the FAQ for more info.
• [CHG] Updated About Box credits.
• [CHG] Windows: The toolbar is now de-mac-ified. No more aqua stripes and aqua buttons.
• [CHG] Changed the favorites popup menu to look better x-platform.
• [CHG] Re-named Rendezvous to 'Bonjour' to comply with Apple's fantastically sensible name-change!
• [CHG] Changed some toolbar icons. VPN interfaces now have an icon in the interfaces window.
• [CHG] The "Show WAN Address in Toolbar" option now gets it's IP from the version-checker routine. This means "Show WAN Address" will only work if version checking is enabled. The preferences window has been modified to reflect this change.
• [FIX] Using keyboard shortcuts for opening Favourites and Preferences windows on OS X no longer shows the application switcher.
• [FIX] Windows: ARP Table and Netstat are now working.
• [FIX] Fixed typos on Network Statistics window and Port Updater window.
• [FIX] "Favorites" is now spelled correctly.
• [FIX] Mac: ARP Table MAC addresses are now formatted correctly.
• [FIX] Windows: Console-output in terminals and whois now respect the fixed-width font set in the preferences.
• [FIX] Statistics Window: Now formats bytes correctly as MB, GB etc.
• [FIX] Netstat now works on Mac OS X 10.4, Tiger. Unfortunately, Apple have removed the tool used to relate sockets to processes, so for 10.4 and above, the 'Process' column is not available. Hopefully I can find a workaround, to bring the functionality back in the future.

Net Tool Box is a shareware application, approx $35 (£20). It has a 5 minute session timeout, a 3 map-per-session limit and one minute timeouts on NetStat, TrafficWatcher and Packet Watcher sessions. Also, Traffic Watcher can only listen on port 80 (Web) in demo mode.