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Ten Tools Every Admin Should Have

windowsconnected.com — Are you a system administrator, or work with computers? If so, this article is a must read. Outlining everything an administrator needs to keep things glitch-free.

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  • MaStErHaCk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Oha! Yeah nice.
  • illusionfxp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0good stuff. digged
  • orabox, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Microcentric Blog
  • vapb400, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Ten tools every Windows admin should have.
  • libratem, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Funny thing; I do sysadmin for a 30-client OSX network and the only thing here I can see that might be of use to me is Ethereal and an RSS reader. Weird.

    j/k. sort of.
  • SComps, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This list has been around for a very long time with slight modifications. It's *still* 'Just another list' post.
  • spyres, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0Wow, yet another blog post containing another lame "Top ten list".

    Lame.
  • vonskippy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Must suck to be a windoze sysadmin - you'd need a big budget to get all those expensive shiny tools that are free for any *nix distro. But hey, at least you get paid well (must go now and punch myself hard in the side to stop laughing).
  • alterself, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1why punch your self in the head for free, the way you want?
    you can pay (us) a monhtly charge and i will come punch you in the head however (we) feel you should be punched.
    please note that even if the punch fails to be delivered, you will still be charged. and possibly charged for missing the punch as well. ;)
  • Lord_oftheTrons, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0His list is alright but is missing some important ones.

    NeWT/Nessus is a must have.
    GFI LanGaurd
    Snort

    He really didn't have any IDS, besides Ethereal, listed, which you definitely need.
  • Jonty, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Linux should be number one on that list. No.
  • libratem, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0And, of course, Punch will go through upgrades periodically, and need patches and service packs. You will be billed accordingly.

    We are also planning a Spring '06 launch of PunchLive; stay tuned for further details.
  • gildude, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4It's funny to see all the comments from people who admin 5-50 machine *nix networks. Folks, that's not an admin - that's a PC helper. Should take only several minutes per week (whether it was *nix or Windows). Admins have hundreds of machines that they are responsible for. Try being an admin for a fortune 500 company where you are expected to handle hundreds of Windows machines yourself (as part of a team each of whom handles hundreds).
  • alterself, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0ROFL, EXACTLY!
  • rhyno2000, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0The headline should read "every Microsoft Admin...", agreed.

    Also, a Microsoft Action Pack subscription should be #11 -- Only 200 smackers for in-house use of almost every Microsoft product. A steal.

    ...waiting for the ever-popular, ever-mature dollar sign...
  • libratem, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1"It's funny to see all the comments from people who admin 5-50 machine *nix networks. Folks, that's not an admin - that's a PC helper."

    Okay. thanks-- I just revised the job history on my resume. appreciate it.

    "Try being an admin for a fortune 500 company where you are expected to handle hundreds of Windows machines yourself (as part of a team each of whom handles hundreds)."


    No.
  • HebrewHammer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Windows Admin Tools - a must have, MSDN License - nice to have, The rest of that crap, well mostly useless.
  • Urusai, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0He forgot to add ISO Recorder, so you can burn yourself a Linux install disk.
  • SweetsGreen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Giant...I mean MS-AntiSpyware...OK
    Adaware.....OK
    but
    Spysweeper...are you kidding me???? "Worst Program Ever" (in my comicbook guy voice)
    How about SpyBot S&D
  • cartel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Incorrect title.

    "Ten tools every Windows admin should have"
  • illusionfxp, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1True, the title could be better. However, the website is called Windows Connected. It's expected that you are a Windows user. Stop spamming Linux in here.
  • xsxs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Dugg for ERDcommander.
  • gildude, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1SweetsGreen - Spysweeper (which I personally don't like at all; I uninstalled it) continually wins awards in the magazines "head to head" competitions. SpyBot is still done "by a guy in his garage" and as such isn't going to get much acceptance from corporates where this blog was targeted - just because he sometimes goes on vacation and doesn't put out new defs for awhile. SpyBot may BE better. It might be the BEST. But, it needs a real company to handle it and support before some companies will feed comfortable with it for full-scale deployment.
  • fyre2012, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2"9.) MSDN Subscription"

    hahaha
    which costs how much? At least $1,000 iirc

    sure it's handy, but it's not needed just to manage an ad-hoc collection of *doze boxes
  • eddieo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Frackin blog links!! I suggest digg admin put in some kind of filter so as to not allow any link with the word blog in it.
  • cgruber, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Cain & Abel is missing.

    http://www.oxid.it/cain.html
  • topper24hours, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Quote:"It's funny to see all the comments from people who admin 5-50 machine *nix networks. Folks, that's not an admin - that's a PC helper. Should take only several minutes per week (whether it was *nix or Windows). Admins have hundreds of machines that they are responsible for. Try being an admin for a fortune 500 company where you are expected to handle hundreds of Windows machines yourself (as part of a team each of whom handles hundreds)."

    HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAAHAH!!!!!! Yeah dude! You nailed it genius! This little blurb article/blog was written to teach admins of Fortune 500 companies what tools they should be using. HAHAAHAHAAHAHAH! Christ you are an idiot! I know you were trying to belittle everybody else by telling everybody that works w/ "only" 50 PCs that they aren't admins but what comes across is that truly you have no knowledge of the IT world at all!
  • vonskippy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0Hey "girldude" - How do you know how many systems people here admin? Are you a psychic? No? Then STFU.
  • imtigger2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1topper... I kinda with ya on that. I support "only" 20 pc's, by myself, and it's a bitch, and takes more than "only several minutes per week". I'm definately more than just a "PC helper". Staying on top of hardware, software, virus, updates and backup issues is hard enough, but incompetent users just tops it all.

    I would think that these Fortune 500 companies have massive IT departments with MANY hands in there to help, as well as enterprise-level solutions for system-wide upgrades and fixes. For me, I don't have the money for access to those type of solutions. Some of these tools in the blogs are there for us 'little' guys who have to stay on top of things with as little money or effort as possible. I would think it's OBVIOUS that a guy with 300+ pc's to troubleshoot ISN'T going to be running Filemon or Regmon on each of them and keep an eye on the loggers for those. That's frickin' insane to even imagine.

    Thanks for the info!
  • r00t3d0ut, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0He was going good until the MSDN subscription. One would be in the poor house if they had to buy Winternals AND MSDN...

    +digg anyway
  • linker3000, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1High up the list should be a Knoppix CD and/or another CD-bootable Linux distro with a host of recovery tools.
  • ACalcutt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1ERD sucks(its good to have...but very limited).....
    what about bartpe...that has so many plugins and is very customizable.

    No mention of free tools like
    Spybot S&D... http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/
    HijackThis... http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html
    CW Shredder... http://www.intermute.com/spysubtract/cwshredder_download.html
    AutoRuns... http://www.sysinternals.com/SecurityUtilities.html

    There are many other free spyware tools out there...

    Virtual PC software is good to have, the network tools is also good, The USB drive i would say anything under 512mb is a waste of money....128 or 256 goes fast...

    The MSDN and the RSS reader seem stupid for such a small list....something better should have been put there
  • jphillips59, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0There are different levels of subscriptions to MSDN....not all of them will put you in the poor house.
  • teece, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Having worked in one of those Fortune 500 companies with tens of thousands of Windows desktops to administer, I'd like to note that anyone that thinks they are administering hundreds of PCs by themselves in that environment is deluded.

    In that situation, there are literally dozens to hundreds of folks that make the final, end-user admin's job possible. There are the IT guys that came up with the VERY detailed policies you follow. There is the expensive off-the-shelf and custom software that you use hourly. There are the dozens of network guys that build the network infrastructure you rely on. There are the senior admins that run the software that keeps that infrastructure humming.

    I could go on and on.

    But as a Mac and Linux guy, this title annoys me. It's a sign of computer ignorance to provide a list for "admins" when you meant "Windows admins." When you don't even acknowledge the existence of other platforms, you're nowhere near as "l33t" as you think you are.
  • imtigger2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0It's free to sign up for some good MSDN newsletters and access to quite a bit of information that I've found helpful at times. I signed up through my passport account.
  • spectre_25gt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Could someone explain why an RSS aggregator is an essential system administration tool?
  • Seumas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0If you're stuck having to use these tools, you're likely a Windows admin and that would indicate that the 11th tool would be the most useful: Resume Maker Deluxe.

    I can't imagine what it would be like to work in a window's shop. I'm an engineer and not an IT dude, but fortunately or company (all 45,000 of us) are Solaris, Linux and OSX. Corporate policy is essentially that Windows machines (especially XP) are only allowed in controlled lab environments for specific purposes (software testing, for example).

    If you happen to insist on using WIndows (for your laptop, perhaps) and you need help from the IT desk, you can still get it. It'll just cost you or your team $25 per incident. :)
  • Slipdisc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0cain & abel yes. But not MSDN
  • johnnyhay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I use most of them, except for the last 3.
    Yeah, BartPE is better than winternal but they both work just as fine.
    One last thing, what type of certification(s) does one need to become a Network Administrator for large corporations?
    So far, I only carry an A+ and Network+.
  • nacho, on 10/12/2007, -0/+011) Unix migration handbook.
  • RomeyRome, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Hmmm..no VNC??
  • Mabu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0This centers mostly around Microsoft, and I think the proper term isn't "Network Administrator" but "reset button pusher".
  • willlangford, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is great for a Windows Admin. What about Mac or Linux? Some of these tools are useful for some parts and others they are useless. I feel that this list was make to just draw traffic, not very useful.

    Another VERY important Windows tool I use is BartPE.
  • jphillips59, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1MCSE is something that carries a lot of weight with people hiring, but real world experience is the best training.
  • MYarms, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"my network is bigger than yours so i'm a real admin, you're just a button pusher"

    hahahahhaha, wow how pathetic.
  • ida-linux, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0What about BartPE? I use that more than anything else for fixing Windows problems. You can put just about any tool you can think of on it.
  • Kissitfatty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i think that its hard to be a system admin for any size of pc wether it be 10 20 or 10,000 they all have their problems and they ALL CAN BE A BITCH even with linux your going to run into some problems as long as their are dumb people it will always be a hard job, i think we can all agree on that....
  • xoip, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What you really need is a Blackberry running sys admin tools from http://www.idokorro.com
  • CoolSilver, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0#1 Their own private mercenary to kill off probabmatic users.
  • Azorel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Very good post... Use all the toolz listed above.... Love VPC.. great way to tweak, load, lock and use other OS's ontop of my personal version... only recommendation I have is have a large about of ram on your VPC host machine. I have a gig or ddr 400 and wish I had 3gigs.
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