Check out this page for savings of up to 50% on our software.
http://www.netscantools.com/blackfridaysale.html
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
NetScanTools Pro 10.98.1 is Now Available
Yesterday we released the latest installed version of NetScanTools Pro 10.98.1 and today we released the USB version patch. Both are now ready for you to update to the latest version. That is if you have an active maintenance plan.
Changes in this new version relate to starting NetScanTools Pro on Windows 7 or Vista where the account is running under USER privileges instead of Administrative privileges. When you tried to start previous versions of NetScanTools Pro under USER privileges, you would see a message asking you to supply the administrator account password so you could proceed and run the program. Clearly not optimum, so we identified the issue and corrected it. NetScanTools Pro will now start on USER privileges accounts.
There are two small issues that you may run into: on both the installed and USB versions the TimeSync function will not allow you to change your computer clock. That's because user privs are not enough to do it. The other issue is a little more of a problem on the USB version. Because the portable version of WinPcap requires adminstrative privileges to operate, any NetScanTools Pro tools that depend on WinPcap cannot be used. This does leave you with quite a few tools, but it is clearly not a preferred situation.
How to get the latest version: Click on Help/Check for New Version and login. You must have an active maintenance plan. If your maintenance plan has expired, please see this web page for information on reactivating it:
http://www.netscantools.com/nstpromaintenance.html
Changes in this new version relate to starting NetScanTools Pro on Windows 7 or Vista where the account is running under USER privileges instead of Administrative privileges. When you tried to start previous versions of NetScanTools Pro under USER privileges, you would see a message asking you to supply the administrator account password so you could proceed and run the program. Clearly not optimum, so we identified the issue and corrected it. NetScanTools Pro will now start on USER privileges accounts.
There are two small issues that you may run into: on both the installed and USB versions the TimeSync function will not allow you to change your computer clock. That's because user privs are not enough to do it. The other issue is a little more of a problem on the USB version. Because the portable version of WinPcap requires adminstrative privileges to operate, any NetScanTools Pro tools that depend on WinPcap cannot be used. This does leave you with quite a few tools, but it is clearly not a preferred situation.
How to get the latest version: Click on Help/Check for New Version and login. You must have an active maintenance plan. If your maintenance plan has expired, please see this web page for information on reactivating it:
http://www.netscantools.com/nstpromaintenance.html
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Managed Switch Port Mapping Tool - What is it?
Do you have a network switch? Did you know that you may be able talk with it in ways OTHER than through a web browser?
Before web interfaces on network switches became popular, there was CLI (command line interface) and SNMP for managing the switch. Both of those methods can return a wealth of information about the switch and it's current state. If you have ever looked at a heavily populated network switch you would see that in all probability there are lots of wires going into those jacks on the front. And even more disturbing is that those wires are often the same gray color. How do you tell them apart and how do you know where they go?
That's where the Managed Switch Port Mapping Tool comes in. If you have SNMP enabled on that switch and you know the access credentials and your IP address is allowed to manage the switch (alot of 'ifs', I know), then our tool will most likely be able to 'map' or show the assignment of devices to the physical jacks on the switch.
The Managed Switch Port Mapping Tool is separate from NetScanTools Pro. They both can be purchased separately and both can be used without the other present.
Those are the basics. I'll be talking more about specifics in the near future. If you want to learn more now, please visit http://www.switchportmapper.com and http://www.netscantools.com/spmapmain.html
Try it out for yourself. There is a 30 day free trial available from either of those sites.
Kirk
Before web interfaces on network switches became popular, there was CLI (command line interface) and SNMP for managing the switch. Both of those methods can return a wealth of information about the switch and it's current state. If you have ever looked at a heavily populated network switch you would see that in all probability there are lots of wires going into those jacks on the front. And even more disturbing is that those wires are often the same gray color. How do you tell them apart and how do you know where they go?
That's where the Managed Switch Port Mapping Tool comes in. If you have SNMP enabled on that switch and you know the access credentials and your IP address is allowed to manage the switch (alot of 'ifs', I know), then our tool will most likely be able to 'map' or show the assignment of devices to the physical jacks on the switch.
The Managed Switch Port Mapping Tool is separate from NetScanTools Pro. They both can be purchased separately and both can be used without the other present.
Those are the basics. I'll be talking more about specifics in the near future. If you want to learn more now, please visit http://www.switchportmapper.com and http://www.netscantools.com/spmapmain.html
Try it out for yourself. There is a 30 day free trial available from either of those sites.
Kirk
NetScanTools Pro and User Privileges
Yesterday an astute user pointed out that if you start NetScanTools Pro 10.98 on Windows 7 in a USER privileges account, the operating system asks that you login with an administrator account password to allow the program to run.
NOT GOOD! You should at least be able to run the program from that type of account without jumping through hoops. So I quickly traced the issue to the MANIFEST. You programmers out there know about this. In it were commands asking for higher privileges than we really need, so I think we are going to have a new minor, minor revision on Thursday. Beside fixing that little problem, the databases will all be updated with current information.
I assume this would affect anyone still using Windows Vista as well as Windows 7. The rest of you have little to concern yourselves with regarding this problem.
Kirk
NOT GOOD! You should at least be able to run the program from that type of account without jumping through hoops. So I quickly traced the issue to the MANIFEST. You programmers out there know about this. In it were commands asking for higher privileges than we really need, so I think we are going to have a new minor, minor revision on Thursday. Beside fixing that little problem, the databases will all be updated with current information.
I assume this would affect anyone still using Windows Vista as well as Windows 7. The rest of you have little to concern yourselves with regarding this problem.
Kirk
November Newsletter Published
Yesterday I posted our November Newsletter. Key topics center around NetScanTools Pro version 11.
In case you missed it, our first IPv6 capable tools are making their appearance in this new release of NetScanTools Pro and there is even a new WIFI/WLAN/wireless tool.
Something else we talk about is using NetScanTools Pro on an Apple Mac - find out how.
http://www.netscantools.com/newsletters.html
In case you missed it, our first IPv6 capable tools are making their appearance in this new release of NetScanTools Pro and there is even a new WIFI/WLAN/wireless tool.
Something else we talk about is using NetScanTools Pro on an Apple Mac - find out how.
http://www.netscantools.com/newsletters.html
Monday, November 15, 2010
looking at top level domains
Here is a cool thing you can do with NetScanTools Pro. Have you ever needed to look at a top level domain to see name servers or SOA records? It's actually pretty simple and can have some pretty spectacular results.
The other day I wanted to look at the 'bs' domain - really, no kidding. I went to DNS Tools - Core, then entered 'bs.' (the trailing period is REQUIRED), set the name server and set the record type to ANY and pressed NSLOOKUP. Here is what I got back:
[Start Query]
NSLOOKUP Starting Timestamp: 11/15/10 22:35:06
Command line equivalent: "nslookup -recurse -vc -type=ANY bs."
Looking up [bs.]
DNS Name: 4.2.2.2
IP Address: 4.2.2.2
Non-authoritative answer:
bs SOA
SOA origin = DNS.NIC.bs
mail addr = BSADMIN.COB.EDU.bs
serial = 2010111200
refresh = 7200 (2 hours)
retry = 3600 (1 hour)
expire = 3600000 (41 days 16 hours)
min ttl = 86400 (1 day)
bs RRSIG
TTL = 42797 (11 hours 53 mins 17 secs)
NSEC (Next Secure)
Labels = 1
Original TTL = 86400 (1 day)
Signature Expiration = Sun Nov 21 16:00:00 2010
Time Signed = Sun Nov 14 15:00:00 2010
Key Tag = 40288
Signer's Name:
Signature Length: 128 bytes
Signature:
54 0D 4E 76 3B B5 59 45 74 15 AF B1 6F 9A D1 5B
ED FD 19 8A 78 6A D7 70 D5 C9 91 8B 2D 70 B1 E3
21 6D CA 08 A0 28 CF CC 93 63 91 92 FA EC 57 E3
2C 3C DB F9 DD F9 43 2B 90 C6 65 64 7F A0 D3 CA
6B 26 4C 7C 7D 24 1E FE D1 2B 5A F4 17 62 39 C6
C4 AD 2E 37 DD D0 AC 3C E8 53 43 89 AF F3 6D 14
98 F8 DC 1C EC DC 4E 24 B9 8A 2E 06 6E 92 75 F8
18 6E DD 12 63 0E 9D 2D 0A B7 94 3E AF 1D CF 96
bs NSEC
TTL = 42797 (11 hours 53 mins 17 secs)
Next Domain Name: bt
RR Types in Bitmap: NS RRSIG NSEC
bs NS nameserver = DNS.NIC.bs
bs NS nameserver = ANYNS.PCH.NET
bs NS nameserver = UPR1.UPR.CLU.EDU
Server Response Time = 0.233 seconds
[End Query]
As you can see I got back the SOA record, the list of authoritative name servers and the security signature records. Notice how for a top level domain, the authoritative server has mirrors around the world, not just in Bahamas. In fact, there are only three mirrors showing - most top level domains have a lot more than that - the UK has 11. Notice also the domain security record - since last May most top level domains have those records in order to ensure the accuracy of the root data.
You can use the NSLOOKUP tool to inspect the records for any top level domain by following the procedure I outlined above.
The other day I wanted to look at the 'bs' domain - really, no kidding. I went to DNS Tools - Core, then entered 'bs.' (the trailing period is REQUIRED), set the name server and set the record type to ANY and pressed NSLOOKUP. Here is what I got back:
[Start Query]
NSLOOKUP Starting Timestamp: 11/15/10 22:35:06
Command line equivalent: "nslookup -recurse -vc -type=ANY bs."
Looking up [bs.]
DNS Name: 4.2.2.2
IP Address: 4.2.2.2
Non-authoritative answer:
bs SOA
SOA origin = DNS.NIC.bs
mail addr = BSADMIN.COB.EDU.bs
serial = 2010111200
refresh = 7200 (2 hours)
retry = 3600 (1 hour)
expire = 3600000 (41 days 16 hours)
min ttl = 86400 (1 day)
bs RRSIG
TTL = 42797 (11 hours 53 mins 17 secs)
NSEC (Next Secure)
Labels = 1
Original TTL = 86400 (1 day)
Signature Expiration = Sun Nov 21 16:00:00 2010
Time Signed = Sun Nov 14 15:00:00 2010
Key Tag = 40288
Signer's Name:
Signature Length: 128 bytes
Signature:
54 0D 4E 76 3B B5 59 45 74 15 AF B1 6F 9A D1 5B
ED FD 19 8A 78 6A D7 70 D5 C9 91 8B 2D 70 B1 E3
21 6D CA 08 A0 28 CF CC 93 63 91 92 FA EC 57 E3
2C 3C DB F9 DD F9 43 2B 90 C6 65 64 7F A0 D3 CA
6B 26 4C 7C 7D 24 1E FE D1 2B 5A F4 17 62 39 C6
C4 AD 2E 37 DD D0 AC 3C E8 53 43 89 AF F3 6D 14
98 F8 DC 1C EC DC 4E 24 B9 8A 2E 06 6E 92 75 F8
18 6E DD 12 63 0E 9D 2D 0A B7 94 3E AF 1D CF 96
bs NSEC
TTL = 42797 (11 hours 53 mins 17 secs)
Next Domain Name: bt
RR Types in Bitmap: NS RRSIG NSEC
bs NS nameserver = DNS.NIC.bs
bs NS nameserver = ANYNS.PCH.NET
bs NS nameserver = UPR1.UPR.CLU.EDU
Server Response Time = 0.233 seconds
[End Query]
As you can see I got back the SOA record, the list of authoritative name servers and the security signature records. Notice how for a top level domain, the authoritative server has mirrors around the world, not just in Bahamas. In fact, there are only three mirrors showing - most top level domains have a lot more than that - the UK has 11. Notice also the domain security record - since last May most top level domains have those records in order to ensure the accuracy of the root data.
You can use the NSLOOKUP tool to inspect the records for any top level domain by following the procedure I outlined above.
Friday, November 5, 2010
NetScanTools Pro 11 status
Another week has passed. This week included quite a bit of work on version 11 - again in the area of IPv6. NSLOOKUP and Dig both now accept IPv6 address inputs.
Most importantly, whois now accepts IPv6 inputs. Whois' ip to hostname to ip now work with IPv6. So if you enter a domain name, it will check for both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. Plus, the whois servers for showing ownership or delegation of the IPv6 addresses are now in the database and it will make the correct query based on the input IPv6 address.
A few more new things next week and then wrap up for release.
Kirk
Most importantly, whois now accepts IPv6 inputs. Whois' ip to hostname to ip now work with IPv6. So if you enter a domain name, it will check for both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. Plus, the whois servers for showing ownership or delegation of the IPv6 addresses are now in the database and it will make the correct query based on the input IPv6 address.
A few more new things next week and then wrap up for release.
Kirk
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)