Freeware for networkers

Reader Petra Hildebrandt recently suggested that I share with you a few of my favourite freeware applications. Since yesterday's post was about networking and troubleshooting, it seems only appropriate to continue in the same vein and look at a few tools that can neatly assist the budding trouble-shooter. Much like yesterday, none of it may be earth-shattering, but I find these tools work nicely together.

TextWrangler

Networking and troubleshooting means editing lots of text files. For those of us who do not yet feel comfortable wrestling with vim, Bare Bones software offers TextWrangler, the lesser-known sibling of the excellently excellent BBEdit. It may not be pretty but, like its bigger brother, it's nearly impossible to crash, comes with convenient command-line tools and won't twitch at the thought of live-editing your /etc/hosts file.

Cyberduck

My passion for Transmit and Coda may be akin to a cult, but many of my clients find it difficult to pay for casual FTP or SFTP-ing. Cyberduck does not quite please my sense of aesthetics but it is a full-featured, robust, frequently updated (S)FTP client that beats the Finder's own FTP capabilities hands down. If you ever need to fetch router firmware files from these clunky official FTP sites or remotely troubleshoot a computer through SSH, CyberDuck will fit the bill nicely. (Don't forget that SFTP is SSH and that you can, therefore, use an SFTP application as a great remote browser when helping users from afar.)

SSHKeychain

If you have ever had to explain the concept of secure passwords for remote login to newcomers, you know how difficult it is to convince them that "remote1" is hardly cracker-proof. However, you can both please them and appease your conscience by implementing strong key-based authentication on their machines. Since not everybody shares my SSH fetish, I often rely on SSHKeychain to manage passwords on client computers. The security implications of storing key passwords in the keychain has been debated by some (and I do not feel qualified to judge) but it works as advertised and it's certainly safer than creating password-less key pairs.

MacFuse

Would I entrust my mainframe management to a MacFuse connection? Certainly not, at least not with the current setup that involves a feeble file manager, the Finder, browsing drives mounted through experimental code. However, MacFuse is remarkably stable for causal use, and nothing beats turning SSH connections into regular network drives. Be sure, however, to prevent Mac OS X from creating .DS_Store files on remote volumes or your server will soon become the virtual equivalent of City of London public convenience on a late Saturday evening.

Finally, MacFuse allows you to create encrypted virtual "file chutes" between networked computers on a small network, which can come in handy. You could certainly use other forms of file sharing, but I find SSH to be a robust multi-tasker, and sometimes prefer to leave only SSH open instead of enabling it along with file sharing.

Nessus security scanner

Nessus is not exactly freeware in that the free version has somewhat limited functionality. I do, however, find it incredibly useful when giving a network the occasional once-over. On a network of properly set up Macs, comprising maybe a router, and AirPort base station and a USB printer hooked up to it — a very typical home and small business setup —, Nessus shouldn't find much. Throw in a Linux or Windows server in the mix, however, and it becomes a wonderful help in identifying harder to spot issues. Running Nessus on your own router will also probably shatter any illusions you may have about its ability to secure your network — but it's a whole other story altogether.

Chicken of the VNC

If you feel screen sharing in iChat does not bring you the security and convenience you need, nothing beats running VNC over an SSH tunnel. Luckily, Mac OS X ships with a VNC server of sorts, and the assorted wizardry required to share screens can be performed through open-source and freeware components exclusively. To accompany VNC, something simple like SSH Tunnel manager should work beautifully. You could, of course, create your tunnel in the Terminal, which is akin to the ultimate freeware package.