Extra IT - Thought for the Day

Office 365 - Email and applications encryption

Office 365 delivers multiple encryption options like Office Message Encryption (OME), S/MIME, Information Rights Management (IRM), and introduces Transport Layer Security (TLS).

Here it is Microsoft related article with all details. (about Office 365 email and application encryption features)

https://docs.microsoft.com/it-it/office365/securitycompliance/ome

Linux - Elementary OS

I would like to mention this Linux O.S. that aims to be a replacement (and similar) to MacOS or Windows O.S.

If you are interested you might visit official website:

https://elementary.io/

Monitor - 40 monitoring Network & Server Tools

Today I would like to merge old articles and indicate other Monitor tools:

1. PRTG monitors is freeware using up100 sensors.
   https://www.it.paessler.com/
   From my experience it work fine with all devices such switches, Firewall, client, Server, Hypervisors, SNMP devices and so on.
   An interesting tips is installing different PRTG istances on different servers (bypassing 100 sensor free limits) using PRTG client software that permit you to have single management console, without having necessity to purchase license.
   
2. SolarWinds All Free Network/System/Security/DB/clients monitoring tools
   https://www.alessandromazzanti.com/2018/11/freeware-solarwinds-software-free-tools.html
   
3. MAP Toolkit 9.8
   https://www.alessandromazzanti.com/2018/03/server-map-toolkit-98.html
4. Veeam One
   https://www.alessandromazzanti.com/2017/05/monitor-veeam-one-free-edition-95.html
5. Naemon Monitoring Server
   https://www.alessandromazzanti.com/2017/03/monitoring-naemon-monitoring-server.html
6. OpManager is an excellent monitoring platform, I used during these years and is free to monitor up to 10 devices:
   https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/
   https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/download-free.html
7. AD Lockout Monitoring tool (such as Netwrix, Microsoft tool....)
   https://www.alessandromazzanti.com/2016/10/ad-lockout-events-on-domain-controller.html
8. Scripting - Monitor disk space, cpu load, memory and send html report through email
   https://www.alessandromazzanti.com/2016/06/scripting-monitor-disk-space-cpu-load.html
9. AD health check with Powershell
   https://www.alessandromazzanti.com/2016/06/monitoring-ad-health-check-with.html
10. Exchange 2010 - How to monitor Exchange Health
    https://www.alessandromazzanti.com/2016/05/exchange-2010-how-to-monitor-exchange.html
11. Exchange 2013 - How to monitor it with powershell command
    https://www.alessandromazzanti.com/2015/06/exchange-2013-how-to-monitor-it-with.html
12. Exchange - Microsoft Exchange Server User Monitor
    https://www.alessandromazzanti.com/2012/10/exchange-microsoft-exchange-server-user.html
13. Monitor Wall Board for IT Rooms, tools and tips:
    https://www.alessandromazzanti.com/2016/03/monitoring-virtualwin-with-autoswitcher.html
14. How to monitor website (for free) via email/smshttps://www.alessandromazzanti.com/2016/01/monitoring-how-to-monitor-website-for.html
15. Netwrix Tools auditing, security and monitoring
    https://www.alessandromazzanti.com/2015/09/security-netrwrix-tools-auditing.html
16. Netwrix Auditor:
    https://www.netwrix.com/auditor.html
17. True last logon to monitor AD
    https://www.alessandromazzanti.com/2015/09/security-true-last-logon-to-monitor-ad.html
18. 2012 R2 Server - Install SNMP and enable monitoring
    https://www.alessandromazzanti.com/2015/06/2012-r2-server-install-snmp-and-enable.html
19. 2012 Server - How monitor 2008 server on 2012 dashboard
    https://www.alessandromazzanti.com/2014/09/2012-server-how-monitor-2008-server-on.html
20. Utility that lists computers and devices connected to your network
    https://www.alessandromazzanti.com/2013/11/server-new-utility-that-lists-computers.html
21. NetTools
    https://www.alessandromazzanti.com/2012/10/programma-nettools-per-monitorare-la.html
22. Zenoss Monitor solution:
    https://www.zenoss.com/get-started
    https://www.zenoss.com/product/unified-monitoring
    https://www.alessandromazzanti.com/2012/09/network-disponibile-zenoss-core-42.html
23. JFFNMS - Just For Fun Network Management System is written in PHP Language Devices are continuously polled, or JFFNMS can collect events from SNMP traps and syslog messages.  The web GUI displays the status of the devices’ interfaces as well as report on rolling statistics, such as error counts or traffic on an interface.
    Here they are some interesting features like * TFTP Configuration Download and Archival (Cisco IOS & CatOS) and screenshots
24. LogicMonitor
    https://www.alessandromazzanti.com/2012/05/server-prodotto-cloud-di-monitoraggio.html
25. Spiceworks Network Monitor & Cloud Cost monitor
    https://www.spiceworks.com/free-network-monitoring-management-software/?utm_medium=internal&utm_source=community_tools&utm_campaign=%20community_tools
    https://www.alessandromazzanti.com/2012/04/server-spiceworks-programma-gratuito.html
26. Vmware ESXi Monitoring
    https://www.alessandromazzanti.com/2012/03/vmware-esxi-monitorare-un-server-vmware.html
27. HyperV - how to monitor 80 functionlaity with script
    https://www.alessandromazzanti.com/2012/03/hyperv-it-does-pretty-much-what-it-says.html
28. Server - Folder monitoring
    https://www.alessandromazzanti.com/2011/09/server-monitorare-una-cartella-di-un.html
    
29. OMD Labs-Edition
    https://labs.consol.de/omd/
    
30. Nagios XI, Enterprise Server and Network Monitoring Software https://www.nagios.com/products/nagios-xi/
    
31. Nagios Network Analyzer
    https://www.nagios.com/products/nagios-network-analyzer/
    
32. AD monitoring Tool (Dovestones)
    https://dovestones.com/download/
    
33. The Dude automatically scan all devices within specified subnets, draw and layout a map of your networks, monitor services of your devices and alert you in case some service has problems.
    https://mikrotik.com/thedude
    
34. NetXMS Open-source network and infrastructure monitoring and management system
    https://www.netxms.org/
    
35. Total Network Monitor
    https://www.softinventive.com/total-network-monitor/
    
36. 10-Strike Network Diagram - Software for Creating and Drawing Topology Diagrams
    https://www.10-strike.com/network-diagram/
    
37. Multi Router Traffic Grapher (MRTG): Open source Round Robin Database (RRD)–based network monitoring and graphing tool used to show current and historical information about network devices, specifically router and switch interface statistics. This tool is freely available  from oss.oetiker.ch/mrtg/index.en.html.
    
38. WhatsUp Gold: Ipswith’s network-device monitoring tool, which is capable of discovering network devices, tracking system health, and receiving Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) trap and Syslog data. Ipswitch provides a 30-day evaluation of the product, whose price starts around $1,500 for the ability to manage 25 devices. Check out their website at www.whatsupgold.com.
    
39. Cacti: Open source RRD–based network monitoring and graphing tool. If you have used MRTG but wanted something a little flashier or geared towards other types of devices, then Cacti may be for you. Cacti makesit easier to add devices such as servers to your monitored devices list. As with MRTG, this tool is freely available, and you can find it for downloadon their website, www.cacti.net.
    
40. Xymon Monitor (formerly Hobbit Monitor): Open source–device monitoring and alerting tool, as shown in Figure 2-4, that displays current status information for network devices. Like Cacti and MRTG, Xymon is capable of gathering a wide range of information about your devices and offers historical information on those devices in the form of RRD–based charts. One difference with Xymon lies in its ability to send out alerts to configured users in the event that certain conditions have been met, such as a device has gone offline for more than 5 minutes or free disk space on a server has dropped below 100 MB. You will find Xymon on itsSourceforge page at xymon.sourceforge.net.
    
41. NetFlow: A Cisco Internetwork Operating System (IOS) component that collects and measures data as it flows through switch and router interfaces. While NetFlow on a switch or router collects data, it does not provide any of the analytical functions. For analytics, you will require a NetFlow collector.
    
42. Cisco NetFlow Collection Engine: Cisco’s NetFlow gathering and analysis tool that collects NetFlow data from network devices and allows for centralized analysis of the data. This data can be analyzed across the network to ensure that application data is passing over the network in a manner that is appropriate to the application. For example, you could use this tool to ensure that a business-critical accounting system is not being impacted by users watching YouTube videos. You can get more information about the NetFlow Collector Engine from www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/netmgtsw/ps1964/index.html, but this product comes with a price tag in excess of $16,000.
    
43. Splunk: Log Analyzer
    https://www.splunk.com/it_it

Freeware - SolarWinds All Free Network/System/Security/DB/clients monitoring tools

Today I would like to mention several SolarWinds Free tools. 

They have limited options against full versions but have interesting features useful for day by day System and Network administration tasks/monitoring/troubleshooting.

System Administrations tools

1. Solar-PuTTY Connect to any server or device in your network with Solar-PuTTY for Windows. This is an interesting Putty or PuttyCM alternative.
2. VM Monitor Hyper-V: monitors your VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V host and associated virtual machines in real-time.
3. Server Health Monitor Monitor the health, status, and availability of server hardware.
4. Exchange Monitor  Monitor and alert on performance, availability, and capacity of your Microsoft Exchange servers.
5. Remote Execution Enabler for PowerShell Streamline PowerShell tasks across all of your servers.
6. Admin Bundle for Active Directory Keep your Active Directory tidy with this trio of management tools
7. Permissions Analyzer for Active Directory Get instant visibility into user and group permissions.
8. VM Monitor Continuously monitor a VMware or Microsoft Hyper-V host and associated virtual machines.
9. Diagnostic Tool for the WSUS Agent Test WSUS connections and validate Windows Update Agent configuration.
10. Web Transaction Watcher Easily record and capture the results of a single web transaction.
11. WMI Monitor  Monitor real-time performance metrics on Windows servers and applications.
12. SNMP Enabler for Windows Remotely configure SNMP on Windows servers and workstations.
13. VM Console Bounce problematic VMs without ever logging into VMware vCenter.
14. Storage Response Time Monitor Track your sluggish VMs and pinpoint exactly where you have high storage latency.

Security and various tools

1. Free IT Security Tools:  Manage all end-user trouble tickets and track service request lifecycle, from ticket creation to resolution, from one centralized help desk management web interface.
2. Event Log Forwarder for Windows Forward Windows events based on event source, event ID, users, computers, and keywords in the event to your syslog server in order to take further action.
3. Firewall Browser Verify firewall rule changes and perform unlimited configuration searches.
4. Event Log Consolidator  Consolidate logs from up to five Windows servers or workstations Graph events over time to find patterns and troubleshoot issues Send desktop alerts for specific events or export events to CSV.
5. Free IT Help Desk Tools Manage all end-user trouble tickets and track service request lifecycle, from ticket creation to resolution, from one centralized help desk management web interface.
6. Database Performance Analyzer Free Reveal performance bottlenecks deep inside your SQL Server, Oracle, DB2 and SAP ASE instances. No other database monitoring tool focuses on response time and Multi-Dimensional Performance Analysis™ like DPA does.

Network Management Tools

1. Traceroute NG Perform accurate network path analysis.
2. Port Scanner  Scan available IP addresses and their corresponding TCP and UDP ports to identify network vulnerabilities.
3. Network Device Monitor: it work on any devieces with snmp credentials enabled there
4. NetFlow Configurator Quickly and easily activate NetFlow on your network devices with NetFlow Configurator.
5. GNS3 Network Emulator Construct and test your network in a risk-free virtual environment.
6. Real Time AppFlow Analyzer Investigate, troubleshoot, and quickly resolve application and network slowdowns.
7. Response Time Viewer for Wireshark Quickly analyze Wireshark® packet capture files to troubleshoot performance issues.
8. Network Analyzer & Bandwidth Monitoring Bundle Monitor network bandwidth usage with our free network analyzer and bandwidth monitor.
9. TFTP Server Free TFTP server for reliable and secure network file transfers.
10. IP Address Tracker Scan, track, and manage IP addresses and obtain detailed IP histories and event logs.
11. Real-Time Bandwidth Monitor Keep a close eye on bandwidth usage with this free bandwidth monitor from SolarWinds.
12. Real-Time NetFlow Analyzer See what types of traffic are on your network with SolarWinds free netflow analyzer.
13. Call Detail Record Tracker The free SolarWinds tool that lets you monitor VoIP performance.
14. Network Configuration Generator Automatically create template-based configuration scripts for network devices.
15. IP SLA Monitor Analyze IP service levels for network-based apps and services with our free IP SLA Monitor.
16. Advanced Subnet Calculator Help ensure that your IP addresses don’t conflict with one another, and save time managing DHCP, DNS, and IP addresses.
17. Wake-On-LAN Power up your network PC remotely.
18. Kiwi Syslog Server Free Edition View and archive syslog messages and SNMP traps in real time.
19. FTP Voyager FTP Client for Windows FTP, FTPS, and SFTP secure file transfer and automation with a full-featured scheduler.
20. SFTP/SCP Server Free SFTP server for reliable and secure network file transfers.

Windows 10 - How to increase Jump list items number

Windows 10, differently from Windows 7, has not a specific menu where increase Jump list items number.

If you would like to change this setting you should apply some registry changes.

Here it is relative workflow:

1. start --> regedit
2. Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
3. (be aware to check this section too) HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
4. You should Right-click Advanced folder and choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the new value JumpListItems_Maximum 
5. Double-click JumpListItems_Maximum value to open its properties window.
6. You should put a value between 15 and 20.

Freeware - Visio Alternative free

Today I would like to mention this useful software that is similar to Microsoft visio but free at all:

https://www.ganttproject.biz/

I hope that this information could be useful for someone.

Networking - Packet Tracer Free Cisco tool to have all network simulation done

There is an interesting free Cisco tools that permit you to have all sort of tests and simulations done using different Cisco devices.

An interesting part is that simulation and configuration setting up could be useful in production deployment environment as well withouth having all physical devices.:

You should register here:

https://www.netacad.com/

You might download packet tracer from below link and with several video and training on line:

https://www.netacad.com/courses/packet-tracer

Consider athat Packet Tracer is an exciting network design, simulation and modelling tool that allows you to develop your skill set in networking, cybersecurity, and the Internet of Things (IoT). It allows you to model complex systems without the need for dedicated equipment. 

Here it is Cisco Acadamy link as well.

I hope to have time to publish more information and article related to this fantastic tool.

https://www.netacad.com/courses/all-courses