For any of you that use MailWasher, have you gotten tired of manually re-entering all of your email account data every time you re-install, re-build or switch computers? I know I have. If you don’t have to do that very often, or if you don’t have more than one or two email accounts, it’s not that bad. But still, there is all of the data in your Friends list and Black list that you might not want to re-create. If you don’t know what MailWasher is, it’s a great email management and anti-spam tool that we featured as a Cool Tool awhile back, check it out.

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It’s time once again for another post about Cool Tools, which are tools, utilities, programs, etc., that I have found in my travels that are really cool (in my opinion anyway, but hey, I am an expert in my own opinion!). I think it’s good for admins and users alike to share nifty little gems that they have found that make life a little easier.

In this case, this is a great tool, simple to use, very well written and FREE! It’s called Converber, and it’s awesome for converting one factor to another. Weight, volume, area, computer measurements (Kb to KB anyone?), whatever you want. It sure seems to have a calc in there for everything I have been able to think of. I suggest grabbing this keeping it in your bag of tricks. It has come in handy for me many times. It’s a Windows app, but it runs well under WINE for me in Linux, not sure how our Mac brethren can run it, but if you can I’d recommend it.

As always, feel free to share your feedback about the app, and feel free to recommend something you like and want to share. Either put it in the comments, or send me an email by using the Contact button at the top of the site. Enjoy!

Need a bundle of network tools? I mean one application that can ping, traceroute, nslookup, whois, and more? With advanced features like SMTP open relay checking and DNS zone transfers? A tool that doesn’t cost hundreds of dollars? The list goes on, have I enticed you enough? Good!

I found this app a long time ago, and it is steadfastly entrenched in my kit to this day. It’s called Sam Spade, and it’s named after the famed detective to be sure. The folk that wrote it offer it up for free, and it’s a very handy tool for anyone that ever needs to do network type work. Spend a few minutes reading up on it, and going through setting the settings, it’s worth it although it’ll work out of the box. I think you’ll find it a valuable tool too.

It’s getting on to Friday, and I thought I would post another Cool Tool for your enjoyment.  For anyone who dabbles in domain names, or does much with networking, you have undoubtedly used the Whois command.  Whois is a tool for querying domain name information, like who is the owner of it, the DNS servers, and more.  It’s very handy when you want to see if that domain name you always wanted is taken or not.  Why not just type it into the browser and see if it comes up, you ask?  Well, just because a domain doesn’t show up in your favorite browser, doesn’t mean it is not registered.  Sometimes the domain owner hasn’t done anything with it yet, or they might use it for email but not a website, or it could simply be that a domain squatter has it, and therefore only owns it to resell it.

Aside from that, I have been in troubleshooting situations where I needed to find out some info on a particular domain name, like mentioned above, the DNS servers for example.  Or one time, I was getting spammed to death from one domain, and we determined it was a virus with a little research, so we looked up the domain owner and were able to tell him that his server had been infected.  He didn’t even know!

Regardless of what your needs are, if you need a good, fast, and free Whois client, check out win32whois from gena01.com.  It’s a kicking little program, that I have made sure to add to my trick bag.  It appears to be very well written, fast, and best of all it’s free.   Check it out and happy Whois-ing!

I like to share with you cool tools and utilities that I run across in my travels. One that I have used for years is called Ping Plotter. This program has proven itself over the years to be a powerful ally when troubleshooting network connections, performance, what have you. Basically this tool provides a very nice, graphical way to ping and perform a traceroute to the specified address, including drawing a map of the traceroute and latency along the way. You can even have it perform, map and record traceroutes at certain intervals, thereby monitoring your target over time.

You can download and use Ping Plotter for free (with some nag screens it seems), or you it can be purchased in a couple of versions. The price has gone up since I bought it, it was $15 years ago and now is up to $24.95, and well worth that price. There is a “pro” version available too, but it’s a bit pricey at $199.95, but that gets into some advanced features and licensing that most folk probably won’t need. I have been quite happy with my version, and have found it very useful time and time again. I recommend checking it out!

I found an interesting article on the Interweb today, based on something a peer told me during a service call. It has to do with the differences between how system calls are handled between Linux and Windows performing the same task, in this case, serving up a single web page with a single image. The fellow comparing the two even provided pictures that map out how the different operating systems map those calls, or more simply what is going on under the hood when the system does what is asked of it.

This is a short article, but is a great example of some fundamental differences between Linux and Windows, that are deeply entrenched in the source code levels, This is also a shiny example of one reason why Linux outperforms Windows in most cases (that’s been my experience anyway), and why Windows is harder to secure.

Before I provide linky goodness, let me make a disclaimer. I am not bashing Windows or Microsoft with what I said above. The performance observation is just that, my observation based on my experience. The issue of securing Windows is the same, I am not saying you can’t secure Windows, it’s just a lot harder.

Now, on to the show, take a look and let me know what your thoughts are!