Tools Review | IPNetMonitorX from Sustainable Softworks

IPNetMonitorX is a network troubleshooting toolkit for debugging Internet service problems and optimizing performance. Featuring 23 integrated tools, IPNetMonitorX is designed to help you quickly locate where the problem is and gather data which can be used to solve the problem either directly or through your Internet Service Provider.

READ MORE FROM THEIR WEBSITE HERE

IPNetMonitorX combines an intuitive Macintosh user interface with deep Mac OS X knowledge to provide essential problem solving details from a single convenient application.  If you’ve ever struggled with why some Internet feature isn’t working, or just want to explore and understand better, IPNetMonitorX is here to help.  The built-in description for each tool clarifies underlying network concepts as it guides you to answer real world questions about how your Internet is working.

This Mac OS application has TONS of useful tools for troubleshooting networks!

  • Address Scan – Using Ping, UDP, or TCP to scan ranges. I like the ‘look around’ scan
  • Bonjour Scan – Simple Bonjour scan of local subnet
  • Airport Signal – rudimentary – other tools like WiFi Explorer much better
  • Connection List – Show current TCP/IP connection including UDP and ICMP listeners.
  • DHCP Lease – Basic Release and Rebind commands
  • DHCP Test – Test and exercise a DHCP server including multiple hosts, verbose logging, and DHCP options returned.
  • DNS Lookup – To convert IP addresses and Domain Names
  • DNS Query – Allow you to retrieve additional information from DNS – like NSLookup
  • DNS Realtime Black List – An effective tool to fight against spam and other forms of Internet abuse
  • Finger – Standard Finger client
  • Interface Info – View address info and statistics from each interface including current link speeds
  • Link Rate – estimates available bandwidth and transfer of data over specific links
  • Monitor – This graphical window shows Bits per Second throughput both in and out over any interface
  • Ping – Just what you’d expect, but includes limits, delays and size
  • Port Scan – Both TCP and UDP scanning to find open ports – also includes TCP ‘Stealth’ scanning
  • Server Scan – Allows you to check one or more servers at regular intervals and notifications of changes.
  • Service Info – Attempts to show which version of DNS, HTTP, SMTP are running on target IP
  • SNMPd Config – Makes it easy to configure supplied Mac OS X client SNMP
  • SNMP Tool – Allows you to verify SNMP operations by retrieving information from SNMP supported devices – allows for loading of specific MIBs
  • Subnet Calculator IPv4 – Just as you’d expect
  • IPv4/IPv6 Calculator – Converts between formats
  • TCP Dump – Allows examination of header or content of each packet flowing over an interface or Data Link. Like TCPDump in Unix
  • TCP Info – Graphical window showing TCP/IP data transfer and connections both upstream and downstream
  • Trace Route – not merely a standard ICMP Trace Route – but also does UDP Trace, TCP Trace as well as Record Route formats
  • Who Is – Yep – just as you’d expect – Who Is searches the InterNIC (Internet Network Information Center) Database for who is registered and administrative contact information with registered domain names.

IPNetMonitorX is a full-featured and comprehensive set of tools to do network analysis and troubleshooting from a Mac OS platform.

Sure – you can do many of these from the CLI in a Terminal window – but having the entire suite in GUI format and with lots of supporting online documentation and explanations is worthy of adding this to any Wireless LAN Professional’s toolkit.

The cost is $70 for a single license and has some discounts if you purchase in larger quantities. This one has found a worthy place in my Mac OS dock.