In the latest edition of Cisco's Internet Protocol Journal Locum sysadmin writes about a few great tools for network maintenance.  These include:

I would like to make my own additions to this list:

  • A long pole and tape to help you move cabling through ceilings quicker (just tape the cable on the end of the pole and push the pole)
  • A wire hanger (this is an awesome way to grab cables that are in between a desk and a wall....just undo the hanger leaving the hook at the end, grab the cable and pull it towards you....you might even want to make the hook smaller depending on the size of your cable)
  • Phillip's head screw driver (if I need to tell you why you need this you really should not be running a network)
  • Crimpers, terminators and extra cable(so you can fix the CEO's patch cable asap if your reserve of extra patch cables has ran out)
  • PCMCIA ethernet card (I can't begin to count how many laptops I have run into w/o built in ethernet support)
  • Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (this tool will let you inventory most of the MS products on your network and see if they need any updates -- THIS IS A MUST!!!)
  • knoppix (this is a linux distribution that will boot from CD...this is great if you need to surf the 'net to check on something and the OS on the machine you are currently sitting by is broken and moving to another machine is not possible)
  • A few blank floppies for creating Emergency Repair Diskettes, backing up configs, etc.
  • Memtest86 (this is a quick and easy way to test your memory)
  • Nessus (this is a free vulnerability scanner that you should setup in your free time.  It takes a while to setup correctly but it is more than worth it.)

If anyone reading this can think of something that was missed here or of another use for any of the items above PLEASE post a comment.