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Review
Net Tool Box
Issue: 4.1 (September/October 2005)
Author: Norman Palardy
Article Description: No description available.
Article Length (in bytes): 2,569
Starting Page Number: 9
RBD Number: 4104
Resource File(s): None
Related Link(s): None
Known Limitations: None
Full text of article...
The first thing that strikes you when starting Net Tool Box is the nice splash screen. It's a nicely done, irregular shaped window that with nice graphics gives a good initial impression of Net Tool Box. That impression proves to be correct. All the tools
work quickly, reliably, and the app performs as expected.
While many of the tools presented may be available in OS X in one form or another, Net Tool Box is a quick and easy way to get at a lot of the most commonly used tools. Ping, DNS Lookup, Port scans, Trace Route, Whois, and traffic monitors are just a click away.
The Preferences let you control type ahead, application appearance, turn the splash screen on and off, change translucency of inactive windows, and to specify whether or not proxies are used and which DNS is used. The Bonjour Browser is particularly handy for finding other Bonjour/Zero Conf services. And, as a developer, if you expect your creations to be visible in Bonjour this is a great way to check that they are.
The only downside to Net Tool Box is the Mapper tool, which lets you find the physical location of a server given it's IP address or name. While the function works, it may be out of date because the underlying Caida NetGeo database is not being updated. This is too bad, because this sort of function can be interesting and useful.
Net Tool Box is a very handy tool set wrapped in a nice package at a reasonable price. Putting all these tools together in a single application is not blazing any new trails but doing it this nicely certainly warrants a pat on the back for having done it this well. It's no surprise then that Net Tool Box won a 2005 REALbasic design award.
IN BRIEF Product Net Tool Box Manufacturer Charlie Boisseau Price $35 Contact Info http://www.nettoolbox.net/ Pros Quick Reliable
Nice look and feel
Cons NetGeo database used for mapper not being updated Rating (1.0-5.0): 4.8
End of article.
Article copyrighted by REALbasic Developer magazine. All rights reserved.
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