IT Pro Tuesday #167
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Welcome back to IT Pro Tuesday!
We're looking for your favorite tips and tools we can share with the community... those that help you do your job better and more easily. Please reply or leave a comment with your suggestions, and we'll be featuring them in the coming weeks.
As always, we’re updating the full list on our website here. Enjoy.
But on with this week's tools...! Here are the most-interesting items that have come across our desks, laptops and phones this week. Hornetsecurity has no known affiliation with any of these unless we explicitly state otherwise.
A Tutorial
Everything you should know about certificates and PKI but are too afraid to ask explains the knowledge the author reluctantly gathered after years of intentionally avoiding the topic. It’s essentially the missing manual on the rather complicated but incredibly useful subject of certificates and PKI. Our thanks go to durkzilla for the great suggestion.
A Script
Python MAC address manipulation provides a way to work around different vendors using different formats for MAC addresses when you need to create strings to pass as CLI commands. You'll learn how to check the string is a valid address and to convert between formats. spidernik84 describes it as "a mac-format converter script. Takes a mac in any format and outputs many formats."
Training Resource
itfreetraining is a terrific free professional course that walks you through all the required objectives for the 70-642MCITP exam and lots more. bsnipes tells us, "I would like to recommend itfreetraining. An awesome resource for IT technical info."
A Free Tool
Cntlm is a fast, efficient NTLM/NTLM Session Response/NTLMv2 authenticating HTTP proxy that stands between your applications and the corporate proxy, adding NTLM authentication on-the-fly for those who wish to escape the MS-proprietary universe. Integrates TCP/IP port forwarding (HTTP tunneling), SOCKS5 proxy mode, standalone proxy and offers NTLMv2 support, password protection, password hashing, mutliplatform code and more. Kindly recommended by f0urtyfive.
A Tip
An invaluable piece of sysadmin career wisdom from PhilSocal: "Do not hoard information. It makes it impossible to promote you and difficult to have your vacation time approved. Your co-workers will hate you, especially if you leave with knowledge in your head that only you know."
P.S. Bonus Free Tools
EasyBuild is a flexible, easily configurable software build and installation framework for efficiently managing software on HPC systems. Features include fully automated software builds; interactive installers, code patching, generating module file; thorough logging and archiving; automatic dependency resolution; single-command build of entire software stack; and building software in parallel. serverhorror explains, "We use it to roll out various packages (multiple versions in parallel). Varying between brutally arcane and weird scientific software and “standard” software (in our tree there are around 2K packages maintained on the side with very little effort)."
Desktop Info is a simple, configurable app to display real-time system information on your desktop. This low-overhead tool allows you to quickly acquire critical system information for identification of issues, walk-by and remote monitoring of production servers, test farms or your own computer. zm1868179 explains, "This is what I used to replace BGinfo in the places it's used. It works so much better than BGInfo."
Have a fantastic week and as usual, let us know any comments.