Bill’s Security Blog

Every now and again I stumble across a tools site that knocks my socks off.

Here’s one: DNSstuff.com - every kind of tool for testing network connectivity to your site/network, right at your fingertips, right when you need it.

Queries are run from off-site, so you can really get a view of your network from outside, in the cloud.

Some tools can be used freely, and there are different fee rates to use the more advanced features, but it’s well worth it.

They have a development tools area (where they beta test new tools) and there is lots of fun stuff there…  Here’s the description of a few that caught my eye!

VectorTrace

What is this tool?

VectorTrace is unique in that it allows for traceroutes to be performed simultaneously from multiple locations and that information displayed in context of each other. For example, on initial launch VectorTrace will trace from three discrete locations and display the route taken to the requested destination.

How do the results help me?

This will allow the user to understand critical common points in the path. This will help identify the most critical points with poor performance so that you can remedy that situation by working with the administrators of that point or giving you the information to choose a better location for the final destination. As the product matures we will offer options to present the data on a map and even automate and alert on the quality of the paths taken.

DNS Traversal

What is this tool?

This tool is essentially similar to the “dig” tool and is more advanced than our nslookup. When you change your name servers and need to verify your changes are being seen throughout the world the traversal tool looks at what each root server is returning. If any are not correct then all subsequent DNS servers that look up your domain from that root server are going to be getting incorrect information.

How do the results help me?

Displays which DNS servers the world thinks are responsible for your domain and what information they are returning.

Speed Test

What is this tool?

Speed test measures the performance of your Internet connection. If you are experiencing performance issues use this tool to get a good understanding of what it really is.

How do the results help me?

Measures speed of your connection - Download/Upload/Latency

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the tools available to you:

Some free tools:

WHOIS/IPWHOIS Lookup
Country IP Range Lookup
RFC Lookup
IP Information
Traceroute

Some paid tools:

DNS Timing
WHOIS/IPWHOIS Lookup - Advanced
Spam Database Lookup
Reverse DNS lookup - Advanced
Traceroute - Advanced
DNS Lookup - Advanced
Zone File Dump
Ping
ISP Cached DNS Lookup
Top Level Domain Lookup
Web Site HTTP Headers
SPF
ASN Information
ASN WHOIS
MAC Address
SSL Examination
Find Nearby IPs 

Enjoy!
Bill

This entry was posted on Friday, April 11th, 2008 at 8:10 am and is filed under Research, Tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.