Network security is vital to the safety of your family and business. If you run networks internal to your home or in your small business, you know all too well the exposure, both good and bad, it provides to all of your connected devices. Ensuring that the network is running soundly and efficiently thwarts all attempts of infiltration is essential to sound operation. Network management applications exist and can get complicated, however, there is a new app that meets the needs of small-scale users and can easily be used from just about anywhere.
NetworkToolbox is an easy download and costs just $4.99, which is far cheaper than most software applications you can buy for a PC and much more economical than hiring someone to do it for you. It comes with a set of 24 tools that allow you to scan and analyze networks and see what is happening on your network. If issues arise, they can quickly and easily be detected and mitigated. While the app comes filled with a great deal of functionality that is easy to use, it also offers customizations, so you can make it work the way you want it to, making it that much more efficient.
When you first download the app, you will be taken to an information page that also lists disclaimers. Users are forewarned that this app is in no way to be used with malicious intent on other servers or sites and that they take zero responsibility for any user who uses the tool in this manner. You can choose to prevent rendering of that page on future invocations of the app. Once you agree to that statement, you are taken to the heart of the app, the Tools page. Here, you’ll find a list of functions, a total of 24 in all. You can view them as a list or you can select tiled icons. These options are set using the middle icon at the top of the screen, called “Menu style.”
If you would like to read more about the Tools page, tap on the Information icon found at the top right. It will give you a summary of what the page has and how it works. For in depth details, this information page has a link to the app’s website which should answer any questions you may have. If you tap on each of the icons that line the bottom of the screen, you will see there is a Bookmarks page, a Resources page, a News page and a Settings page. Each one allows you to make the most of the app by saving actions you perform often and getting more help to complete tasks that are essential to you.
Back on the Tools page, which is where you will be navigating from the most, there are several tools that allow you to monitor and analyze networks. Most are straightforward to use, but remember that if you get stuck, the Resources page is there to help. The only downside I found to using this app was the search under Device. I entered a different search term and was hoping to be able to just press “Search,” but the app forced me to go through all subsequent inputs, even though I did not want to update them. The user-friendliness was absent.
Yet, for an app that lets you extract information that could mean saving the security of your data at home or at your business, NetworkToolbox provides all the functionality you could possibly need in a small price that fits in your pocket.