7 must-have tools for MOTOTRBO technicians

Other than the CPS and RM, here are some other tools I have installed on my PC that help with what I do:

NetSetMan. I find that I have to regularly change the IP address on my PC. There are some common IP addresses that get used quite often. In Windows, changing these settings requires several clicks. NetSetMan allows you to quickly change the settings of any IP interface on your PC. It's free for non-commercial use but I've done the honourable thing and bought the licence. Download it here.

PuTTY. Sadly Hytperterminal went away with Windows XP. PuTTY is a terminal emulator for serial and telnet and does what Hyperterminal did (does) plus more. The Cisco* HPE switches and routers used with Capacity Max can be set up using a serial cable and command lines. PuTTY is free. Download it here.

Solarwinds TFTP Server. The Cisco and HPE switches and routers can have their software upgraded and configurations files sent to them using TFTP. To do this you need to have a TFTP Server running on your PC. Solarwinds TFTP Server is free. Download it here (registration required**).

Wireshark. What can I say, Wireshark is a free and open source packet analyser tool that is used for network troubleshooting and packet analysis. If you ever have to work with Motorola technical support on a problem they may ask you to send them a Wireshark capture (.pcap file). I use it to do all sorts of things. Download it here.

Teamviewer. TeamViewer is a computer application for remote control, desktop sharing, online meetings, web conferencing and file transfer between computers. For it to work, it needs to be installed on both PCs. For example I use this tool to remotely manage the Capacity Max demonstration systems we use at work. It's free for non-commercial use but I've done the honourable thing and bought the single PC business licence. Download it here (registration required**).

IPerf. IPerf is a network testing tool that can create TCP or UDP data streams and measure the real throughput of a network (i.e. stress test it). Sometimes a device may look okay when you ping it but UDP packet loss may cause problems that only crop up once the network is busy. I use a professional version (variant) from Websense Systems Inc. that has a Windows GUI and allows me to plot graphs. You can download a free version here.

MOTOTRBO System Design Tools. This does all sorts of calculations like working out the grade of service; link bandwidth etc. Available to Motorola Channel Partners via Motorola Online.

Here is a video showing what I would do with some of these tools. In this video, I use NetSetMan; PuTTY and TFTP Server, to load the Motorola provided sample configurations into a HPE 2530-25 switch.

 

* Cisco also requires a USB Console Cable Driver. To download this driver you need to register** on their website.
** I have a separate email address that I use for the advertising.

PS. The hammer and screwdriver are (nowadays) optional :-)