Kiwi CatTools: Schedule automatic backups (and perform other activities) on your network devices

Kiwi CatTools is a free (up to five devices) customizable utility that help network administrators automate configuration backups of their network devices such as routers and switches. It provides email notification and compare reports, highlighting configuration changes. Some of the features of CatTools includes:

• Instant or scheduled device configuration backups where any differences can be instantly emailed to you.
• Send CLI commands via Telnet or SSH to many devices at once.
• Change device configuration at scheduled times.
• Change all of your network device passwords at once.
• Generate various device reports such as Port, MAC, ARP and Version.
• Compare the startup and running configuration of devices.

All versions of CatTools have the same functionality. The extent of that functionality however is limited by the license you are running.

	Freeware Edition	Engineer Edition	Professional Edition	Enterprise Edition
Number of Devices in database	5	20	500	Unlimited
Number of Activities in database	5	20	50	Unlimited
Simultaneous TFTP sessions	2	10	20	100
Simultaneous Device connections	1	5	10	30

Check out the following screenshots of the product. My only disappointment with the product was that there was no Sonicwall firewall preconfigured template. Luckily, there’s detailed instructions on how to define your own devices and activities. The premise is if your device supports Telnet, SSH1, SSH1.5 (Cisco), or SSH2 connectivity, you should be able to script automatic backups and perform other activities on it.

See the list of supported devices and an overview of the pre-configured activities.

Online port forwarding tester

Having problems getting applications to work through your firewall or router? Use the online Port Forwarding Tester to determine if your device is properly configured to pass traffic through the appropriate ports.

This application will automatically detect the public IP address your browser is originating from, or you can specify the IP of your choice. Next, enter the port number to test, and press the check button. The web site will tell you if that port is opened or closed.

If you’re note sure how to open ports on your particular router, check out portforward.com. They have a detailed list of routers and firewalls with step by step directions on setting up port forwarding for different devices.

If you need more information on what port forwarding is and why you would want to enable it, start here or checkout the FAQ. There is also a list of common ports that may need to be opened in order for your particular application to function properly.