30 Nov Our ultimate ‘tricks of the trade’ list for IT professionals – Part 1

Scientifically proven to solve precisely 99.3% of all technical problems faced by modern civilisation, your ability to “turn it off and on again” is perhaps the most powerful weapon you have in your arsenal as a seasoned IT professional.

It’s important to be realistic however, and, at some point it is I’m afraid, quite likely you’ll be required to go beyond the call of duty.

Of course you should always try pumping the on/off button of affected hardware hysterically to be absolutely certain the geek magic has transferred but failing that you should ready yourself for tough times ahead. Yes, you may well need to ‘Google’, to diagnose symptoms and worse still, troubleshoot with your brain. In extreme cases, you should be warned, it’s not unheard of that the more demanding customers may ask that you plan to prevent the problem from happening again.

Pooled from thousands of IT professionals around the globe, the following software utlities, web services and how-to guides will help you be prepared should the unthinkable strike.

How-to guides 

Pinging an IP address (wikihow.com) – visit site

Using Powershell (powershellpro.com) – visit site

Know your DOS commands (computerhope.com) – visit site

Essential command line tools for TCP/IP networking (microsoft.com) – visit site

Learn Linux basics and more (linux.org) – visit site

Every file format in the world! (ace.net) – visit site

Code and scripting tutorials (codeacademy.com) – visit site

Add ‘open with’ shortcuts to your right-click menus (howtogeek.com) – visit site

Recovering deleted files using Recuva (guidingtech.com) – visit site

Free alternatives to Recuva for Macs – visit site

Using event viewer (bleepingcomputer.com) – visit site

Useful free software utilities

Remove almost any malware going with ComboFix (bleepingcomputer.com) – visit site

Update all essential applications in one go (ninite.com) – visit site

Sysinternals troubleshooting utilities – visit site

Visually see where your hard drive space is being used (uderzo.com) – visit site

Make bulk changes to Active Directory (codeplex.com) – visit site

Make some sense out of windows performance counters (codeplex.com) – visit site

Hirens boot disc (hirensbootcd.com) – visit site

Blue screen of death dump analyser (nirsoft.net) – visit site

Fix inaccessible hard drives with Spinrite (grc.com) – visit site

Take your apps with you on a USB drive (portableapps.com) – visit site

Open large files in Hex: HxD (mh-nexus.de) – visit site

Active Directory reporting tool/ editor (cjwdev.com) – visit site

Batch files for restoring file associations (dougknox.com) – visit site

Useful Web-based services

Check if you’re on a blacklist (mxtoolbox.com) – visit site

Check if a Web site is down (isitdownrightnow.com) – visit site

Verify email addresses and other tools (emailchecker.com) – visit site

Diagnose issues with email and Web sites (dnsstuff.com) – visit site

Repair corrupted files online (officerecovery.com) – visit site

Confirm you are using the fastest / best DNS server for your ISP (grc.com) – visit site

Don’t forget to drop in again next month for part two of three of this indispensable series designed to make life just that little bit easier for you.

Please note: We are not affiliated in any way with the products and services listed above.

Related articles

• Top 10 Clever Google Search Tricks (lifehacker.com.au)
• Learn Powershell (community.spiceworks.com)

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