A small list of free Simulators for Network and Pen Testing.

Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay 

Network Simulators:

1) Cisco
>>Packet Tracer: Discover and troubleshoot using (The Free Cisco) powerful networking simulation tool.

Enroll, download and start learning valuable tips and best practices for using Cisco’s innovative simulation tool, Packet Tracer. This self-paced course is designed for beginners with no prior networking knowledge. It teaches basic operations of the tool with multiple hands-on activities helping you to visualize a network using everyday examples, including Internet of Things (IoT). Introductory course is extremely helpful for anyone who plans to take one of the Networking Academy courses which utilizes the powerful simulation tool.<<

Ref. https://www.netacad.com/courses/packet-tracer/introduction-packet-tracer



2) GNS3
>> GNS3 is open source, free software that you can download from:  http://gns3.com
GNS3 is used by hundreds of thousands of network engineers worldwide to emulate, configure, test and troubleshoot virtual and real
networks. GNS3 allows you to run a small topology consisting of only a few devices on your laptop, to those that have many devices hosted on multiple servers or even hosted in the cloud<<
Ref. https://docs.gns3.com/1PvtRW5eAb8RJZ11maEYD9_aLY8kkdhgaMB0wPCz8a38/index.html#h.r8cdoew331xy


Pen Testing: Virtual Machines
1) https://www.vulnhub.com/entry/basic-pentesting-1,216/
>>This is a small boot2root VM I created for my university’s cyber security group. It contains multiple remote vulnerabilities and multiple privilege escalation vectors. I did all of my testing for this VM on VirtualBox, so that’s the recommended platform. I have been informed that it also works with VMware, but I haven’t tested this personally.<<

1a) Someone using it, example.
https://alphacybersecurity.tech/basic-pentesting-ctf-walk-through/?fbclid=IwAR0jy7utED6_VN2PK0VwdPdcJhP2S4o680N372zUks_IrPPQLO4oqm4yo78


Virtual Machines:

Portable-VirtualBox: vbox.me
Portable-VirtualBox is a free and open source software tool that lets you run any operating system from a usb stick without separate installation (This is a Windows only tool).

Install Portable VirtualBox to an External Drive.
First, get started by downloading the Portable VirtualBox installer
from vbox.me. Run the downloaded file and extract it to an
external drive or wherever else you want to store your portable
VirtualBox system. You can always move it later if you like.

Ref. https://www.howtogeek.com/188142/use-portable-virtualbox-to-take-virtual-machines-with-you-everywhere/

Other Tools?

I would love to hear about and get download links to other free Simulators that are useful to 
Network learning and or Info-Security, ie Pen-testing or Hacking

File-Text Compare and Merge Programs

These kinds of programs can be very useful to the Network Engineer, Technician, Hacker or any Author and Editor.


WinMerge is a free open-source Windows SW one, I used for many years att Siemens and Nokia. And am now adding to my current Laptop and will also look for a version of in on Android for my Tablet.


>>WinMerge is a Windows tool for visual difference display and merging, for both files and directories. It is highly useful for determining what has changed between file versions, and then merging those changes. WinMerge has Unicode support, Flexible syntax coloring editor, Visual SourceSafe integration, and Windows Shell integration. Regexp filtering for filenames and lines. Side-by-side line difference and highlights differences inside lines. A file map shows the overall file differences in a location pane. The user interface is translated into several languages.

Features

• Visual differencing and merging of text files
• Flexible editor with syntax highlighting, line numbers and word-wrap
• Highlights differences inside lines
• Difference pane shows current difference in two vertical panes
• Location pane shows map of files compared
• Moved lines detection
• Compare folders in one level or recursive
• Can show folder compare results flat or in a tree-style view
• <<
  
  Download Link:  https://sourceforge.net/projects/winmerge/
  
  
• Regular Expression based file filters allow excluding and including items
• Compares binary files in folder compare as well as text files
• Shell Integration (supports 64-bit Windows versions)
• Archive file support using 7-Zip
• Fast compare using file sizes and dates
• Creates patch files (Normal-, Context- and Unified formats)
  
  

Windows Laptop Geek Pen Tester accessory wish list.

Image by Goumbik

Wishlist for the Windows 10 Laptop Geek on the go Pen Tester

A USB Hub that furnishes power.

A USB to RS232 active cable

RS232 Null Modem adapter

A USB to Ethernet active Cable

A USB to USB active Bridge Cable

A few OTG (On The Go) USB micro A to micro B adapters

Three small Ethernet Hubs

A small Ethernet Switch

A small Wifi / Ethernet Router

Ethernet crossover cable.
Ethernet rollover cable

 USB cabled WiFi external NIC with removable Antenna, Antenna extension cable.
Umbrella  Metalised on inside to act as a parabolic reflector for Wifi or Sound.

A small 12V DC to 110 AC inverter and small 12V rechargeable battery.

SW: Your Personal Web Crawler/Copier

Sometimes a Web site, perhaps your own even, is very important to have access to anytime and offline.

But how to do this on the cheap or better yet free?

And Open source offline Browser, Web Crawler/Copier fits the bill perfectly on many sites (Not All but that is another issue)

I use a software package called HTTrack and am very happy with it. Of course, coping a whole website can eat up a lot of storage space.

Here is a download link to it:https://www.httrack.com/page/2/

Wayback Machine:

And there is always the free online "Wayback Machine at Archive.org. I always recommend using the way back machine when you share an important reference link in anything you publish and of course sharing its original link and its dated copied Wayback Link. (Which does not change or get deleted.https://archive.org/web/web.php


I leave all copyright issues up to your own discretion.
TDK

SW: Flash Card Training Tools

I was looking for an offline Windows 10 compatible Flash Card Builder, Editor, User (FREE)  program.

 To help me with learning the massive Plant Biology, Herbal, Materia Medica, Botanical Medicine vocabularies.

And I found a very nice one I believe. You can, of course, build your own card decks with Text, Images, Audio, and video clips stored on your memory devices device. But you can also upload them to share and download other decks people have shared.

Under the search term 'Plants' I found several decks and downloaded them. I will use one of the deck's layout for myself, as it is very well structured for plant data, reference, etc.

If you have a program, you like please shae it and why, in the comments.

TDK

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Ref. https://apps.ankiweb.net/

>>

About Anki

Anki is a program which makes remembering things easy. Because it's a lot more efficient than traditional study methods, you can either greatly decrease your time spent studying, or greatly increase the amount you learn.

Anyone who needs to remember things in their daily life can benefit from Anki. Since it is content-agnostic and supports images, audio, videos and scientific markup (via LaTeX), the possibilities are endless.
For example:

• Learning a language
• Studying for medical and law exams
• Memorizing people's names and faces
• Brushing up on geography
• Mastering long poems
• Even practicing guitar chords!

Features

Synchronization
Use the free AnkiWeb synchronization service to keep your cards in sync across multiple devices.

Flexibility
From card layout to review timing, Anki has a wealth of options for you to customize.

Media-Rich
Embed audio clips, images, videos and scientific markup on your cards, with precise control over how it's shown.

Optimized
Anki will handle decks of 100,000+ cards with no problems.

Fully Extensible
There are a large number of add-ons available.

Open Source
Because the code and storage format is open, your important data is safe.

SW: PC based Free Photo Management Software.

I needed a simple Photo Management software tool to work with my Botanical Medicine free course that has a 500 Mb File with subdirectory files for each plant's images. So I can easily find plant pictures and view them or create gallies etc. I wanted to keep the program in the same master directory as all the course material downloads and separated from any other image files on the PC. So I am using the Portable version of the software. I hope to be able to move this whole project out to a USB memory stick for use anywhere.

 This is the one I am trying. It is working out just fine for this application, love it.
TDK

FastStone Image Viewer is a program to view images for Microsoft Windows. It includes a file manager and database. It is considered to be the best free photo management software in its class. FastStone Image Viewer is also free for domestic use.

Supported Platforms:

• Windows

Website: FastStone

Overall Rating75

Interface

0

65

100

Availability

0

60

100

Functionality

0

80

100

Work speed

0

95

100

Pros+

• Easy to use
• Provides much information about each shot
• Auto photo setup
• Possibility to organize your photos quickly

Cons-

• No cloud storage

This is a useful photo organizer Windows tool, equipped with photo editing and management features. FastStone comes with many photo editing tools for basic manipulation and fine-tuning, and also supports tagging, EXIF data viewing, and other sorting options. Although FastStone does not have the feature to upload pictures to social media and cloud storage, it offers excellent image viewing, editing functions, and organizational tools. Thus, it is a good choice if you store your photo collection on one PC.

SW: A Directory Tree Files List Maker.

Faced with a couple of gigabytes worth of a  broad subject specific .rar directories and subdirectories of PDFs and Text files that I needed an easy book like index to make use of.

What oh what to do, this could take weeks opening them, copying titles by hand.

Well google and free software, I believe have come to my rescue.

I will add updates as I use this tool for my new Botanical Medicine study group.
TDK.

Directory Tree List Maker
FREE Olivier Sangala Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP/Vista (Windows 10)

>>From Olivier Sangala:

Directory Tree List Maker is a software that will be able to output as a text file the list of all files from a selected directory. This software uses a recursive method to display contents of all sub directories. All information about each file and directory is generated: size in bytes, date/time marker (creation, last access, last write), and attributes. Many options help to customize output: selectable columns, path depth, name length, file content display File and directory ACL exceptions (access control list) are supported. Version 1.1 includes options such as selectable columns, path depth, name length, file content display, supported file and directory ACL exceptions (access control list).<<


Link:
https://download.cnet.com/Directory-Tree-List-Maker/3000-2248_4-10575804.html