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Douglas Toombs

Douglas Toombs is a contributing editor for Windows IT Pro and the author of Keeping Your Business Safe from Attack: Monitoring and Managing Your Network Security (Windows IT Pro eBooks).

Email: help@toombs.us

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Author Articles

8 More Excellent Free Utilities

By Douglas Toombs, 08/26/2009

It's that time of year! Break out your USB stick and download this new collection of free tools that promise to make your job easier.

Review: Lenovo ThinkStation S20

By Douglas Toombs, 07/16/2009

Lenovo's powerful ThinkStation S20 is great for compute-intensive tasks, and it's affordably priced for any organization.

Yet Another 8 Absolutely Cool, Totally Free Utilities

By Douglas Toombs, 02/27/2008

Once again, we've combed the Web for a new and scintillating collection of free tools that promise to make your job easier. Get $500 worth of tools for nothing—except the time ...

8 More Absolutely Cool, Totally Free Utilities

By Douglas Toombs, 08/30/2007

We've combed the Web for a brand-new collection of fantastic, free tools that will make your job easier. Download these lifesavers, add them to your USB toolkit, and be a happy ...

Screencasting with Wink

By Douglas Toombs, 08/30/2007

Wink doesn't fit into this article’s inventory/monitoring and security categories, but it's simply too good to pass up in an article about great free utilities.

Removing Unwanted Code

By Douglas Toombs, 10/16/2006

Try these tools and techniques for ridding a system of viruses, adware, or spyware.

Web Content Filtering with ISA Server

By Douglas Toombs, 09/18/2006

Configure ISA Server's application-layer filtering capability to block unwanted content by URL, response string, signature, or file type.

8 Absolutely Cool, Totally Free Utilities

By Douglas Toombs, 07/25/2006

We’ve scoured the Internet for the very best free utilities available. Fill your network-troubleshooting toolkit with these great finds, and you’ll never be at a loss.

Deconstructing DNS

By Douglas Toombs, 12/27/2005

DNS is the cornerstone of a properly functioning AD environment, so you must be able to quickly spot and solve DNS problems on your network. Here’s a foundational primer that ...

Controlling Positive and Negative Caching

By Douglas Toombs, 11/22/2005

An Invaluable DNS-Troubleshooting Resource

By Douglas Toombs, 11/22/2005

Let WSUS Ease Your Patch-Deployment Hassles

By Douglas Toombs, 05/24/2005

Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) is the latest version of Microsoft's patch-deployment service. Doug Toombs shows you how to configure the WSUS Release Candidate (RC) and ...

A Brief History of WSUS

By Douglas Toombs, 05/24/2005

Learn about the predecessor of Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)—Microsoft's Software Update Services (SUS).

Chat: WSUS Is Not for Wussies!

By Douglas Toombs, 05/24/2005

Chat about Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) and patch management with Doug Toombs on June 8, 2005 at noon EST.

Analyzing Web Statistics with AWStats

By Douglas Toombs, 02/22/2005

If your company doesn’t have the budget for Web analysis software, you can use an open-source package called AWStats.

Need a System Sentinel? Try JFFNMS

By Douglas Toombs, 01/25/2005

JFFNMS uses SNMP to monitor and report a plethora of useful system statistics—such as resource utilization, service availability, and process status—and, best of all, it's free!

The Foundation for JFFNMS

By Douglas Toombs, 01/25/2005

Here's how SNMP came to be.

Setting Up SNMP

By Douglas Toombs, 01/25/2005

Before you install JFFNMS, you need to set up SNMP on the system you'll use for monitoring. Here's how to do it.

Mail Filtering with Fluffy the SMTPGuardDog

By Douglas Toombs, 07/27/2004

Install and use this open-source mail proxy server to filter spam and thwart viruses by blocking unwanted attachments.

Sniff with Snort

By Douglas Toombs, 05/27/2004

Snort is a highly capable NIDS application that not only runs on Windows but also is kind to your IT budget because it's an open-source package.