Essential Cisco NAC deployment tools

When deploying NAC there are a number of very useful tools that can help with implementing and troubleshooting. Here's a list of tools I've found useful

• Wireshark - This is an open source network protocol analyzer that allows you to see exactly what traffic is going across the wire. There's a "Follow TCP Stream" feature that allows you to see the entire stream of traffic for a session. One place this can be used is when looking for certificate CRL information being sent from a client to a CA. You'll be able to see the exact URL that is being used in an easy to read manner.


• LDAP Browser - This tool allows you to browse the LDAP tree to help determine what entries you should match on.


• Kerbtray - This is a one tool in a set of Microsoft resource kit tools that is meant for Windows 2003, but also works for Windows XP. This tool provides information about Kerberos authentication. This is invaluable for troubleshooting AD SSO issues.


• Camstudio - This is an open source video creation tool that you can use to create short video tutorials showing how NAC works. It can create an AVI or Flash file of your screen while you're demonstrating different NAC features. This can be a great tool for providing a visual representation of the NAC login process during end user training


• Irfanview - This is a great tool for editing screenshots