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I have just installed Ver 2.0 of DiamondCS Port Explorer this morning.

The website was clearly laid out and easy to navigate. Both the activation code and actual download were easily accessible and located in a logical place. The application has a reasonable size resulting in a quick download even over a dialup connection.

Installation was very smooth and easy and insertion of the activation code went off without a hitch. After restarting the app greeted me by the name used on the license and began working.

There seems to be an extensive and nicely done Help function, although at this point I have had little interaction with it. The design and labelling are very intuitive and I was using it productively within 5 minutes. I was very pleased with not only the performance but also the range and type of utilities provided.

So what does it do and why is it useful? Port Explorer maintains a watch on all running processes which are using a TCP/IP port including the ones (like trojans) that attempt to hide themselves. The Screen is split horizontally with the top portion showing each of those running processes along with a wealth of information about each one (configurable). The lower portion displays a log of each change in port activity listed with the most recent first. The log can also be configured to log to a file and a maximum size can be allowed.

Within 15 minutes of starting the program I had accomplished three things:

1) Confirmed that the network time parameters that I had used to slave my system time to the master clock at NIST in Boulder, CO were indeed working as I had intended. (I had suspected this but never had proof before).

2) Learned a great deal about how my security suite protects me from web based exploits. I still need to do some more understanding in this area so won't comment further.

3) Identified a previously unknown adserver used by my ISP to annoy me and blocked connection to the IP address through my firewall.

The specific utilities that I have used and tested to this point include the built in Whois function which works well, the the Process List utility which works similarly to Task Manager in displaying all running processes along with PID's and full file path. Other utilities provided include a range of DNS type tools such as ping, tracert, etc. As expected, the app didn't care what NIC or MODEM was in use by a process and happily reported connections over both WAN and LAN connections.

As mentioned previously, the Product Website was very nice and included a user forum which seems to be active.

All in all this is a great app and I think that it will be invaluable both as a learning tool (how does your system really interact with the network), verifying firewall settings, and for investigaing suspicious looking sites. This gets a definite thumbs up.

Added: October 6th 2004

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NOTE: Product reviews are independently written by our members and do not necessarily express the opinions or views of CastleCops.