By Brian Wilson, CCNA, CCSE, CCAI, MCP, Network+, Security+, JNCIA

I recently was asked to test drive GFiLANguard Network Security Scanner (N.S.S.) 8.0 and write my findings. GFi describes LANguard as having the ability to "check your network for possible security vulnerabilities by scanning your entire network for missing security patches, service packs, open shares, open ports, unused user accounts and more." Having known about this product for quite some time but never getting my hands on it, I was excited as I had the perfect idea for testing its described capabilities.

I immediately contacted the Director of a local non-profit organization, and asked if they would be willing to be my test bed for this network security auditing tool. After explaining my intentions, they were very happy to open their doors and be a gracious host. And, considering that GFi was kind enough to extend the temporary licenses to a full year for every copy of the software for the non-profit, they were thrilled to be selected as our site of choice.

To give you a brief background on the non-profit, they are a home for disadvantaged youth and orphans while also providing family services to children. They have a main location with 200 workstations, 8 servers with varying duties, and 5 remote offices connected to the main location via Layer 2 VPNs. Due to being a non-profit where funding is very limited, their team consists of only two Network Administrators. Since I have assisted them in the past with lots of volunteered time and services, I was very aware of the network design and need for help. This network was pieced together over time with whatever was on hand or donated, so there are many different versions of Windows and other OSs on the network. Also, the remote offices are hundred of miles from the main campus, so patch and update management is done when time permits. The two current Network Administrators are self-taught and mainly care about the mission of their organization and not the little money they get paid. Now that I have painted a picture of this network and how it is maintained, I will roll into how the LANguard software was tested and received by the local staff on their network.