Managing networks and web infrastructure requires good tools. Here are some I've found useful, including a couple I've built.

IP Address Management

If you're managing more than a handful of IP addresses, spreadsheets don't cut it. You need actual IPAM.

SimpleIPAM

SimpleIPAM is an IP address management tool built for network engineers who work with firewall configs.

What makes it different:

Import from configs — Parse Cisco, Palo Alto, Fortinet, and other firewall configs to extract IPs, subnets, and objects
No complex setup — It's a web tool, not enterprise software
Free tier — Plenty for small to medium networks

Good for:

Documenting what IPs are actually in use
Finding overlapping subnets
Maintaining a source of truth for network objects

I built this because I was tired of maintaining spreadsheets that got outdated the moment someone made a firewall change.

Subnet Calculators

SubnetGrid

SubnetGrid is a visual subnet calculator. Instead of just telling you the math, it shows you how subnets fit together.

Features:

Visual representation of IP space
Subdivision planning
CIDR notation handling
Export for documentation

Useful when you need to plan subnet allocations and want to see the big picture.

Other subnet tools

ipcalc (command line) — Quick CIDR math
Visual Subnet Calculator (various) — Several decent web tools exist

Configuration Management

Firewall rule documentation

The challenge: firewall rule sets grow over time, and nobody knows why half the rules exist.

Tools that help:

Export configs regularly
Version control them (git)
Comment your rules (I know, novel concept)
Review quarterly and delete cruft

Config backup

Never rely on your firewall's internal backup alone. Export regularly to:

Git repo (version control)
Cloud storage (disaster recovery)
Local storage (quick access)

Automate this. Manual backups are backups that don't happen.

Security Tools

Blocking unwanted traffic

If you're blocking AI crawlers (which is what brought you here), the same principles apply to other unwanted traffic:

robots.txt generator for web crawlers
.htaccess generator for server-level blocking
WAF rules for more sophisticated filtering

Log analysis

Understanding your traffic is step one:

GoAccess for visual log analysis
Fail2ban for automated blocking
Centralized logging (Graylog, ELK) for scale

DNS Tools

Public DNS checking

dig / nslookup (command line)
DNSChecker.org — Check propagation globally
IntoDNS — DNS health checks

Internal DNS management

For managing internal DNS:

PowerDNS (open source)
BIND (classic, complex)
Dnsmasq (lightweight)

Monitoring

Uptime monitoring

Free options:

UptimeRobot (50 monitors free)
Freshping
StatusCake

Paid/self-hosted:

Uptime Kuma (excellent, self-hosted)
Datadog (enterprise)
New Relic

Network monitoring

PRTG (Windows-centric)
Zabbix (open source, complex)
LibreNMS (SNMP-focused)

For small networks, simple ping monitoring is often enough. Don't over-engineer it.

Documentation

The unsexy but critical part.

What to document

Network diagrams
IP allocations
Firewall rule purposes
Change history
Vendor contacts
License keys

Where to document

Confluence / Notion (for teams)
Git repos with markdown (for tech folks)
OneNote / Obsidian (personal)

The best system is the one you'll actually update. Pick something and stick with it.

Automation

Ansible for network devices

Ansible supports network modules for:

Cisco IOS
Juniper Junos
Palo Alto
And many more

Use it for:

Config backups
Standard changes
Compliance checks

Python libraries

netmiko — SSH to network devices
napalm — Multi-vendor abstraction
nornir — Automation framework

Command Line Essentials

Quick reference for common tasks:

# Find your public IP
curl ifconfig.me

# DNS lookup
dig example.com +short

# Check if port is open
nc -zv hostname 22

# Trace route
mtr hostname

# Scan subnet for live hosts
nmap -sn 192.168.1.0/24

# Check SSL certificate
openssl s_client -connect example.com:443 </dev/null | openssl x509 -noout -dates

My tool stack

Here's what I actually use day to day:

SimpleIPAM — IP management and firewall config parsing
SubnetGrid — Subnet planning
Git — Version control for configs
Ansible — Automation
Uptime Kuma — Monitoring
Obsidian — Personal documentation

Not fancy, but it works. The best tools are the ones you'll actually use consistently.

Related resources

Skip the manual work

Generate your blocking rules in seconds with our free tools.

robots.txt Generator .htaccess Generator

What tools are essential for your workflow? I'm always looking for new recommendations.

Essential Tools for Network Administrators