This article continues my last blog.
Console Multiplexer
GNU screen – Effectively uses your console!
GNU screen is a magic. It allows you simply create multiple “tabs” inside a session, and switch between them without using a mouse (WHY bothering to use mouse if you can use your keyboard more efficiently?). This suits console well. Besides, the detach and restore helps remote users especially with link failure!
GNU screen is for Linux. If you are working on Windows, you should replace cmd with Cmder! It enhances the Windows console with a lot of features, and it has tabs and if configured properly, a closer experience to GNU screen. Besides, since cmder has git embedded (I mean cmder not cmder_mini), you have those basic Linux commands available, as well as Git.
SSH Client and Tool
Putty is my favorite SSH client and serial terminal (I mention it in serial terminal too as you will see). No installations, free, cross-platform, putty has all the features you need as a SSH client. Putty is a very good alternative to commercial software SecureCRT. But if you want SSH file transfer, see below.
Putty also provides file transfer with PSFTP, but I find it more convenient with some GUI clients like FileZilla. FileZilla support FTP as well as SFTP, and it is cross-platform too.
Serial Terminal
Hey Putty again! The serial terminal provided with Putty will meet your needs most of the time, but it lacks hex support. If you want hex support, you should consider following tools.
CoolTerm and AccessPort
Both of the tools support displaying hex for received serial data, but CoolTerm seems not able to send hex string. If you want to send hex as well, use AccessPort. AccessPort has not been updated for a some time, but per my test, it works well with even Windows 10. AccessPort only works on Windows, while CoolTerm is cross-platform, supporting Windows, Mac and Linux.
Packet Sniffer
Wireshark – Powerful Sniffer for Ethernet, ZigBee, etc.
Wireshark is cross-platform and on Linux, it enhances tcpdump with clear UI (Wireshark can open tcpdump files). Wireshark supports ethernet sniffering well, features powerful filtering, and lots of protocol decoding built in.
With a compatible ZigBee dongle, Wireshark also supports ZigBee packet sniffer to ZCL level. Actually, any 802.15.4 packets, thus even 6LowPan, or any protocols built upon that, like Thread, should be supoorted by Wireshark as well. With an active community behind, Wireshark is continuouslly being add more protocols to expand parsing capability. Think about Ubiqua, the commercial ZigBee protocol analyzer software, it costs $999 per license!
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