Network Software

Following is a list of free software for networking.

Also see a LIST of highly reliable operating systems, where you can run this network software on.

a) Embedded Systems / Targets

In this section you will find networking programs suitable for cross-compiling and therefore to be used in several embedded architectures of all sizes.

Internet Super-Server

  • NetKit-inetd freshmeat.net/..
    "The NetKit distribution contains the following programs: biff, comsatd; finger, fingerd; ftpd; inetd, ping; rpc.bootparamd; ftp; talk, talkd; routed, ripquery; rpcgen, rpcinfo; rup, rusers, rpc.rusersd; rwall, rpc.rwalld; ruptime, rwho, rwhod; telnet, telnetd; tftp, tftpd; timed, timedc; write, writed. Each group of programs can be downloaded separately,"
  • xinetd www.xinetd.org
    "xinetd is a secure replacement for inetd."

Remote Administration

  • Net-SNMP net-snmp.sourceforge.net
    "Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is a widely used protocol for monitoring the health and welfare of network equipment (eg. routers), computer equipment and even devices like UPSs [Uninterruptible Power Supplies]."

Network Login

  • NetKit-telnetd freshmeat.net/..
    see above (inetd)
  • utelnetd www.pengutronix.de/..
    "A small Telnet daemon, derived from the Axis tools."
  • OpenSSH www.openssh.org
    OpenSSH is a free version of the SSH protocol suite of network connectivity tools. It consists of ssh which replaces rlogin and telnet, scp which replaces rcp, sftp which replaces ftp and sshd which is the server of all these high security services.

SMTP Client

  • smtpclient hpux.connect.org.uk/..
    "This program is a minimal SMTP client that takes an email message body and passes it on to a SMTP server [..]. Since it is completely self-supporting, it is especially suitable for use in restricted environments."

HTTP Server

  • Boa www.boa.org
    "Boa is a single-tasking HTTP server. That means that unlike traditional web servers, it does not fork for each incoming connection, nor does it fork many copies of itself to handle multiple connections. It internally multiplexes all of the ongoing HTTP connections, and forks only for CGI programs (which must be separate processes), automatic directory generation, and automatic file gunzipping."
  • thttpd www.acme.com/..
    "thttpd is a simple, small, portable, fast, and secure HTTP server."

Domain Name Service (DNS)

  • tinydns cr.yp.to/..
    "tinydns is a DNS server. It accepts iterative DNS queries from hosts around the Internet, and responds with locally configured information."
  • dnsmasq www.thekelley.org/..
    "Dnsmasq is lightweight, easy to configure DNS forwarder and DHCP server. It is designed to provide DNS and, optionally, DHCP, to a small network. It can serve the names of local machines which are not in the global DNS."
  • NetKit-routed freshmeat.net/..
    see above (inetd)

Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)

Firewall

  • iptables www.iptables.org
    "netfilter and iptables are building blocks of a framework inside the Linux 2.4.x and 2.6.x kernel. This framework enables packet filtering, network address translation and other packet mangling. iptables is a generic table structure for the definition of rulesets. Each rule within an IP table consists of a number of classifiers and one connected action."

b) Servers / Hosts

General network software and services.

Network Login

  • inetutils-tftpd directory.fsf.org/..
    "The GNU inetutils are a collection of common networking utilities and servers including ftp, ftpd, rcp, rexec, rlogin, rlogind, rsh, rshd, syslog, syslogd, talk, talkd, telnet, telnetd, tftp, tftpd, and uucpd."
  • inetutils-telnetd directory.fsf.org/..
    see above (inetutils-tftpd)
  • Samba de.samba.org
    "Samba is an Open Source/Free Software suite that has, since 1992, provided file and print services to all manner of SMB/CIFS clients, including the numerous versions of Microsoft Windows operating systems."

Mail Transport Agent (MTA) = SMTP Client/Server

  • sendmail www.sendmail.org
    THE Mail Transport Agent.
  • Smail download.uni-hd.de/..
    "Smail-3 is an implementation of an Electronic Mail Transport Agent (MTA), i.e. a program used for sending and receiving electronic mail, for Unix-like (POSIX compatible) systems."
  • Postfix www.postfix.org
    "Wietse Venema's mailer that started life as an alternative to the widely-used Sendmail program. Postfix attempts to be fast, easy to administer, and secure, while at the same time being sendmail compatible enough to not upset existing users. Thus, the outside has a sendmail-ish flavor, but the inside is completely different."
  • Vorpal Mail www.lyzard.net/vorpalmail/
    "Vorpal Mail is intended as a more user-friendly (or should that be admin-friendly) replacement for the standard sendmail package. It's aims are to provide all the features that are required of a modern mail server, without all the complexity caused by sendmail's rules based configuration file."

Local Delivery Agent (LDA)

  • procmail www.procmail.org
    "Procmail can be used to create mail-servers, mailing lists, sort your incoming mail into separate folders/files [..], preprocess your mail, start any programs upon mail arrival [..] or selectively forward certain incoming mail automatically to someone."

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(c) 2005, 2006, 2007 Ralf Schaefer Consulting

Networking

POP3 Server

  • Qpopper www.eudora.com/..
    "Qpopper is the most widely-used server for the POP3 protocol (this allows users to access their mail using any POP3 client). Qpopper supports the latest standards, and includes a large number of optional features. Qpopper is normally used with standard UNIX mail transfer and delivery agents such as sendmail or smail."
  • tpop3d www.ex-parrot.com/..
    "tpop3d is a fast, extensible, secure UNIX POP3 server. `Extensible' is used specifically in the context of new authentication mechanisms."

POP Client

  • fetchmail www.catb.org/..
    "Fetchmail retrieves mail from remote mail servers and forwards it via SMTP, so it can then be read by normal mail user agents such as mutt, elm or BSD Mail."
  • getmail pyropus.ca/..
    "getmail is a mail retriever designed to allow you to get your mail from one or more mail accounts on various mail servers to your local machine for reading with a minimum of fuss. getmail is designed to be secure, flexible, reliable, and easy-to-use. getmail is designed to replace other mail retrievers such as fetchmail."

Mailing Lists

  • Sympa www.sympa.org
    "Sympa is an electronic mailing list manager. It is used to automate list management functions such as subscription, moderation, archive and shared document management. It also includes management functions which would normally require a substantial amount of work [..]. These functions include automatic management of subscription renewals, list maintenance, and many others."

HTTP Server

  • Apache Project www.apache.org
    "Apache has been the most popular web server on the Internet since April of 1996. The February 2005 Netcraft Web Server Survey found that more than 68% of the web sites on the Internet are using Apache, thus making it more widely used than all other web servers combined."

Proxy Server

  • Squid www.squid-cache.org
    A free, full-featured Web proxy cache designed to run on Unix systems.

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)

  • ISC-DHCP www.isc.org
    "Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. (ISC) is a nonprofit public benefit corporation dedicated to supporting the infrastructure of the universal connected self-organizing Internet - and the autonomy of its participants - by developing and maintaining core production quality software, protocols, and operations."

Domain Name Service (DNS)

  • ISC-BIND www.isc.org
    see above (DHCP)
  • Posadis www.posadis.org
    "Posadis is a powerful DNS server, supporting both authoritative DNS and caching functionality, which is available for many different operating systems, including Mac OS X, Windows, and many Unix variants such as Linux and FreeBSD."
  • MaraDNS www.maradns.org
    MaraDNS is a package that implements the Domain Name Service (DNS), an essential internet service. MaraDNS is intended for environments where a DNS server must be secure and where the server must use the absolute minimum number of resources possible.
  • TinyDYN www.technocage.com/..
    "In a nutshell, TinyDYN consists of a set of scripts that allow you to run your own dynamic dns services (similar to dyndns.org) on your own network. The services use strong authentication via GnuPG, and is designed to work with djbdns's tinydns for name service."
  • DynDNS www.dyndns.com
    "The Dynamic DNS service allows you to alias a dynamic IP address to a static hostname in any of the many domains we offer, allowing your computer to be more easily accessed from various locations on the Internet. We provide this service, for up to five hostnames, free to the Internet community."

Network Time Protocol (NTP)

Network File System (NFS)

  • NFS-Utilities www.linuxfromscratch.org
    "The NFS Utilities package contains the userspace server and client tools necessary to use the kernel's nfs abilities. NFS is a protocol that allows sharing file systems over the network." It actually consists of four daemons:
    - rpc.nfsd (network file system: basic remote file read, write and search functions)
    - rpc.mountd (mount daemon: responsible for mounting of exported file systems)
    - rpc.statd (network status monitor: watches network nodes to be aware of the remote machine conditions)
    - rpc.lockd (network lock manager: prevents file manipulations of 2 clients at the same time)

Network Information Service (NIS)

  • Linux NIS / NIS+ Projects www.linux-nis.org
    "The Network Information Service (NIS) provides a simple network lookup service consisting of databases and processes. It was formerly known as Sun Yellow Pages (YP). [..] Its purpose is to provide information, that has to be known throughout the network, to all machines on the network. Information likely to be distributed by NIS is:
    - login names/passwords/home directories (/etc/passwd)
    - group information (/etc/group)
    - host names and IP numbers (/etc/hosts)"