15 Network Admin Apps for Windows Phone 7

Network Tools (Free ad-based or $2.99)

This app lets you run pings and TCP, HTTP, and HTTPS connection tests. It graphically displays the ping, port 80, and HTTP response statuses. Like many other similar apps, it uses a remote server to do the pings and tests. Thus it can’t reach local resources; they must be accessible via the Internet.

Mobile Server Stats ($1.99 after trial)

This app provides remote real-time monitoring of a Windows Server or PC, giving you statistics on the system, CPU, drives, processors, services, processes, users, and groups. You can even add your own custom WMI queries. You can view real-time statistics or cached polls stored on the monitored machine. It requires their free server component to be installed on the machine you want to monitor. In addition to the computer monitoring, it also provides simple HTTP server monitoring.

The SSH Client (Free or paid)

This is a SSH client for your phone, so you can connect to routers and other servers to do maintenance or any other command-line tasks. It can save multiple connection profiles and support private key authentication. The Lite (free) version only includes SSH2 support, while the Pro (paid) version also includes SSH1 and Telnet support. It also adds URL parsing, additional settings, portrait mode, and customizable shortcuts for commands.

My FTP ($1.29)

This is an FTP client for Windows Phone 7 that also supports the online storage service DropBox. You can connect to internet accessible FTP and NAS servers or your DropBox account to do the usual tasks: upload, download, delete, and create files or folders. It also supports editing of text files before uploading. You can view pictures, play movies, listen to audio, and read text.

Wake My PC (Free)

If you have a computer and network card that supports the Wake-On-LAN (WOL) protocol, you can use this app to remotely boot up computers. This is useful if you need to access files or connect via remote desktop when away from the location. You simply enter in the computer’s MAC address and the public IP address of its network. Don’t forget, you also must setup a virtual server or port forward in the router.

My Storage Server (Free)

This app helps you manage and access your Windows Storage Server from your phone. After installing the Windows Server Solutions Phone Connector add-in onto your Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials server, you can perform management tasks, such as viewing alerts, editing users, and configuring backups. You can also access files and stream music, videos, and pictures directly from your server.

My Business Server (Free)

This is similar to the previous app, but helps you manage and access your Windows Small Business Server. It also requires installing the Windows Server Solutions Phone Connector add-in onto your Windows Small Business Essentials server. You can then perform management tasks: view alerts, edit users, and configure backups.

Lazy-Admin (Free, but requires third-party subscription)

This is a client app for a remote PC management solution called Lazy-Admin. It lets you run programs, batch files, VB scripts, Powershell scripts, or commands on your PC remotely from your phone. You might want to remotely reboot your computer, restart IIS or other services, or even download data from the web into your database and send email when completed. Status updates can also be received via Microsoft Push Notifications or email.

To use this app you must first install the Lazy-Admin Server software onto the PC(s) you want to remotely manage, and define which phones can send commands. This server requires trial or purchased activation keys, however, currently they are free.

Cool Remote (Free)

This is a remote desktop client that lets you remotely see and control a Windows (XP/2003/Vista/2008) machine that you’ve installed their free server application onto. It features a full keyboard support (including ctrl, alt, shift, tab, esc, win, fn, home, end, etc) and supports multiple monitors. You can manually define the connection details or scan the local network to find the PC. In addition to connecting from your phone, the server lets you connect via a web browser from any computer or device.

RemoteDesktop ($12.99 after trial)

Unlike Cool Remote, this is a remote desktop client that supports native RDP connections and doesn’t require a third-party server if connecting via the Internet. It can directly connect to Professional editions (those that support incoming remote desktop connections) of Windows XP, Vista, 7, 2003 Server, via standard security or Network Level Authentication (NLA). Multiple resolutions and pinch zoom are also supported. Connections to local machines on the same network, however, require installing their server component onto the machine.

SimpleVNC ($0.99 after trial)

If you use the platform-independent VNC protocol instead of Microsoft’s RDP, you can use this remote desktop client. This is great if you have a variety of operating systems: Windows, Mac, or Linux machines. The machine just needs a standard VNC server (such as the free TightVNC or UltraVNC) installed.

Petri IT Knowledgebase (Free)

This gives you access to the online Petri IT Knowledgebase. It contains thousands of how-to articles, tips and tricks, and tutorials on Windows Server, Exchange, Active Directory, Virtualization, SQL Server, Windows 7 and more. Though you can also visit their website, this offers an optimum interface for your phone.

Microsoft Partner Info (Free)

This brings you Microsoft partner resources, info, insights, tips, and more to your phone. Read articles and watch YouTube videos on Microsoft and IT-related topics.  Access the Microsoft Partner Membership Center, to manage your membership. You can also view Reseller Promotions that you can offer to clients.

Group Policy Search (Free)

This provides access to Microsoft’s Group Policy Search, so you can search for and discover Group Policy Objects (GPOs). This is great for any administrator that works with Active Directory. Discover new GPOs or reference one you’ve heard about. See their policy name, explanation, supported Windows versions, category path, registry key and value. You can even filter results by Windows or Internet Explorer version.

SubCalc Subnet Calculator (Free)

This app can help you figure the network address, wildcard mask, and subnet mask of a network. It’s a great handy tool when configuring a network. You input an IP address, define the number of hosts needed and the prefix length, and then it displays the subnet and wildcard mask, and broadcast address.