macOS Software Tools
So you're a switch tech, and a Mac user. There's no need to rush out and buy VMware or Parallels just to run HyperTerminal or Putty. Here is a list of (mostly free) software tools which will help you do your job using your shiny MacBook Pro and OS X.
 | SSH, telnet, and rlogin are built right in - there's no extra software needed. Just open the OS X Terminal (Applications > Utilities), and type ssh admin2@10.10.10.10, accept the key, enter your password, and rejoice. What could be simpler? |
 | Chrome is a popular titleernate browser. You may have heard of it. More importantly, it actually works with the UCM and CallPilot Manager (the NRS is a bit fugly, but useable). |
 | Transmit ($34, look for it in the App Store). Billed as the #1 Mac OS X FTP/SFTP client, and for good reason. Use this to upload service updates and patches on a 7.5 and above system. |
 | FileZilla a free (cross platform) FTP/SFTP titleernative, if you don't want to pony up for Transmit. Use it to upload service patches and updates. |
 | Cyberduck is another free (cross platform) FTP/SFTP titleernative (not recently updated, but Mountain Lion compatible). Use it to upload service patches and updates. |
 | PumpKIN is a popular open source, fully functional, free TFTP server and TFTP client, which implements TFTP according to RFC1350. A TFTP server will assist with soft/firm/load-ware updates and configuration backups. |
 | TftpServer is a nice GUI for the Mac's built-in TFTP server. A TFTP server will assist with soft/firm/load-ware updates and configuration backups. |
| Minicom is a TTY terminal emulation program, and my tool of choice for talking to console serial ports. You will also need a driver for your USB-Serial adapter. Follow the installation instructions... |
 | Serial ($29.99) is a modern terminal emulator (ANSI/VT100) designed for engineers and sys-admins. It supports most common USB-Serial devices WITHOUT requiring extra drivers, saving the hassle of of finding and installing additional software. |
 | ZTerm ($20 shareware) is a well known terminal emulation program thats been updated for Intel Macs. It supports VT100 emulation, which means it sorta kinda works with Meridian Mail (Function keys on a MacBook: fn + f-key). More details... |
 | goSerial (donation) is another terminal emulation program. It can open multiple connections simultaneously, and supports file transfers. More details... |
 | Hosts is a preference pane that lets you easily add, edit, and remove host entries. You'll need to do this to visit the UCM by its FQDN (fully qualified domain name). More details... |
 | Gas Mask is a simple hosts file manager for Mac OS X. |
 | Angry IP Scanner is a very fast IP address and port scanner. It pings each IP address in a range to check if it’s alive, and optionally resolves hostnames, determine the MAC address, scans ports, etc. |
| Fing is a combination of find and ping: a network discovery tool. It runs from the OS X Terminal. Useful for getting the MAC address of the MAS server for keycode generation. |
 | Wireshark is a network packet sniffer that lets you capture and interactively browse all network traffic. Goto Preferences > Protocols > UNISTIM and set the UDP port to 5000 to see Nortel/Avaya phones. |
 | BBEdit is fully featured and very functional HTML and text editor for macOS. Use it for those inevitable Notepad tasks. |
 | OpenOffice is also available for MacOS X. Because you're going to need to open the odd MS Office file, but you're not going to want to buy MS Office to do it. |
 | Remote Desktop Connection Client. OK, so perhaps we can't stay 100% Microsoft free, but at least they don't charge for this. Useful for remote desktop-ing into Call Pilot. |
 | caffeinated puts an icon in the menu bar, which you can click to prevent your Mac from going to sleep, dimming the screen or starting screen savers. |
 | IP Broadcaster displays your local (LAN) and internet (WAN) IP numbers in the menubar. Includes options to toggle WAN and LAN display. |
 | Skeebus is a menu-bar app that displays your current public IP address. It uses GeoIP services to provide the country, region, city, postal code, latitude/longitude, and ISP information. |
 | Shuttle a little SSH menu bar item that pulls down to give you super-quick access to whichever servers you have configured. Open the app and choose Configure to edit ~/.shuttle.json |
 | Clean My Drive is a menubar utility which cleans external drives from needless service junk generated by Windows or OS X (eg, .DS_Store, Thumbs.db, .Spotlight, hidden trashes, etc). |
 | Burn can create, copy, and burn CD-ROM's and disc images (ISO's). It's very useful for making exact (bootable) backup copies of installation media, and it's freeware. Get the 64-bit version. |