Over the years I have accumulated some essential tools for sys admin tasks. Please feel free to send this email and tools to anyone you know in the business.  This suite of tools is the essential toolkits for any IT provider who goes onsite to assist clients.  Also this is the essential action pack for any IT audit or analysis. 

They all meet the following requirements.

1. Open Source or shareware
2. Used as a portable app, can be run from an usb stick, and does not need to be installed on client PC’s
3. Leaves no trace behind on a client server

Links to the attached apps are as follows

• ClamWin Antivirus- Great to run when you are afraid to attach a PC to the network due to an infection.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ClamWin
• Dude Network Monitor and Discovery- Comparable to WhatsUpGold or OpenView.  Great to map out a network quickly.  http://www.mikrotik.com/thedude.php
• FileZilla Portable FTP Client-  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FileZilla
• Firefox Portable-  When you just got to have tabs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox_Portable
• IPScan-  Scan all IP’s on your network, open ports, host names, MAC addresses, etc.  http://www.angryziber.com/ipscan/
• Miranda IM portable-  An IM client that will bypass all firewalls and is flexible.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_IM
• SoftPerfect Network Protocol Analyzer (sniffer).  An essential tool to any network problem.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoftPerfect_Network_Scanner
• System Information (SIW) for Windows.- Hands down the best IT audit tool for a PC.  Will tell you everything and anything about a PC.  http://www.gtopala.com/

One item I did not include in the attachment was OpenOffice portable (due to its size, around 300 MB).  This is great when you need to interact with Office documents, but do not have office installed on a server.  http://portableapps.com/apps/office/openoffice_portable

Links that led to this list originally

http://portableapps.com/

http://www.winaddons.com/top-300-freeware-software/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_apps