[Q] What is your favorite Network Tools Live CD / USB, which you could have running in remote offices?

Thu Aug 22 17:06:25 UTC 2013

I've been toying with Live distros (CD, then USB) for many years, in
support of security toolsets, to which I kept adding my own stuff, or
customizing existing components.

I am now trying to "build" a network toolset LiveCD/USB, but this time with
a completely different purpose: I would like to put it in the hands of all
remote offices we have on our network, and use it to have local systems
boot out of it, and help us then run troubleshooting tools, from the
central office, by SSH/X-ing into the remote live system (e.g. iperf,
hping3, httping, tcping, mtr, tcpdump, voip tools, some "thin"
clients/apps, synthetic transactions scripted to run at diff time
intervals, and report back to us the "health" seen form the remotes, etc.).
Has anybody used a "base" network tools Live CD/USB that they would
recommend, having used as "basis" for such a "network probe" functionality?

NOTE: I assume *nix based (Linux or BSD flavors), not Windows ...

TIA,
***Stefan