This paper presents Net2Plan tool and Java Optimization Modeler (JOM) library and discusses their application as research tools and educational resources in the field of network optimization. Net2Plan is designed to assist users in the definition and comparative evaluation of their original network planning algorithms, as well as in the simulation and testing of connection admission control algorithms, and network protection/restoration schemes. In its turn, JOM is a library which helps to model optimization problems in the Java language and solve them interfacing with integrated linear and non-linear solvers. JOM promotes a fast problem prototyping following a vectorial MATLAB-like syntax. The combined use of Net2Plan and JOM gives users from industry and academia a complete environment to simulate, analyze, dimension, optimize and evaluate the performance of their network designs. Both tools can be publicly downloaded from their respective websites.