Computer management?

[Lizardkng]

Again, I appologize for my "newness" to the IT field, and admit that I havent gone through any 2k classes (only NT4.0), and have never worked professionally in the IT field, only as a volunteer for the 911 center where I am actually employed as a dispatcher.

I was trying to use Active Directory to Manage clients...but when I try to connect to them, through AD, I get a message saying that:

\\hostname.domainname.local could not be contacted, the network path was not found, please choose an different computer to manage.

I can connect to these PCs through nethood, cmd line, etc, but cant manage through AD. I cannot conect to ANY pc on the network like this. All PC's are all w2k Professional.

Any ideas why?

Thanks, and again, I appologize for the simplicity of my questions.

 

[GlenJohnson]

I've installed a free download called tightvnc. I've installed it on all our machines so when someone calls me, I can connect to them via there ip address or net bios name. Great free tool. If you don't have to many machines, I'd really suggest this.

http://www.tightvnc.com/

Glen A. Johnson
Microsoft Certified Professional
glen@nellsgiftbox.com


"What really happens is trivial in comparison to what could occur."
Robert von Musil (1880-1942); Austrian author.

 

[Lizardkng]

Thanks for the quick responses!

However, what I need is not really "Remote Desktop", but more defragging of HD, ScanDisk, ect, all from the server.

I live an hour from work, and work 7 day alternating shifts, so Im not always available to do these things. (7 on - 7 off)

I use PCanywhere to admin my server from home, but Id like to be able to admin clients as well, ie defrag, etc...

I suppose I could just install the PCAnywhere client software of all the clients (theres only 6) and connect to the server, and then to the clients that way...but still, thats taking over the desktop of the users, and id rather it be all invisible to them. If I can just tell the server to defrag the HD on client2, the logged in user wont know its happening...

Basically Im looking for an invisible "maintenince utility" where I can schedule and perform maintenince on clients, without bothering the user, or taking over their desktop.

Thanks again for the quick replies, any further assistance is greatly appreciated.

 

[CoolClark]

http://www.sysinternals.com

has a set of tools called pstools which includes psexec. PsExec allows you to run apps remotely without "taking control" of the client. Check out all of their utilities, you might find some others that are helpful.

 

[Blutch]

A great tool for doing all kinds of administering on your clients is Dameware. Visit them at

http://www.dameware.com.

Great product

Blutch