Polling Software...

[BFreshour]

I'm not sure if this is possible. But I'll tell you what I need and perhaps you can recommend some software packages.

I'm a network administrator for a building with over 300 pc's. Inventoring them, as you can imagine, is a task in itself. I know there are programs that can read the BIOS and display the serial number, speed, and other miscelleneous information to you in Windows.

What I'm looking for is a program that I can stick out on one of my servers that will poll all the computers in a mask I tell it (or search for them in the Subnet) and pull information from them, such as the serial number, the speed, etc... (actually, if the program didn't poll and all I had to do was direct my users to it, that would be good also).

The majority of our systems are Windows NT/2000 but we do have a few 95/98 stations. I realize the Server service would have to be started on them also.

Does anyone know if there is a software package that does anything like this?

 

[TheGrey]

There are lots of commercial solutions doing things like this. (gasp from attest is one

http://www.gasp.com/)

Check this out:
OCS inventory

http://www.dwam.net/dliroulet/inventory/Download.asp

it's free!

 

[guidos]

Have you ever heard of Bindview? NT/2000 based, it will tell you more about your entire network than you may want to know. There are individual snap-in modules for Inventory, Remote Control, NT/2000, Netware, etc. It's query-based...there are generic built-in queries, but you can create almost any type you want, based on IP address, type of PC, OS, etc. It's a little cumbersome, but it will do a lot for you. Bindview's website is:

http://www.bindview.com

if you want to check it out.

 

[GlenJohnson]

Try

http://www.gfisoftware.com/languard/lanscan.htm

I posted this earlier. It's free, and will tell you IP address's, shared folders, user accounts and a whole lot more. Check it out. Glen A. Johnson
Microsoft Certified Professional
gjohn76351@msn.com

"Man is not weak; knowledge is more than equivalent to force."
Samuel Johnson (1709-84), English author, lexicographer.

 

[BFreshour]

But will any of these be able to read the serial number of the PC from the BIOS (where all of them are stored, at least on all the PCs we use) and give it to me? I know the first two don't seem too, but I may not be digging deep enough.

 

[guidos]

Bindview will indeed read the serial number from the BIOS, plus tell you a whole lot more.

 

[GlenJohnson]

Check this out.
MBSA is an extension of HFNetChk, a Microsoft utility to check if a system
has all the critical patches required. MBSA also scans to detect vulnerable
configurations and reinforces security policies. It will warn, for example,
when there are accounts with empty passwords or that coincide with the user
name. It can also check SQL Server passwords, determine the level of macro
protection in Office and warn when there are sample pages in Internet
Information Server that should be deleted.

More information about MBSA 1.0 is available at:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/tools/Tools/mbsahome.asp

Glen A. Johnson
Microsoft Certified Professional
gjohn76351@msn.com

"Man is not weak; knowledge is more than equivalent to force."
Samuel Johnson (1709-84), English author, lexicographer.