Spiceworks

[Ben-BSH]

Is this system really as good as it looks?

from what i see on the site, it looks amazing, anyone use? and if so, what are the loves and hates?

Thanks

[leco]

Yes it's good. Depends on how you set it, but regular reports on devices. Shows if and when devices are off line. Integrated with AD so grouped the same. I don't monitor the network all of the time but it's usefull for when I need to.

[mossj]

Only one bad point about the entire system, and thats that the inventory is a little slow (a lot slow when it's searching for new devices).

But apart from that it is the dogs, and takes less than 5 minutes to setup to have a look, can even tell you when a printer is about to run out of ink.

[Edu-IT]

Using it here for the helpdesk and it just works, to be honest. Easy to configure, and sits in the background happily.

[James2k]

Using it here for the helpdesk and it just works, to be honest. Easy to configure, and sits in the background happily.

Using it for Helpdesk and a Basic knowledge base through the User portal page.

Very easy to set up.

We do use the Inventory function but I agree it is rather slow. But is improving with every release.

[Ben-BSH]

the network scan functionality, does not seem to work correctly, and is very slow, is there any way of removing that functionality? i only really would ever need Spiceworks for the amazing helpdesk system, as we are currently using OTRS and it is...

..

Sloooowwwww...

Thanks in advance

[AntiThesis]

Spiceworks is really excellent - I had an issue once where it froze on scan at around 2% and just sat there forever but that's since been fixed. AD Integrated, talks to exchange, does pretty much everything.

[sparkeh]

I use Spiceworks at three schools and it is indeed excellent.

The slowness that some people experience is something that has dogged SW for a while. Interestingly it doesn't affect everyone and for me it runs best on an ancient old box I was testing it on and found it ran better than our shiney server.

However there are some things that you can do:
1) Run it as a service (to do this right click the SW icon on the tray on the server)
2) Access the management stuff using Firefox or Chrome, they works much better than IE due to their superior Javascript engines, though the helpdesk seems to run equally well in both.

[3s-gtech]

I run it on an old dual P3 DC I have, the performance is pretty good there for what it is. Impressive piece of software, very easy to migrate too.

[Domino]

I've got a seperate helpdesk setup, so never used that side of it.

I found the inventory side a little hit or miss - so switched to lansweeper instead, which is excellent as an inventory only system.

[mossj]

the network scan functionality, does not seem to work correctly, and is very slow, is there any way of removing that functionality? i only really would ever need Spiceworks for the amazing helpdesk system, as we are currently using OTRS and it is...

..

Sloooowwwww...

Thanks in advance

Yes, in the settings I beleive (you may have to adjust it to show advanced settings), just schedule it for never... or schedule it daily for 6pm.

..or you can use the start up collector (New Spiceworks version 4.0)

[tmcd35]

Yep using SW here. Love the product. The recent upgrade to v4.5 (from around 3.6 i believe ) has gotten rid of any inventory slowness we had here.

We've just started using the Helpdesk properly amongst us Techies over the past fortnight and it's great. I really like the fact I can attatch helpdesk tickets to inventory items so we end up with a problems history for all hardware/software we have here.

Will be getting the Business Manager involved after half term and start getting some staff reporting problems after Easter. Hopefully come September everyone will be using to it's fullest

[mossj]

Yep using SW here. Love the product. The recent upgrade to v4.5 (from around 3.6 i believe ) has gotten rid of any inventory slowness we had here.

We've just started using the Helpdesk properly amongst us Techies over the past fortnight and it's great. I really like the fact I can attatch helpdesk tickets to inventory items so we end up with a problems history for all hardware/software we have here.

Will be getting the Business Manager involved after half term and start getting some staff reporting problems after Easter. Hopefully come September everyone will be using to it's fullest

We just hooked it into the depts email account, staff didn't even know there problems were being logged.

[john]

We use it with good success within our College, staff are informed of progress on tickets now unlike in the past, which is good news and they find it easy to use. Just wish it would stop duplicating workstations in the inventory Never mind.

[Edu-IT]

We use it with good success within our College, staff are informed of progress on tickets now unlike in the past, which is good news and they find it easy to use. Just wish it would stop duplicating workstations in the inventory Never mind.

I've noticed that too. Have you logged the duplicate issue with Spiceworks?