Alternatives to Impero

[william_tropico]

Hello,

 

We have been using Impero here for about three years but after constant technical issues and teacher problems/workarounds we have decided to look at alternatives. key things we would like are

 

• View/Control student and teacher systems (without warning)
  
• Look for keywords and log/screen shot when this happens
  
• full web history
  
• batch login on selected clients
  
• push msi packages (optional but would be nice)
  

 

We did have NetSupport when I first started but due to cost moved to Impero.

 

Any suggestions welcome.

 

Thank you,

William

[RichCowell]

I'm guessing you have, but have you contacted their support? They've always been great when I've had issues, spending as much time as necessary remotely until issues have been resolved... Edited November 11, 2015 by RichCowell

[william_tropico]

I'm guessing you have, but have you contacted their support? They've always been great when I've had issues, spending as much time as necessary remotely until issues have been resolved...

 

Hello,

 

Yes I have contacted them about issues that keep recurring but they never get fixed. generally told "This will be fixed in next version" and when the new version comes out it's not only not fixed the issue but more problems are discovered.

[Edu-IT]

LanSchool might tick a lot of those boxes.

[RichCowell]

Hello,

 

Yes I have contacted them about issues that keep recurring but they never get fixed. generally told "This will be fixed in next version" and when the new version comes out it's not only not fixed the issue but more problems are discovered.

 

What version are you on? And what issues are you having? (if you don't mind me asking)...

[william_tropico]

LanSchool might tick a lot of those boxes.

 

Hi @Edu-IT, I am currently using a trial of this and so far I have noticed you can't log teacher systems for web or remote in without a prompt. Do you know if there is a work around for this?

 

Thank you,

William

[william_tropico]

What version are you on? And what issues are you having? (if you don't mind me asking)...

 

 

We are on 5.103

 

here are some of the issues of the top of my head

 

Log on users - This feature has never worked since we have had this (Workaround was to use MIMIC script)

MIMIC script - since v5105 the CAD! operator does not work on Login Screens so now need to manually log each computer in for exam set-ups

Server fails - at least 3 times a week the server service will stop with no useful information in the Event logs.

Corrupt log file - Not always but when the server service fails it will not start again until the current log file is deleted so a new one can be created. Very annoying as logs are lost especially when SLT require reports on web history etc

Lost configuration settings - This has happened a number of times when opening the Impero Server app and all the settings have defaulted back. (log location, groups, permissions etc all lost so need to be reconfigured again)

Lost licence. Often after the server has been restarted due to windows updates the registration information is lost so need to have the licence code reset.

Client service - On a number of teacher computers the impero client fails to start correctly.

 

Thank you,

William

[hallb15]

We use ABTutor and it covers all of those features apart from 'batch login on selected clients' I'm not sure I know exactly what you mean by this so maybe if you could explain a bit more I can tell you if ABTutor will cover it.

The keyword monitoring is very good as it allows you to take a screen shot, or record a video for a pre-determined length of time to see what the user does afterwards.

[RichCowell]

We are on 5.103

 

here are some of the issues of the top of my head

 

Log on users - This feature has never worked since we have had this (Workaround was to use MIMIC script)

MIMIC script - since v5105 the CAD! operator does not work on Login Screens so now need to manually log each computer in for exam set-ups

Server fails - at least 3 times a week the server service will stop with no useful information in the Event logs.

Corrupt log file - Not always but when the server service fails it will not start again until the current log file is deleted so a new one can be created. Very annoying as logs are lost especially when SLT require reports on web history etc

Lost configuration settings - This has happened a number of times when opening the Impero Server app and all the settings have defaulted back. (log location, groups, permissions etc all lost so need to be reconfigured again)

Lost licence. Often after the server has been restarted due to windows updates the registration information is lost so need to have the licence code reset.

Client service - On a number of teacher computers the impero client fails to start correctly.

 

Thank you,

William

 

That sounds like a bit of a nightmare... What spec's the server Impero Server is installed on? Have you tried reinstalling it on a different server (ideally its own server) as a fresh installation? That's definitely the first thing I'd try with a range of issues like that...

[william_tropico]

We use ABTutor and it covers all of those features apart from 'batch login on selected clients' I'm not sure I know exactly what you mean by this so maybe if you could explain a bit more I can tell you if ABTutor will cover it.

The keyword monitoring is very good as it allows you to take a screen shot, or record a video for a pre-determined length of time to see what the user does afterwards.

 

In impero you can tick a number of computers (generally a room) and specify a username, password and domain and it will log in all the computers with those credentials. We have a special exam account that auto starts the exam software when this user logs in. useful when you have 3 rooms to batch/bulk login

[Steve21]

We use ABTutor and it covers all of those features apart from 'batch login on selected clients' I'm not sure I know exactly what you mean by this so maybe if you could explain a bit more I can tell you if ABTutor will cover it.

The keyword monitoring is very good as it allows you to take a screen shot, or record a video for a pre-determined length of time to see what the user does afterwards.

 

I'm guessing remote logon, like select computers and all logon same account.

 

Which I'm sure ABTutor does as was looking at this maybe for next year budget wise if they let me Looks like it does 95% of what we need, and a lot cheaper than alternatives.

 

Any downside you found to it yet?

 

Steve

[william_tropico]

That sounds like a bit of a nightmare... What spec's the server Impero Server is installed on? Have you tried reinstalling it on a different server (ideally its own server) as a fresh installation? That's definitely the first thing I'd try with a range of issues like that...

 

It was originally on a DC server (2012) and in April it moved to its own server (2012 R2) in April (due to issues so thought it would help having on its own server).

 

I must admit that whenever I have contracted Impero support they have been very helpful but it seems that the development of the product could be looked at.

[MkII]

I'm guessing remote logon, like select computers and all logon same account.

 

Which I'm sure ABTutor does

 

It does

[6Foot2]

...Corrupt log file - Not always but when the server service fails it will not start again until the current log file is deleted so a new one can be created. Very annoying as logs are lost especially when SLT require reports on web history etc..

 

We recently had a problem on Impero where it was showing that a user had a violation against their name but it did not record a thumbnail of that violation. Impero helpdesk logged on to my Impero server and stopped the Impero services, then they renamed the corrupted logfile and started the stopped services again. This got the recording of the thumbnails going again and I didn't lose any historical violation data.

 

...Lost configuration settings - This has happened a number of times when opening the Impero Server app and all the settings have defaulted back. (log location, groups, permissions etc all lost so need to be reconfigured again)

Lost licence. Often after the server has been restarted due to windows updates the registration information is lost so need to have the licence code reset...

 

This happened to us too. Impero got me to renew my licence while they were on the line. I had to re-apply the group permission I had set up but that wasn't too much of a chore. They advised me that the licence had 'expired' because Impero sits on a virtual server and if the MAC address of the virtual network card had changed then that could cause this error. They said I should give the virtual network card a static MAC address to avoid this happening in future.

 

[still haven't got round to doing that yet...]

[Boredguy]

Lost licence. Often after the server has been restarted due to windows updates the registration information is lost so need to have the licence code reset

Are you running the Impero server on a Hyper-V box. If so, make sure you set your VM to have a static MAC address and that will resolve the licence needing to be reactivated each server reboot. I had same issue when we moved it from a 2003 server to 2012 VM and support quickly pointed that out.

 

Corrupt log file - Not always but when the server service fails it will not start again until the current log file is deleted so a new one can be created. Very annoying as logs are lost especially when SLT require reports on web history etc

I thought they had a registry fix available for that. Must admit since running 5.1.05 I've not had to rename the log file before the service restarts but I might be lucky at present.

 

 

Doh @DaveP said the same.

[RichCowell]

It was originally on a DC server (2012) and in April it moved to its own server (2012 R2) in April (due to issues so thought it would help having on its own server).

 

I must admit that whenever I have contracted Impero support they have been very helpful but it seems that the development of the product could be looked at.

 

Did you move it with the same files/databases or do it from scratch?

[william_tropico]

Did you move it with the same files/databases or do it from scratch?

 

Started from scratch.

 

And when we set the server up a static MAC address was assigned.

[Steven_Cleaver]

Would take a look at ABtutor as a couple of people have said we have been using Abtutor for about five years and this has been excellent we use Abtutor and Burconix Network Management Tools makes the management of the Network really easily and these seamlessly link into AD and save masses amount of time, so we can look at developing other systems, which has helped expand our roles in school.

[fiza]

Would take a look at ABtutor as a couple of people have said we have been using Abtutor for about five years and this has been excellent we use Abtutor and Burconix Network Management Tools makes the management of the Network really easily and these seamlessly link into AD and save masses amount of time, so we can look at developing other systems, which has helped expand our roles in school.

 

How much do each of those products cost?

[Steven_Cleaver]

This depends on how many ABtutor Licences you want so how so how many management PC's the Client can go on all PC's in the school we have 12 Licences see three Tech and 9 IT classroom Licences for Staff which workout around £1,000 ours was an upgrade for this which was for 12 management Licences which was one off although you can get yearly one, I did get a quote for a Primary feeder of ours and this was £250 for one Management Licence with Client on all PC's. I am not sure about the initial Licence for Burconix Network Management Tools as I purchased this some years back but this is £1050 for 499 stations a year now maintenance and upgrade, support. etc This is always being developed and now has links into SIM's to extract various information including student photo's, generate accounts etc. Between the two systems saves us massive amount of time and enables us to offer better support.

[ITGURU]

Why would you need to view/control teacher computers without warning? They may have confidential information up on their screen.

 

Hope your covered with policies in place that ALL users may be remotely monitored without warning in that case.

[Nixon77]

Why would you need to view/control teacher computers without warning? They may have confidential information up on their screen.

 

Hope your covered with policies in place that ALL users may be remotely monitored without warning in that case.

 

Its very useful if you suspect someone of doing something wrong. And I think most polices would cover it, I have never seen a policy that did not.

 

The IT dept should be trusted to see anything, otherwise they cannot do their job.

[ITGURU]

Its very useful if you suspect someone of doing something wrong. And I think most polices would cover it, I have never seen a policy that did not.

 

The IT dept should be trusted to see anything, otherwise they cannot do their job.

 

True, however our policy has always been that I am only to go into staff mailboxes with the authority of the Head/SLT.

 

There was an incident where someone wanted access to facebook and was told I couldn't be in the room because of the nature of it and not fit for me to see...

[william_tropico]

Why would you need to view/control teacher computers without warning?

 

We have the policies in place for staff which allow IT Support member to remote in and access screens without warning. A good example is when a member of staff will come directly to us (not using the helpdesk ) with a problem on their computer. If we go to remote in the teacher would have to go back to the room and click accept or whatever will pop up.

 

If we did need to remote in without prior knowledge we generally send a IM or email.

[ITGURU]

We have the policies in place for staff which allow IT Support member to remote in and access screens without warning. A good example is when a member of staff will come directly to us (not using the helpdesk ) with a problem on their computer. If we go to remote in the teacher would have to go back to the room and click accept or whatever will pop up.

 

If we did need to remote in without prior knowledge we generally send a IM or email.

 

We don't do it without warning for Staff - we'd always send them an email to say is it OK to remote in to their computer first, but generally we would physically visit the computer unless at our Post 16 site. Generally only use remote monitoring for student PCs without warning and this is in their school planners which is signed to say they will be remotely monitored and mailboxes access at any time deemed necessary.

 

Different for staff - I wouldn't just access the heads PC or user space without authorisation.

 

If that was the case you might as well know users passwords off the top of your head, and only ask them for it if the need arose.

Edited November 14, 2015 by ITGURU