Monitoring software, recommendations?

[boomam]

Hi.

Im was just wondering what monitoring software you use at your schools?

Im currently using NSS here, and while for the most part i like it, the latest version is as buggy as hell and causes machines to lock up when my workstation is switched on. .

AD Tutor control, ive tryed a demo, and while i think that i can get used to it, i think the GUI is perhaps a little too 'raw' for the teaching staff to get used to.

 

What do you all use?

 

Thanks.

[flashsnaps]

We use Ranger here, pretty powerful piece of software - occasionally timeouts on login sometimes. Few known clashes with Sophos as well.

[Geoff]

Teachers use ABTutor here.

[dhicks]

What do you all use?

 

iTALC.

 

--

David Hicks

[FragglePete]

Impero here. Not cheap, but has solved a lot of problems we were having. The logs it keeps details everything that has occured during that session.

 

Pete

[Reaper]

I found Impero to be pretty cheap, especially if you compare it to most Remote Assistance programs like NS Manager

[boomam]

Impero looks like it does everything NSS does, and more.

But i cant find any screenshots of the GUI.

 

Ive been playing with Lanview3. And whilst it seems very powerful, i just cant get it to connect to any PCs with the client software on it. It'll see them though.

 

As i was thinking that i could stick with NSS on our existing licences for the computer labs, as we have enough licences for that, but then myself could use Lanview3 to view every machine on the network.

[pallen]

We use Lan view and it's been fine here. I use it to monitor all computers, and have it set up in one of the IT labs and the teacher likes it.

 

If you just use VNC to connect to the clients does that work?

[boomam]

We use Lan view and it's been fine here. I use it to monitor all computers, and have it set up in one of the IT labs and the teacher likes it.

 

If you just use VNC to connect to the clients does that work?

Not sure, but gencontrol, which i think is a varient of VNC, does?

[m1ddy]

Lanschool here. The kids hate it, which means it must be doing its job well

[boomam]

Hmm.

 

Some interesting choices.

I would prefer to have a one app fits all approach, so the workstations arnt potentially running multiple clients. But with NSS being so buggy lately i really dont want to use that myself, where as its fine for the teachers to use.

 

Ideally atm, i would have the teachers use the existing NSS, and have THEM do the 'live banning' of the kids. Meaning one less task for myself.

And then myself to use LanView3 to check up on specific people and do maintenence tasks.

 

AB Tutor looks interesting, but the policys thing in it, irrc, ive been told that that can cause all manor of problems for teachers, and as a result, me.

 

iTalc looks good too, but im unsure about it. Looks a bit unprofessional.

[Reaper]

Ahhh professional is overrated anyway

[DSapseid]

We have ABTutor on the machines in the ICT suites for the staff to use an i use VNC for connecting to any machine in the school.

[Gibson335]

We use Impero and have found it to be good value. It has one or two issues, but overall it's higholy configurable - despite some vague language when making choices - and the logs and snapshots it keeps are very good. This has proven to be very successful in both deterring some and nailing others.

[broc]

We use Impero too. The user interface is 'teacher-friendly' & you can delegate password resets to teachers as well as allow them to block sites/ban users in their own classrooms. It has some useful tools to support teaching, like being able to send commands to every client PC, eg open a browser at a website, open a document, start an application... saves kids wasting time navigating. (This can be useful for maintenance too).

 

There are also some remote Sysadmin type functions too, and if you are really keen you can develop 'mimic' scripts (keystrokes) to perform actions simultaneously on multiple clients.

[pallen]

@Booman - the only time I had a problem connecting with Lanview was when VNC was not installed no the client. And the one time I accidently installed it on the client with the wrong password when I was testing If you can connect using VNC then there is no reason that Lanview shouldn't work, maybe try a different version of VNC?

 

Just check the usual firewall, and that the client is running etc, but other than that not sure what else to suggest.

[dansymons]

We use Impero here too. It's the best and easiest to use piece of monitoring software we've come across. The detail in the logs is excellent and has helped us with many things.

[OtO]

We use VeryTeaching from verylabs. Edited June 6, 2008 by (OtO)

[dhoward_westexetc]

Impero is an excellent product and is still very much in active development, we have a direct contact with the developers at Impero and are always willing to listen to feedback and incorporate it into new versions.

 

The server is very configurable and the policies are very customisable, they can be as broad or as specialised as you want.

 

We like the recent feature that ensures strict safesearch on Google is always used. Other features include URL blocking, program blocking, caption blocking, and controlling printing and sound output.

 

Impero is also really useful for administration purposes, and I use it all of the time to maintain laptop trolleys each half term. Features such as remote login, remote running of websites or files, remote command prompt and MiMiC script support have been huge timesavers.

 

I really recommend anybody looking to install management software for schools at least have a good look at Impero. And they have recently started to release versions that work on Windows Vista.

[layercake426]

this is very good as it is hard for the monitored user to know we're watching.

[Captain_Caveman]

+1 for Impero.

We've used several pieces of software over the years from Netop, Browse Control, Veryteaching but Impero seems to tie everything together better than most plus it's fairly easy for the teachers to use. The remote shutdown of all machines is handy at the end of the day too.

[zag]

Italc here, because its open source and free

 

Also in active development but I just wish they would add an uninstaller! It's a pain to upgrade each time.

 

iTALC

 

http://italc.sourceforge.net/screenshots/italc-1.0.6_1s.jpg http://italc.sourceforge.net/screenshots/italc-1.0.0_1s.jpg

Edited June 9, 2008 by zag

[zag]

Just an update to this, the latest version of italc 1.09 final is very stable and working great here in both out computer labs.

[networkingNut]

We use AB tutor control. Seems to do it job when it comes to monitoring. The problem we have at the minute is when we try and lock a students keyboard and mouse it does not work. The student can still move the mouse and keybaord, which is rather annoying.

[techie211]

just a quick question. are all of you monitoring every workstation in your schools or just the labs? Is there a server/client install or do you view all the workstations from your XP box? we have 8 schools with fiber between all the schools which I'm thinking should be able to handle this type of load on the network.

I guess what I'm getting at is what type of performance hit will I see on my network if I was to view 'all' workstations?

 

thanks