Lockdown showdown: NetOp, Net Support, Ranger, LanView

[NetworkGeezer]

i use netop. netsupport manager is just as good (many people think it has the edge over netop slightly).

 

NSM School does seem to perform better for speed & stability but the user interface conventions appear to be have thought up by a Dalek or some other extra terrestrial intelligence

 

 

We are trialling Net Support School at the moment. The thing I don't like, and I'm sure John maybe able to help on this, is that is doesn't seem to grab the logon names from the AD when you look at the PCs in the list. You have to get them to 'Register' if you want the names to appear. When you have lots of classes and many of them coming in from other lessons, you don't want to be going through that hassle every time. You want the setup time to be minimal. It seems to rely on the teacher seting up a lesson in preperation. You can time it out and everything. But all that is too gimicky. You just want to have the control. You don't need it to teach for you!

 

The reason you have to get them to 'register' is because it saves on network traffic. The 'registering' you talk of is actually connecting to the client and acheiving a permanant connection until disconnected. If you connect to all clients then it will send your management station all of the info from those PC's and generate traffic.

 

With NetOp on the other hand you can see the computer name and the username of who's logged on. If you're clever with environmental variables you can even set the details screen to show the user display name.

[Dos_Box]

With NetOp you must pay extra for every management console install. With NSM you can have as many as you like at no extra cost. As I have stated earlier, NSM lets you see who is logged on once you have connected to the client. Connecting does not involve viewing, mearly registering it's existance in your management console.

[NetworkGeezer]

A few more NSM annoyances:

 

The keyboard lock for demo or screen lock does lets through some keypresses so some students can cause irritation by filling up keyboard buffer and waiting for the computer to start beeping.

 

NSM notifies teacher of connection and disconnection via pop ups which means if a group of kids reset their machines then the teacher is bombarded with pop ups. I had to turn of the chat and call for assistance for this reason. There should be a more flexible option for allowing or disallowing chat.

 

To top it all, why doesn't NSM have a proper select all function rather than having to click drag to select all the machines in a cluster.

 

Block all internet appears to have stopped working. Have had to whitelist a fictious site then set Allow only approve webistes web blocking. I could have blocked iexplorer.exe but IE is needed for some features in FrontOage and to also view some HTML pages on network drives.

[barryfl]

At the moment i use Netop (Or Tutor as its branded by a certain company we all know and love ) Its very good but i have just been googling other packages mentioned like Net Support and looked at the screenshot to find that UI looks strangly familiar, Why you ask?

 

Because that UI looks a lot like RM Tutor 3 To be released at the end of april

 

http://www.rm.com/_RMVirtual/Media/Images/Ban_and_allow_web.JPG

 

See screenie, Have RM rebranded another product and passed it on as there own?

 

I like netop, At least i know it works, I don't think we will be upgrading to 3 as 2 does what we want but still thought i would raise the point.

 

Barry

[beeswax]

I did see this in action once - GoverLan - and it seemed pretty neat.

[NetworkGeezer]

I did see this in action once - GoverLan - and it seemed pretty neat.

 

Looks good for remote admin especially if your not a WMI scripting geek

but it does not have the classroom specific features (web & app blocking etc, lesson plan, quizes etc). Remember this is going to be used by teachers and so has be straightforward.

[john]

That RM Tutor is a rebrand of Net Support School, as I can cofirm that I have seen that screen before, but in my case its not from RM as they are a banned substance from my place. So Net Support have clearly partnered with RM on that

[beeswax]

I did see this in action once - GoverLan - and it seemed pretty neat.

 

Looks good for remote admin especially if your not a WMI scripting geek

but it does not have the classroom specific features (web & app blocking etc, lesson plan, quizes etc). Remember this is going to be used by teachers and so has be straightforward.

 

good points - thanks for that.

beeswax

[nightowl]

No-one seems to have mentioned that the Ranger Remote Control package is also basically a re-branded version of NetSupports remot control app.

 

We currently use Ranger, but I inherited that from my predecessor. Convincing the head to change after spending all that money on it only a couple of years ago will be difficult.

 

Anyway, back to work for me.

 

Cheers,

 

Nightowl

[NetworkGeezer]

@Dos Box & john

The Mac client appears to be for the genric NSM remote control suite and not the Net Support School version.

 

The clients are generic. net Support School is actually NSM with a fancy skin and teacher tools added. You can use any client and still view it, which is why it pays to get the full NSM and just use NSM School for free.

 

Mr Box can you tell me how you have managed to get Net Support School to control Mac clients. I have tried but I can't. I can only make a connection if the control program is the full NSM not the just the NSS Tutor app.

[NetworkGeezer]

What about AB Tutor Control?

 

It does most things and a few more BUT...

 

You only buy the license for the controlling stations - unlimited clients.

 

Admittedly the NetSupport product is about the best I've tried but I don't think AB Tutor Control can be beaten on price (open source/public domain excluded).

GeoffH

 

Yes it's nice little app and shows the display name of the logged on user.

 

The thumbnail/mosaic view is pants tho as allocates screen as in fractions of the availible screen realestate. One client PC takes up a full window. Two students take half a screen each, 3 students a third each and so on.

 

No student deploy so it's roll your own MSI time again or maybe psexec which is what NSM and NetOp do pretty much.

[ConTheITGuy]

That RM Tutor is a rebrand of Net Support School, as I can cofirm that I have seen that screen before, but in my case its not from RM as they are a banned substance from my place. So Net Support have clearly partnered with RM on that

 

Interesting... RM Tutor, before version 3, used to be powered by NetOP (as we have here - NetOP, not RM Tutor that is). Wonder why they jumped ship - beginning to think maybe we should too

 

Andy.

[john]

Who knows what they have done, but I have used NetOp the other day with a friend and I don't like it compaired to NSM

[GrumbleDook]

Even Viglen's Classlink is based on NetSupport School now apparently (though the rep we had in on Monday got confused a few times and I had to point it to her in the documentation).

[Dos_Box]

@Dos Box & john

The Mac client appears to be for the genric NSM remote control suite and not the Net Support School version.

 

The clients are generic. net Support School is actually NSM with a fancy skin and teacher tools added. You can use any client and still view it, which is why it pays to get the full NSM and just use NSM School for free.

 

Mr Box can you tell me how you have managed to get Net Support School to control Mac clients. I have tried but I can't. I can only make a connection if the control program is the full NSM not the just the NSS Tutor app.

 

Damm, you're right!!. I've just tried. It detects the client but does not show it!! Not good. I've just mailed them a rather irate support request. It does not help that they do not even list Mac as a supported client in a drop down box on the support site!!

-2 Points for their support services.

[NetworkGeezer]

Mr Box can you tell me how you have managed to get Net Support School to control Mac clients. I have tried but I can't. I can only make a connection if the control program is the full NSM not the just the NSS Tutor app.

 

Damm, you're right!!. I've just tried. It detects the client but does not show it!! Not good. I've just mailed them a rather irate support request. It does not help that they do not even list Mac as a supported client in a drop down box on the support site!!

-2 Points for their support services.

 

To be fair I don't think the company have made any claims about NSS controlling Mac clients. It would have been nice if it did.

 

Does anyone know of another product like NSS or NetOp for controlling Mac student PCs?

 

Thanks

 

NG

[Dos_Box]

Here is my reply from NetSupport.

 

 

Thanks for your email.

 

The reason you cannot choose MAC as an option is becuase the MAC client is not support for NetSupport School.

This is already an enhancement in our database for possible inlcusion in a future release as this has been raised by another customer.

 

 

 

[broc]

Has anyone come across Talmos Classroom Manager by Azzurri? It claims to be "a simple web based interface designed to give teachers complete control of the programs and Internet websites available to students in an ICT classroom."

 

The Azzurri website doesn't give much away!

 

Thanks

[danIT]

we user dameware, its light weight picks up all our domains and member computers, it can do a silent install so you can monitor pupils without them knowing, take screenshots, lock the keyboard, show local and remote mouse pointer, pretty nifty.

 

no so practical for say a "normal" teacher, little bit of networking knowledge required.

 

 

Dan

[eastlondon]

Just talking 2 one of the teachers about Net Support, he ask if when the kids logout/ disconnects r they rejoin automatically? As our lot do love to unplug cables etc…

 

@ this time we (technicians) r using VNC but it would be 2 much for teaching staff 2 cope with, even with “VNC Scan Enterprise Console” & I am not in love with VNC.

 

Back in the day when we had win 98 with Viglen ClassLink we had Remote learning.

Thanks

[sahmeepee]

Just talking 2 one of the teachers about Net Support, he ask if when the kids logout/ disconnects r they rejoin automatically? As our lot do love to unplug cables etc…

 

That works in NetOp, but I can't speak for Net Support. As soon as they log back on they'll rejoin the class.

 

There used to be a bug in NetOp (and some of the other alternatives I think) where kids could kill the client agent off, but they've fixed that in the most recent version. (I won't detail how to do that here in case people are still on the old version and their customers are reading!)