AUP Informant 2 Out Now

[bizzel]

In late 2007 I began working on the original AUP Informant. It was only a simple program, designed to work on my school’s network alone. What we wanted was a way to show our usage policy and to automatically gather our pupils’ responses to it; so I pulled up a chair and set about coding AUP Informant.

 

http://www.pbeesley.myzen.co.uk/uploads/edugeek/logo2.jpg

 

For our small network it worked perfectly, even if it was a little rough around the edges, but then I was encouraged at the BETT conference to join EduGeek. Like many techs I read the forums from time to time but never got around to signing up and contributing but it was Diello who twisted my arm (gently, I should add!) and convinced me to start posting.

 

Soon after, I made the AUP Informant software available on the forums and was surprised by how many people were looking for this sort of tool. Despite the simplicity of the program I saw a rush of downloads which prompted me to carry on developing it. There were plenty of feature requests for things such as a second policy, a help window and actions such as logging the user off or restarting the computer if the user declined the policy. While it wasn’t too hard to add these in, it became clear that the software wasn’t designed to be extensible and I had plenty of help requests.

 

The trouble was that it was designed for one network, not the many variations that it was being used on. The configuration was stored in an XML file that needed editing by hand, the user responses were saved as hidden files in their network shares, to change any settings you had to redeploy the clients. It quickly became clear that I would need to start fresh and make AUP Informant 2 much more flexible and reliable – but how would I go about it and what did people really need?

 

I spent almost 3 months on surveys and talking to schools to find out what the priorities should be and this is what we came up with:

 

* Easy to deploy and configure with an MSI package available

* Improved reliability

* Better support for multiple policies

* Responses should be recorded centrally and not scattered around the network

 

And so here we are today, almost a year after the last AUP Informant release. It’s been a long road; longer than I’d planned at least. Faced with my student fees I considered going commercial with the software and my degree studies put a stop to any development from May through June.

 

My financial situation is a little better now and I can’t bring myself to charge for what is essentially a labour of love. So here it is, free of charge and free of ads – AUP Informant 2.0. It’s been taken back to the drawing board and written from the ground up – all 7000 lines of it- to be simpler, more stable, more flexible and feature rich.

 

I focused on deployment first of all, working towards a seamless method for both vanilla and CC3 networks. I think you’ll really notice the difference when you try it out! There’s no configuration file to edit, just an MSI installer for the server and a package for the client. The CC3 package wizard can convert the client MSI into a CC3 package without needing a package build machine, just a few simple steps and it’s done. What’s more, the client is less than 1MB when installed and even the server installation should take at most 60 seconds.

 

The server application helps you configure all settings through the user interface, no text editing required this time around. Any changes to your policy or options are reflected immediately and seamlessly pushed out to clients. Clients will also detect the server automatically so you’ll never have to set the IP or hostname even if you move the server application. It’s now also a snap to define when the secondary policy is shown.

 

User responses aren’t saved as files anymore (long overdue!) which helps reliability an awful lot. Instead they’re saved in the server database where they are used to produce an overview chart and report data. If you can write SQL queries then you can even create custom reports and save them.

 

So I've rambled enough. Go grab a copy already!

 

http://www.pbeesley.myzen.co.uk/uploads/edugeek/policies.jpg

 

http://www.pbeesley.myzen.co.uk/uploads/edugeek/reporting.jpg

[mb2k01]

DNS issues on your grab a copy link? :0

I'll be a new user of this, but looking forward to seeing it in action.

[bizzel]

I moved the site to beefier hosting yesterday. If the DNS is still updating, you can view the project page here at AUP Informant for the moment.

 

For the downloads, replace the http://www.paulbeesley.com section of the URL with http://www.pbeesley.myzen.co.uk and it should work fine. DNS seems to have updated in most places and should be completely updated by the end of the day.

[PEO]

I moved the site to beefier hosting yesterday. If the DNS is still updating, you can view the project page here at AUP Informant for the moment.

 

For the downloads, replace the Paul Beesley section of the URL with Paul Beesley and it should work fine. DNS seems to have updated in most places and should be completely updated by the end of the day.

 

Hi Paul, Big thanks for all the hard work in trying to get this out intime for us all to install ready for the new term.. excellent work +rep

[Domino]

Looks awesome Mate, hope you're blummin' proud!

 

Question: what happens if the client is running on a laptop that is off the network? is there much in the way of erroring or hanging?

[mb2k01]

I'm using Server 2008 Enterprise and Windows 7 Professional.

The server works fine, but the client logs in the user (in this case an admin account) and comes up with the following:

 

Description:

Stopped working

 

Problem signature:

Problem Event Name: CLR20r3

Problem Signature 01: aup informant 2.exe

Problem Signature 02: 2.0.0.56

Problem Signature 03: 4a953e94

Problem Signature 04: System

Problem Signature 05: 2.0.0.0

Problem Signature 06: 4a275e12

Problem Signature 07: 38a9

Problem Signature 08: 115

Problem Signature 09: System.Security.Security

OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.48

Locale ID: 2057

 

Any ideas what I can do to make it work?

 

Cheers

Edited August 27, 2009 by mb2k01
Typed incorrect server OS

[Theblacksheep]

Awesome, thank you Paul

[bizzel]

Nope, won't hang. It'll send one broadcast packet a minute looking for the server so it won't clog the network and it'll even display the AUP as soon as the laptop reconnects to the network as if you'd just logged on.

 

Looks awesome Mate, hope you're blummin' proud!

 

Question: what happens if the client is running on a laptop that is off the network? is there much in the way of erroring or hanging?

[PEO]

Paul any chance I can send you a donation for your work, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your efforts.

 

Kev

[bizzel]

Could be a firewall issue preventing communication or a security setting applied to the .NET Framework that prevents it accessing something it needs.

 

I updated the manual just now with the required ports so please give that a try and see if it helps. Also, browse to the program directory and try "Run as Administrator" - that shouldn't be required but if it solves the problem then I can make a change.

 

I'm using Server 2008 Enterprise and Windows 7 Professional.

The server works fine, but the client logs in the user (in this case an admin account) and comes up with the following:

 

*snip*

 

Any ideas what I can do to make it work?

 

Cheers

Edited August 27, 2009 by bizzel

[bizzel]

Thanks very much, always a pleasure. I put up a donation page here: Donations

 

Paul any chance I can send you a donation for your work, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your efforts.

 

Kev

[PEO]

Cheers Paul I will make a donation on friday when I get paid

[mb2k01]

Could be a firewall issue preventing communication or a security setting applied to the .NET Framework that prevents it accessing something it needs.

 

I updated the manual just now with the required ports so please give that a try and see if it helps. Also, browse to the program directory and try "Run as Administrator" - that shouldn't be required but if it solves the problem then I can make a change.

 

How's this for strange...

 

It definately wasn't a firewall issue as it's off at the moment.

I browsed and did "Run as Administrator" and the application came up fine. Accepted the policy and logged off to see if it ran on startup - and it did!

 

I'll set another couple of stations up to see if I can recreate the error / cure!

[bizzel]

Thanks, it does seem unusual. I'm off out for the afternoon so I'll try to reproduce this tonight and I will PM you tomorrow with my findings.

 

In the meantime, could you grab the workstation's Application event log and send it to me please? (I forgot to mention that's a new feature - proper, standard event logging on the client and server.) You can filter the event log for events from AUP Informant if you prefer.

 

Paul (paulbeesley3[at]googlemail.com)

 

How's this for strange...

 

It definately wasn't a firewall issue as it's off at the moment.

I browsed and did "Run as Administrator" and the application came up fine. Accepted the policy and logged off to see if it ran on startup - and it did!

 

I'll set another couple of stations up to see if I can recreate the error / cure!

Edited August 27, 2009 by bizzel

[mortstar]

Wow Bizzel, amazing work and thanks for getting it out before the start of the new term.

 

I'll report back on how it goes on our Terminal Servers.

 

EDIT: Brief test on a Terminal Server and it looks like it is working as expected

 

That's 162 of 330 student workstations covered in 3 minutes flat

Edited August 27, 2009 by mortstar

[bizzel]

Good to hear! I'll do some reading on the quirks of terminal services and hopefully I can support it officially for 2.1 or something.

 

 

EDIT: Brief test on a Terminal Server and it looks like it is working as expected

 

That's 162 of 330 student workstations covered in 3 minutes flat

[Theblacksheep]

All working on client and server (after i opened the ports)... cc3 (yuk) network.

 

Seems faster than the old one, really like the 'running connection' list and big east to see chart!

 

Top stuff, very impressed. Thanks Bizzel!!

[Netwacky87]

What would be nice (no idea if it could be done though...) is to have,

 

When a user declines the AUP it will log them off AND lock there account..that way we can NICELY tell them the rules!

 

Mart

[bizzel]

AD Integration - coming in 2.1.

 

What would be nice (no idea if it could be done though...) is to have,

 

When a user declines the AUP it will log them off AND lock there account..that way we can NICELY tell them the rules!

 

Mart

[meastaugh1]

Looks good, just wondering why the server component isn't installed as a service? Are there any known issues with running it as a service?

[rh91uk]

This looks amazing, bizzel - I can't wait to implement this..

[fiza]

Having problems -

 

Client loads fine and comes up with the AUP - I decline and it logs me off. So far so good.

 

On server status I can see that the client connected but I cannot see if the client accepted or declined.

 

when I look at reports everything stays at 0 and get the message "There is not enough data to produce a chart". If I click on Report Viewer I get an Error message "Unhandled Exception has occurred in your application. If you click continue, the application will ignore the error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately" and then under this is another message "String was not recognized as a valid DateTime".

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

I dont have windows firewall enabled on any machines.

[bizzel]

Did you see my response here? I moved your post earlier, sorry.

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/edugeek-aup-informant/40489-aup-informant-2-support-thread-new-post.html

 

Having problems -

 

Client loads fine and comes up with the AUP - I decline and it logs me off. So far so good.

 

On server status I can see that the client connected but I cannot see if the client accepted or declined.

 

when I look at reports everything stays at 0 and get the message "There is not enough data to produce a chart". If I click on Report Viewer I get an Error message "Unhandled Exception has occurred in your application. If you click continue, the application will ignore the error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately" and then under this is another message "String was not recognized as a valid DateTime".

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

I dont have windows firewall enabled on any machines.

[bizzel]

I started developing the software in one of the express editions of Visual Studio which doesn't support developing services. I now have a lovely copy of the Professional edition through the university which does support services but to add that in would require a lot of deep changes now. I'm not ruling it out but it would be after 2.1 is released most likely.

 

If you want to experiment with loading the current version as a service I would look into NSSM (the Non-Sucking Service Manager) that lets you register any application as a service. I'll have a go at this myself and see what the results are.

 

Looks good, just wondering why the server component isn't installed as a service? Are there any known issues with running it as a service?

Edited August 29, 2009 by bizzel

[PiqueABoo]

I started developing the software in one of the express editions of Visual Studio which doesn't support developing services

 

I've always liked the irony in this: If you get a Pro edition it writes more code for you, but unlike an amateur, why wouldn't a professional be able to write that code themselves (and save it as a template if likely to be reused)?