Script to track user logins

[mattx]

Geoff - I don't give a monkey's bum about your backed up viewpoints.

I was offering a possible solution as to how to log certain information. You seem intent of just picking holes in it. For someone who is supposed to be a staff memeber I find your attitude of trying to help other people pathetic.

 

Shame there is not an ignore option so I can just filter out your posts as they are about as much use as a Betamax videorecorder.

[GrumbleDook]

@Matt

Give Geoff a chance ... he will pick holes if he sees them ... not for the sake of it but to allow people the chance to fix them.

[Geoff]

Rather than throwing personal attacks at me because you seem unwilling/unable to address my specific concerns. How about I help you out and give a few reasons where it's 'ok' to put security further down the list of priorities?

 

Security is always a compromise with other factors, these are generally some kind of cost to the system for implementing a defined level of security. There are several ways you can qualify this cost, either in monetary, manpower, performance or usability of a system. There are others, but these are the main ones you should be concerned with.

 

So in the specific example we have here, we could say we can't physically afford a server to centralize the logging. We could say we don't have time to do it. We could also say it would slow the login/logout times too much or cause too much extra network traffic.

[mattx]

Personal attacks ? Hey, I am not the one attacking someone's suggestion / post / script.

I have to say Geoff, I love your buzz word bingo manager speak. I've heard it all before in a previous role working for a very large company.

 

Give Geoff a chance

 

Yeah right...

 

Shall we put this to bed now ? [ Sorry, shifting into Geoff Speak there ]

I have a feeling though Geoff will no doubt examine my future posts / scripts and contributions and no doubt pick holes in them.

[Geoff]

I have a feeling though Geoff will no doubt examine my future posts / scripts and contributions and no doubt pick holes in them.

 

No more or less than anyone else's, including my own.

[robM]

Hi all,

I've been lurking on the site for a while now and have just picked up on this thread. There seems to be a lot of complicated code for what is a simple job.

I log my users and computers (900 and 350) using a couple of batch files which are called from a login script. They are placed in a GPO in User Configuration-Window Settings-Scripts

 

The logon script is as follows:

@echo ON,%COMPUTERNAME%,%USERNAME%,%TIME%,%DATE% >> \\server\wherever\monitor.txt.

The Logoff script is the same (replacing ON with OFF!)

The text file is converted on a daily basis to a CSV file and then manipulated in a spreadsheet.

I hope this helps someone

 

Rob

[GrumbleDook]

I have a feeling though Geoff will no doubt examine my future posts / scripts and contributions and no doubt pick holes in them.

 

No more or less than anyone else's, including my own.

 

And there are plenty of people happy to pick Geoff's posts apart too ;-)

[mrforgetful]

I don't know if this is any relevance to this topic but I use it to create reports on all sorts, and ait's free.

 

AD Manager Pro, google it.

 

Also I've just inplemented LimitLogin which is really causing a fuss round school hehe.

[Uraken]

deep breath....

wow ok then where was i oh thats right any one feel like helping me out with this database thing then??

all i want is to be able to set up some sort of query that will get all the info from this already existing very decent way of recording log on/log off etc, the problem that i'm faced with is that it natrually logs everyone that logs on but jsut keeps adding to the records so i need to search for todays records

 

am i making any sense?

[Uraken]

robM yes that sort of helps and is almost the same as this script (except it writes to access) you still must face the same problem though how can you tell at any given time who is logged on where.

for example

" has anyone seen student1, yeah i say (having queryed my database for todays log on/log offs) he is sat at that machine in that room"

 

or christ knows but hes not logged on anywhere..

[mrforgetful]

I finds out is peoples are logged on already and where by opening an MMC that I have.

 

It has the Sessions of each DC in my Domain listed which tells me who has an open session and, hence, who is logged on and where.

[Uraken]

sessions just don't work for us don't ask why cos i'm not sure but it our domain controlers just seem to hold onto them so it gives false feedback.

[robM]

Uraken

open up the script created by the batch file and save as a .CSV file. Then open up that file in the spreadsheet of your choice (mines OpenOffice) Select the data columns and then sort it on column C and column D. This gives a list of users and the times they logged in and out.

 

I usually take the text file and cut and paste the previous days logging events into another file named as the date.CSV. This makes it easier to retrieve the info required.

 

It has proved useful on more than a few occasions to find out last used a computer that had been vandalised. Also by finding out who had been sitting close by we have been able to get corroborating evidence, before confronting the culprit.!!

Rob

[Uraken]

sorry for not getting back sooner been one of those weeks i will try and take a look at your suggestions next week robm thanks for time and efforts mate i'll keep you updated.

[sahmeepee]

Part of our kixtart login script logs this info to a sql server which we query from some very handy web pages. It allows us to view the information in all sorts of ways - from simple user + computer searches to more complex aggregated views showing trends etc. Once it's in a database it's easy to work with the data.

 

On the security front you could at least make sure the database account used by the login script only had the ability to add records.

 

Our database has logged over 400,000 logins and it's still pretty tiny.

[Uraken]

we have sql server here mate (are you offering to shhare the code?)

[sahmeepee]

Yeah, sure. I'll send you a PM cos it might be fiddly to set up.

 

EDIT: Sent! If other people might find this useful I'll post it in a new thread. I'll try to knock up some easy-to-follow instructions first though.

[ozydave]

Downloaded the 'logonrecorder.zip' file this morning.

Works great. Easy to set up and use.

 

Many thanks to the author

 

Dave

[Nick_Parker]

Hi Guys,

 

Here's few scripts that were posted in the communities forum (RM). They have a logon and logoff script which basically records the user's logon and logoff information.

 

You need to modify the location of the access database and have i believ write permission on the db.

 

There is a help file (PDF) which tells you how to use and set it up. I found it it to be really useful and very easy to setup.

 

 

Ashok.

 

Is there anyway you could change the script to use a MySQL Database instead of an Access Database?

[webman]

If you want to access MySQL in VBScripts I think you will need to have the ODBC driver installed on the machines.

[mullet_man]

We are using Logon Recorder database, but keep finding the database becomes corupt quite often, as we had a incident of a laptop going missing on the Friday before half term only time find the database had not been updated since the start of the month, so I couldn't find out who had logged on it.

 

Any ideas why it is becoming corrupt or ways to stop it in future?

[Vinayak]

hi ,

I have checked above zip file and used it it is awesome .

 

But i need some more help can u plzz help me how can i add track log of Pc Lock and Unlock activity.........

 

awaiting for ur precious reply .........tc

[jasperkimmel]

Although logging to a file is very easy, it is also insecure. Users can alter the log files and change them to masquerade their logins and logouts. So I created a more secure way to track user logon and logoff activity to a database.

 

See my thread here: http://www.petri.co.il/forums/showthread.php?t=64080

Edited August 2, 2013 by jasperkimmel