Announcing the EduGeek Logon Tracker

[ZeroHour]

ZeroHour: My thoughts are that ASP/.NET needs IIS which only runs under Windows. Whereas PHP can run under Apache, Lighttpd, IIS, Nginx on Windows, Linux, BSD - any platform you choose. I'm all about choices.

 

Hmm to a point but to grab auth details you need ntlm to pass the username which is an iis feature unless you count on the script getting it right. Also tbh I would expect a lot of schools have a iis enabled server at some place in their network.

[webman]

That's a fair point, but integrated auth isn't needed if you handle it using various other methods in the script. IIS may be available, but some people may not want to run it for performance, security or other reasons; or they may run Linux exclusively on the servers. They may already have IIS running their other sites and not want anything else to interfere with them and vice-versa.

 

The way I look at it (and most things which is for other people too) is - if there's more than one way of doing it, why do it the way that forces users down one particular route if it can be helped?

 

I'm sure the EduGeek LogonTracker is a very nice piece of software...

[matt40k]

Thank you for your pointless non constructive comment.

 

Ben

 

Well it is, Webman posted a lot better one. One that doesn't have an admin logon in a vbscript!

[ZeroHour]

Well it is, Webman posted a lot better one. One that doesn't have an admin logon in a vbscript!

 

It does not require it as such, its only for the single logon part that this is required..... admittedly there is not a simple off mode but the next version will have that. Its a beta... sometimes I wonder why we bother at all...

 

Webman: choice is brilliant, for those who dont want to frig with apache/mysql/php etc they can simply use ours.... everyone to there own as they say. IIS is not that bad also, v7 is very good actually.

 

To clarify, the code it not actually code I made but I am now thinking of back porting it to php (pretty easy) and we have plans to get around the admin details. Certainly dont write it off at beta stage.

Edited June 9, 2010 by ZeroHour

[mrbios]

I do prefer the layout of webmans and i think a brilliant hybrid of the two could be created if your ideas on it were combined and a couple more features implemented, not that i don't like this one by any means, but i don't think i would make use of it until i can choose wether to lock people to a single logon or not and the security conerns are sorted. Only thing im curious about, is if you leave this running for months on end, does the database have a time limit on how long information is stored? could end up with a huge database if it ever got forgotten about and left running for years.

[webman]

Thanks mrbios. What things would you like to see in your hybrid vision? I could look at implementing those into version 2 if they'd be beneficial.

 

ZeroHour: that's the great thing about choice For some people "frigging with apache/php/mysql" (sudo tasksel lamp-server) will be easier than faffing around with IIS and MSSQL; and for some obviously it's the opposite. And yes, absolutely - there have been some great improvements in IIS7, especially with PHP performance.

[ZeroHour]

Thanks mrbios. What things would you like to see in your hybrid vision? I could look at implementing those into version 2 if they'd be beneficial.

 

So now we are on a features race....

It would be sensible to have a merge in a way which supports all types of install as I do see me adding a php interface and its not too bad to support mysql. I myself made a logon track using php/mysql which we have used here for 3 years now so I have a lot of the needed code/ideas as such.

 

BTW there is a forum for edugeek logon tracker now under projects.

[mrbios]

MSSQL and IIS support is a must for me personally - though i agree that support across the board is a very good feature to have.

 

The main issue i had with yours webman was after prolonged use i had to wipe the database and start again as it seemed to get slower and slower to load over time, so automatic refreshing of the database per day/week/month or something would be good (whichever seems suitable, maybe the ability to choose?) or even have the ability to archieve the data somewhere? - obviously i may get the same problem with zerohours but ive not used it much yet

 

I think a feature to enable and disable locking single logons would be the most needed feature i could think of. Rattling my brain trying to think of more now

[webman]

The reason for that is because there is no pagination on the listing pages (so it loads all data in the DB for whatever aspect you wanted to load) - this will change in v2

[sister_annex]

I'm glad my little comment sparked all this off,

 

AND... I would never right off of a piece of software no matter what it was whiclst it was in beta

 

I look forward to seeing the ideas come together in the future

[fiza]

When is the revised version be released? I have half installed the Beta but stopped at the website bit as there are no instructions as to what to do next.

[sippo]

How do I install the website part of this? The instructions only tell you how to change the GPO.

[kesomir]

Does this work with terminal services?

[Blackadder]

Awesome, well done and importantly thank you!

[jonathanhaddock]

I have a query regarding the security implications of this solution, if I may.

 

I notice from Website\HOW TO INSTALL.txt that you have to customise the logon and logoff scripts to include an administrative username and password and the database credentials. Given that all authenticated users on the domain can read group policy scripts from Sysvol, it wouldn't be difficult for a student (or any user) to obtain administrative credentials by finding the relevant Group Policy Container, searching for all .vbs files and then reading the details from the file (which is stored as plain text).

 

Given the clear implications here, could you advise of some methods to limit / remove the risk. I appreciate, it would take a user with some knowledge or luck to do this but it wouldn't be difficult and there are some nosey users out there.

 

Don't mean to pooh pooh the product but I am concerned.

 

Jonathan

[ZeroHour]

Sorry for the delay in the update, I am chasing down the updated version from the original developers which hopefully will pass it on to me soon.

[victory2009]

any news.......

[burgemaster]

incase it hasnt been mentioned the website section instructions are actually a copy of the script setup instructions.

[timbo343]

i cant get this to work... can someone help me please.

 

On login, i get an error on line 115 character 1. SQL server does not exist or access denied. I know its there as i have set the blooming thing up and can see the database.

 

Also, i am getting an error in line 4 on the website side of this.

[fiza]

All seems to have gone quiet.

Does anyone have any instructions for the website side of things? Please share if you do.

[c-l-w]

Hi new here just looking and its looking good there is a program called userlock which i was using befor my upgrade this does what i need it to do but is expensive the EduGeek Logon Tracker needs to have similar for me to move away if this can be done im sure a lot more people will be interested keep up the good work the EduGeek.

[fiza]

@ZeroHour What happened with Edugeek Logon Tracker?