Re: Monitor ALL pc's (XP) via spy software?

[Alexander Bolante <alexander.bolante () gmail com>]

Chris:

I completely agree with David Ferreira on this one. 

I must say, when I first read this email, the first thing that came to
my mind was "maintenance nightmare." Monitoring 40+ machines in real
time tracking every footprint, etc. sounds nice, but definitely isn't
practical from an administrative standpoint. That's why we have
domains, security policies, user/group rights/privileges, firewalls,
IDS's, DMZ's, auditing tools, reporting tools, logs, logs, logs :)

Hmm...however...I just noticed you titled your email ..."Spy
Software." Is that because you just want a 3rd party tool that will
allow you to SPY on other user's machines (e.g. scanning/forensic
tools)?

If that's the case, you might want to try User Logger...
Go to --> http://chemware.co.nz/usrlog.htm

Some information from the README...
User Logger stores information about who is using the computer and
when they used it.
Some notes about usage:
  * It runs invisibly (you can stop it with the Task Manager CTRL+ALT+DEL)
  * It creates and updates a tab delimited text file called UserLog.txt,
which you can drag-drop into your spreadsheet application (e.g. Excel),
to work out and analyse times etc.
  * It records User, Date and Time as well as StartUp and ShutDown times
  * It can record all sorts of other information as well,
including a list of "All Windows" (all programs in the Tasklist)
  * It can take screen shots at set intervals.
  * The "Capture on Keyword" looks for a keyword in the tasklist,
and only captures the screen if that word is present.
  * It can be used as a Screen Capturing utility.
  * Logging can be stopped when the data folder gets to a certain size.

Good luck either way!!!



On 7/20/05, David Ferreira <dferreira () izanet com> wrote:
> Hey,
>
> IMHO and if every PC has XP (better if SP2) I think all you need is a
> 2003 PDC and the right group policies. Terminal Server support pasive
> connection, every configuration is installed by default in all the
> domain machines that you want. You can see historial and limit software
> installation and you can restrict every kind of access to the local
> computer to the user. And why not, for monitoring URLs just configure a
> proxy and make it default by IE policy (or transparent proxy) you can
> use SQUID or an ISA Server (which is well integrated in Active
> Directory) Having 40+ Machines in your network I can't  understand how
> you can live whichout aun AD Domain. It's the most fascist tool for
> system administration in a LAN ;)
>
> Greetings,
>
> David
>
> > I am looking for software that will let me monitor in REAL TIME, as
> > well as go back and see what happened on a pc at any time. I see quite
> > a few options out there and most seem to do the same thing which is
> > why I am writing this.
> >
> > What do you guys recommend? I am looking for:
> >
> > 1) Something that can be deployed in the enterprise (40+ machines).
> > 2) Able to connect from the network/LAN to monitor in REAL TIME - in a
> > way that is passive.
> > 3) Able to go back and see what happened on the pc earlier in the day/week?
> > 4) Able to monitor everything from one machine.
> > 5) Option of logging urls they went to earlier etc.
> >
> > What do you guys recommend?


-- 
ALEXANDER BOLANTE
Alexander.Bolante () gmail com 

"I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
 - Ralph Waldo Emerson