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Competition for Belarc Advisor/Manager?

bartleby — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:36:05 -0800

Competition for Belarc Advisor? For a whole network? Mefite reviews? I'm looking for a hardware/software audit & inventory package for a whole WAN network - if it does patches& vulnerabilities, bonus!

After trying the free-for-home Belarc Advisor, I'm looking at a Small Network Option for the whole operation.

I've only been playing with the demo for a day, but I like pretty much everything - I'm not so in love with the format of the reports, but more information is better than none.

So anyone have any love or hate stories?

Anyone use a different/competing product?

I found Belarc early and liked it - the only competitor I found before it was Hyena, but I was scared off by the "Fully Y2K compliant" section of the website.

Keeping track of my equipment.

hapticactionnetwork — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:12:09 -0800

Simple (free?) system/software for equipment reservations and checking out? I had trouble searching for this, I'm not exactly sure how to.

I work for a small non-profit, and we have a bunch of equipment we check out to people on a regular basis (cameras, tripods, etc.). I'm looking for a way that people can reserve dates and times that they need equipment, and easily check to see if other people have reserved equipment, who has stuff checked out, etc.

More info, if it helps: we all use macs, and we're all networked. If there's some kind of online web thing that does this, that would be awesome. Any suggestions would be super appreciated.

How can I easily get info on our networked computers?

criticman — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 07:00:17 -0800

What is the best enterprise quality software & hardware inventory solution? I have been looking all over trade journals, Google, etc to no avail. The solution needs to be as follows:
-"Server" that can run on non-server OS...preferably WinXP pro, but if it needs to run on Linux or Win2k3 Server, that will be fine.
-Client needs to run on Win2k, WinXP Home (don't ask) & Pro

It needs to provide the following info:
-Machine name
-MAC address
-IP address
-Full OS version (w/ key used)
-hardware specs: processor, ram, video, hard drive, etc
-hardware system ID (such as Dell support code/#)
-software installed (w/ license keys)

The goal is to be able to have a good picture of our company's computers and software. That way we can see what hardware needs to be replaced first, what OS's need upgrading, what software needs to be upgraded, and to see if we are compliant with our purchased software license keys.

Although I could setup a database to house the info and could use something like the free Belarc Advisor to go to each machine and gather info, I am faced with a large work load, so going to each machine and manually inputing data is not an option.

Our network consists of approx. 30 "clients", 5 "servers", plus a handful of networked printers.

And since I do have a long list of links to products, I am looking for info from users who have actually implemented and used a solution to give me examples of how it worked and whether or not you would suggest I try it.

Much appreciated in advance!

Best Windows macro recording software?

uk_giffo — Sat, 12 Mar 2005 12:39:55 -0800

I've taken on a little mini project and I think the best way to get the job done will be to use one of those little bits of software which can copy and then simulate mouse movements etc. Some background details -

My boss wants me to find a solution to this problem: There's this ancient Facilities Management system that's used where I work. Essentially it records hourly water and air temperature readings from hundreds of individual sensors placed within the water system. I don't know what kind of database this data is stored in (it looks like an ancient proprietary database that's just been built upon over the years) before it gets retrieved via the Windows frontend app, but using this app only allows you to look at readings from up to 10 sensors at a time (I don't know whether this is due to enforced restrictions within the frontend or the database, or both). My boss wants me to find a way for him to be able to automatically see periodic readings from all the sensors at once, or at least all the sensors from a certain building, and not through the frontend.

The way I wanted to approach this was to access the database in which the values are stored, and circumvent using this restrictive frontend - I was hoping it would be an SQL db or something like that. But because I frankly don't understand the implemented technologies quite enough I concluded the only way to get at the data automatically and periodically is through one of those mouse recording and playback programs - this would then open up an excel spreadsheet, import the data into it 10 sensor readings at a time and finally I'd do something with VBA to make it more presentable, maybe run off regular reports etc

My only doubts about this approach come from the fact that the frontend (which the recorded mouse macro will be using) is unlikely to stay static - things may be added fairly regularly to the frontend screen which could mess up my mouse macro e.g. if I record the mouse moving to the sixth file in a view of directories (or at point x,y) and selecting it and then if a file gets added to the beginning of this view my previous file is now the seventh one, so any mouse recording software would need to be fairly "intelligent" or at least have pretty decent scripting abilities.

Wow, having just read that back to myself and realised it's nowhere near as clear and concise as it should be I hope you can get understand what I need to get done. If anyone has any comments on the approach I've decided to take and the best mouse macro software I should use they'd be much appreciated.