Remote Admin advice

  • Thread starter Thread starter chaz
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chaz

Hello,
We have a small network of approx 25 Win2000 machines on a win2000 server
network. Nothing really unusual. I would like to be able to solve more
workstation issues remotely. Things like application errors or even software
installs. It would be good to be able to get on a users desktop and see what
he sees without having to go across buildings to get to them.

What do I need to be looking at/for in order to accomplish this?

chaz
 
chaz said:
Hello,
We have a small network of approx 25 Win2000 machines on a win2000 server
network. Nothing really unusual. I would like to be able to solve more
workstation issues remotely. Things like application errors or even software
installs. It would be good to be able to get on a users desktop and see what
he sees without having to go across buildings to get to them.

What do I need to be looking at/for in order to accomplish this?

chaz
Click to expand...

You could use WinVNC. Install it either as a permanent service
(which allows you to look over people's shoulders at any time)
or as a reverse takeover (which requires users to initiate the
takeover session).
 
If you upgrade to XP Pro you can use Remote Desktop. Otherwise you will need
to look into third party solutions such as PC Anywhere that may cost almost
as much as upgrading to XP Pro. There are free third party solutions but I
do not know how good they are - hopefully someone else can comment on that.
As is you can use Computer Management to view services, processes, Device
Manager, and Event Viewer remotely. There is a free tool from SysInternals
calls psexec that can give you remote access to the other computers command
prompt which you may find helpful. --- Steve

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/psexec.shtml
 
chaz said:
Hello,
We have a small network of approx 25 Win2000 machines on a win2000 server
network. Nothing really unusual. I would like to be able to solve more
workstation issues remotely. Things like application errors or even software
installs. It would be good to be able to get on a users desktop and see what
he sees without having to go across buildings to get to them.

What do I need to be looking at/for in order to accomplish this?

chaz
Click to expand...
Symantec's PC anywhere is a *really* great tool -- gotta pay tho.
 
Hello,
We have a small network of approx 25 Win2000 machines on a win2000 server
network. Nothing really unusual. I would like to be able to solve more
workstation issues remotely. Things like application errors or even software
installs. It would be good to be able to get on a users desktop and see what
he sees without having to go across buildings to get to them.

What do I need to be looking at/for in order to accomplish this?
Click to expand...

I use VNC on everything from Windows 2000 workstations and servers to
Windows 2003 servers. It works quite well and does not cause any
problems that I'm able to detect. About 400 installs currently.

For a solution where you don't want the users to know they have
something running (still shows in the task manager) you can run
something like PCAnywhere Host or Remote Administrator - they have the
option to hide the ICON.
 
I have downloaded TVNC, however, I am a little confused on WHERE it gets
installed. I would like to do my MAINTENANCE from my own workstation. So
what do I install on SALLY's machine so I can use her pc remotely?
 
Sally needs the Server - you need the Viewer. The default is to install
both, but you can change this during setup. With the default Server
install, the user can manually start the server or you could configure it to
run at logon. You can also do a service install so that the service can be
configured to run whenever the machine is running regardless of whether a
user is logged on. The Adminstation module and the documentation is pretty
good.

Doug Sherman
MCSE Win2k/NT4.0, MCSA, MCP+I, MVP
 
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