Note: This article may not apply to most alumnae, but if you are a network administrator or own or run a small to medium business where you need to manage multiple computers and printers, read on.
Many of you probably have a free web based email account, such as, Gmail or Yahoo Mail. These services are free because of the advertising that is displayed alongside the application. Most of us are willing to accept the ads in exchange for the free online services, at least I know I am.
However, when it comes to ad supported desktop applications, that's a different story. Such applications are often referred to as adware and are a nuisance and are not worth the ads they push in front of us. But how about a desktop application that runs in your browser that features ads, but offers a free service that could otherwise cost hundreds of dollars? And what if you could rate the ads which happen to be related to your hardware and software that you manage? This is the case with Spiceworks, which does the following:
- Inventory and report on your company's hardware and software assets automatically.
- Monitor and troubleshoot the hardware and software on your network.
- Run an IT Help Desk for your company that's easy to use.
It takes less than 5 minutes to get up and running (well almost, more on that later). No agents. No scripts. No manual. No hassles. Just download Spiceworks and go. And, Spiceworks is really free. No trials. No time or device limits. Simply free. All thanks to sponsorships by top technology vendors.
At the Alumnae Association I have over 30 computers to oversee, along with half a dozen printers and numerous software packages and licenses. Originally, there were hand-written records to maintain which I was not overjoyed to inherit and I soon looked for an alternative. I came across a web service called TechAtlas which allowed me create an electronic inventory. Unfortunately, it is a subscription service and in order to inventory a machine I must do so from each machine. Mac and Linux computers, along with printers, had to be manually entered. In Spiceworks, I enter the IP addresses or range of addresses I want it to examine along with the Windows domain administrator name and it automatically pull the hardware specifications of the machine and the names and version numbers of the software installed. I can also see things like how much free space is on the hard drive. On printers I can find out how much toner is left.
Spiceworks has a variety of reports and it allows me to add new ones. The only thing I have to manually input is how much the item cost, when we purchased it and the location of the device if I have not already indicated that in the name of the device which I try to do. Unfortunately, my predecessors named computers after the planets or the months of the year which does not tell me anything about where it is located and who uses it.
In regards to the 5 minute setup, that is basically true if WMI (Windows Management Interface) is setup on the machine and the firewall allows it to communicate with other devices. If it is not then I have to go around to each machine and enable it. On two-thirds of the computers I had it disabled for some reason.
It looks like Spiceworks is going to allow me to be more effective at monitoring and managing all of our hardware. I applaud Spiceworks for their creative business model which saves me money out my budget for other items like new hardware upgrades which will be covered in a future blog post.
