9 replies to this topic

[BAW]

Hello All,

Im looking for a piece of software that is free that can remotely audit computers in a Domain or IP/Subnet range.

I need to be able to audit both Win XP, Win 7 machines and Server 2003/2008.


Do you guys know of any free software that can achieve this? Also ideally, software that is just ran from an EXE and not needed to be installed. I have looked at options like Spiceworks but this needs installing.

I have up to 2000 machines, all in different subnets and IP ranges that need to be audited.


Any help appreciated!

[guitmz]

Well, you can use a RAT (like sub7,bifrost, spynet,cybergate,darkcomet...) to do the job. Only issue will be bypass antivirus on the systems... I dont know about you, but I would do that

[Grunt]

Spiceworks does a pretty good job. No client software needed and doesn't slow down the client when scanning.
We're about to test it in production on 1200 machines including offshore.

[dangermoose]

I have used Spiceworks in the past and it can be clunky to say the least. Works pretty well though.
Another alternative is Open Audit - http://www.open-audit.org/ which I prefer.

[AStaley]

I've just finished testing with Spiceworks on around 100 machines. It does give you a lot of information about the PC and it's enviroment, but I did encounter one problem. The majority of my machines are still WinXP and run with default settings a number of our machines were locked out when the security log filed up in the space of a day. When i looked in to it, it was down to Spiceworks making multiple attempts at connecting to the PC. Still Spiceworks is worth considering, you do get a lot of useful information.

AStaley.

[BAW]

Thanks for the responses everyone - sadly none of these meet my requirements really.

What I need is a piece of software I can walk into a classroom, copy onto a classroom domain server and run, gather all the data for the clients and then move onto the next classroom, we have in excess of 100+ classrooms.

So as you can see, i need something that requires pretty much 0% setup but will run, maybe against a script and gather the data for that domain and export to a file of some sort?

[+sc302]

Just so you can see what you are asking to do....

PC audit software is database driven, either foxpro/access or sql. You want a software that is free, that does not use a database back ground, and that you can willy nilly put anywhere and run it? Yeah no chance. Something needs to be able to install the base database and write files and registry entries that point to this database that is unpopulated. Not going to happen standalone or in a portable install.


You can get away with running a portable app on a pc to get this info, but that is just one pc...you want to multiply this by multiple pcs, not going to happen. Best thing you can do, put it on your pc/laptop and give the software the network credentials needed to properly scan the network. There are lots of tools that can do that, free or for a price.

I used a software called emco network inventory for this, no client install just put it on a pc or laptop, give it the domain and creds to properly scan the pc's and tell it to go. Used this whenever auditing a site, tons of data.

[+BudMan]

BAW, on 26 July 2011 - 18:43, said:

Thanks for the responses everyone - sadly none of these meet my requirements really.

From what I take of this how to audit a domain from the open-audit standalone version.

http://www.open-audi...5764af85cd4b8e7
How To: Audit a domain.

I would think this should take min changes to the script, and could prob be automated to almost nothing, as long as you had the domain admin account which should have the permissions you needed on the client machines, etc.

It would seem you should be able to spend only a few minutes on each DC for the domain to get what you want.

[majortom1981]

I would use spiceworks. We use spiceworks and its pretty good. It shows all info about the machine. Even when its warranty expires, what software is running, what updates it has. Yes it needs to be installed but can be accessed from any other machine after that.

[+CPressland]

Well, I would recommend Absolute Manage - But I'm biased as I work for Absolute Software.

However, It's not free