Remote Administration

[underfunded]

Ok, I handed in my purchasing proposal for this year to my boss and on it I included PC Anywhere for remote administration of the machines on my network (all win98se). He told me he didn't think we needed to purchase it and told me to look further into remote administration with win98se. So here goes. I have a 30 computer Win2k server based network. I need to be able to remote administer my win98 machines FROM a win98 machine without buying any software. What are my options?

[xtac]

VNC - Works on any platform. Better tha PCanywhere, and FREE.

http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/

[3fingersalute]

VNC is great!

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I have no recollection of any group of words, that when formed together, for a favorite saying!

[underfunded]

Thanks for the suggestion. I have seen that program praised around here before but I couldn't think of the name. I'll give it a try.

[iateyourcat]

vnc is good but do you have to remotely control the machines via desktop? 75% of the administration I do is via shares and regedit/regedt32. also, you might be interested in upgrading your 98 boxes to 2000 pro. you can do some very nice things with group policy in a 2000 domain.

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=-iateyourcat-=

[This message has been edited by iateyourcat (edited January 05, 2001).]

[underfunded]

iateyourcat... Most of the administration I want to do remotely is setting computers to remember passwords (the company is not very security concious) and making sure the internet connections work so people can get their email. It's a pain in the butt to have to go to our other building to type a password for someone who can't remember how to do it.

I would love to upgrade to Win2k Pro machines and am slowly working on it. When I start purchasing machines this year they will come with Win2k Pro and we will slowly convert that way. Then as my boss sees that the people with it don't crash as much he will let me purchase the upgrades for other people.

What type of administration do you do with the regedit32...? I have some other stuff I would like to do like that with logon scripts but I don't know the first place to start. I'm pretty new when it comes to that aspect. I can keep any machine running but now I'm looking to do it easier. Thanks for your input. Ian McLean.

[iamtheman]

As usual the cat guy is on the money. You can use regedt32 to remotely edit the registry on machines in your organization. Basically you can do quite a bit if you know your way around the registry or you can piss someone off enough that they may try to kill you.

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Born to Network

[korpse]

VNC is the best thing around as far as compatibility, speed, and ease of use....I just wish they used better encryption. I'd think twice about putting a machine running VNC on the internet, but for use on a LAN its perfect.

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"You dumb bastard...it's not a schooner, it's a sailboat!"

[iateyourcat]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Geneva, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by iamtheman:
As usual the cat guy is on the money. You can use regedt32 to remotely edit the registry on machines in your organization. Basically you can do quite a bit if you know your way around the registry or you can piss someone off enough that they may try to kill you.

in my best Elvis voice:
why thank you, thank you very much

</font>

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=-iateyourcat-=

[iateyourcat]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Geneva, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by underfunded:
iateyourcat... Most of the administration I want to do remotely is setting computers to remember passwords (the company is not very security concious) and making sure the internet connections work so people can get their email. .</font>

What kind of passwords do they need to remember? Is everyone logging onto the domain or is your network workgroup based? How do you connect to the internet? Proxy or just a router/firewall? Have you thought about locking downt he machines with group/computer policy to keep pesky users from changing things?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Geneva, Arial" size="2">
I would love to upgrade to Win2k Pro machines and am slowly working on it. When I start purchasing machines this year they will come with Win2k Pro and we will slowly convert that way. Then as my boss sees that the people with it don't crash as much he will let me purchase the upgrades for other people.</font>

Cool. 2000 makes 98 look like alpha code.. insert your own joke about windows here..

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Geneva, Arial" size="2">
What type of administration do you do with the regedit32...? I have some other stuff I would like to do like that with logon scripts but I don't know the first place to start. I'm pretty new when it comes to that aspect. I can keep any machine running but now I'm looking to do it easier. Thanks for your input. Ian McLean.</font>

regedt32 is great for troublshooting software and making adjustments remotely. for instance, you can manage file associations easily and remotely which comes in handy when you have users installing software when they shouldn't. you can drop things into and pull things out of the RUN key. with a standard harware platform you can keep one copy of your system key for troubleshooting device settings (same with software)

if your going to get into logon scripts, go right for jscript or vb. if your already shaky with logon scripts, why bother learning dos based commands when you can spend the time on something worlds more powerful..

Good Luck !

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=-iateyourcat-=

[underfunded]

OK, I've started using VNC and Regedit32. With Regedit32 I can edit their registry. Now I need a good registry book to help me figure out where things are. For instance, Where is the setting for the screen saver and background in the registry? What books or websites do you recommend? Thanks, Ian.

[iateyourcat]

get yourself a copy of the resource kit. i don't have a 98 kit here at the office but in our NT4 and 2000 kits there is a registry reference. the resource kits cost more but they're invaluable.

also, use regedit for editing 98 registries and searching NT registries and use regedt32 for editing NT registries.

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=-iateyourcat-=