Hello,

Just wondered if any IT people out there could recommend some network auditing software that can run on a server and report back with the PCs and printers it finds on the network? Looking for make, model, operating system, memory, etc. Networks have about 100 PCs, so not huge, but a pain to do manually.

Windows based networks by the way, with a handful of Macs.

Don’t mind paying for it, but free stuff good too, of course.

Cheers.

Could try Microsoft’s own one for the PCs – https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=7826.

You’ll need to follow up with something like Advanced IP Scanner to do a network scan for other kit like printers, switches, etc but be aware it will only return the address and possibly the make but it’s a good place to start.

MS do plenty tools for this, CBA to look though cos I’m eating.

A lot of people i know who used to do this use Spiceworks.

I used to use their older product but haven’t used any of the newer suite. I’m guessing Inventory would work for what you want.

It’s still free as well but now has ads I believe.

Fing? Nmap?

Lansweeper is the best i have used.

Spiceworks works pretty well if you want to continually monitor stuff but is overkill for a one off scan. In that case the advanced ip scanner linked to above is ok

Some guys we work with use something called Snow, audits machines on the network and returns device stats as well as software audits. Has been helpful with some software licensing queries as well as hardware diagnostics. Not used it myself though.

Thanks for the suggestions! I’ll try a few of those out in the near future.

Cheers.

Snow = Astoundingly expensive (and good)
Lansweeper = Less good but free for the basic version!

nmap / zenmap are good free scanners but probably don’t return the inventory data you’re looking for. We wrote something in vbscript / powershell last time we needed this, and I seriously doubt we wrote it from scratch so a script is out there if its a one off.

I use Powershell a great deal these days – after the initial pain of learning it, it is proving an amazingly useful tool. However, a script to run on multiple servers and report back to me with all the information in the comfort of my kitchen chair, is beyond me at the moment.

I’ve tried LanSweeper and it looks pretty good so far. Testing in progress…

Further to this, does anyone know of any VPN agents that can be installed on servers and link to a head office fixed IP? Software or hardware.

Thanks for the recommendations.

I use Powershell a great deal these days – after the initial pain of learning it, it is proving an amazingly useful tool.

Same here. Was a steep, if not vertical learning curve but I really like it now.