LAN Survey, network auditing and inventory

Client Installation

Client Setup
LAN Survey modules
Selecting Client software location
Starting the scanner from a computer policy

Client setup
You don't need to run a seperate setup program for the client software. All 32 bits Windows platform can start the software from a network share and ordinary users only need read access for this shared location. On Windows 2000, XP and 2003 computers, the first user running the client software needs to have local administrative rights, because the software needs to add an Interbase entry to the SERVICES file of the client computer.

LAN Survey modules

The scanner Module
The scanner module is a tool usually started from the network logon script or from a policy. It scans the computer's hardware, software, printers, ODBC drivers and RAS connections and the current user as a background process. All information, including detected modifications is stored in a SQL Database or send to another location by Email. Once the inventory is completed the module unloads itself. It leaves no resident software in the computers memory, so the risk of conflicts with other software is reduced to a minimum.
The Explorer module
The explorer module contains a network logbook, the option to store information about suppliers and equipment and an interface to the scanned results. For managing the database the explorer module contains an user manager and a backup/restore option.
The Intranet module
The intranet module is a plugin for the Internet Information Server. To install it, you should start the Explorer module as user SYSDBA on your intranet server and select the option Web Module in the Tools menu.

Selecting Client software location
It is important to select a strategic location for the software during the setup. For instance, when you have a single database and a domain with BDC servers on remote locations, installing the client software in the netlogon folder might be a good idea, because it updates the software automatically over the entire network. For a single database on a single location, the client software folder location is less important, as long as all computers have read access to this folder

Starting the scanner from a policy
By default , the scanner waits for the user's shell to become active before it starts a scan. Because an user's shell is started after copying the profiles, the scanner can also scan inside these profile folders.. However, when started from a system or user policy, the scanner should not wait, because the user's shell will normally not start before all programs started by policies are terminated... Always use the -P option to disable the wait feature for the shell when running the scanner from a computer policy.

In order to determine the serial number, manufacturer and PC model, Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) needs to be installed. Consult the LAN Survey User Guide for more information and the various command line options of the scanner module.