I have used several tools to do remote support and remote control session, bu my favorite still is DameWare.

DameWare was sold to SolarWinds (The biggest company in Network Management Tools) in 2011 and they changed some product names, like DameWare Utilities which is now DameWare Remote Support.

DameWare Mini Remote Control still has the same name, but has now extended features and supports also remote control for Mac and Linux systems.

The feature I love most about Mini Remote Control is that it can be remotely installed (if you have administrator rights).

You can also directly set the options like start as service, automatic, manual and stop the service after your sessions is done.

File Transfer and Chat Sessions

Once connected to your customer / user client machine you can do file transfers and hold a chat session directly from the Dameware Mini Remote Control console.

This options means that you don't have to work with a remote Notepad document to “talk” to the user on the other end. And you don't have to transfer files via remote explorer session to a c$ drive.

The file transfer is also faster then an explorer session.

Below are a list of Benefits and Features as mentioned on the DameWare product page.
The biggest benefit of all was that the product price is based on the number of IT Admin users and not on the number of clients, wich makes it a great choice for smaller companies as well.

DameWare Mini Remote Control Benefits

• Easy-to-install, easy-to-use and easy-to-maintain remote access software
• Easy to afford with licensing based on number of IT admin users rather than number of remote computers managed
• Validated by thousands of users and supported by SolarWinds!

DameWare Mini Remote Control Key Features

• Quickly and easily connect to and control remote desktops, laptops and servers
• Provides remote control for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux
• Deploy agents “on the fly” and start remote control sessions without rebooting
• Connect to unattended computers without the need for remote user interaction
• Easily configure and install agents in bulk with the included MSI package builder
• Complete security, including smart card authentication

http://youtu.be/uZ_iwUHuuZc

If you are looking for tools to do also Active Directory management, then check out DameWare Remote Support.

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I started in 2005 with vbs scripting to produce a vbs script that made it possible to run a script from my PC to document a remote computer.

I produced the script based on the knowledge I gained from The Scripting Guys. They still produce great content and you should check out the Scripting Center to learn more.

Computer Configuration Sheets

The scripts contained in the zip file will produce either a HTML page, an Open Office / Libre Office Writer document or a Microsoft Word document, you just have to run the script and put in the Computer name you want to document.

There is only one restriction: You must have Administrator rights on the computer you want to run the scripts against. Just a safety measure to prevent normal user from getting potentially private information.

If you start the script it will show you an input screen like this:

If you want to document the computer you are running the script on, just input a . (dot), otherwise put in the name of the computer you want to document. Keep in mind that the computer must be on-line and accessible on your network.

If you open the scripts with an editor like Notepad or Pspad you will find extra documentation included about the usage of the file. There are also lines that you just could take out of the output documents by adding or removing a remark option like  ‘ * to activate or de-activate a line.

Unzip the files in a separate folder and replace the logo.jpg with the logo of you company. And if you know some basic HTML code, you can change any portion of the lay-out.

Here are some small examples of the output.

If you click on the index options it will take you to that part of the configuration sheet.

Besides a standard computer you can also use this on Windows Based servers to get your Server documentation done.

That script is now uploaded onto the Download area and you can download it form here Computer Configuration Scripts Zip file

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I wanted to move all this documentation into its own domain for several years. Now its done.

Most of the links to the old site are redirected to this new domain, and I have to clean out some duplicates, but the main part of the old site is moved including the template download links.

The main reason to do this was the fact that the old site run on a very old version of Joomla! that did not work well anymore for me. This new site runs on WordPress which gives me more options to update and extend the information on this site.

The domain name networkdna.org and networkdna.com are domain names I looked at the bring back the original site from Don Kraus, but the price they are asking for those domain names are absurd and not realistic.

If you try networkdna.info, you will be redirected to this website. But a .info is not working well enough for my goals with this website. So the idea of Itnetworkdocs.com was born.

This domain gives me way more options to extend the documentation part and finally get more info for you on the Networkdna structure and update and extend some of the documentation templates.

If you have any questions, ideas or suggestions to make this site better, please use the contact page to get in touch.

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Device's like this could ba hardware like:

• Bar Code Reader (1D and 2D)
• Cell phones
• Digital camera(s)
• Docking station(s)
• Hand Held Computing Devices (inc.: PDAs, inventory taking, etc.)
• Keyboards
• Local printers
• Microphones
• Monitors / Displays
• Mouse
• Speakers
• Removable storage devices (inc.: USB memory sticks, external harddisk, floppies, CDs, DVDs, etc.)
• USB Hubs
• VoIP phone handsets

Some of such peripherals are potential points-of-failure of the security infrastructure.
To limit those potential there must be policy, procedure and process for reducing risk and/or exposure of these devices..

The post Network Peripherals a Short overview appeared first on IT Network Docs.

Using Standard device names

Here is the way we do it, we use the first letters for the device name to identify its type:

• S = Server
• P = Printer
• Sw = Switch
• Wls = Wireless Acces Point
• WS = Workstation
• LT = Laptop
• R = Router

This way it easy to take the next step, which is providing the country the device is in (we manage three different countries and multiple locations)

For the Benelux we simply use NL, BE and LUX, you can think up something for your own situation.

After that the City name is used, like AMS for Amsterdam, followed by a number to uniquely identify the device.

For example NLAMS01 is the 01 Server in Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

BEBRUP05 is Printer number 5 in Brussels in Belgium.

If you setup your devices, you can provide more information in the Property field in windows, to make a more descriptive text.

If you ever have to replace the device with a new one, you just have to change the description, like “HP 4100 Printer in Brussels main office” to “HP 6000 Color laser in Brussels Main Office”.

Workstations and Laptops

Here is where we choose to use the same approach, by using the first signs for Type, country, and location but then we use the year of purchase and a number to identify the device:

NLAMSWS08-0001 = Workstation in The Netherlands, Location Amsterdam, the purchase year 2008, the first Workstation in that year.

Here you put the username and more information also in the Computer description field.

The biggest advantage of this way of naming is the fact that you can see how old the device is, and if it moves to a new user, you just update the description…

So you can really keep this name all the time it is employed in your organization!

As we first started out with our network we used to name them with the username, like WSHUMMERBIE , you can see how this would look if the machine changed to a new user, or the employee was replaced…

Renaming the device would mean redoing the documentation each time there would be a change, now we simply change the username and the description.

The description field makes it really easy to identify the user that need remote support as the field shows up in the remote management software.

I think you get the overall picture of the idea, so just start setting up your own Device name structure and make sure everyone in your IT Department starts using this setup.

We use one standard Excel worksheet to keep track of the Names, numbers and IP address (if fixed) of each device.

Using the full hierarchical names, like Duane mentions in the comment below, is the next step to complete your Active Directory structuur.

The post Naming your Network Devices appeared first on IT Network Docs.

To give you some basic examples:

• DHCP Settings
• DNS Information
• Wins information
• Mail settings

Internet Mail provider(s)
Internet connention provider(s)

These are just some basic things, more will be written about these individual settings and their documentation pages

The post Network Globals in Networkdna appeared first on IT Network Docs.

• Operating Systems
• Productivity Applications
• Support Applications
• Device drivers
• Services
• Engines

For each of these software packages we will be looking for documentation templates that are easily managed and usable.

The post Network Documentation of Software appeared first on IT Network Docs.

In this separate website I will try to show you how you, as an IT Manager or Engineer, can work with NetworkDNA.

Although this is not the real reflection of the Network I manage an a daily basis, it will show you how you can Document your own network in a simpel and structured way.

NetworkDNA Structure

The basic structure for your Network Documentation is the following:

• Section 1 – Non Network Information
• Section 2 – Network Globals
• Section 3 – Network Infrastructure
• Section 4 – Network Devices
• Section 5 – Peripherals
• Section 6 – Software
• Section 7 – Administrative
• Section 8 – Service Level Agreements SLA
• Section 9 – Diagrams

Each of these objects will be reflected in the Menu structure in the left.

The post NetworkDNA Practical Network Documentation appeared first on IT Network Docs.

Nowadays it is almost difficult to get a printer that is NOT network ready… but for a nice stable network without to much collisions and traffic towards those network printers, there are some features that you might want to close down on those printers.

Hewlett Packard and other manufacturers support several protocols on their network interface. To reduce traffic you can close down all that you don't need for your network.

The TCP/IP protocol is the most widely used for all kind of networks so you will keep that running.

If you are not running and Novell or Apple based network you can disable their respective protocols IPX/SPC and Appletalk.

Have your printers installed on a separate print-server with enough free disk space to make sure the processing of the print job will not be hindered.  if you need to you can assign the spool directory to a different disk than the default c: drive on the server.

Name you printers so you can recognize them, but keep the names short and without blanks for installation purposes.  You can give more information about the location of the printer in the seperate comments field on the server where you installed the printer and its driver.

The post Network Printing – Basics Principles for a Stable Printing Enviroment appeared first on IT Network Docs.

• Section 1 – Non Network Information
• Section 2 – Network Globals
• Section 3 – Network Infrastructure
• Section 4 – Network Devices
• Section 5 – Peripherals
• Section 6 – Software
• Section 7 – Administrative
• Section 8 – Service Level Agreements SLA
• Section 9 – Diagrams

Each of these objects will be reflected in the page’s that you can select from the top menu. You need to have this data lined-up before we can start managing and monitoring your network.

What is just as important as knowing how you computer network is structured and documentated is the fact that you need to monitor your network. You should have system in place that looks at critical factors on your network and warn you before things go wrong.

So I am going to give you more information on this site on how to get those monitoring tools in place and how you can do that on a budget. I know that you don't have honderds of thousands dollars to spent. You might not even have tens of thousands to spend… so we will look for affordable and open source network monitoring tools.

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