Discussion on:

Spiceworks' free IT Desktop provides basic network monitoring for SMBs

Have you tried out IT Desktop? Does it offer the features you require for basic network monitoring and inventorying or did it fall short of your needs?

I've been using Spiceworks for a few weeks now. The thing I really like about it are how much these guys thought of the user (me!).

- When I see a Dell computer on my network, there is a link on the asset tag that takes me directly to support.dell.com and plugs in the asset tag for me.

- I no longer have to wonder what hotfix KB12345 means anymore. The software tells me that exactly what it was and links me to the microsoft KB article

- tickets that are tightly integrated with the asset information

- computer comparisons. I've often wondered why something works on one computer but not the other. Spiceworks can quickly compare the two computers and tell me which services are not running or hotfixes not installed.

These are a couple of examples of how well this app is integrated with the 'web' of information outside my network.

Give it a shot. In half an hour you'll know if this one is for you. Otherwise, nothing lost.

I discovered SpiceWorks thru an industry magazine and use it in a small school division.

It does discover AVG Anti-Virus as well as those previously posted.

Windows firewall will prevent authentication as well as PC which have a blank or null password for the administrative account. Multiple administrative authentication accvounts can be setup and associated with differing PCs.

Even though slow, it can scan different networks other than the network the application is loaded. Changing the network settings will add to the database rather than over write it so you could scan several network segments seperately and have a compiled result.

If a device has a web interface, the link will appear in the details of that device - helpful for determining those unknown devices which fail authentication.

I would recommend this product for any small business or school with limited tech resources.

For the most part the product works great. Have had few issues with duplicates showing up in the scanned list. One thing I would like is a list view option for the devices rather than being limited to the large square icons.
I think the feature set is dead on for small to medium offices. The advertising I even have found to be helpful as it has exposed me to some good resources for products I did not know about. It definately is not obtrusive. It proves that ad supported software can work if it is done correctly. Ads don't blink or open pop up boxes or anything like that. Thanks Spiceworks for a decent product.

Here is a review by TechWorld:
http://www.helpdesknotes.com/2007/09/help_desk_software_review_spic.html

I stubmeled across this app when doing a search for remote client administration. My company is an out-sourced IT department for several other companies in the area and we intend to deploy this at a lot of the networks that we maintain. It works great and had cut the number of calls I get per day to almost nothing. the helpdesk interface is awesome, and very convenient for the end users. Instead of having to call their boss or try to lookup and e-mail address or call me, they simply go to the helpdesk portal, enter their problem, and then I take it from there. I love being able to assign a task to a particular user and then keep track of it through just one interface, instead of looking through hundreds of e-mails trying to remember who sent it and what the subject header was. PLUS, I can give a report to the company contact and they can see where and what their IT dollars are going to as well as monitor how quickly we respond to an issue!

All-in-all, I can't say enough good things about this program! Yes, it is a little slow with the network scans, but gives a great snapshot of what is where and on who's computer. This is a great program! Try it! Best of all, it's free!

From the Spiceworks Site:

"Directly after scanning I was alerted to low disk space on some of the servers, and malware installed on a workstation. I was ecstatic!"

First time that somebody has been ecstatic about finding this out...

I doubt if he was ecstatic about HAVING the problem, but most IT people would be happier to find it before it bites them in the butt rather than after the fact.

I think he knew that, but the phrase could be taken either way, so it is humorous.

J.Ja

So is it really true that there is no software (apps, services, etc) installed on the network devices when using Spiceworks?