Detecting Idle Time

[ihitman]

Don't quite know how to word this. I've been asked about the possibility of developing a program that can manage usage of 80 networked pcs (all running Windows2000) via one main machine.

So if someone booked a computer, they'd enter the start end time, date etc. which is no problem. However, it also has to be able to 'scan' the computers and see that if any are booked, but not being used ie. idle, then identify them.

So ideally I'm wanting to know if there's a way to monitor the usage of these 80 networked machines and see if they are being used or not.

TIA.

 

[jleger]

This is certainly possible.

Install a client program on each machine that will poll the IP address of the server on a certain port, sending perhaps its own IP address or PC name. The client would do this, say, every 30 seconds. The server program that listens on that port logs that PC as being unavailable, since it is polling (which means somebody is logged into the machine). When the user loggs off the machine, the client is no longer running on that PC, which means that it's available.

Jon

 

[sunaj]

Hi,

Jon certainly got a solution, but there are more elegant solutions. Through API call you can retrieve the name of the user currently logged in. See e.g. 'Log Computer Environmental Information' on

http://www.mvps.org/st-software/Ask_NT_Pro.htm

Sunaj
'The gap between theory and practice is not as wide in theory as it is in practice'

 

[venom3249]

You might try looking into Microsoft's WMI technology also. Lots of good management features there that will aid your task. You dont have to make any agent program. WMI is native to win2k.