When I have to take a network server down for whatever reason the normal order of ceremony has been:
1. Issue a general email advising of the date / time the server will go offline and an approx up time it is expected to be up again together with a list of applications / features will be affected.
2. 10 mins prior to going offline issue an alert to all domain computers using NET SEND to advise the server is shortly going offline.
3. 1 min prior to going offline issue an alert via NET SEND to advise they should save and log out immediately (or whatever).
Trouble is, we recently started introducing Win 7 Pro to our company. So far there are 9 deployed with more on the way, most going to staff in managerial positions. NET SEND appears not to work on these computers.
It didn't take much Googling to determine that Vista / 7 do not support NET SEND in any way. A few sites point at MSG as the way to communicate with Win 7 computers but there seems to be conflicting info about what it does and worse, it seems not to work with Win XP computers.
So the short version is.... how do I send network alerts to the computers in my domain, all of them, be they 2000, XP or 7 so that everyone will get the message instantly?
Any ideas why NET SEND just got dumped? Seemed like a very useful tool. I've tried using MSG but, despite following the instructions from help commands have made very little progress in sending anything to anyone, much less the whole domain.
1. Issue a general email advising of the date / time the server will go offline and an approx up time it is expected to be up again together with a list of applications / features will be affected.
2. 10 mins prior to going offline issue an alert to all domain computers using NET SEND to advise the server is shortly going offline.
3. 1 min prior to going offline issue an alert via NET SEND to advise they should save and log out immediately (or whatever).
Trouble is, we recently started introducing Win 7 Pro to our company. So far there are 9 deployed with more on the way, most going to staff in managerial positions. NET SEND appears not to work on these computers.
It didn't take much Googling to determine that Vista / 7 do not support NET SEND in any way. A few sites point at MSG as the way to communicate with Win 7 computers but there seems to be conflicting info about what it does and worse, it seems not to work with Win XP computers.
So the short version is.... how do I send network alerts to the computers in my domain, all of them, be they 2000, XP or 7 so that everyone will get the message instantly?
Any ideas why NET SEND just got dumped? Seemed like a very useful tool. I've tried using MSG but, despite following the instructions from help commands have made very little progress in sending anything to anyone, much less the whole domain.