Multi-computer monitoring software?

[EvilKupo]

Hello! My new job requires me to monitor multiple computer labs of computers (for a school). Their current way of doing this seems very primitive to me, but the previous person who held this position had been doing it the same way since the late 1990's.

I know there has to be a piece of software out there where I can monitor multiple computers screens at once. I remember when I was in high school around 2000, my school could do it (all the screens appeared on one screen, clicking on one would give full access to that computer) so I'm sure this type of software should be common place now. At the very least I need to be able to view the computers screens, even if I can't take control of them. It should be enough to stop any undesired activities.

I'm running into two problems with it, however. The first is it needs to be able to be hidden from the user. It doesn't have to be hidden from the Task Manager, but does have to start upon computer start up and not show up on the task bar. It wouldn't work if the student could just right click it and close the program.

The second problem is I have found some monitoring programs, but they all rely on being on the same network, all plugged in. The way these computers are set up, there are 3 different networks throughout the school with a mix of wireless and wired.

Again it seems to me this should be possible, but I could be wrong. Any help or pointing in the right direction would be very appreciated.

 

[cl-scott]

The problem with these programs is that they tend to also double as nasty security hazards. The commercial solutions often tend to be expensive, and in these economic conditions for educational institutions, good luck.

You could do it the cheap way with something like VNC. It lets you both passively observe and also take control of another computer. It's ugly, but functional, not to mention cheap. It is possible to do this over the Internet, so the network topology won't be a problem, and you should be able to hide the VNC icon. Problem is the same as any other remote management program: Someone else could potentially walk in the same door you do.

 

[EvilKupo]

you know, I didn't really think about the fact that there are many "virus'" out there that do exactly this, hence the reason it's probably hard to find anything.

I've never messed with VNC much before, but I'll look into this method. I could imagine using this method for 30+ computers would either be very clunky or impossible, but it might be a start. Is there any recommended programs to try?

And you're right, my budget is very small for this upgrade. They also request that I make sure to try before buying of any software.

Thanks, cl-scott! Anyone else have any ideas?

 

[AFurryReptile]

Teamviewer is free, if you aren't running it on a domain. Much better than VNC, imo.

Or as an alternative, have you considered something like Spiceworks, that monitors systems via SNMP and WMI? You can't look at the desktops, but you get event logs, system performance, bandwidth usage, hard drive space, etc.

 

[heymrdj]

Teamviewer is free, if you aren't running it on a domain. Much better than VNC, imo.

Or as an alternative, have you considered something like Spiceworks, that monitors systems via SNMP and WMI? You can't look at the desktops, but you get event logs, system performance, bandwidth usage, hard drive space, etc.

He's probably looking for software with the sole purpose of spying on kids, you know, catching them in the act of doing something wrong ect in the rooms.

Several of our clients use Smart Tech's Synchroneyes. I've had to deploy it for a few schools and it seems to do the job quite well. Most of the time it can apply to e-rate as well depending on your government funding.

http://smarttech.com/sync

 

[Flopp]

Sounds like Netnanny or something. But yeah maybe just using VNC will work for you?

 

[xSauronx]

He's probably looking for software with the sole purpose of spying on kids, you know, catching them in the act of doing something wrong ect in the rooms.

seems like a better policy would be to try and lock things down in such a way that it would make it difficult to violate the terms of use agreement to start with, this sounds like a huge hassle. OP, how much time are you supposed to spend watching the screens on all of these things?