Where do I start? Network adminstration.

[jblondi]

Hey Gang,
I am moving into a 4 person apartment in the fall and I will be the tech guy for 4 computers. The problem is that my roomates are pretty computer illiterate, and need constant supervision. Im tired of getting up from my desk to watch what they are doing. Where would you guys recommend looking for network administration. Im using Win XP pro, and have win 2k pro available. I would like to be able to do things which include.

Schedule virus scans of their computers.
Monitor network usage of individual computers.
Possibly install, and exicute commands on their PC's (ive taken a look at remote assistance )
Any other network tasks that you guys see fit.

I know this sounds like an invasion of privacy to some degree, but its really in the best interest of all of us, so that one of my dufuss roomates doesnt tear apart all our computers by opening a nasty virus infected emails. Or hog all the bandwidth downloading movies....Please let me know what you guys think, and im looking for a free, or close to free option. Let me know links, etc. Thanks.

 

[musixian]

Actually, while some administration will definitely be needed, for what you're proposing I'd highly suggest Roxio's GOBACK. I have a similar situation as you, except mine is a classroom of 30 computers with 60 (some computer illiterate!) students using them. With GoBack, when someone screws something up, or adds something, um, "inappropriate", I just select a time in GoBack where I know the computer was running fine, and POOF! - back it goes! To make it even easier, I have them save all of their necessary files on a central "file server"-type computer, so nothing important is lost (although GoBack makes provisions for retrieving these files anyway). I've never had a GoBack-induced screw up when resetting the drives, either (always a major concern with these kinds of things).

Also, don't bother with the LE version. It's well-worth the ~$40 to get the Deluxe - you'll be pleasantly surprised with all of the extra features the Deluxe comes with.

 

[jblondi]

bump, any other suggestions....I dont so much want to control their computers, I just want to be able to watch whats occuring on the network.

 

[DaiShan]

There are really several solutions that I would use in tandem to adequately do what you are asking. First off I assume you are going to be sharing internet? Get a good router and set up a firewall and virus checker at the router, this will allow you to block viruses externally. Almost all virus checkers come with a built in scheduling device, which you can set up once on each of their computers and not worry about it in the future, as for installing and executing programs on their pc's, I still think it would be easier to just manually install it, you are talking about 3 computers other than your own, however if you really are set on it, grab VNC, it is very easy to use and has GUI you could set up an internal FTP (again this is way over kill) and transfer files over. I would also schedule regular defragmentations of their HDD's to keep them running optimally (this can easily be scheduled through the defrag utility) Also as musixian said, I would definitely recommend a program such as Goback, in case they mess anything up, windows xp has this feature built in, so if they have xp you are set on that angle.