System management akin to DameWare and Hyena: Purgos 3.0.249

Purgos 3.0.249
http://www.softulz.net/

Have you ever used DameWare tools or SystemTools' Hyena products? They are GREAT paid system administration tools, essential for any network administrator to effectively support multiple users spanning different physical locations.

Purgos is a new tool to me (although it is at version 3!) which almost fills the freeware niche of "DameWare"-esque utilities in that you can quickly inventory a remote system, allows remote control via VNC or RDP, shows you quick device details, quick remote registry support and more.

Note that it is not nearly as clean as DameWare or Hyena, but it does approach those programs' level of usefulness when you need to get a quick connection to a remote computer.

With Purgos, you can quickly:

• Determine OS, Service pack version
• Remote control via RDP or VNC
• Browse locally installed hard disks on remote computer
• Filter computers/servers based upon various criteria
• Group computers/servers
• Run executables from remote station
  

Central inventory database

The main difference between Purgos and the aforementioned DameWare and Hyena products is that managed computers report into a central administration server via an installed agent, similar to SMS. That means you can view system details even when the computer is offline. Limited information is available on Purgos' website to determine exactly how the agent works...i.e. does it update statistics on a predetermined interval, or when the agent starts up?

The nice thing about a centralized database is that you can run a quick query showing how many managed computers you have where service pack 3 is installed, or how many computers have 512Mb of RAM.

Add computers to the Purgos console

You can add new computers to the console quickly via a couple different routes:

• Single computer name/IP
• Multiple computers via Active Directory import
• Multiple computers via NTLM domain
• Multiple computers via text file listing

A little refinement could be made...

It seems like the computer management console piece is a bit more refined than the 'server files' component. When I attempted to look at some of the properties of where the server files and folders where located, I get an error, but this is if no files have been dropped into the folder...

Also, it was not immediately clear what these folders are for, but more in-depth documentation hunting would probably help me out there.

There are a lot of cool features built into Purgos that I don't have time to review at this time (baby and all, right?), here's a couple interesting features:

Computer Management (Copy Files)	Section 2.4
An arbitrary set of files can be copied to one or more computers. The files that need to be copied to the server can be added to the servers file set at the time of copy or before. Select the files or set of files from all files on the server to copy.

Computer Management (Snapshots)

Section 2.9

Snapshots are a way of capturing the configuration of a given system at a given time. Once two or more snapshots have been taken you can then compare them to analyze the differences. Snapshots can be scheduled to run on a scheduled basis or can be taken immediately the compare with an older snapshot. Comparing snapshots consists of selecting the two points in time that you wish to compare and beginning the compare process . Once the compare process is complete you can view the specific details about the differences found.

I'd like to see the ability to run our own commands against a remote computer, much like Hyena's functionality. Also, I'd like to see remote printers that are installed...

If you get a chance to take a look at this, post your thoughts here.

Announcement: New freeware junkie added to my family!

You've no doubt noticed my lack of posts lately (or the lessened frequency of them).

Well, it was for a great reason - we had been expecting a new child for the last couple of weeks and finally, after all the long waiting, young Patterson arrived on Monday April 13th at 12:48pm! He was 9 lbs 0 ounces and has a full head of hair (lucky!).

Hopefully as we get acclimated to the new baby in the house I will be able to post with more frequency once again.

I want to thank everyone for their well-wishes in advance, and promise you I will be back in full force soon!

Update: Spiceworks 4.0 coming in June

Spiceworks, a personal favorite freebie of mine is slated for a 4.0 release in June.



Some of the new non-heartburn inducing spiciness (as mentioned in the 4.0 forums):

• Network maps
• Bulk-editing of objects
• Removal of Glide support (not many people use it)
• IE6 support dropped for reports and admin interface (end user GUI will still be supported)
• Latest Ruby on Rails as a framework, resulting in faster operation
  
• New end-user portal layout
  

In the meantime, if you don't know what Spiceworks is or want to know more about what it does, review this slideshow/video:

Spiceworks Intro

View more presentations from ground047.

My dream BlackBerry: Storm with Trackball

I know this isn't a real BlackBerry, but it would be awesome.

You see, I absolutely love my Storm, but I don't like trying to accurately place a cursor or navigate web pages with the touchpad. Even with the mouse pointer 'emulator' that you can use on the browser, targeting a specific link, selecting text (ever try to do this inside of a text box on a web page?) is a frustrating affair.

So, I wanted to meld the trackball configuration of a Curve 8900 with the Storm 9530 and here's what I got.

RIM - Please make this for me!

How many of you Storm users would prefer a setup like this?

Online storage with a twist: DropBox Beta

DropBox Beta
http://www.getdropbox.com/

A few weeks ago, my friend Kevin at work turned me onto DropBox as a way to upload/backup files and share them with others.

The whole online storage thing has been pretty overplayed in my opinion, but this service is a little different so I thought I would talk about it. I've definitely heard of DropBox, mind you, but I've never actually spent the time and actually tried it out. After Kevin showed me how he used it, I decided to give it a try (also, I told him I wouldn't post before he did on his blog).

Now, DropBox isn't like every other online storage service - - or at least not like the Microsoft SkyDrive service which I do use...DropBox works like this:

• You sign up for service, install client utility on computer 'A'
• Client utility creates 'My DropBox' folder under 'My Documents'
• Client copies/synchronizes contents of My DropBox to your DropBox account
• You install client utility on computer 'B'
• Client brings all files down from your DropBox online account to your 'My DropBox' folder on this computer (B)
• You change a file on Computer B, files get uploaded and then synchronized to Computer A as soon as the client utility connects from that computer

The files and folders inside your DropBox directory get a handy little sync indicator showing if the file has been uploaded or if it is pending upload to the online service. Nice!

Share your DropBox files

The beauty of DropBox is that you have the ability to share an individual file or a whole folder to a user. Simply right-click a file or folder under the 'My DropBox' directory to see the option.

• You share a folder with another user (who has a DropBox account and client loaded)
• Your contents are dropped to their computer - any changes made by them or you is synchronized to/from all computers that are shared (I'm not sure how it handles conflicts as of yet).

When you share a file, you do so via your Public folder. You drop a file into your public folder, right-click it > DropBox > 'Copy public link' then email your recipient the link and thats it! Your recipient can click the link on their side and download the file.

FYI: When you share a folder, your recipient will get a local copy of your shared folder - so, it goes without saying to try and not share a folder with more contents than what your recipient has in free drive space!

Download your folders as a ZIP file

A cool feature that the web site provides is the ability to download a shared folder as a ZIP file. So, if you don't have DropBox installed on a PC, you could download your folders as needed.

Refer to DropBox, get more space

The only downside to DropBox is that the free account is limited to 2Gb - but there is a cool offer for those who send referrals to DropBox. When you refer other users to sign up for the service and they create an account and download the client, you and your friend automatically get an additional 250Mb of free space!

Referral-related free space is limited to 3Gb total, so if you exclusively use a free account, you are limited to 5Gb. You can sign up for a 50Gb plan for $99 a year, which really isn't bad, so if you have a lot of data to synchronize, this might do the trick for you!

Idea: Pyramid scheme!

I would like to see a bit more space for the free users - hey, how about a pyramid scheme type of system for referrals? User 'A' refers 'B', User 'A' gets 250Mb of space, User 'B' refers User 'C' - User A gets 125Mb, B gets 250Mb? Or, if a referral purchases a year's worth of space, the referring member gets a significant increase in space?

I still use SkyDrive, but DropBox is kind of like an Internet attached USB drive where I can keep all my stuff that I really need synchronized (and backed up if my system crashes!).

Update: AVG 8.5 and Avira 9.0

Free AV suppliers Grisoft and Avira have announced recently that they have updated their offerings to version 8.5 and 9.0, respectively.

AVG 8.5 offers updated safe-search algorithms and a new pre-execution code protection feature from malicious websites.

Avira 9.0 offers anti-spyware removal, enhanced heuristics detection engine, one-click threat detection/removal and netbook support for lower resolution screens.

New BlackBerry Storm Theme: Google Android

Android Theme for BlackBerry Storm
http://forums.crackberry.com/f131/android-e-storm-edition-162626/

I've come to love my Storm (aside from some strange 'phone not picking up when I press the answer button' issues, but I've recently received a replacement phone)...and as all other Storm owners are probably doing, I've been waiting for some themes to come out that replaces the current Zen offering.

Not that I hate the default theme, but it is a little difficult for me to differentiate between the icons on the screen since there are no colors associated with them. I can only imagine that this is the case for a number of other Storm users out there.

Also, I am opting out of trying to find the yawnable/obligatory iPhone theme for my Storm, and wanted something new.

Availability of themes

In the arena of Storm themes there's not been a lot out there for us Storm users...until recently. The Plazmic 4.7 CDK (theme maker) beta has been floating around out there on the Torrent sites, and we are starting to see a few themes surface - - some good, some definitely not so good...but this one is great!

Of course, since the CDK is in beta, it should be worth mentioning that you shouldn't expect things to work flawlessly (although I suspect that this has more to do with creating the themes rather than using them). That being said, I've experienced no stability issues with this theme.

A member at Crackberry forums by the name of elycruz0102 has developed this awesome Google Android theme for the Storm.

The Google Android theme has offered me a breath of fresh air to my Storm, and as a result of installing it - I love my phone even more. The device even seems more responsive and allows me to find my apps a LOT faster, since they are colorful and distinct.

Most Storm default applications do have a themed icon associated with it - with exception to the app store and the installed Docs to Go apps - which is to be expected.

Problems?

I noticed that it moved my apps that I put into my 'Applications' folder into the 'Downloads' folder...not a big deal.


The only problem I saw with this theme is when I receive calls, the caller name is not centered on the screen quite right. Not a huge deal - certainly not enough of an issue for me to uninstall the theme.


***Update 3/14/09

My Talklock app didn't seem to want to work properly here, so my phone screen was still giving me the issue of hitting the mute button with my cheek while on a phone call. The problem here was that the 'turn off mute' button was then grayed out, and I couldn't press it again! Finally, I realized that if I hit the physical BlackBerry menu button, I could turn it off from there. I would consider this a notable flaw - this was in the AndroidX theme.

Variations

The developer of this theme has a few variations available, and they are all good, but my favorite by far is the android-X theme.

Check it out and let me know if you love/like your Storm just a little bit more after you use it.

Please be sure to throw a dollar (or five!) to the developer for this great theme.

Download (OTA)

• Android X
• Android 2 WB Edition
• Android 2 Dual Screen
• Bottom Slide Dock v1.3
• TodayPlus Version v1.3