15-Minute Reviews :: Total Network Inventory v1.5.38.1

Hello all and welcome to another 15-Minute Review! Today’s application is Total Network Inventory version 1.5.38.1 by Softinventive – An application to quickly scan your network and bring up all the computers therein.

Software Description

As Giveaway of the Day states:

“Inventory computers on a network in a few minutes with Total Network Inventory! Total Network Inventory is an PC audit and Network inventory software for office and large scale enterprise networks.

Total Network Inventory interrogates all computers on a network and reports back with complete information about OS, service packs, hotfixes, hardware, software, running processes, etc. on remote computers. The program is agent-free and requires no software installed on remote machines.

Total Network Inventory has been designed with the user in mind, which is reflected in its interface that provides quick and unobtrusive navigation through the program.”

Quick Pros

• Quick scans are handy for quickly seeing what is where (See note below)
• Useful for tracking unauthorized installs, patch levels and so forth
• Login script handy to force reporting, especially with a domain controller
• A lot of information reported back
• Reports for printing out documentation of network as well as legal documentation if needed
• Can add information onto computers such as inventory number, location, primary user, etc.

Quick Cons

• Can not get feedback on computers behind firewalls unless use ‘Logon script scan’
• Would be nice to have functionality such as internet history reporting (or monitoring), remote screen control (for troubleshooting) and so on
• Only inventories Windows-based computers
• Can not add other hardware (Such as routers, switches, printers, etc.)

Expansion

The job of maintaining a site with its computers is becoming more and more intense job. Dealing with unauthorized installs, trying to handle patch levels, ensuring everyone has the most up-to-date software is increasing with time for many networks. This application attempts to help with this aspect by providing a look into each Windows-based PC on the network and a lot of information on each.

While this software does have a quick scan feature for either IP range scanning or scanning via Network Places which is handy for getting a quick idea of what is where and report back, I would recommend implementing the ‘Logon script scan’ functionality. The reason why is that any sort of firewall, or WMI disabled or the RPC server deactivated will disable the ability to scan the computer. If you have a login script for a domain controller to launch the file on login, or even place it into the registry’s Run section, you can always get a report upon login or boot, and minimize the chance of being denied scanning of a computer. It is fairly easy to get set up, especially if you have a domain controller and your groups set up well in the domain controller. A registry hack may be a little more difficult, but you could even build your own installer ( Such as with Nullsoft NSIS ) that will set up the registry and file location for you.

I was surprised at how much information was reported back to me. Hardware, OS information (including patches,) installed software, user accounts and much more. There is a lot here; Essentially a good portion of what you may need to know about a computer for most maintenance purposes. There is also reports as well to allow you to print out documentation on your network or a specific computer as well (Good for saying ‘Hey, get off your system. It is not on the list of approved software’ or similar. Another handy aspect to the layout is the ability to add information to each computer. The list is fairly lengthy; Some of the notworthy ones are inventory numbers (including generator for numbers,) location, primary user, email address, phone number and so forth.

A few things I must note about this application. While it is labelled as an ‘inventory’ application, I would not use it as a primary inventory application. The primary reason is that it only inventories Windows computers specifically. Even if you do an IP scan and it finds other hardware, if it can not connect through WMI, it will not even add it to the Network tree. This, for an ‘inventory’ application is less than helpful. There is no way to inventory routers, switches, hardware firewalls, linux or Mac systems, printers or other network-attached peripherals. I’d likely reference this to a network monitoring package than inventorying; Granted, it is a good way to inventory and manage your Windows-based PCs, it is not a total solution for inventorying for a network administrator.

Final Verdict

While this application does provide a staggering amount of information on the Windows PCs it scans, it would be nice if it would provide a total-solution inventorying system. I went into this application hoping ro be able to map my home’s entire network topology but unfortunately that isn’t the case. The fact that there is no way to inventory (or even track) computers besides Windows-based, it really is a limited-use tool. Granted, it is a great tool for a network administrator trying to keep tabs on what people are installing on their computers and so forth, someone buying into this application may be expecting more when they get it (Good thing they offer a trial.) With that said, for free, it is great if you have yourself a small home network and like to keep an eye that automatic updates are working on your kitchen PC, or that the child hasn’t installed something risque on their computer. As for paying $89 for a 25-computer licence (Scaling up for more licences – needed for each ‘node’ scanned,) if you are looking for an application designed to keep tabs on the computers themselves moreso than keeping track of network topology, this may be handy for you. Granted, for the price tag I would expect more features including some remote administration features, it may not be a bad application for an IT guy with a few bucks to spare out of their budget.

Posted by BladedThoth on Wednesday, June 13, 2007