Network Tab

This tab contains properties that the Control Center uses to discover Spector Client (Client) installations on your network. The Control Center has the capability to scan the network in sections or in its entirety.

Startup Method

These properties determine how the Control Center initializes its internal network configuration. The Control Center can be configured to either Discover All Network Computers or Load Startup Computer List From File.

If Discover All Network Computers is selected, the Control Center will attempt to discover all computers on the network at startup

Note: This can be a lengthy process for installations on large networks. On smaller networks, the time to discover all computers on the network may be inconsequential.

To prevent auto-discovery on startup, this property is set to Load Startup Computer List from File by default.

In either case, following the Startup Method, any network computers discovered or loaded are displayed in the Results window when the Manage Computers view is displayed.

Figure 1: Control Center - Network Tab

Located within this section is the computer list filename and the Select and Edit buttons. These features are provided so that different computer list files can be created and selected to load on startup. Additional information regarding these buttons and other features is discussed below.

Computer List Filename

If the Load Startup Computer List from File option is selected, then a file must be specified, which contains the list of computers to display within the Manage Computers view. This will be the list of computer names that the Control Center will allow you to manage using Spector CNE. The default computer list filename is NetConfig.xml. The format of the network configuration file is XML.

The filename does not have to be netconfig, but the extension should be .xml. If the specified file is present, the Control Center automatically loads the specified file
If the file loads successfully, the filename is displayed on the status bar at the bottom right of the Control Center window
If the file is not present, the Control Center automatically defaults to Discover All Network Computers upon startup

Use of the Computer list file

This file is used to specify a fixed list of computers to be managed by the Control Center. If Load Startup Computer List From File is enabled and the computer list file is loaded, only those specified domains and computers will be included in the discovery process. All subsequent tasks will be executed within the console.

Computer List File Format

Since the file format is XML, you must have Microsoft’s msxml3.dll in your System32 directory. This should not be a problem, since it installs with Internet Explorer 5 (IE5) or greater, Windows 2000, and XP Pro installations. See NetConfig.XML format for more detail.

Select, Edit, Add, Clear, Load, Discover, and Save Buttons

Select If clicked, it changes the desired configuration file loaded at startup.

Edit If clicked, it displays the Network Configuration Edit dialog box used to create or modify computer list files.

Note: The Network Configuration Edit dialog box has various ways to add or remove computers from the configuration. The Current Computer Configuration list is initially filled with the original contents of the loaded computer list (XML) file.

By selecting a domain from the Domains list, you can filter the computers in this list to just that domain.

The Computers edit control allows you to type any computer name in free form using the DOMAIN\\COMPUTER format

Add There are three Add buttons that allow you to insert individual entries into the Current Computer Configuration list.

The Add button next to the Computers edit control inserts the string entered (prefixed with the domain selection)
The Add button next to the Domains list inserts the selected domain (post-fixed with the string \\*, which denotes all computers in the domain)
The Add button between the two network lists inserts the selected computer from the Available Computers list into the Current Computer Configuration list (prefixed with the domain selection). You can delete any item from the Current Computer Configuration list by selecting the item and clicking on the Remove button

Clear These buttons, one next to each computer list, allows you to delete all items from the respective list

Load These buttons, one next to each computer list, displays a file open dialog allowing you to select an existing computer list (XML) file to load into the respective list. This is a convenient way to pre-configure either list.

Import These buttons, one next to each computer list, displays a file open dialog allowing you to select a text file to load into the respective list. This file’s format is DOMAIN\\COMPUTER1, DOMAIN\\COMPUTER2, etc.

A wildcard character (*) can be used at the start or end of the computer portion of the string. See NetConfig.XML format for reference. Each entry can be on separate lines, eliminating the need for the comma separator
The (\\) between each domain-computer pair can be replaced with a space, allowing you to export a list from a spreadsheet or database, for easy pre-configuring of either list

Figure 2: Network Configuration Edit (with Advanced Dialog)

Discover Located next to the Available Computers list, can be used to populate this list with all computers on your network

Save This button allows you to save the contents of the Current Computer Configuration list in the proper format used by the network configuration (XML) file.

Final Word - Configuration Files

Since the Load Startup Computer List From File feature is used to load groups of computers on startup, maintaining different computer list files allows you to maintain multiple configurations. The computer list file may contain monitored computers that all reside in the same domain, or it can contain groups of monitored computers from different domains.

By maintaining multiple computer list files you can selectively manage only those computers that interest you.

For small networks, this may not be necessary, since it is relatively easy to handle a small number of monitored computers in the display
For larger networks, it may be very beneficial to reduce the number of monitored computers managed to only those computers of which you are immediately interested

Sometimes network or remote computers cause significant delays in the discovery process. These delays are similar to those detected when browsing the network using your standard Windows based tools. By using the computer list file, you can potentially eliminate those delays by not including the problem domains and/or computers in the file.

Background Updating

These properties determine how the Control Center handles its background network communication tasks. The Control Center uses background network communications to monitor activity continuously, and to help administer computers on which a Client is installed. Background Updating is used to determine various properties of computers on the network.

Background Updating works in conjunction with the Startup Method. If a computer list file is used as described in that section, then only those computers listed in the file are included in the background updates. Otherwise, all computers detected during discovery will be included in the background updates.

Background Update of Control Center Views

This property enables/disables background network activity. If it is not selected, then the Control Center will NOT perform background updating.

Note: While it is not required for operation, background updating is necessary in many instances where you need to keep track of the Client installations on the network. Therefore, unless there are network problems preventing it, it is recommended that this property be selected at all times.

Update Computer Information Only

This property is used to reduce the network activity required by the Control Center. If enabled, this option provides for updating only the computers already in the computer list of the Monitor Computers view during background updates.

Example: After the startup method is applied (either discovery or load from file), only those computers displayed in the Monitor Computers view are included in the background updates.

This feature helps to reduce network activity by eliminating the need for the Control Center to perform certain network requests to discover new computers on the network and/or determine if certain computers have been shut down. The Control Center assumes that the computer list is accurate and only attempts to communicate with the computers in the list.

Update Interval

This property determines how often the Control Center starts the background updating process. This property defaults to five minutes, but you can reduce network traffic by setting this property to a higher value. Most stable networks do not need small values.

Example: Situations where users log on to their computer in the morning and log off when they leave at night are considered stable. They are network computers that change little during the course of the day. Constant status updates are not necessary to the internal state of the Control Center.

Note: Experiment with this value to determine what best suits your situation.

Miscellaneous

Perform Network Discovery On Refresh (Setup View)

This property is used to enable/disable network re-discovery when Refresh is selected on a computer item in the Results window, while in the Manage Computers view. If enabled, the Control Center will re-execute the Startup Method, either discovery or load from file, when Refresh is selected. If disabled, the Control Center will simply display its most recent internal state.

Display Network Errors in Dialog

This property determines whether network errors generated on computer discovery are displayed in a dialog box to the user as they occur. By default, this property is disabled, since all errors are recorded to the log file. However, temporarily enabling this property may be useful to debug certain network related problems.