Windows Workgroup Networks

If you are installing Spector CNE to a Windows Workgroup Network, there are considerations to be made for how the Spector Client (Client) s to be installed to the network computers and how the Control Center is configured to operate with the Windows Workgroup network.

Spector CNE was designed to operate with a Windows Domain, which provides the network administration capabilities for remotely managing computers from a central location. In general, a Windows Workgroup is not enabled for these network administration capabilities, but a Windows Workgroup can be configured to have the necessary network administration capabilities to allow use of all the Spector CNE management capabilities. You will need to determine if the network management capabilities required by Spector CNE are enabled on your Windows Workgroup, and if they are not, whether it is worthwhile to enable these capabilities.

Note: It may be less time consuming to work around the limitations of your Windows Workgroup and install the Client software manually, than it would be to enable all the remote management capabilities for each network computer in your Workgroup. A manual install of the Client simply involves running the .EXE install file created by the Deployment Utility on each network computer.

If your Windows Workgroup does not have all the network management capabilities required by Spector CNE, this will essentially disable the functionality of the Control Center Manage Computers view. The Control Center Manage Computers view provides the ability to query the network and determine the status of each computer on the network as well as providing the ability to "push" installations of the Client onto the computers remotely. This is called the "integrated" mode for the Manage Computers view.

If the network management capabilities are unavailable on your network (such as with a Workgroup), then the Manage Computers view can be operated in a "non-integrated" mode. In the "non-integrated" mode, the Manage Computers view will not attempt to gather status information about the computers being managed and will simply use status information manually configured for each computer being managed. "Non-integrated" mode will not allow remote installations of the Client. The Client will need to be installed manually. In "non-integrated" mode, the Manage Computers view will assume that the Client has been installed manually and that the computer is present on the network. Once the Client is installed manually, the Configure Computers view will be available for remotely changing the Client configuration settings, and the Monitor Computers view will be available for remotely viewing the events recorded on each network computer.

If your Windows Workgroup is already managed, then it is possible that all the Client Installation Requirements are already configured on your network to allow all the functionalities of the Control Center Manage Computers view to operate, including remote installation of the Clients. There are a couple other considerations to review for a Windows Workgroup network.

Usernames and Passwords

The Administrator account used to run the Control Center must be the same account and password with administrator privileges on each network computer being managed and to which the Client is being installed. If you do not have an account on each network computer that has Administrator privileges and has the same user name and password, you will need to create such an account.

Example: There are three computers on your network that you would like to install the Client and all three have a local user account called Administrator that has administrator privileges, but two of the accounts use a password of "tubby" and the third uses a password of "mister." A fourth computer that is running the Control Center and is logged in with a local user account called Administrator, has local administrator privileges and a password of "tubby." This Control Center computer would only be able to see and remotely install to the two computers that have the local user account call Administrator with the password of "tubby", the third computer would be inaccessible because the username credentials do not match an account on that computer with administrator privileges.

Note: If you do not have a user account on all network computers with the same name and password and that has administrator privileges, you can always create the same account on each computer and add it to the Administrators group of each computer to be managed by the Control Center.

Windows 98/ME

If you have Windows 98/ME computers on your Windows Workgroup network and wish to remotely manage them using the Control Center Manage Computers view in "integrated" mode, it will require that the Remote Registry Services is enabled. With Remote Registry Services enabled on a Windows 98/ME computer, you must enable User Level Access Control to provide access to shared resources on the computer. See the Spector CNE Knowledge Base for instructions on enabling User Level Access Control on your Windows 98/ME Workgroup computers.

Note: We strongly suggest that you consider performing a manual install of the Client for Windows 98/ME computers. Windows 98/ME is lacking the network management capabilities required for remote administration and the time and effort involved in enabling these capabilities can far outweigh the small effort involved in performing a manual install of the Client software.