How to use Asset Tracker for Networks

This topic is one of the most important topics in the help file, so please read it carefully.

Basic principles
As you already know, Asset Tracker for Networks consists of two modules: The Client module (clientcon.exe) and the Administrator's Workplace (admin.exe). To use Asset Tracker for Networks on your local area network, you should:
* configure all the user's workstations to run the clientcon.exe application. The easiest way to do this is to place the Client files in a public shared folder and add the clientcon.exe launch command to the user's logon scripts
* configure the clientcon.exe module to output the users workstations information to a folder that can be accessed by the Network Administrator
* configure the admin.exe Administrator's module to read the users workstations data from this folder .

Step-by-step instructions
* create a folder (e.q. \NetAssets\) on a public shared folder on one of your file server's hard drives.
* create a subfolder (e.q. \Data\) under the \Assets\ folder
* copy all the Asset Tracker for Networks files into the \NetAssets\ folder
* run the admin.exe Administrator module and configure it to use the \NetAssets\Data\ folder as the storage for the user workstations data files
* add the clientcon.exe launch command to the logon scripts of all the user's computers.

How it works:
When a user logs onto the network, the computer they use runs the network logon script with the clientcon.exe launch command. The clientcon.exe program collects the user's computer information and outputs it in the form of an XML report to the \NetAssets\Data\ folder. When the Network Administrator runs the admin.exe module, it reads the user information reports generated by the clientcon.exe program on all the users computers and displays it in an easy-to-understand format.

Structuring inventory by your company's different departments
For large number of auditing computers it is helpful to follow the company departments structure rather then having all computer information files listed one by one. Creating the department structure in Asset Tracker for Networks consists of the following steps:

1. Create departments subfolders in your \NetAssets\Data\ folder.A subfolder representing a department should have exactly the same name with the department name with only one difference: you should replace the spaces in the department name with the underbar character.

Example. Suppose your company consists of these two sectors: Marketing and Sales and Research and Development, and the Marketing and Sales sector consists of two departments: Marketing and Sales. In this example you should create the Marketing_and_Sales and Research_and_Development subfolders under your \NetAssets\Data\ folder, and create the Marketing and Sales subfolders under the Marketing_and_Sales subfolder. After this is completed, your \NetAssets\Data\ folder will have the following structure:

\NetAssets\Data\
\Marketing_and_Sales\
\Marketing\
\Sales\
\Research_and_Development\

2. Create the \Executables\ subfolder under the main \NetAssets\ folder and create the subfolder structure described above under the \NetAssets\Executables\ folder. For the example above you'll have the following subfolders in the \NetAssets\Executables\ folder:

\NetAssets\Executables\
\Marketing_and_Sales\
\Marketing\
\Sales\
\Research_and_Development\

3. Copy all the files from the program installation folder into each subfolder under the the \NetAssets\Executables\ folder: You do not need to purchase additional licenses for this program to perform this operation

4. Run the ADMIN.EXE program in each subfolder, click File|Preferences|General and set up the Data path option to point to the appropriate subfolder in the \NetAssets\Data\ folder, e.g. the program in the \NetAssets\Executables\Research_and_development\ folder should point to the \NetAssets\Data\Research_and_development\ folder. Please delete the ADMIN.EXE file after this step to avoid being confused about which copy of this program you should run to view your network assets.

5. Set up the Network Logon Script for each department to run the ClientCon.exe file from the appropriate subfolder, e.g. the Research and Development department members will run the \NetAssets\Executables\Research_and_Development\ClientCon.exe file during the Windows logon.

6. Run the ADMIN.EXE program installed in the root of the \NetAssets\ folder (see "Step-by-step instructions" section above) and click the Departments Combo in the top of the left pane of the main program window. Your company departments structure was successfully created: