Network Inventory Scanner
A network inventory scanner program should have certain options to be useful in middle and big networks. First of all, it should not require the network administration group to install the client software on each and every PC manually. This requirement can be ommited if we are speaking about small networks (up to 25-50 computers); as for larger networks, it is absolutelly unacceptable if a software requires something to be manually installed on every network workstation.
Then, a good software of this kind should not load the network bandwidth too much. If the software sends or received megabytes of data for each PC being inventoried, in the large-scale networks this will result in the total network load and prevent the network to serve it's daily tasks. And if this situation happens on the periodical basis (and the network inventory process should be started regularly to provide the network group with the up-to-date information on the company computer assets and network configuration), this service process will take too many company resources to be used in it's everyday life.
And, finally, one should be able to schedule the process to certain hours. For example, the network inventory scanner should be able to schedule to run in the night hours or on weekends so the network load it will generate will not prevent people from doing their job.
These are the issues we had in our minds when building Asset Tracker for Networks software. It does not load the network too much, does not require manual installation on every PC and collects as much information for each individual networked workstation as possible. Please try our network inventory scanner and check it by yourself.
Next article: Network Inventory Tool