Anticipating problems can be like searching for needle in a haystack. How do you provide solutions when you don't know what the problem is.

A.M.S. can solve a number of problems that may not be obvious at first glance. After all existing monitoring software usually does only that - monitor only !

This is the reason we called it Active Monitoring System - it has does more than just sit there, it it active in controlling the users on the network.

High Bandwidth

This is generally caused by the downloading of files i.e. mpeg, avi, exe, mp3 etc., not from general surfing the internet.

Many network administrators can block the download of these files directly, but what they usually cannot detect is the presence of file-sharing software such as Kazaa, Torrent, Grokster etc, being run and used on the network. If you don't have any type of monitoring software installed, how can you find where the software is? Once you view the type of software in A.M.S.'s event viewer, you add it to the flag list and it can be shut down whenever anybody on the entire network tries to run it. With businesses open to prosecution of having copyrighted files on their network, it pays to be safe!

Games being run

What is the worry about games? One of the little known issues is of games which are 'demo' versions that somebody downloaded from the internet. There have been cases where these demos have inadvertently included viruses which have now been introduced to your network where they can spread rapidly. Another issue is the wasting of time and misuse of resources.

A method in which games can be introduced on a 'locked down' system is for users to put their games into their 'user directories which should be used for data storage only. As you have to provide this directory with full permissions, it is quite easy to run lots of different software from this directory.

Once A.M.S. has detected a game (or other software) being run, you can add it to the flagged list and from then on, it will be shutdown regardless in whose directory it is.

Another game avenue is those games which are based on the internet. These sites can be easily blocked.

Installing Software

Locking down the registry does not provide 100% prevention of the use of unauthorised software. Many software packages can run in a self contained directory without the need for registry entries.

A.M.S. will detect these (wherever they are run from) and shut them down if requested.

We have seen instances where password sniffers & keyloggers have been used on the network for students to try to gather passwords and usernames from others. They set up their keylogger, pretend there may be a problem and see if they can get the administrator (or teacher) to use their username and password so they can record it for future use.

Changing Desktop Backgrounds and Icon Names.

Some students enjoy leaving the background changed to something undesirable (usually a pornograhic image) and leaving it there for the next unsuspecting user to see. A.M.S. allows you to hide the desktop under an default image. This can be replaced with an image of your choice.

Suspected Usage of another Students Username

Quite often, students will 'acquire' anothers username and password to use when they are surfing where they shouldn't be. The next time you think they are up to no good, make a note of the machine's name and the time that they were on and look up the events in A.M.S. to see what user name was used at that particular time. If they don't match, the students has some explaining to do.

If you have the feature in A.M.S. of 'Hide Desktop' turned on, the logged in username is displayed automatically.

Who is logged into what computer ?

A.M.S. keeps a record of the username and computer name along with the time at which they were in its database.