Content

Ideal Administration

This application offers centralised control and administration for Windows domain. It does this by putting all the essential tools needed to manage domains, computers, users and groups in one place.

It also allows remote control of computers in the domain via VNC and Windows' own remote control function.

Installation of the software was problem-free and once fired up the main console is easy to understand and navigate. In fact when it starts up the list of domains and computers appears to be already populated and ready to administer.

The console is split into two sections, looking much like an explorer window. The left hand section displays a tree structure of the test network and double clicking on a resource revealing its properties such as, local users and groups, registry settings, etc. All can be looked at and change as appropriate.

Remote control of a desktop, handy for helpdesks, can be achieved via TightVNC or the remote desktop feature on Windows 2000/XP. While this appears to work quite well when connecting to another computer, we noticed an odd phenomenon. We could set up a remote session on VNC on our own PC. This had the effect of starting a window within a window ad infinitum. While this is a strange side effect, we felt there should have be some way of preventing such an incident happening in the first place.

That aside, the rest of it seems pretty good. The ability to manage across multiple domains and give online helpdesk support makes it worth considering.

Product title
Ideal Administration
Product info
Name: Ideal Administration Description: Price: €380 per licence ($400)
Strength
: Good support across multiple domains and remote control facility
Weakness
: Odd foibles with the remote control need to be ironed outside
Verdict
: Should be worth considering as a tool for checking out what's on the network and helpdesk facilities.

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