Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

API for developers needing to monitor many PCs?

Jan 24, 2010 12:55PM PST

Is there an API for developers needing to monitor several machines for small businesses?

I need to monitor about 25 PCs. I am the lone "IT guy" by default for the two locations of our small company.

Asking each user to run this on his/her own will never happen. So that leaves either an API or just making up email addresses and getting the app to email these addresses and having all forwarded to me.

I can do that, but a developer API would be better.

If it is a paid service, drivers will have to be included.

Until I get a positive reply here, I will be working on my own little app to give this ability to small IT guys like myself.

Thanks for your time!

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
No, there isn't...
Jan 25, 2010 3:28AM PST

In fact, at this time, TechTracker is designed to only support a single computer per Cnet account and can have issues if multiple people are behind the same router. An update is planned to support 3 computers per account and address networking issues, but I have not heard of any plans to support business-level infrastructures. Personally, I prefer UpdateStar, which is the most complete update application I have found, but it too lacks such IT administrative options.

Sorry.
John

- Collapse -
We support three computers per account -
Jan 25, 2010 7:07AM PST

Thanks for stepping in here, John - just one slight correction: We launched support for three computers in December, so this is now a feature with the free service. We also seem to be doing fine on the networking front right now.

Jim, thank you for your input! John is correct in that our current plans are focused on our three-machine service. Should you have further questions, you are also welcome to contact our technical support team through a support ticket at http://cnet.custhelp.com

Regards,
CNET TechTracker Support

- Collapse -
Thanks to you both....
Jan 25, 2010 10:49AM PST

Thanks for the replies.

As for UpdateStar - it is woefully lacking in its ability to spot apps that need updating. I ran a little test that will tell you why I say that.

On one of my test PCs I ran File Hippo and found 3 needed updates. on the same PC I ran UpdateStar that found 7 outdated apps. Then I ran CNET's TechTracker that found 13 needed updates.

Even then, some apps are (understandably) still not caught. And some apps like SmartDefrag by Iobit (a very popular package) shows version 1.3 as being the latest, when that is not the case at all.

There is a real need for something like this to track ALL applications. And, while I know that is a large task, I think I may have found a way to make it almost automatic.

I also think that this database of apps and versions should be made available to any developer that wants to use it. I mean, what's the harm in letting people know what new app is available? Doing just that will also be my goal.

I will be testing a prototype this week and will let you know how it comes along.

Thanks for your help.

- Collapse -
I am also looking for a similar thing,
Jun 9, 2011 3:41PM PDT

Hi Jim,