If decisions on upgrades and the roll out of new technology are to be taken from an informed position, then information is key. With this in mind, NetSupport DNA provides one of the most comprehensive and detailed Hardware Inventory modules available on the market today.

A wealth of information for specific PCs is provided ranging from CPU types and BIOS to memory and memory slots used including those available for future expansion. Information is presented summarised by category, such as PCs by Operating System, CPU type or Memory.

Without effective asset management, the costs for supporting the IT infrastructure can often spiral out of control especially when factoring in the cost of non-compliance.

With NetSupport DNA, organisations can reduce the legal risks by maintaining compliance with software licence agreements, improve the accuracy of budget forecasting by removing over-spend on software assets and ensure the IT function is supporting the overall organisational objectives.

Featuring a detailed summary of all applications detected on a target PC, NetSupport DNA displays this information (with supporting application icon) either on a PC by PC basis or as a group where overall totals (with drill down functionality) for each application are shown.

Recognising that often there are many different versions of a common application in use, DNA provides the ability to create customised Application Groups, where all such versions are grouped together for more effective reporting.

Application Groups also offer the ability to monitor license levels within an organisation. By inputting the number of licenses for each application, software usage levels can be identified whenever a software inventory is executed. As well as appearing within the Software Inventory listings, this license information can also be displayed within the DNA Application Metering section.

Effective Asset Management not only relates to knowing what assets are currently located on the network but also to being able to identify historical changes.

The History option enables you to track changes to a Clients Hardware and Software. Each time DNA gathers Inventory data it compares the current details against information already held on the server and if there are any differences they are recorded in the History.

Identify any changes within the data gathered by NetSupport DNA across the overall enterprise, including alerts for:

• New PCs Added.
• Changes in key Hardware Inventory
• Application installation or removal
• Application licensing warnings
• Changes to user details
• Internet and Application Metering behaviour
• Software Distribution delivery alerts

Identify real-time changes or conditions that occur on a specific PC, including alerts for:

• CPU or Network utilisation alerts
• Process alerts
• Disk space alerts
• Application and Services Start / Stop alerts
• File size change alerts
• Print spooler alerts
• Security alerts - failed login attempts
• Security alerts - USB device activation alerts
• Security alerts - New drive mappings alert
• Security alerts - CD / DVD disk insertion alert
• Windows systems event logs - Alert based on new entries posted in the windows event log for either application, security or system categories
• Alerts can be configured to trigger based on their recorded status of Error, Warning, Information, Audit Success, Audit Failure or All

Knowing how frequently a specific application is being used, will allow for both effective trimming of software budgets and a realistic prediction of future software investments.

NetSupport DNA offers an Application Metering component which reports back all applications used on a target PC, detailing the time the application was both started and finished and the actual time in use. Additionally, when the data is viewed at "department" level, summaries by frequency of use or by duration are shown.

Application usage can be restricted on target PCs by time of day, for all users or usage can be limited to specific nominated PCs. This information can be shown for any preferred time-scale and also allows for further customisation whereby the collection frequency of activity information can be specified.

Similar to Application Metering, NetSupport DNA provides a detailed summary of Internet (or Intranet) activity on a users PC, allowing for effective monitoring of current URL viewing levels across the enterprise.

• Start and Finish time of each URL visited
• Active time spent viewing each website
• Page analysis within a specific URL
• Quick URL link provided for reviewing specific URL's
• Internet Metering information detailed by Client, Department, Dynamic Group or overall Company
• Analysis and Reporting by PC or Logged On User

• To ensure that Internet usage complies with corporate standards, lists of Approved and Restricted URL's together with "apply" time frames for when restrictions apply, can be created and enforced by the Operator.
• Use the "Filter" option and enter a keyword used to identify a website or a generic theme of sites to be Approved or Restricted.
• Internet usage restrictions by time of day, available for complete enterprise or on a per user basis.
• Internet activity information can be ignored if active for less than a preset configurable time period.

NetSupport DNA provides a multi-delivery option for Software Distribution

Firstly, an Operator will define a software package to be deployed, either a collection of Files and Folders specified with appropriate action parameters once successfully delivered to a target system or by recording and scripting any user prompts required during an application install so that the package can be deployed onto a users' system without the need for intervention.

Once created, the application package can be automatically "Pushed" to the target PCs for deployment or alternatively "Published" centrally on the DNA server. Once published, a user can check to see which applications are available for their PC, based on their departmental membership and install these on demand.

However, when initiating large scale deployments, the need to minimise network traffic congestion becomes a priority. In this case, NetSupport DNA allows a Client PC, ideally local to the target machines, to be nominated as a "Distribution Warehouse". When the package is deployed, rather than distributing the package individually to each PC, it delivers the package directly to the "Warehouse" Client which then takes over and distributes it to the target PCs on its local LAN segment.

When operating across a range of locations and networks, the timing of any major package deployment is critical as this may result in a detrimental effect on other critical applications and services, in terms of performance degradation. To reduce this threat, NetSupport DNA offers a "Scheduling" facility, whereby a specific date and time can be scheduled by an Operator for initiating the package deployment - usually out of core office hours when network traffic is at its lowest.

To further simplify the package deployment process, NetSupport DNA includes an "Application Packager", designed for situations where the application to be rolled out does not include its own silent install routine. The Packager enables the operator to record and playback a 3rd party installer, including all the necessary keystrokes and movements. These are stored in a script which is then replayed back at the Client PC without the need for user intervention.

NetSupport Manager (NSM) - the leading PC Remote Control software solution, offering complete remote PC Management and Support.

NetSupport Manager offers comprehensive multi-platform support for Windows, Linux, MAC, Solaris, CE, Pocket PC and Windows Mobile systems, providing complete compatibility to match today's business environment. In addition NetSupport Manager now offers support for 64 bit Intel and AMD platforms, including Windows XP 64 and Windows 2003 64. The support is available for x64-based systems.

NetSupport DNA provides a range of features to locate and Manage PCs and Users within a networked environment. Not only does DNA store key user data (Name, Telephone etc.) but it also provides detailed storage of supporting Asset, Lease and Maintenance data. In addition DNA provides the customer with the ability to customise the data to be gathered and collated from each user.

DNA also provides the mechanism to create Dynamic groups, these are added to the main Company Tree view and can contain PCs from any number of departments. A typical group might be "all PCs with Windows XP and more than 256Mb of Ram".

Other supporting Tools include Connection Statistics, Find User, Chat, Message and a powerful Data Query Tool. DNA also keeps a history of changes to the data entered in User Data. Changes to Custom User Details are recorded including the following fields: Employee Number, Location, Asset Tag and Owner.

One of the main principles of NetSupport DNA, is to offer the means for capturing comprehensive enterprise information, ensuring administrators are fully informed in order to make effective decisions.

However, the data gathered must be made available in an intuitive and user friendly format or else the efficiency benefits gained from implementing NetSupport DNA will be cancelled out by the time spent filtering this information and manipulating it into a useable format.

With this in mind, NetSupport DNA offers two "Styles" of Reporting.

1. On Screen reports which are provided with supporting Bar and Pie charts and drill down capabilities on all key summary data.
2. Print Optimised reports which are powered by a Crystal Report engine that provides the Administrator with additional pre-defined management reports.

All reports include the option to print or export to PDF, DOC and XLS.

• Windows Vista: Vista support for DNA Console and DNA clients is included in version 2.7.
• Reporting / Views
• Make Dynamic Groups available to or hidden from specific Operators.
• Make Custom Queries available to or hidden from specific Operators.
• Hardware History items can be enabled / disabled as needed for reporting.
• Facility to enable / disable Logon / Logoff "popup" messages as required.
• Application Restrictions by department can now be automatically assigned to any new members of a department.
• New Query Scheduler enables Queries to be run on a specific date or regularity based on a defined interval, for example Daily, Weekly etc. The completed report is automatically saved in a user defined location.
• Console / Performance: New DNA Cache Controller. Data views are now generated by the DNA server (previously by the Console) and the resulting data can be cached on the server. The result of this is that views can be generated in background while viewing other console areas and data response times are typically improved.
• Software Distribution
• Software Distribution now provides a range of Retry options allowing control of frequency, delay between attempts and support for PCs powered off at time of distribution. On power on they will be notified of a pending distribution and deployed to automatically.
• Software Distribution : Broadcast. When deploying to computers on a local subnet from the server or distribution warehouse, UDP can now be utilised for significant performance benefits.