This is a brief overview of the NetSupport
Tech Console available with School version 11.
The Tech Console, as the name suggests,
is designed specifically for use by technicians within a school
environment.
The Tech Console allows a technician to browse, discover
and monitor
all computers across all classrooms within the school
at a single time.
Once gathered and connected to,
all of these computers can be viewed in a single view
or groups can be created based on classrooms or pre-defined groupings that
the technician requires.
In this case, we have connected to Room One.
There are sixteen computers and we can see here all of the student computers, as
well as one teacher computer which has been identified with a different icon.
We can see the current login details, client platform and a range of security
and policy information
which we will cover shortly.
In addition, in real time
we can see the applications that are currently running on those computers
and for any that are relevant,
which websites are currently open
on those computers as well.
The Tech Console provides us with a range of tools.
First and foremost, if we select an individual PC
we have the ability to view the client remotely
and if we select "View Client" you will see a simple remote control window appears,
along with a thumbnail that allows us to navigate around
and within that, we can choose to: scale that screen information to fit on our
screen;
we can view in either share,
watch or control modes;
we can view the computer
full screen;
we can transfer files; we can chat with the student; we can send them a message;
remotely launch an application on the computer;
transfer the clipboard to and from the computer;
communicate audibly using the PC microphone;
log them out;
blank their screen;
or capture a screenshot of any activity on that computer, as well as highlight
and annotate the screen.
Again, the key focus here
is that, if required, a technician can jump onto the student's PC
and make any necessary
amendments to the PC in question.
We can also, on that chosen PC,
look at the inventory of a computer;
we can edit the registry of a computer;
we can pull up a remote command prompt for that computer
and interact with it as if we were there.
Let's pull up our Command Prompt
and you can see if we type in a standard
network command, we will immediately get back
details of the configuration
of that computer.
Again, we have a Registry Editor,
we have power management available for the computers so we can: remotely
power them on;
power them off;
reboot the computers;
remotely log them in;
log them out;
modify the security settings for a computer;
and we have a final option here which is to enable support for a teacher.
With this option enabled,
an icon will appear on the teacher toolbar,
allowing them one-click access to interact with a technician who is not in
the room.
So, if we look at our students and our computers here, you might want to consider about
some of these security and policy settings.
Now, if you have watched our tour on NetSupport School,
you will know that one of the key features available in NetSupport School
for the duration of a lesson
is the ability to control
internet access,
application usage,
printer usage,
Instant Messenger usage and USB and DVD drive access.
Now, that is all well and good
but that functionality is only present for the duration a teacher is connected to
the student machines.
In School 11,
we have extended this capability to provide
"always on"
default policies.
The default policies mean that, as a school, we can choose to say by default USB
devices are always disabled, and that will apply
twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.
But at the point where a teacher connects to the students in the classroom
it they require,
the teacher can override that capability
and for the duration of the lesson
give them access.
So the key aspect is
removing the need for teachers to worry about day-to-day configuration options
and, more importantly, ensuring computers are protected and safe
no matter whether a lesson is active or not.
So to look at our policies, we come to our Security tab
and we jump to our Policy Management
and within our Policy Management,
we have got a Restricted Mode preventing the use of these websites
we have unrestricted application usage,
we have chosen to have Read Only rights on our USB devices by default,
Read Only on our CD/DVD drives
and, by default,
printing is blocked on all unattended computers.
Once we have done that and apply it,
that will be sent out to all students
and the status is shown here
so we have an indicator to let us know what the policy is for each computer against the
key elements.
The second element is security feedback.
Again, if we come to our Security tab
and we have a look at our Security Settings,
you will see that what we can do is modify what we want as being our Firewall,
UAC,
Windows Update, IE Phishing Filter,
Protected Mode status and so on.
Back to the Security tab,
we can actually define what we believe to be the options we want to check
to determine whether a computer is secure or not.
So with these settings here, if we feel these are all appropriate, we may feel that
we do not need to worry about that,
or that,
we can enable it - our computers currently are not secure.
If we hover over an individual PC,
we can see feedback on what needs to be done on those computers to bring them to
our expected level of security.
Again, these are new features included in School 11
and basically provide,
at no extra cost, a set of tools for the IT technician to ensure that they can
manage their
computer infrastructure as easily as possible.
From a tech support point of view,
let us also look at this PC and find out a bit more about it. We also provide an
Inventory option
and you will see now, if we maximize this,
we have a full hardware inventory
of this target computer, we can see all of its networking and storage information,
we can also jump across
to see what software is currently installed on that computer,
what hot fixes have been applied to the computer,
any applications that are running - currently just Notepad,
processes that are running in background
and also
all active services on the computer.
And again, we have the ability to interact with the service
start a service,
stop a service and so on, depending on our security criteria.
So not only can we monitor what is happening in terms of usage,
but a technician has quick access to all of the key system management and configuration
tools
within the classroom, and across the enterprise as a whole.
Now, we are in View Mode here,
but we can also jump across
to a Thumbnail Mode
and you'll see now we have a classroom of computers. You will see all the lines point
back to "Matthew Fairbrother",
who is a teacher, and if we zoom in we can see there he is, running the teacher console
and therefore
quickly and easily, the technician is able to see this is an active classroom,
these are the student computers
and, if necessary, they can then interact with the teacher.
All of these thumbnails, as you have seen,
if we mouse over, pop up a
larger view to ensure we have quick visibility.
Again, we can toggle back to our Detail Mode
and we can jump to different departments
or have a view of all computers across the enterprise,
in a single action.
As I indicated, the Technician's Console is provided at no extra cost
and is available for all
school computers.
That concludes our brief tour of the main features within the NetSupport
Technician's Console.
NetSupport School, including the Technician's Console,
is available for free download from www.netsupportschool.com
and can be installed on up to 50 computers and used without feature
limitation for thirty days.
If you require
any specific input or advice on configuration and setup,
or would like to organize a one-to-one technical training session,
then please contact your Account Manager at NetSupport.
Thank you for your time.