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I’ve been on the hunt for an agentless Network Management tool for a LONG time now. So imagine my consternation when I literally stumbled across Spiceworks this is quite literally the most useful piece of software a Network/Systems Administrator can have that won’t cost you as much as your house. In fact, it won’t cost you anything at all.

Most Network Management tools require that you deploy an agent, setup all kinds of monitoring by hand, and spend hours and hours configuring things. Spiceworks says bugger all that! Sign up, Install the software on your chosen Network Management Server (I used my desktop, newly crafted from circuitry scavenged from a crashed Alien spacecraft), give it some credentials with Admin rights on the network and command it to SCAN. A little while later it will have a complete inventory of your network, tell you what software is on all of your PCs, disk space, event log messages, pretty much anything you can ask for.
And it’s configurable. Want to know when a server has less that 25% of diskspace? Couple of clicks and you’re set. Don’t care if a desktop gets down to 10%? No problem. Want to know when a particular piece of software is installed on the network? NOT A PROBLEM.
Spiceworks is by far the most powerful and useful piece of free software I have ever encountered. If you manage more than 3 computers you NEED to get this downloaded and installed RIGHT NOW. You’ll be amazed about how much you didn’t know about your network.