Network Registration Server

[gatoral65]

I've been researching this for a little while now and need some direction from someone that may have experience with it.

What I am looking to impliment on our network (1700 hosts, pc and mac) is a registration server of sorts.

What I want is every new machine that is introduced to the network I want them to be automatically directed to a web page where they can register their machine. By register I mean it takes the MAC address and some other information, like there name, room number and maybe some other contact information and stores it in a database. After registering the host computer the user would then no longer have to do that unless the mac address changed, or something to that extent.

I know a lot of Universities, and ISP's use a similar technology but I'm having no luck tracking down enough information to get started, or a commercial software package to investigate.

I've been reading up on Captive Portals which are mostly used for guest accouts, or charged WI-FI access, but I'm not sure thats exactly what I'm looking for since; and I'm going on my assumption here, but users on these solutions have to keep logging in correct?

In our current system we have a windows 2000 server doing DHCP so all hosts get a private address, we also have a proxy server in place.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. In the mean time I'll keep searching google.

 

[Inaris]

I'm assuming you work in a domain environment for this, so why not implement some login script logic to do this.
We have a service that ever 30 days requests new information from the end user. We run a check to see when it was last updated, and then if it was greater than 30 days past, we through up a webpage requesting the data. It works pretty well for our needs.
Could something like that work for you?
You could also do a runonce type thing to do this, but I doubt it would do what you are looking for...
good luck

 

[gatoral65]

Yes, you are correct we are dealing with a domain environment. I guess scripting would work, though I have had no prior experience with it.

(I just started working here as a computer specialist so I'm not all that experienced with domain management issues, luckily that is not why I was hired )

Thank you for your reply, sounds like something I should look into.

 

[HoLoCroN]

Well, if you are working on an enterprise network with a W2k domain controller, you should look into MS Systems Management Server (SMS). This program will allow you to keep a list of software and hardware components as well as remote control and remote install capabilities.

Look into it, you might find some neat features that can help you in your enterprise management.