IC2
Inciscent's IC2 provides cross-platform administration of your network. The server runs on Caucho Technology's Resin Web server and uses MySQL for the database back end. The product supports Windows system remote administration through its Windows Management Module (WMM), which uses a series of drill-down menus for navigation. For example, to display a system's event log, you click Network tools, Computers, Connect to Computer, then enter the computer name, your username, password, and domain. Unfortunately, whenever you connect to a different computer or want to use another IC2 tool, you have to reauthenticate. The most recent version of the tool solves this problem for domain accounts by letting you log on once, then connect to any member servers on the domain. This recently added feature makes switching between servers that you want to remotely manage a breeze.
From the client, IC2 displays a relevant list of tools, such as Services, Processes, Local Users, Local Groups, Event Logs, Utilities, File Browser, Installer, Network Adapters, and a command prompt. As Figure 4 shows, the uncluttered interface lets you easily view the status of user accounts. The IC2 client uses an SSH or Telnet client to connect to network devices and supports SNMP to help you monitor SNMP-enabled Windows and non-Windows equipment.
IC2 uses shortcuts to streamline its menus. In the Web-based configuration program, you can drill down (like you do with the client) and assign a shortcut at any level. The shortcut is then available to remote clients, letting administrators simply click the shortcut on their Pocket PCs to access the desired destination.
Network Tools
To install Blueprint Software's Network Tools (Net Tools), you must first install the Remote Service Control (RSC) service on a server that runs the .NET Framework. The RSC service provides the application's server component. After you install RSC, you can load the proprietary Net Tools client software on your Pocket PC and launch the application.
Net Tools' attractive UI lets you manage common system functions. However, Net Tools lacks the security and breadth of functionality of the more expensive products. You can use the RSC server to set up individual users. However, RSC requires that a primary user account with sufficient privileges to execute remote commands remain logged on interactively to the RSC server, and Net Tools executes all users' commands under the primary user's context. For example, when the primary user is logged on to the RSC server as a domain administrator, any Pocket PC user who has a Net Tools username and password can connect to the RSC server and execute commands as a domain administrator. Furthermore, communication between the client and the RSC server—including user credentials—is unencrypted.
You can use Net Tools' Ping and Traceroute commands from your Pocket PC to any destination and store addresses so that you can quickly ping a set of known addresses during troubleshooting. Net Tools also supports Telnet (but not SSH) using a Telnet server that accepts clear-text credentials. You can view services, device drivers, and processes, as Figure 5 shows, as well as start new processes.
The Net Tools menu provides access to the primary Windows-management functions, but the functions aren't as robust as those of the more expensive tools. For example, you can edit only domain user information (not local accounts), and you can disable/enable user accounts, reset user passwords, and add new users, but you can't unlock or edit user accounts or access group memberships. The command-line tool is restricted to batch files and built-in commands such as Dir, Path, and Ver. And you must wrap external utilities such as Ipconfig and Netstat in batch files before you can use Net Tools to run them remotely.
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