Controlling Pc From Server?
Hello NG, I am trying to find some information about the possibility to control two (or more) clients (PCs) via a Python application running on a main server. Ideally, this application should be able to monitor (almost in real time) the "activity" of these clients (which applications are launched, closed and so on, if this is even possible, obviously). Does anyone have to share some information/pointer? Thank you a lot. Andrea. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Controlling Pc From Server?
Hello Kartic & NG, Thank you for your prompt answer. In effect, I'm trying to work on a NT network of 6 PC (plus the server). Sorry to not have been clearer. Ideally, I'm trying to monitor the Internet activity of each client (PC) on this network (but I'm not a boss trying to control my emplyees, I'm just curious on it). I would like to know which PC is connected to Internet (by starting something like a "timer" for every PC, and then periodically check if a particular PC is connected or not). This should be done from the main server. Did I make myself clear? Do you think it would be a huge task? Sorry, it may be a very basic question, but thank you for your help. Andrea. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Controlling Pc From Server?
[EMAIL PROTECTED] said the following on 2/27/2005 4:44 AM: Hello NG, I am trying to find some information about the possibility to control two (or more) clients (PCs) via a Python application running on a main server. Ideally, this application should be able to monitor (almost in real time) the "activity" of these clients (which applications are launched, closed and so on, if this is even possible, obviously). Does anyone have to share some information/pointer? Thank you a lot. Andrea. Andrea, Since you have not specified any operating system, my suggestion is for you to go for a generic solution like pyheartbeat. Pyheartbeat is a program with server and client components and uses UDP to monitor which client computers are down and which, active. You can modify pyheartbeat to do what you are wanting, by wrapping your monitoring functions and sending that information back to the server. To make things more elegant, you could probably come up with an XML schema (or other formatted text like JSON or use Pickle to serialize/de-serialze data structures) so that the information is machine-friendly but you still can translate the XML for a pretty display on the server. Pyheartbeat can be found at http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/52302 If you are using Windows NT-based technology, you can setup your clients so that all activity is logged to the server; I believe there are 3rd pary applications available that can do this for you. Sorry, I don't know the specifics on how to do it. For *nix OSes, you can have the syslog daemon log to a remote machine instead of the local. So, you can log all activity to the UNIX server. (Though, to me, it appears that you are looking for remote top like functionality for networked PCs). Thanks, -Kartic -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Controlling Pc From Server?
[EMAIL PROTECTED] said the following on 2/27/2005 8:40 AM: Hello Kartic & NG, Thank you for your prompt answer. In effect, I'm trying to work on a NT network of 6 PC (plus the server). Sorry to not have been clearer. Ideally, I'm trying to monitor the Internet activity of each client (PC) on this network (but I'm not a boss trying to control my emplyees, I'm just curious on it). I would like to know which PC is connected to Internet (by starting something like a "timer" for every PC, and then periodically check if a particular PC is connected or not). This should be done from the main server. Did I make myself clear? Do you think it would be a huge task? Sorry, it may be a very basic question, but thank you for your help. Andrea. Sounds like you are spying :-D Your requirement may sound basic but I don't *think* it is simple to do. Since you are using NT, you can probably see if there is some Network Usage auditing tool. This might cost you some $$ or may be you can find some shareware. For a homegrown solution, if I am not mistaken, you will have to use libpcap (or pypcap) to monitor the packets being sent and received, taking care to exclude the local subnet (or your reporting will be skewed as packets sent to the monitoring server will also be included!). You can check http://www.monkey.org/~dugsong/pypcap/ for more details...and may be for more ideas. Thanks, -Kartic -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Controlling Pc From Server?
[EMAIL PROTECTED] a écrit : Hello Kartic & NG, Thank you for your prompt answer. In effect, I'm trying to work on a NT network of 6 PC (plus the server). Sorry to not have been clearer. Ideally, I'm trying to monitor the Internet activity of each client (PC) on this network (but I'm not a boss trying to control my emplyees, I'm just curious on it). I would like to know which PC is connected to Internet (by starting something like a "timer" for every PC, and then periodically check if a particular PC is connected or not). This should be done from the main server. Did I make myself clear? Do you think it would be a huge task? Sorry, it may be a very basic question, but thank you for your help. Andrea. If what you want is to monitor internet requests, the best place to do so is the gateway of your network. If you don't have access to the gateway, you can always set your server as the gateway for your machines and your server will need to redirect the IP flux to the real gateway. That way, you don't need anything on the client side. On the server, just look at the fluxes toward the internet and you can do wathever you want with it. After that, as I don't know the windows implementation of a gateway, I can't help you ... Pierre -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Controlling Pc From Server?
Kartic said the following on 2/27/2005 8:54 AM: For a homegrown solution, if I am not mistaken, you will have to use libpcap (or pypcap) to monitor the packets being sent and received, taking care to exclude the local subnet (or your reporting will be skewed as packets sent to the monitoring server will also be included!). You can check http://www.monkey.org/~dugsong/pypcap/ for more details...and may be for more ideas. http://winpcap.polito.it/docs/man/html/group__remote__help.html - Should help. This uses the Winpcap library. Not sure if the same can be done using the Python bindings for pcap. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Controlling Pc From Server?
What you are asking IS much more difficult that just "timing". The Internet is a disconnected stateless medium. I can open a browser to a site and just leave my browser open. Am I viewing that site or not? There's no way to know. I might have minimized the browser window and am back doing productive work (assuming my access to the web was non-productive). The best way I've found to do what you want is to force all HTTP traffic through a proxy (I like Squid, but others work as well). The proxy cache logs can provide you with lost of information about where people are going and how much information they download from the site. They cannot however tell you how long someone was there because of what I mentioned above. You can see if someone is going to www.nascar.com or www.espn.com or to some other site. You can also block sites quite easily if there is no legitimate reason for people to be at that site. Hope info helps. Larry Bates [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Hello Kartic & NG, > > Thank you for your prompt answer. In effect, I'm trying to work on > a NT network of 6 PC (plus the server). Sorry to not have been clearer. > Ideally, I'm trying to monitor the Internet activity of each client (PC) > on this network (but I'm not a boss trying to control my emplyees, I'm just > curious on it). I would like to know which PC is connected to Internet (by > starting something like a "timer" for every PC, and then periodically check > if a particular PC is connected or not). This should be done from the main > server. > Did I make myself clear? Do you think it would be a huge task? > > Sorry, it may be a very basic question, but thank you for your help. > > Andrea. > > -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
