case study 08 / 09Win-Stone Campus · Endpoints · 2022 – 2024

Campus Endpoint Management

Over 50 PCs spread across the campus, and the only way to check on one, lock it or restart it was to walk over to it.

Desktop monitoring and endpoint management with Net Monitor for Employees for 50+ PCs across the campus, run from one console: live screen view, remote control, power actions, messages, screen lock, traffic blocking, and batch actions such as sending files that open on arrival.

CONSOLE50+ PCS · ONE CONSOLE
PCs under one console
50+PCs under one console
administrator: me
1administrator: me
kinds of remote action, one PC or a batch
9kinds of remote action, one PC or a batch

01The situation

The campus had more than 50 PCs: 31 in the IT lab and about 20 in offices and other rooms. Checking what a machine was doing, locking it or restarting it meant going to it in person.

02What it had to do

  • Every PC on campus visible and controllable from one place.
  • Control limited to a single administrator account.
  • Cover three everyday jobs: IT support, keeping staff PCs in check, and exams in the IT lab.

03Architecture

  1. Console

    • Net Monitor for Employees

      Live screens, remote control and every action, from one administrator account.

    Downward link: commands down, live screens back

  2. Campus network

    • Main router

      Connects the console to every room on campus.

    • Offices and other rooms

      About 20 PCs with Net Monitor installed.

    Downward link: uplink from the lab switch

  3. IT lab segment

    • Lab switch uplink

      Joins the isolated lab to the main router, so the console can reach in.

    • 31 lab PCs

      Net Monitor installed; a rule on the lab router stops them reaching other networks.

One console, one administrator: no one else could watch or control the machines.

04How it works

  1. Enrol

    Set up Net Monitor for Employees on every PC on campus and connected each one to a central console.

  2. Reach the lab

    The IT lab PCs were bound by MAC address to their own network segment, and a rule on the lab's router stopped that segment reaching other networks. The lab switch also had an uplink to the main router, so the console PC could still reach every lab machine.

  3. Watch

    The console shows each PC's screen live, so I could see what any machine was doing without leaving my desk.

  4. Act

    From the same console: take remote control, shut down, sleep or restart, send a message, lock or blank the screen, freeze the screen, mute audio, and block network traffic.

  5. Batch

    Actions can run on a group of PCs at once: shut down a whole room, or send files to many machines and have them open as soon as they arrive.

  6. Restrict

    All of this ran through one access point, my administrator account, so no one else could watch or control the machines.

05Run it yourself

A simulated console over a made-up campus: 31 PCs in the IT lab and 20 elsewhere. Select PCs or a whole room and use the same kinds of action the real console had. The PC names, file and timings are invented.

endpoint console · demo campus · 51 PCs · one administrator

09:14:00
try a job
select0 selected

Pick PCs below, or select a whole room, then choose an action.

IT lab

Offices and other rooms

live view · lab-07live

Every screen on the wall is live. Click a PC to watch it here, and take control to drive it from the console.

console log0 actions

Nothing done yet. Every action lands here with the PCs it reached.

06What changed

  • 50+ PCs across the campus managed from one console instead of room by room.
  • IT support from my desk: see the problem on the user's screen, then fix it with remote control.
  • Staff PCs kept in check: what every office machine was doing was visible from one console.
  • Exams in the IT lab supervised from the console, with the lab's screens watched live.
  • Restarts, locks, messages and traffic blocks done remotely instead of in person, and files delivered to a whole room in one step.