Find a user?

[Al Blake]

Can anyone give me a simple way to locate which machine a user is logged
into on a win2k (AD) LAN? We have a single Ad forest with about 500+ nodes -
all switched. When we get a support call from a user they usually DONT know
which machine they are logged in at and it takes us some time to work it
out......
if we know their user name is abc...is there anyway to query the system for
a list of locations (workstations) where the abc account is currently logged
on?

That would really speed up our tech support response as we could then use
remote desktop to troubleshoot the problem.
Al Blake, Australia

 

[Citimouse]

I wonder will this help.

Use this utility called DameWare NT utility. You can download an evaluation
copy from http://www.dameware.com/download/. In the DameWare NT utility,
expand your AD DC server name, then click on session. In the right pane,
there are two columns, Clent and Username. Client is actually the hostname
and Username is the ID that the users use to log in.

I hope thi is what you want.

 

[Dr Zoidberg]

Can anyone give me a simple way to locate which machine a user is
logged into on a win2k (AD) LAN? We have a single Ad forest with
about 500+ nodes - all switched. When we get a support call from a
user they usually DONT know which machine they are logged in at and
it takes us some time to work it out......

Shouldn't this just be a case of getting them to right click "my computer"
and "properties" then read off the machine identification from the
appropriate tab?

--
Alex

"I laugh in the face of danger"

"Then I hide until it goes away"

 

[Mike Ford]

How about this...

put an icon on there desktop for tech support. Have the
icon call a local .bat file that sends a net send command
to a tech support PC

net send techsupportpc %username% "needs some help"

when a net send command shows up on the techsupportpc it
will show the sender as the computer that the user is
logged into and give the username in the message.

It is a simplistic solution but could allow you to queue
the users and actually allow you to call them when a
pctech is free, already knowing which pc they are logged
into.

 

[luke]

Shouldn't this just be a case of getting them to right click "my computer"
and "properties" then read off the machine identification from the
appropriate tab?

I had the same thought? I once worked an a very large lan. We made up
some stickers A1,A2,A3, etc etc and stuck em on the monitor. When ever
someone called the help desk. We got them to tell us the number! Then
we just consulted the database (already put together) which told us
where they were, machine name & spec! Worth keeping a list of dhcp
allocations handy as well.

Regards

Luke

 

[Mike Ford]

make a .bat file that just runs the bellow command

net send techsupportpc %username% "needs help"

Then put a shortcut on each user's desktop that calls the
file and label the shortcut "Tech Support". Then you can
call them knowing the username and pc name of the person
needing help, or have the user click it when they call.

 

[Karl]

Or how about using SMS. There was a posting stating using Dameware, which
is similar to SMS but I work on SMS myself. It has the ability to do just
about anything you wish it to do, including finding users / machines by
using SQL queries, installation of applications even if they are restricted
and much more... From Microsoft.

http://microsoft.com/smserver/


- AND -

We also have each PC labeled with the name of the PC after the My Computer
so if we can't find the user, they just look at their My Computer icon and
see the name. If they play with the name, we simply disable the ability to
modify the desktop. No labels needed.


Cheers!