Admin Remote Monitoring

hello everyone.

Ill stat off by telling you what i know. my school computers run on win98 with novell. The school admin has been a little snoopy lately with a remote monitoring program witch i am not sure of. He has excessively watching users activities and allowing members of his own class to watch the network as well. now i am not sure what he is using but there is a program running on almost every computer (taskbar) in the school called something like "access manager" (i think it comes with novell) witch is definitely the server side of a remote watch program but i dont think this is what he is using because it can be easily closed and its not on every computer. My main questions to you are:

How can i find out what he is using to watch everyone?
What are some common programs used for this purpose?
Where can i find info on the upper layer protocol this program uses?
Is it fair to say that since he can "watch" everyone, i can also "watch" everyone by using the client of this program?

any information on anything related to what i said is very much appreciated. thank u :)

ALTIRIS is a common program for monitoring. it's meant to be a teaching tool, but some admins use it to spy on their users. You can see if you use ALTIRIS if a greenish eye pops up on your task bar. You can usually stop him from spying on you by just closing the program; or uninstalling it if you wanna piss him off. To spy on other people, you need a password for the ALTIRIS server program. You should only have access to ALTIRIS client (unless he's a dumbass)

If it's not ALTIRIS, it's probably something like it.

the programm i know is zenworks cool solutions. its distributed from the novell site (http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/...remote_zw.html)
the remote management function is based on usernames. it includes remote desktop management, remote viewing, user adding, deleting of users, file management.
the tool warns the user if admin starts remote viewing.
the programm you are describing is from intel: shiva access manager (http://www.intel.com/support/si/mgt/...63220-JO97.htm)

i think that if you are admin, and you had a lot of work with your network, it is your right to try to "protect" your work. i mean as long this is no bank network or something similar. but it should be only fair to warn the user before you start spying on him - normally this is enough to prevent users from doing something wrong...

I think an admin should be able to protect his network however there is almost no use for this remote administration at my school. all computer have deepfreeze installed.. this is a very powerful program alone so there is no threat to the networks or computers. What pisses me off is that he could be watching me, reading my email and doing other personal things. I knw friends who log in to bank accounts regularly form school. But what really crosses the line is he allowes some of his students to also monitor other users. My friend is in one of his classes and he can spy on anyone he wishes while in his class. i just want to identify this program and then find or make a program that will emulate it but return fake images. For example if he tries to get a screen shot of my computer he gets an large image saying something like "Nice try" or "you shouldnt be spying on people". i think thats fair.

See its stuff like this that pisses me off...thousands of very good admins are out of work and can't find work, and jerks like this are happily employed. If he truly lets students spy on the other students get some documentation of this and bring it to the administration...or better yet have your parents bring it to the administration. The way you stop this is by getting the guy canned...he should be on the street desperately looking for job flipping burgers while someone who would take the position seriously, and act professionally should have the job.

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Originally posted here by sam0010
hello everyone.

Ill stat off by telling you what i know. my school computers run on win98 with novell. The school admin has been a little snoopy lately with a remote monitoring program witch i am not sure of. He has excessively watching users activities and allowing members of his own class to watch the network as well. now i am not sure what he is using but there is a program running on almost every computer (taskbar) in the school called something like "access manager" (i think it comes with novell) witch is definitely the server side of a remote watch program but i dont think this is what he is using because it can be easily closed and its not on every computer. My main questions to you are:

How can i find out what he is using to watch everyone?
What are some common programs used for this purpose?
Where can i find info on the upper layer protocol this program uses?
Is it fair to say that since he can "watch" everyone, i can also "watch" everyone by using the client of this program?

any information on anything related to what i said is very much appreciated. thank u :)

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Altiris is Computer Imaging and Management Software. I work as a sys admin at a vocational school using this program, in a state run school the IT department is responsible making sure the students don't use government property (IE: computers) to look at inapporpiate material: porn. The IT staff has the right to do anything required including "snooping" to ensure that the rules are followed and that the equipment remains functional. The computers at the school are not your property they are the institutions, if you are worried about the information that the tech support staff might see, DO NOT ACCESS IT. Wait till you get home and do it on your own computer. As for your comment about looking trying to lock out or get around the tech support in your school, I'd advise against that, I personally have banned people from the system at the school I work at for trying that, reguardless of their situation.

Regards,
Kaioshun