Best computer monitoring software

Hi, I can't say for sure what the best is, but I use Apple Remote Desktop 3.1, it's made and sold by Apple, so can be purchased from the Apple website.

In some ways it's very advanced, you can view other computers screens, and see what they are typing, you can take control of their computer, you can ask it to scan your network to see if anyone has plugged in another machine, like a laptop, it also allows you to distrubte tasks to all the computers, like install latest updates from Apple.

It has a home screen which will list all the computer on the network and say what they are doing, who is logged in what applications they are running etc.

You can send Unix commands as well, like shutdown or logout all computers.

I know you don't have to install the software on all machines, depending on what you want to do. As you just need to install it on your machine to see what everyone else is doing, and control their computers, but if you want to send tasks and Unix commands then you would need to install it on all the computer on you network which you wanted to send tasks and commands to.

The only drawback is the price. £199 for 10 clients, £349 for unlimited clients. I happened to get mine for free.

here is the link to the apple store for Remote Desktop:
http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=9401CC05&nplm=M A231

An alternative would be someting call Chicken of the VNC, I have no idea how it works, or what it is like but it's free available to download form Apple,

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/networking_security/chickenofthevnc.html

hope this helps, if you need any more info please don't hesitate to e-mail me at louishoward@mac.com

As Mr. Howard said, Apple Remote Desktop or VNC allows you control of the computer(s) you are monitoring if you so desire.

VNC is free, requiring a simple download for your machine (Chicken of the VNC is one program, I use it myself) and a simple change of settings in the control panels of the computer(s) you wish to monitor/control.

If you have too many machines to monitor yourself (or simply don't have the time to watch things happen on other people's machines!) there are "VCR" or keystroke logging programs available.

One program I have seen used is "Spector for Mac OS."

It is a screen shot program that records screen activity on the machine in question. I do not know how many machines it can monitor or if there is a restriction to how many machines you can install it on, but I know it is/was a Mac specific program.

here is a link to the software http://www.spectorsoft.com/products/Spector_Macintosh/entry.asp?affil=1127

If the VNC/Apple Remote Desktop option is one you are interested in let us know, it's an easy few steps to set up the machines you wish to monitor/control and I would gladly post them (I'm sure many others would too!)