Best Desktop Inventory

Frye Goes Directly To Head Of The Class

Do you know exactly what's on your network? If you do, then you're a rare network manager. But with the right software, you can automate the clipboard-and-pencil process of finding out which desktops are actually attached to the network.
When you inventory computers, you never know what you're going to find. The ability to customize Frye Computer Systems' LAN Directory is just one reason we think it's an excellent inventory program for networked desktops. LAN Directory has good support for Intel-based PCs, Macintosh machines and file servers. It supports most major network types, and it can even collect information from standalone computers.
In our tests, LAN Directory was more accurate when detecting software and hardware than some of the other products we tested, but there is still room for improvement. No product we tested was able to 100 percent correctly identify all of our machines. For example, none could detect a PCI bus and its components.
LAN Directory gathers basic machine information, such as memory, BIOS, bus type, drives, and MicroChannel and EISA card information, but we really like the ability to customize the screens and add fields. Besides the hardware, LAN Directory will find a wide variety of commercial software packages that reside on the workstation. It will also collect important files such as the DOS machine's AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS. LAN Directory tracks hardware and software changes in machines. With the tracking feature, an administrator can see what a user has changed, which helps to diagnose problem s.
Frye's software also minimally impacts the users. The LAN Directory programs that gather the data can be run from the NetWare system login script, so the users aren't affected with a long wait time.

The Frye Utilities for Networks LAN
Directory, $495, Frye Computer Systems, 19 Temple Pl., Boston, MA 02111.
(617) 451-5400; fax (617) 451-6711.

Runners-Up
LANauditor, Horizons Technology, 3990 Ruffin Rd., San Diego, CA 92123-1826. (800) 828-3808;
(619) 277-7100; fax (619) 292-9439.

BindView NCS, The LAN Support Group, 2425 FountainView,
Suite 390, Houston, TX 77057.
(800) 749-8439; (713) 789-0881;
fax (713) 977-9111.