VBScript - Notification Script

Is there a way to do a script that when a computer is powered on and loads into Windows, that it sends me a notification (preferably hidden - but doesn't have to be). What I have is.... the company I work for has 3 satellite locations, and I think one of the employees at one of our offices is coming in on the weekends and after the office is closed (she has a key). The only reason I want notification, is so I can remote in and see what all she's doing. I work in the medical field and I am responsible for making sure we have no HIPPA violations via any of our computers.

I'd say it's possible. There are a few ways you could send an e-mail, including using Outlook. You could just run it as a regular login script and if you only want the message sent when a certain user logs in, you could query Active Directory, for example, and only send the message when that user logs in.

I don't have any code samples, you'll have to wait for Nilpo for that one

Well, here I am, lol. Which one would you like to see code for?

JMH is exactly right. You can trigger some form of alert from a logon script. The question is, how would you like to be notified?

You could also change the security on that particular machine and only allow access on week days.

I believe you can even specify hours of network usage.

That's correct. It can also be done at the System, Group, or User level.

well, unfortunately, none of the satellite locations actually log on to the domain due to possible lag issues.... Sad to say, but each of the remote offices are on 768K DSL.

I don't need anything fancy, and if it is email, that's fine, but I would rather have something that sends a message via openfire/spark, since I have set that up as our internal chat program. Also, though, I have ports 5800 and 5900 open for the remote desktop utility (VNC).

In the future, I will prolly make it a domain login, which I have no problem limiting them through the server....

uggh, right now though, I am limited to what the software vendor for our medical database dictates. They suggested to not have domain logins for the satellite locations. In all reality though, I should test how long it takes to login via the satellite locations and make my decision from there. I really don't see their point of the system taking a long time to login to the domain once the user settings are cached...... Yes, the first time would take a bit to synchronize the desktop/settings, but I'm thinking once it's on the local system, there should be minimal lag when logging in.

As it is, I have no problem monitoring the users while I'm at work, it's when I'm not at work that I worried about. It's a major concern, as there are heavy fines for releasing medical information whether on purpose or inadvertantly without proper consent.

I just started this IT position about 3 months ago, and tbh, the system before me was totally susceptible to attack. I found key loggers, and trojans out the wazoo.... of course back then, they didn't login to a domain, they were all DHCP with free reign. The remote locations are still setup that way...... and I'm not gonna have my head roll because somebody wants to play on the computer when they shouldn't even be there.

It's only one location really, as the other two have to remove the computers when they are done....as we only rent space for the other two locations on certain days from other physicians, and part of the agreement is to have our stuff out of the way when we're not there. I have to leave the location in question mostly as it is, because there is a lab computer attached, which I have no control over.

I know the best way to make it secure, but I don't know if it's a viable resolution at this point. On a side note, we have hardware firewalls in place, but that only prohibits an outsider from getting in...... it doesn't prevent somebody who doesn't know much about computers accidently making the computer vunerable.

I guess, as a temporary fix, I can install K9 web protection and limit the browsing through there (or another software firewall). K9 has worked well for me as far as limiting browsing capabilities.

As a Network Administrator my suggestion to you is to set up a term server and have your remote systems work remotely across a secure VPN. This is the easiest, most secure route. A simple remote desktop connection to the term server and they're up an running...yet, the term server can be secured or powered off over the weekend. No more problem.

As a Windows Specialist, my suggestion is to implement some local policies. As long as your remote machines are running XP Pro, you can put policies in place to restrict all of these things locally. Just make sure to set up your user accounts appropriately, meaning no one uses an administrator account.

As a scripting specialist, my advice would be the following logon script which will send email notification every time it runs. I'll take a look into automating your IM client. Alternatively, you could use the Messenger Service to do this across your VPN, but you would need to have it enabled in order for it to work.