Unofficial Spiceworks

What’s so different about Spiceworks and other network monitoring and inventory software?

The biggest difference between Spiceworks and other software is the fact that its FREE for anyone to use. Spiceworks was formed in Jan 2006 by Jay Hallberg and Scott Abel is free to use and recommend for all Small to medium businesses.

The biggest thing IT managers have to deal with is tracking the patchwork of all the IT equipment in a company network, from printers to routers, servers to PCs and all the other assorted peripherals that go along with any network.

Being free Spiceworks enables IT pro’s to quickly test before implementing fully. Unlike LANDesk or Alteris you don’t have to worry about it not working right on your network or not doing 100% what you want. Spiceworks provides plugins in which allow you to change the whole look and feel.

Plugins

Something that is not in most network inventory tools are plugins. These allow you to either use someone else’s or create your own helping you develop Spiceworks and get the product you want. You can change how the interface looks, create reports, add in RSS feeds or even Dilbert comments.

Community

The Spiceworks community provides you with a great resource for all things IT, you can get help with a wide range of issues from Spiceworks to DNS problems. With more than 500,000 IT pro’s using Spiceworks there is a huge community ready to talk.

Reports

With the great reporting tools in Spiceworks you can quickly make and share reports with people who need them. Spiceworks gives you 20 ready-to-use reports but there are hundreds on the community waiting for you to use.

Works on Windows

Most of network monitor software works better on Linux as it is designed for geeks and network pro’s. Spiceworks breaks this wall down and allows anyone to quickly install and use all the features. Its hassle free setup makes it easy to use without any hassle.

Its free

Spiceworks is 100% free and always will be, this is one of the major differences between other network management software

Tidy up unknowns and DNS problems

Tidy up all your unknown devices and fix your DNS problems

This will help Spiceworks scan’s complete faster

http://community.spiceworks.com/help/Resolving_Unknown_Devices

Check network scan range

Check your network scan range to make sure that you don’t have any ranges in which are not in use any more

http://community.spiceworks.com/help/Adding_New_Devices

Change scan speed to slow

If you change the Scan speed to slow you will free up CPU usage during the scan.

-> Settings
-> Network Scan
-> Scan Speed
-> Slow

Disable any unused plugins

Make sure that any plugins in which you no longer use are disabled

http://community.spiceworks.com/help/Plugins

Split devices into smaller groups

Splitting your devices into smaller groups will speed up the loading of the inventory pages

http://community.spiceworks.com/help/Using_Custom_Groups

Disable Flash

By disabling flash Spiceworks will load quicker on the client, this will not effect the server CPU usage

-> settings
-> advanced options
-> Looking for addiontal settings (at the bottom)
-> turn off flash

Check proxy address

Check that you have set the right proxy address (if you are using one)

So your having problems with how fast Spiceworks works? Why not try the below to help Speed it up. Some things work better than others in different situations, so try them all and see what happens.

Clear Spiceworks Logs

One of the best things to do is clear your logs:

-> Stop Spiceworks
-> Delete everything in C:\Program Files\Spiceworks\Log
-> Start Spiceworks

If you feel you want to keep your logs rename Log to Log.old and create a new folder called Log

Use FireFox or Chrome

Using Internet explorer slows down Spiceworks…

Using FireFox or chrome will speed up the time pages load

Defrag your hard drive

Defrag your server hard drives, this will defrag the database and help speed up access

For easy defrag view http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/show/90

Run as a service

Some people have reported running Spiceworks as a service helps improve speed.

http://community.spiceworks.com/education/projects/Run_Spiceworks_In_Service_Mode

Coming tomorrow Part 2

We have news of a SDK coming out in around 7 months this will allow you to integrate Spiceworks with all your other IT software and gadgets.

• Will this bring the release of the iPhone app as mentioned yesterday?
• What other cool stuff will users be able to build?
• What API’s would you like to see? Give Scot at Spiceworks your feedback or leave your comments here.

John M. Perez.Com has posted about the IT helpdesk and even included a HD video about it.

So here is an interesting application called "The Spiceworks Help Desk" that is being provided for free. I have not tested the application yet but apparently you can utilize the application to keep track of Help Desk tickets and to also keep track of inventory. It does not appear to incorporate all of the ITIL disciplines like Problem, Change, or Configuration Management. However, this tool maybe the ideal fit for a small business over investing in large ITSM solutions like BMC’s Remedy.

Check out his post and read more

Are you intrested in having a look at whats happening in Spiceworks 4.0 why not have a look though the below images.

Sorry we seem to have lost these: We will look for them and get them back soon

Justin Dorfman has just posted some really interesting news on the Spiceworks community:

I don’t know how legit this is but a friend who works @ RIM HQ (Canada) spotted this in the Lab and sent it to me. He said it works, but he doesn’t know how Spiceworks operates so it is hard for him to say whether it is ready for beta testing.

As soon as I get a OTA link I will make sure to send it out!

Read more

Is this using the SDK Spiceworks have talked about?

Thank you so much for this sneek peek Justin Dorfman and we await more exciting news.

So you get home and all that’s on your mind is work, what’s going to go wrong and if you should be watching that server which restarted while you were on lunch.

How Spiceworks helps you sleep?

Today has shown you how Spiceworks makes your Morning, Afternoon and Evening better.

Now you know how Spiceworks can really help you, are you using it fully? If your not using it why not?