Kicking out all network users at a specific time?

[Daniel]

I was looking into the logon times area in the user profiles (win2000 server, 2000 pro clients) but I'm not sure if that is the best way to do this. They have requirements here at work that the machines can't just be left logged on all the time when no one is using them, and the employees have a way of just leaving the machines connected and going home. Any tips on the best way to log off all users on the network at a certain time every night?
thanks,
Daniel

 

[Garion]

Sure! That's an easy one! Just put one of those lamp timers on your hub. 6:00 comes around and.. CLICK! They are logged off!

*grin*

Login times are a REAL pain in the rear - When someone has a crunch deadline and needs to work late, they get nailed and you get a panic call. Generally I always counsel people NOT to use them unless you HAVE to. It's very easy to really mess up your users when all of a sudden their network shares go away and all their work crashes and they loose a document they've been editing for six hours. (Stupid users!)

Want the honest answer? Use screensaver locks. They are pretty much impossible to get around and totally secure the machines. If someone reboots it, they are disconnected from the domain and would have to log back in anyhow. I work for a bank with major regulatory oversight and screen saver locks meet their requirements. Our PC group just made a registry change so people can't change their screen saver Works like a champ!

- G

 

[Woodchuck2000]

You can write a script easily to shutdown every machine in the domain.

something along the lines of

FOR /F %a IN (machlist.txt) DO shutdown \\%a /t:60

where machlist.txt is a plain text list of all the machines in the domain.

This would shutdown all the machines in machlist.txt giving the users 60 seconds to save their work and also allow those working late to restart their machines and continue their work. If you set it to run at 6:00PM and then at 10:00PM, you should catch any machines turned back on.

If this is going to be useful, there are ways to refine it by checking to see if a machine is on before trying to shut it down; (It can take 15 seconds or more for the shutdown command to fail if the machine isnt on) feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

If it needs to be secure, use in combination with Garion's screensaver idea and voila...

 

[Daniel]

Thanks for the suggestion, looks like I'll probably go with the locked screen saver.

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< Thanks for the suggestion, looks like I'll probably go with the locked screen saver. >>



Encourage users to play non-destuctive practical jokes on the people that leave themselves logged in without locking their workstations. Ive taught people to either logout or lock their machines that way

 

[Caiaphas001]

<< Encourage users to play non-destuctive practical jokes on the people that leave themselves logged in without locking their workstations. Ive taught people to either logout or lock their machines that way >>



Hehe we do this at my work also.