I haven’t yet figured out what to do with this information, if anything, but I had a few really good user experiences recently and thought this would be a good way to track those over time. As much as the helpdesk system tracks problems, I figure this is one way to track positive results. I’ve only given out two or three Gold Stars in the last month or so since I implemented the program. And no, I don’t tell the users (well, I jokingly told one but didn’t mention that I actually am tracking it), it’s just an internal IT thing. But such data could prove useful in the future, so I’m curious to see how it turns out over a bit longer period of time!

Shhh…don’t tell anyone…

As you can imagine, the N800 didn’t get much of a workout at work and wasn’t a top priority at home, either. I even forgot the charger when I left work sick on Tuesday, and was left with a dead battery at home all day Wednesday!

I’ve still managed to give the device a pretty good workout, and it’s a very nice little system that has already been handy to have in my pocket on more than one occasion. The main limitation has been that the system is slow when loading large or complex websites, although it will still handle most of them. The onscreen keyboards (for stylus and thumbs) are much poorer than the thumbboard on my Treo 650, where I can almost touch-type at high speed, but the bluetooth keyboard is a huge improvement (over even the Treo usually) when I turn it on.

The HelpSpot helpdesk software runs a touch slow (pun unintentional but fully intended, I’m sure :-) but otherwise is almost completely normal in the Gecko-based web browser. The response field is not as wide as it could be (there are gray bars on the sides where it could expand but doesn’t), but it’s functional. All AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript And XML) appears to work properly. Gmail is also slow but usable. WordPress, at least my heavily-plugin-customized version, runs well except when composing a post, when the text editor is slower than molasses. in January. Switching to the WPhone mobile version is much faster and even easier to navigate on the smaller screen. Supposedly, WPhone is optimized to provide an even better interface on the iPhone than on other mobile devices that support AJAX, but this doesn’t carry over to the N800, although I am assuming the browser is more than capable. It’s probably an auto-detection thing.

There is a Nokia N800 WordPress editor called Maemo WordPy which was a bit difficult to figure out initially due to a poor user interface and one or two limitations that should be fixed in future versions. It will do some cool things (in the latest beta) like upload images directly to Flickr and insert that into a post! However, I am using the web-based WPPhone for this post as I mentioned. Copying and pasting links is not the best experience on this thing, so I am going to cheat and do some hotlinking from my full-sized computer before posting :-) (And a bit of proofreading and editing, it turns out!)

Is it perfect? No. Nothing is perfect when you are looking for a 22″ widescreen monitor on a quad-core desktop that all fits in your pocket! But it makes some good compromises and performs well for what I want it to do, at a (very) reasonable price. (Amazon had it for $231 when I bought mine off of eBay for a bit more with an SDHC memory card and Bluetooth keyboard that Amazon also had for $50.)

I have contemplated the HTC Shift in the past. It does not appear to be released in the US yet, however, and the price when it is will likely be $1200 to $1500. That’s not bad for a 7″ screen UMPC running Windows Vista (and Windows Mobile!), but I’m ready to compromise: The Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. It used to cost between $400 and $500, but Amazon.com carries it for about $230 right now because its big brother just came out, the N810. What do you get for the N810’s $440 that you don’t get for the N800’s $230? A slide-out thumb keyboard, an 8% smaller unit, and a built-in GPS receiver (that costs more to get full use out of).

But first things first…why get one of these things anyway? Well, I do have a laptop, a nice 12.1″ Core 2 Duo Lenovo 3000 V100 that I like very much. It’s small enough and light enough to carry from home to work and just about anywhere else, when it’s packed up. It’s my main PC at home; the desktop rarely gets used! However, my office is in a central-yet-distant location from nearly everyone else in the building at Lakeview, and since the middle of 2007 I’ve been using HelpSpot to track helpdesk requests. It is easy to work within HelpSpot when I’m at my computer, but I often must trek to the office of an individual user to help them with a problem (yes, remote control is an option sometimes, but hardware problems are another story and many times, demonstrating something to the user in person is much more powerful for training purposes). When I do this, I often get sidetracked by others needing assistance and, like today, may end up working on 4-6 different issues before I’m back at my own computer! By that time, I probably won’t remember half of the actual problems I worked on, much less all the details it would be useful to log for future reference.

My laptop is simply too heavy and bulky, even as small as it is, to carry around everywhere, especially if I’m carrying hardware as well. My Treo 650, on the other hand, never leaves my pocket unless I’m using it. However, while there is a mobile version of HelpSpot that is usable, I must log in repeatedly from my phone to use it, and the small keyboard and screen are not conducive to typing extensive notes. Enter the N800. It’s not a cell phone, but here are a few highlights that it does have:

• WiFi access (with a better radio than most laptops from several reports)
• Bluetooth
• 4″ touchscreen
• Gecko-based web browser supports nearly all sites that Firefox supports on the desktop (including JavaScript/AJAX) and has Flash 9 support
• Built-in video camera along with Skype and Gizmo video chat ability
• Google Talk (my favorite) and other IM services
• IMAP, POP3 and web-based email
• Multimedia playback in multiple formats
• Expandable memory using up to two SD cards
• On-screen keyboard with expandability using a Bluetooth keyboard for a real, touch-typing keyboard
• Linux-based system using the Maemo platform for free add-on software

There’s more, which I know after reading nearly ever review ever written about it, but that’s the gist. Mine is coming from eBay with an iGo Stowaway Ultra-Slim Bluetooth Keyboard (it’s only $50 from Amazon right now) and an 8GB SCHC memory card for less than it would all cost from Amazon brand new. I am very, very excited to get my hands on this thing! It will let me do a lot, but it should also solve my helpdesk logging problem: I’ll carry my N800 and keyboard with me, using it to log helpdesk requests as I work on them, giving me more detailed and time-accurate logs. Everything else it can do? Really, really tasty icing on the tiny tablet cake! And the N810? I want touch-typing, so the keyboard on that is just a nicety (especially with the touch-typable Stowaway coming with the N800 for me). The smaller size would be nice, but it’s not that much smaller, and the screen is the same size (both 800×480 resolution). The GPS would be nice but I’ve read reports that it’s slow, and to get actual directions on it costs an additional $130 to $200 or something. All three come nowhere near being worth twice the price! And the N810 only supports miniSD and microSD cards, rather than standard SD. The standard cards are bigger and cheaper.

The Nokia Internet Tablets are getting popular, too. Over at Amazon.com they were in the top three hot sellers over Christmas in the PC category! You can be sure of seeing some N800 posts coming up right here, and count on them coming right from the N800 itself!

I have been using HelpSpot for IT department help tickets (HelpSpot calls them “requests” which is much more end-user friendly, one of the great things about HelpSpot) during the trial, and it’s been very easy to use and useful. So far we have 53 tickets in the system, from the beginning June through today, with 8 currently open and 45 closed. I’m looking forward to beta testing version 2, with some really useful new features like HTML support, request merging, batch responses, improved custom fields, integrated help, and an API that should make it even more extensible and flexible (I see potential for integration with Spiceworks or some other inventory system through the API, depending on specific details).

I also updated the HelpSpot LAMP VirtualAppliance to the newest version (1.0.131 is now based on Ubuntu Server and allows you to install any Ubuntu module!) to fix the issue I had with DNS resolution, which I haven’t run into on this new version; outbound DNS works just fine now, and the PHP IMAP module installs! (As yet untested, however.) But hey, that was fun, and you’re supposed to have fun on vacation, right? At least I did it from a cottage overlooking the ocean in Maine :-) And there were minimal interruptions from the office the entire time (what there was I instigated by checking my email :-) and I returned to no emergencies or exceptionally urgent or unexpected requests. All-in-all a very good vacation! I could’ve used a little less time in the car (1300 miles in the last three days and that was just the return journey), but I’m not complaining (too loudly ;-)

Anyway, I’m back! And now you know why my posts have been sparse and not full of detailed technical info. Truthfully, I’m actually running low on detailed technical post ideas for the moment (and I do have some catch-up to take care of along with some personal stuff, which is why I’m posting this today even though I returned to work on Tuesday), but I’m sure that won’t last long. Stay tuned! I have a post coming this afternoon about a power adapter mystery/adventure that just happened, in fact…

However, I want to host HelpSpot internally if we select it, because internet outages are one thing I want people to be able to report and track. If it’s externally hosted, how can they access it to report an outage? They can’t :-) I could install it on a Windows box, but although my desktop is set up as an Apache and MySQL server already for testing, I want a more permanent option (there is a HelpSpot Windows installer available, which is very nice if I was going that route). And I’d rather not put it on any existing production servers, or pay for another OS license of any sort. Sounds like a good task for a virtual machine and Linux!

I’ve been eying VirtualAppliances.net ever since I found them on the VMware Virtual Appliances directory months ago, but until now haven’t needed them and haven’t had the time to play. This seemed to be the perfect opportunity for testing their LAMP Server. I downloaded their VMware image, version 1.0.110, and loaded it on my new VMware Server installation (recently switched over from Microsoft Virtual Server, the only free one at the time I set it up). Setup worked great, no issues until I started to run the HelpSpot installation script. It choked saying that Zend Optimizer wasn’t installed, even though it supposedly came with the LAMP Server. A quick browse through the configuration options from the LAMP Server control panel found the Enable Zend Optimizer option under the Apache HTTPD configuration page, which corrected the error. Installation continues, but warns that the PHP IMAP module is not installed (what do I care? I want to use POP3 for email anyway). I continue with the installation, complete it, log into the HotSpot control panel, and go hit Admin to set things up.

Looking good so far–until I click Mailboxes. Wrong answer. Apparently I haven’t kept up on PHP (I’m a Perl guy originally); the PHP IMAP module is required for IMAP, POP3, and other email functions, however misnamed. How do I get this installed? Well, that took a bit of investigation. I tried my hand at several Linux commands, some of which are available on the LAMP Server appliance, others not. PHP was hard to find, and when I discovered PEAR (CPAN clone, anyone? :-) and that it was installed, I attempted to use it but got multiple errors (about the location of PHP, and then about the configuration file which I’d modified by hand to try and fix that problem). A search of Google revealed a link to the VA forums, to a post saying that PHP IMAP was included in the most recent build. Skip to finding that in another forum entry. Download, unzip, run. Configure the appliance (turn on Zend Optimizer, re-create MySQL user and database, etc.), copy over HelpSpot files, run install script. Now we’re cooking with fire! No errors, warnings, weeping, or gnashing of teeth.

Well, almost. In either version of the LAMP Server appliance, I cannot get external name resolution to work, via the hosts file or DNS. IP-based access works fine (for ping, wget, etc.) but although DNS is configured in /etc/resolv.conf, set via our standard DHCP server that assigned an IP just fine, it just Won’t Work. This doesn’t bode well for the POP3 mail function, which I just now realized was failing to send email because I was using a hostname–which won’t resolve! Duh! Sometimes typing out a story brings the final solution. Or at least, the final problem. No, the final solution — I just tested HelpSpot using an IP address for the mail server, and it’s working! Now to set up cron to run the daily maintenance script (tasks2.php) and the every-few-minutes POP3 mail checking script (tasks.php) and I’m set! (After a false start trying to run the cron jobs using the php executable, I switched to wget calling the scripts via the URL because running PHP directly caused errors about the Zen Optimizer not being installed; it works!)

So, if I can get DNS working, things will be much better, unless the Active Directory integration add-on scripts to HelpSpot require something else that the LAMP Server doesn’t include; I haven’t made it that far yet. Until then, I’m feeling somewhat accomplished to have gotten this far given my ad-hoc knowledge of Linux with even less Gentoo experience (the distro the appliance is based on, admittedly stripped way down). Success feels good!

There’s a 15% non-profit discount, and the licensing cost is not prohibitive. It also does threaded email tracking very well, and includes a knowledge base and forum that are simple and make sense from the user and administration experiences. And it includes RSS feeds of several useful areas, along with very good reporting that has flexible filtering and drill-down features.

My main problem is…no asset tracking or inventory management are included. I agree that Ian Landsman, the HelpSpot creator, has some good points when I asked about this on his forums. And the response time (to my question along with the others listed, as well as to my trial setup request) shows me that support is excellent, which makes high quality, fast support a two-for-two find recently if you include MozyPro.

I will try Ian’s suggestion of using an asset tag with a custom field to at least track which systems are being referred to in a ticket, which could work. This could work well in conjunction with Spiceworks (also see posts here and here), which has a good (not perfect) inventory interface but a newly created helpdesk that’s not as poweful as HelpSpot.

I haven’t tried all the helpdesk options out by far. ManageEngine ServiceDesk is the one Jason and team is using at Granger Community Church now. I’ve installed the free version, and I’m impressed with the very large number of features. However, it’s a bit more complex than I’d like, especially given that I may have some non-IT department help with entering tickets soon. Like Ian said, in fact, it tries to do everything. And it’s more expensive than HelpSpot for the configuration we need (initially and recurring). Does anyone want to write (or find) an inventory/asset application that has an interface that’s simple like HelpSpot and integrates with the same? I can’t put my finger on what is keeping me from liking Spiceworks as much as I want to. The speed, perhaps? The unresolved errors in some cases? Probably a combination, plus there are some interface items that just feel “clunky” to me, as nice as it is.

So I’m narrowing down the helpdesk search, and still on the lookout for the inventory side. I’m not convinced in any particular direction yet, but I’m finding more and more acceptable choices. At least it’s progress.

Well, it’s probably a good time to get to bed. And get around to enjoying the start of a long weekend. And conclude what has now turned into a rant, or a ramble. Thanks for your indulgence. Comments welcome.

One thing I’d like to see is the physical tracking to go along with the network tracking. What network port (assuming managed switches that the software knows about and can talk to) is connected to what wall outlet (obviously this match has to be input manually)? What are the MAC addresses (and from that, the rest of the inventory information) of the attached device(s), or is the port even active? What physical office is a machine associated with, at least primarily? (Laptops may roam, but most laptop users have an office they’re usually in.) What user?

Tony also brings up searching and historical information. Searching is the key here I think; if I want to know (to use Tony’s example) how much memory Bob Jones has on his machine, I want to locate this information without having to first find Bob’s machine, look it up, and then find the specs. I want to search for “‘Bob Jones’ RAM” and have the system know that obviously I’m talking about his machine, not the person. That’s an easy context, but add enough “easy” things and maybe some harder ones, and the software becomes a lot more user-friendly.

Same goes for the historical information, being able to track a machine from one office to another, from one user to another, or even tracking when RAM was added to a particular system would be helpful! Or when Windows was reinstalled. or other software added or removed. Or how about a history of what network ports a machine has been plugged into?

When we get new equipment, how about a New Equipment Wizard that lets us add basic info (office assignment, user assignment, MAC address, serial number, date of purchase, name of person who initially configured it, maybe more) and then, once it’s on the network (assuming it’s a network device, I’d like this for printers and other equipment that IT uses but may not be on the network) the software would see its MAC address, notice we’d already added it, and tie in scan results with the manually entered data. Having this pre-deployment wizard would help make sure a routine was followed of recording all of this information rather than having it tracked down later, if ever.

I see a lot of good things in Spiceworks, and that’s just because that’s what I’m playing with now. I’ve seen some other good information out there as well. There are plenty of features above that I haven’t seen in any of the limited number of software choices I’ve seen. And the ones that have more than others, don’t seem to integrate everything or make it as easy to use as I’d like. Because ease of use and cost are the two biggest factors. Spiceworks is free, supported by Google ads. That’s okay with me, the ads are unobtrusive and with my current budget (or any budget, really), free is as good as it gets :-) Regardless of the cost, I just want the kitchen sink (as described above) to come with it.

Service Desk Plus is actually excellent! The free version only allows one administrator and 25 network devices to be tracked for inventory and ticket purchases. However, running with my desktop as the server, it was a bit on the slow side as far as responsiveness. I would need to test that it ran faster on a server, and also have that server available. I also think that while we may grow into it, it might be a bit too complex and high-end for our needs right now.

Most of the features really need multiple administrative users to take advantage of the full power, even if those users are just volunteers for us right now. I like the help desk with the user-created ticket submission interfaces via web or email. The ability to link logins to Active Directory, have a dedicated, fully-tracked helpdesk email conversation is awesome, along with the option to link requests with the hardware assigned to the submitting user (their workstation or laptop, for example) makes this a top-notch operation in my book. I also really like the software license and support agreement tracker, and the purchase order creation and generation tools for working with vendors! But the limited inventory items makes this hardware tie-in useless for our network in the free version. And free is all the money I have to spend at the moment. Plus the time required to enter details for our existing agreements and hardware we buy to create quotes is more than I have time for right now. Maybe down the road.

OpManager, also from ManageEngine, I haven’t tried yet, but it appears to either connect to or overlap some Service Desk functionality, and is limited to 20 nodes in the free version, also too few to be useful.

I have not tried OCSInventory yet, but I intend to when I find the time. I’ll report back then. I realize that an integrated helpdesk is a real key here, and I need to find out if OCSInventory does this–from my last visit to their site they may integrate with another package, but I’ll have to do some more research.

Currently, I’m trying out Spiceworks. Again. I’ve been using Spiceworks since it was early Beta months ago, and I was impressed with a lot of what it did at the time but it has been improving, and in its most recent incarnation has also added a helpdesk, more limited than Service Desk Plus to be sure, but a helpdesk nonetheless. Or at least a ticket system. Mark Bailey even mentioned Spiceworks with OpManager in his comment on my original post. I’ve had mixd results with Spiceworks; at Lakeview I haven’t really had any WMI issues with scanning the network, including Windows machines. On the other network I work on one day a week, I can’t get any of the Windows machines on the domain to work with WMI scanning, after extensive troubleshooting and some posts in the Spiceworks forums trying to resolve the issue. I ran out of time and haven’t revisited it at that office

But the new helpdesk features are simple, user-friendly, and do support email tickets. I don’t know if it tracks full email conversations, but my guess is not yet. It ties tickets to specific hardware, which is great, but I don’t see a huge focus on helpdesk statistics over time (unless I’m missing it) and it looks like most tickets are meant to be opened by the technician directly, after a problem is reported or discovered. No web-based submission interface for users For a one-man shop, this might work fine. I’m trying it out now, and we’ll see how fruitful it becomes. It does now support multiple technicians, and each tech can claim tickets that they are working on, and save public and/or private responses (does public mean it’s emailed to the owner of the affected equipment? I don’t know, I haven’t had time to play in enough detail yet). The newest version of Spiceworks also allows manual entry of assets that aren’t on the network or aren’t found via scanning, one of my prior complaints!

The search continues. But my original post on this topic is my top result people find on search engines, so it appears to be a popular topic others are working to solve. Anything I’ve missed? Are you successfully using these or better tools? Should I stay away from anything other than Track-It, which Jason has already warned me away from? Do Excel spreadsheets work fine for you and you wonder why this is so important, anyway? :-) Just wait ’til I start talking about network mapping and documentation!! It’s coming…

I’ve considered a Wiki, which is still an option, but other than the lack of being web-based and multi-user accessible, I like OneNote’s UI better and it seems similar. Did I mention easy-to-use and flexible is my number one requirement?

I’m still without a good, long-term solution.