Frequently asked questions and answers about AbsoluteTrack are organized into the following categories:
• General
• Functionality
• Reports
• Technology Platform
• Requirements & Compatibility
• Implementation & Installation
GENERAL
Q. What is AbsoluteTrack?
A. AbsoluteTrack is a secure asset tracking and inventory management product designed to help IT departments perform daily computer tracking and management functions, including hardware and software inventories.
Q. Why is keeping track of corporate assets important to my business?
A. The ability to track and obtain current data from the enterprise (both inside and outside the corporate firewall) will enable your business to determine what its assets look like today, as well as the speed and direction of their change. This will help your organization to make more informed decisions, which in turn, will lower costs and increase the return on your IT investments.
Q. Who is a typical AbsoluteTrack user?
A. AbsoluteTrack is designed primarily for IT administrators and those users to whom the administrator grants access rights and privileges. As an IT and Security Management tool, AbsoluteTrack is not intended for all computer users.
Q. What benefits does AbsoluteTrack offer to the IT administrator?
A. Specifically, AbsoluteTrack simplifies the management of software licenses, computer leases, machine configuration, computer retirement, software and hardware upgrades and device ownership, and also helps control computer loss and monitor security policy violations.
Q. What makes AbsoluteTrack unique?
A. While AbsoluteTrack provides numerous benefits to customers, below is a list of key features that make AbsoluteTrack unique in the marketplace:
• Software Service - Absolute's software service method of delivery means that users are not required to buy and maintain servers, hire or train costly IT personnel to manage the system, or pay maintenance and upgrade fees. (AbsoluteTrack can also be delivered as an enterprise software system installed at the customer's site.)
• Remote tracking - AbsoluteTrack can track a computer (inside or outside the organization) when connected to the Internet or dialed out via modem, thus providing customers with the most complete picture of their total computer population.
• Secure inventory tracking - Because the Computrace Agent is difficult for standard users to deliberately or accidentally delete, AbsoluteTrack is inherently more secure than other asset tracking/inventory management solutions.
• Hands-free - While some products require the user to download an e-mail or be connected to the corporate network in order to initiate the tracking process, AbsoluteTrack requires zero user intervention.
Q. How many users can AbsoluteTrack accommodate?
A. The Absolute Monitoring Center can accommodate as few as 50 and up to tens of thousands of users.
Q. Does AbsoluteTrack require additional staff/infrastructure to support it?
A. No. Absolute's software service delivery method means customers do not need to buy and maintain servers, write code or install expensive databases or staff their own facility with IT professionals to benefit from AbsoluteTrack.
Q. How much does AbsoluteTrack cost?
A. The price per unit for 1-99 licenses of AbsoluteTrack is US$19.95 or CDN$29.95. This includes one year of monitoring and comprehensive asset tracking and inventory management. Two, three, and four-year service terms and volume discounts are also available.
Q. What is the difference between AbsoluteTrack and ComputracePlus?
A. AbsoluteTrack is designed to help IT departments perform daily computer hardware and software inventory functions, while ComputracePlus is intended to help security departments monitor asset location and attempt to recover assets if they are stolen. Although they are two distinct services, when used in tandem, they provide one powerful and practical combination to take control of all PCs across the enterprise.
Q. Is there any difference in the asset tracking functionality offered in AbsoluteTrack vs. ComputracePlus?
A. Yes. The difference in the asset tracking functionality offered in the two services is server-side. It is driven by the amount of information the Agent is instructed to capture and transmit to the Monitoring Center. The types of web reports made available to administrators on the Absolute Customer Center are a function of the service you subscribe to.
^ back to top
FUNCTIONALITY
Q. What information is collected during the inventory process?
A. AbsoluteTrack gathers a comprehensive set of data points including information about:
Location: phone number, local IP address, routable IP address, MAC address, date, time.
User: Electronic Serial Number (ESN), user name, computer name, e-mail address.
Hardware:
• Basic system information: processor type, processor speed, hard disk size, hard disk space available, RAM size, computer make/model/serial number, number of CPUs, BIOS version (PC), BIOS date (PC), networking device description (PC).
• Storage information: logical drive summary (drive name, type, file system, total size and available space), storage device (ATA, ATAPI/SCSI – e.g., hard drive, CD/DVD)(PC), floppy/removable drive, tape drive, RAM disk, network drive, other device, hard disk model, serial number, firmware revision (for SMART-enabled hard disks). Also, hard disk attributes for NT/2000/XP: raw read error rate, spin up time, start/stop count, reallocated sector count, seek error rate, power on hours count, spin retry count, calibration retry count, power cycle count.Printer information: printer attribute, name, driver name, port, share name, server name.
• Video system and monitor information: video device description and resolution, video display color depth, monitor type & manufacturer, and monitor refresh rate.
• Modem information: modem model, port (if available), speed rating: maximum baud rate (if available), networking device description.
Software: operating system, service packs for operating systems, software application, version, program & publisher; virus protection title & version, virus protection definition title & definition description.
Administrators also complete a number of manual entry fields to support lease management reporting, and to associate additional information with their computers (e.g., cost of computer) for a more complete asset picture. These include, for example:
Asset number, user department, lease responsibility, lease start & end date, lease number, lease vendor, service contract vendor, service contract start date & end date, number of software licenses purchased, number of software licenses installed on non-AbsoluteTrack computers, 6 administrator-definable fields.
Q. Does AbsoluteTrack only inventory networked devices?
A. No. AbsoluteTrack can inventory remote, mobile and desktop devices as long as they are connected to a phone line or the Internet.
Q. Can AbsoluteTrack inventory any device attached to my network?
A. No. Absolute’s focus is on tracking and securing devices that house valuable corporate information or pose a risk to the company from external sources. Therefore, the AbsoluteTrack service does not track devices such as hubs and routers or input devices (mouse and keyboard).
Q. Does AbsoluteTrack only scan/collect data when software changes occur to a computer?
A. Yes. AbsoluteTrack only gathers the software data on a computer when a change has occurred, whereas most programs transfer the full data each time an inventory is taken. Absolute’s data transfer approach means customers’ networks are used efficiently by the Computrace Agent and the data it passes to keep accurate, dynamic and timely inventories.
Q. Can AbsoluteTrack differentiate between single application software and applications that are components of a larger software package?
A. Yes. AbsoluteTrack can differentiate and report on the actual license purchased rather than the software title. For products like Microsoft Office, it is important to be able to differentiate between the applications that are part of a MS Office license and those that were purchased individually or as a part of another MS Office suite (ie: MS Office Premium).
Q. Is the data secure?
A. AbsoluteTrack uses Absolute’s patented Computrace technology platform, which is comprised of the secure, patented Computrace Agent and the Absolute Monitoring Center. The hands-free communication between the Agent and the Monitoring Center ensures Absolute customers have secure access to up-to-date location information and comprehensive asset data about their entire computer inventory.
Asset tracking data that is collected by the Agent and transmitted to the Monitoring Center is encrypted using the RC4 stream cipher from RSA Data Security. This encryption algorithm is a 128-bit implementation. Because of its security and speed, it is considered to be an excellent choice for on-the-fly encryption.
Q. Does AbsoluteTrack store historical data?
A. Yes. Absolute's Monitoring Center archives all Agent transmissions, providing an accurate current and historical audit trail on each computer. This allows administrators to see how their assets are changing over time, enabling them to better plan and budget for their IT needs. Absolute stores up to three years of information online, and archives an additional three years.
Q. Is it necessary for end users to engage in the inventory process?
A. No. AbsoluteTrack is a "hands-free" service, meaning zero user intervention is required to install or execute individual computer audits. Because AbsoluteTrack does not require any action from the end-user, inventories are as secure and accurate as possible.
Q. Is the service always "on"?
A. Yes. As part of Absolute's proactive approach to monitoring assets, the service is always on and always tracking, while remaining invisible to the end-user. This allows customers to monitor asset changes as they unfold (e.g., the drift of machines from location to location inside and/or outside the organization).
^ back to top
REPORTS
Q. How do I monitor assets and generate reports?
A. The Absolute Customer Center, a secure area of www.absolute.com, allows customers to monitor their IT assets and generate reports based on the data the Computrace Agent collects.
Q. How often will I receive reports?
A. The reporting capability available on the Absolute Customer Center is "self-serve", meaning that administrators are free to generate reports on-the-fly, whenever they need information or need to make a decision about their computer inventory.
Q. Do I need additional software like Crystal Reports to view reports?
A. No, all you need is an Internet browser. For access to the full capabilities of the Customer Center, Absolute recommends the use of Microsoft Internet Explorer, version 5.0 or higher or Netscape Navigator, version 4.0 or higher.
Q. What kind of pre-configured reports does AbsoluteTrack provide?
A. The following reports are available to AbsoluteTrack customers:
• License Compliance Report, which also includes the:
a) Microsoft Audit Summary
b) Computer Listing by License report
• Asset Inventory Reports
• Lease Management Report
• Loss Control Reports
• Readiness Reports
• Security Reports
• Saved Reports
Q. Can reports be tailored? If so, what are the advantages of this feature?
A. Yes. Reports can be filtered to focus on key areas of interest, by selecting specific machines to view and by filtering various search criteria. They can also be downloaded through CSV file output for further manipulation and analysis, or for integration to other applications. Filtering the data displayed in reports enable administrators to glean data in precisely the matter it is needed, without having to sort and scrub information, thus freeing up time to work on more valuable initiatives.
Q. Can I e-mail users from within reports?
A. Yes. From within AbsoluteTrack reports, administrators can send e-mails to individuals. Administrators simply click on a user's e-mail address in a report to launch the computer's default e-mail application. Because administrators do not need to exit the Customer Center site and enter an e-mail system, communication with end users is quick & seamless. In addition, recipients do not see the source of the information (i.e., a tracking system).
Q. Can I create alerts?
A. Yes. With the AbsoluteTrack service you can configure alerts (based on single assets or groups of assets) for certain events. An alert notification is delivered via a pager or e-mail message to notify users when specific, user-definable conditions have been met (e.g., a lease is due, a new modem has been added, hardware has changed). You are also able to search on alerts created and received. This functionality helps the IT administrator save time by not having to log in to keep track of critical asset status information.
Q. Can administrators grant access rights to other users?
A. Yes. The multi-level security features of the Absolute Customer Center allow an administrator to grant access rights and privileges to users. Three user groups can be defined - Administrator, Power User, & Guest User.
Q. Can user defined computer groups be created?
A. Yes. Administrators can create computer groups to filter reports or alerts to specific groups of machines. Computer groups can be created based on department, geographical area, or any other criteria. Computer groups can also be used with access rights to restrict a particular user to view only a certain Computer group within the Absolute Customer Center.
^ back to top
THE COMPUTRACE TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM
Q. How big is the Computrace Agent?
A. The Computrace Agent occupies 8K of memory when sitting idle in the background. When the Agent places a call, it occupies 27K.
Q. Can the Computrace Agent be removed?
A. On most PCs the Agent cannot be erased off the hard drive by deleting files because it is not visible in file directories. The Agent can survive a hard drive re-format, F-disk command and hard drive re-partitioning. On a Mac it is difficult for a standard user to accidentally or deliberately delete the Agent.
An authorized user with the correct password and installation software can remove the Agent.
Q. How often does the Computrace Agent contact the Absolute Monitoring Center?
A. The call frequency is typically set to once daily for IP connections, once every four days for regular dial-up. A successful IP call pushes back the scheduled modem call.
Q. Can the Computrace Agent on a PC dial through various telephone systems?
A. The Computrace Agent works from any phone line in the United States and Canada, even those requiring a special prefix number, such as 8 or 9. If the Agent is set to dial with a special prefix, it will first dial using that prefix but will try all common prefixes (and no prefix) until it makes a successful connection.
Q. Can the Computrace Agent work through firewalls to reach the Internet?
A. Yes. When configured properly, the Computrace Agent will use any active IP connection to reach the Internet through firewalls and proxies.
Q. Can the Computrace Agent work with a DSL or cable Internet service?
A. Yes. The Agent will work over a dial-up connection (LANs) or with any Internet connection (cable or DSL).
Q. What happens to the Computrace Agent if the machine is stolen?
A. While the Computrace Agent will remain on the hard drive of the stolen computer, the AbsoluteTrack service can always be turned off by Absolute Software. It is important to note that Absolute’s computer recovery service is only available to customers who have purchased the ComputracePlus service.
^ back to top
REQUIREMENTS & COMPATIBILITY
Q. What are the minimum system requirements to run the Computrace Agent?
A. The following are the minimum system requirements necessary for the Computrace Agent software to operate:
For PCs:
486 or faster processor
Hayes-compatible modem or connection to the Internet
Windows 95/98/2000/NT/Me/XP
For Macs:
G3 processor or above
Connection to the Internet
Mac OS X version 10.2
Q. Does the Computrace Agent interfere with applications that are in operation?
A. No. The Agent does not affect system performance or security.
Q. Can AbsoluteTrack co-exist with anti-virus software?
A. We have successfully tested AbsoluteTrack on PCs with all major anti-virus software products, including the latest versions of McAfee VirusScan and VirusScan ASaP, Norton Anti-Virus, Dr. Solomon Anti-Virus, Sophos Anti-Virus, Trend Pc Cillin & OfficeScan, KasperskyT Anti-Virus and eTrust EZ Antivirus. However, if there is any concern about the Computrace Agent being detected during installation, Absolute recommends disabling any resident anti-virus software before installing the Agent and then restarting it immediately after the installation is complete.
Q. What e-mail applications and Internet mail clients does AbsoluteTrack support?
A. AbsoluteTrack supports MS Outlook and Exchange Server (one default address); supported Internet mail clients include: MS Outlook, Netscape Communicator, Eudora, Outlook Express, Lotus Notes, and HTTP-based (e.g., hotmail).
^ back to top
IMPLEMENTATION & INSTALLATION
Q. How is AbsoluteTrack delivered?
A. Customers can choose to implement AbsoluteTrack on their PCs as a managed service over the Internet or as enterprise software installed on the customer’s site. In the Software Service Delivery Method, Absolute owns & operates the solution on behalf of the customer; in the Enterprise Software Delivery Method, the customer owns & operates the solution. AbsoluteTrack for Macs is available as a managed service over the Internet.
Q. In the Software Service model, how long does it take to install the Computrace Agent in order to access the AbsoluteTrack service?
A. For individual installations it only takes a few minutes to run through the wizard-based installation tool and install the Computrace Agent.
Q. How can I install the Computrace Agent across my population of computers?
A. For installation on multiple PCs, Absolute supplies an Administration Kit that enables the administrator to install the Computrace Agent via a logon script on a LAN. AbsoluteTrack can also be made part of a standard corporate image or even pre-installed by an authorized integrator or OEM partner. For installation on multiple Macs a remote administration software such as Apple Remote Desktop is used to install the Computrace Agent or each machine can have the agent installed on it manually.
Q. Once the Computrace Agent is installed, how do I activate AbsoluteTrack?
A. AbsoluteTrack can be easily and quickly activated by Absolute Software by simply calling Absolute Software’s Technical Support 1-888-999-9857 or e-mailing linkemail('techsupport') techsupport@absolute.com
^ back to top
