help desk software

If you are expecting multiple users of the system, it is more effective to install the help desk software onto a server and arrange for all users to load the programs from the server instead of from their PCs.

The Web interface to NetHelpDesk is installed separately, after the Windows client.

You need to install the Microsoft MDAC ADO help desk software to use MS ACCESS or MS SQL Server databases. A version is included on the CD, but it can also be found on the http://www.microsoft.com/data web site. If you don't install MDAC, you will be informed when you run the system or the following error message may be displayed:

The program has performed an illegal operation. Exception EIntfcasterror in nethelpdesk.exe. Interface not supported.

ADO - What is it ? A layer of help desk software is required to access databases. There have been various Windows standards for this database access layer and NetHelpDesk supports the most recent standard called Microsoft OLE DB via ADO (Active Data Objects). This is replacing ODBC.

You may well find that you already have ADO on your PC as Microsoft ship it with the operating system and newer versions of Internet Explorer. The ADO help desk software is included on the CD and can be installed if necessary by clicking on the mdac_typ.exe file on the CD and following Microsoft's instructions.

Once you have ADO installed you can create and edit .udl files. These are Microsoft Universal Data Link files. They contain the details of what type of database is used, where it is located, and what username and password to use. To edit .udl files, double click on them. They can be copied using Windows Explorer and then edited as required.

Single PC Installation:

NetHelpDesk is installed in the usual Windows fashion. Place the NetHelpDesk CD in the drive and browse the CD's contents. Find the NetHelpDesk Windows Client setup folder and select the setup.exe program by double clicking on it.

Follow the on screen instructions. By default NetHelpDesk is installed in the C:\program files\NetHD folder. If you choose a different folder then you will need to configure the .udl file that indicates the database location. This is done by double clicking on the appropriate .udl file or using the edit udl file menu item in the NetHelpDesk program group available from the Windows start menu.

Remove the CD and store safely. Click on the NetHelpDesk example icon to commence using NetHelpDesk. There is a database called NetHDexample which contains some sample device types and sites. Login as user AdamR with a password of 'ar'. This is case insensitive.

When you are familiar with NetHelpDesk concepts you can create a new database in order to start entering your organisation's network information. Copy the empty database named NetHDempty.mdb and its .udl file to create a new database and then adjust the new .udl file appropriately.

Installation on a Server:

Create a shared folder on the server that will hold the NetHelpDesk programs. On each PC that uses NetHelpDesk, map a drive to this shared folder. For example, create a folder called NetHDsystem and share it. Then map a drive letter, for example T:, to the shared folder from each technician's PC. For simplicity, it is easier for all PCs to use the same drive letter. You can use pure UNC names, rather than drive letters if you wish.

Once installed, you can create shortcuts on each technician's PCs to point to the T:\nethdclient.exe program in the shared folder. If you specify the name of a .udl file as the command line parameter then that database link file will be used automatically when the program is started.