1. INVENTORY MANAGEMENT – THE ANDY FLETT METHOD
• A “simple and quick” inventory reporting tool, for small “site surveys” where “a few” PC
Names are known (or even just a range of IP Addresses) – fire and forget method – launch
the process and leave it to progress on its own.
• Creates spreadsheet showing PC details (and attached monitor details) – “finds” PCs that
may not initially be known about or on the original list, if powered and networked
• Can be configure to run repeatedly to audit newly found items immediately without further
intervention
• Will list ALL newly discovered items UNLESS restricted to certain network segments – new
and previously undiscovered items are “recorded” – even if not fully audited, at least you
know “they exist”!
• OPTIONAL - Can be used to list details of all previously logged on users of each PC and when
they last used it
• OPTIONAL - Can identify printers (local and network) defined on each PC
PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION
1. Supply a (PRIMARY) list of Netbios Names to be reported on (DOESN’T need to be complete
or accurate – see why below)
2. Run the AUDIT ROUTINE for the first time. TARGET Netbios Names that ARE detected as
active (and can be administered) are queried and relevant details appended to current audit
report
3. At the end of the PRIMARY audit of an individual PC, a SECONDARY audit is performed
querying the recently discovered PC to ask “what other PC Netbios Names are known about”
by that TARGET PC. This SECONDARY audit occurs while the PRIMARY audit continues with
the next Netbios Name in the PRIMARY list. (If the SECONDARY audit of a recently
discovered PC is still in progress and as a result of a subsequent PRIMARY audit – another
SECONDARY audit is launched, but that subsequent SECONDARY audit is abandoned. Only
one SECONDARY audit can be performed at a time)
4. The SECONDARY audit runs a restricted NET VIEW command on the TARGET PC. A list of
Netbios Names may be returned. This list is checked on the CONTROLLING PC. If a returned
Netbios Name already exists on the PRIMARY list, it is ignored (queried PCs can repeatedly
report the “same” discovered Netbios Names). If a returned Netbios Name is NOT detected
on the PRIMARY list, it is added to a list of Netbios Names for a subsequent run of the
routine (i.e. the PRIMARY list can be extended automatically)

2. 5. At the end of the “first run” of the audit routine there will be a) an Audit Report of all PCs
discovered b) a list of PCs that were intended to be audited but NOT discovered and c) a list
of Netbios Names that were unknown at the beginning of the run, but were discovered
during processing
6. Combining items b) and c) above creates a new list of “items still to be discovered and
reported on” – which can be used as the PRIMARY list on a subsequent run of the routine, to
“extend” the current audit report
7. In any subsequent run of the Primary Audit routine, any items “recently automatically
discovered” which have ALREADY been previously successfully audited within the current
audit report, are ignored
Examples of the operation of the routine appear below
Obviously – this routine can “discover” other PCs that are detected as active which “may not be
known about” in the original list
The entire process runs unattended – and can be configured to repeat itself indefinitely, substituting
a “new list” to audit in place of the previous PRIMARY list at the end of each successful run

3. REPLY Received – the computer being queried is currently active, and has responded with the
following details which will be added to the current audit report
Starting Remote PC Query Routine – as a secondary process – while this computer is active, and as
long as another similar query process is NOT active, it will be queried to find out what other
computers is can detect nearby (via a NET VIEW command running on that computer)
<COMPUTER> already exists in the current audit report – means that this computer was identified
as a (once) active computer by successfully querying another active computer, and an audit record
already exists in the currently generated report
TIMEOUT Received – the computer is currently not responding