For anyone that is interested I hunted about through various options :

  • SQL From client to server
  • Sticking with Flat Files
  • And many more hairbrained schemes


And it seems that the best way is to have the option of either flat files (depending on environment) or using KiX to launch IE. This would then post information directly to the website which would be submitted into the access database.

Hopefully by its very nature it will be bandwidth friendly and the only issue left is to try and spread out the updates from ~3000 machines so they dont happen all at once.

Oh for cron (unfortunately installing a cron like program onto our build is not an option). Which leaves:

  • Run at machine startup - Need users to reboot which you can never rely on
  • Run at user login - Some people stay logged in all the time and you would never capture machines not used (but you would still want to know about them)
  • Schedule task at some point during day - If during early morning some of our sites are physically switched off

Oh the dilemmas