It can be hard for an IT professional to find the right tools to simplify tasks such as Network Inventory. Once, Network Inventory was a manual and tedious job, performed by physically having to visit each machine to record information. Products like NEWT Professional by Komodo Labs are developed to make the process much easier. Introduced in 2003, the software has undergone continuous improvements that have greatly increased the speed of PC Audits. A Computer Audit of 100 PCs can be performed in just 5 minutes.

When scanning networks for Network Inventory, there are two major methods, each with its own pros and cons: using an agent, and agentless. When an agent is used, the agent software must be installed on every system to be scanned, and must be manually updated. An agentless method on the other hand, can meet with security errors on some PCs, which requires a visit to those machines to reconfigure and eliminate the issues. NEWT Professional uses a hybrid method, which circumvents security issues that can cause agentless software to fail miserably. NEWT’s method also avoids the need to install agents manually on machines to be audited. This is all done automatically and transparent to the user, and is what gives NEWT it’s speed and deep scanning ability.

NEWT inventories common PC Audit data such as CPU type, product keys, software inventory, computer and monitor serial numbers, memory, operating system, hard drives, printers, etc., and also provides more detailed information not offered by other software packages. It goes into depth with detailed information, including CPU temperature, hard drive type (IDE vs SATA/SATA-II) and even the brand and serial number of each stick of RAM. These are impossible to detect by other remote means. The video monitor’s display type is even shown accurately as LCD or CRT, a feature unavailable in most competing software products. This can be invaluable when performing video monitor upgrades from CRT to LCD, for example.

NEWT Professional is available as a Free Download through the Komodo Labs website. This free version is nearly identical to the full version, and is able to scan up to 25 nodes for unlimited time. This allows smaller Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and other organizations with smaller networks to use the software free, without expiration. Komodo Laboratories is committed to the idea that small organizations deserve a free Network Scanning product.