Manage or deploy settings remotely

I'm looking to remotely deploy Networx to a number of laptops to help my users monitor their 3G connections.

I've discovered the commandline options for the installer and the installation now runs unattended. So far so good! But when first started, Networx asks for the language and connections to monitor. I'd love to be able to set those as well.

Can you tell me where these settings are stored?

The lack of registry entries or .ini files leads me to suspect it's in the networx.db itself, so my second question is whether it would work if I dropped a copy of the networx.db files from one PC in the correct folder after installation?

The setting I care about most is the specific connection to monitor. The driver/device is named identically on each laptop, but I don't know about GUIDs or enumerators.

Ok, I went ahead and tried dropping a copy of Networx.db, but no luck. The language setting works, but the adapter to be monitored is empty on a different laptop.

I guess the adapter is identified by MAC address or similar?

NetWorx identifies all adapters by a system name that Windows assigns to them (which generally include a GUID). These system names come from the MIB_IF_ROW2 or MIB_IF_ROW structures. I suppose there is no way to predict what the name may be on a particular system.

However if your 3G connections are represented in Windows as dial-up connections, which is most likely the case, the best bet would be to configure NetWorx to monitor All dial-up connections. This will poll all available connections of that type, regardless of their names. Provided the system does not have any other modem or a VPN connection, it will be the 3G connection you are interested in.

Another option may be I suppose modifying NetWorx in a way that the installer accepts an adapter description string (e.g. Huawei 1234ABC) and upon installation converts it into the corresponding system name on that computer.

Hi Andrew,

thank you for the quick response.

Unfortunately, the 3G connection does not seem to be included in the "all dialup connections" category, nor in the "all wireless connections".

I've looked at the properties for the interface and it says Adaptertype "wireless", AdapterTypeID = 9.
I can also find the GUID there, but all the steps from extracting the GUID to updating the correct row in Networx.db using a SQLite commandline shell are getting more involved than training the users to select the correct interface, at least for the pilot phase of the deployment.

An installer switch would be awesome, though perhaps a filter for AdapterTypeID = 9 would be much simpler to implement and more generally useful.

Btw, I'm testing this with Toshiba laptops using Windows 7 Pro 64bit and built-in 3G/4G modems.

That's right, in the MIB_IF_ROW2 structure MediaType = 9 is NdisMediumWirelessWan, and probably the adapter type would be one of

• 237 IF_TYPE_IEEE80216_WMAN A mobile broadband interface for WiMax devices.
• 243 IF_TYPE_WWANPP A mobile broadband interface for GSM-based devices.
• 244 IF_TYPE_WWANPP2 A mobile broadband interface for CDMA-based devices.

I guess introducing filtering these types under All mobile broadband connections would be a perfect solution.

I will publish a test build with this new option for you to try on Friday.

As promised, here is the new build that supports a choice of All Mobile Broadband Connections.

It appears to be working perfectly on a test laptop with a built-in UMTS module.

I finally got a chance to test the new build.

It works very well on two different laptop models with builtin 3G/UMTS modules. In fact, I've been able to share the initial networx.db between the two models and it works just fine.

Thank you very much!

I'll see if I can somehow convince my boss to donate some money. The accountancy dept. probably wouldn't even know how to book it.
In fact, if Networx shows our users going over their monthly data budgets, we might develop a sudden need for the Bandwidth Manager