Force Logoff: Please help

[Tloe69]

First of all, if I am posting in the wrong area, I apologize. Constructive criticism is welcomed.

Now, Can someone please help me with a dilemna. I have three kids that each have specific logon hours. The problem is they rufuse to logoff when their time is up, unless I go upstairs and make them.

I have a wireless network in my home but each computer is a stand alone, I think. The network is through SBC Yahoo 2Wire; the kids computer has win2k pro and mine has winXP home. Is there a way for me to force logoff once their time expires. I have enabled this option in the local security settings and I have also entered the command that changed the default value for force logoff from none to 2 min but it still doesn't work. Please help.

[technobeast]

Hi and welcome to PCTT

How To Use the Remote Shutdown Tool to Shut Down and Restart a Computer in Windows 2000

Check out the article above. It could help a bit I think. If not we'll search for other solutions

Good luck

[greffov]

edit: I see technobeast was quicker in replying, maybe this info is still an interesting read.



I moved your thread to the win2000/xp section

I'm not common with SBC Yahoo 2Wire, but I suppose it's just the way you get your internet. The force logoff outside logon hours option is only valid on the server: it denies access to resources on it, but it does not log off the user on the client.

On the net I found this interesting bit of code to shutdown a machine remotely:

shutdown -s -m \\computername

-s                      Shutdown the computer
-r                      Shutdown and restart the computer
-a                      Abort a system shutdown
-m \\computername       Remote computer to shutdown/restart/abort

I have no idea whether it works, or is too aggressive for you.

Quite interesting is http://hacks.oreilly.com/pub/h/1104 it gives a vbscript that presents a gui for you which machine to shutdown or logoff.

Another thing to try is:
Right-click My Computer and select Manage.
On the Action menu, press Connect to another computer...
Double-click a computer in the list.
Right-click Computer Management ('server-name') and press Properties.
On the Advanced tab, press Startup and Recovery settings.
Press the Shut Down button.
Select an Action:
Log off Current User
Shut Down
Restart
Power down
Select a Force Apps Closed action and press OK.

however all presented methods require you to initiate it yourself, it does not work automagically.

Welcome to pctt!

[Tloe69]

Thanks for the replies

Both solutions worked but not the way I needed. I need the computer to automatically force logoff once logon times expire.

[Tloe69]

I was able to ping the kids computer but how do I remotely manage it? Can I view what they are doing from my computer? If I can remotely manage their computer I may be able to log them off from mine.

[DreamCaster]

Greetings Tloe69 and welcome to the board

You can try out this neat little utility called Radmin which will allow you to remotely control another system from your desktop and view what's going on (this includes logging that user off). It's a trial version though. There may also be freeware solutions out there, but I've yet to come across one. Maybe someone else here has.

~Peace
DC

[technobeast]

OK first about the automatic things. I was able to google some software:
Shutdown Plus
PC Shutdown

And for the remote admin there is Radmin
The bad news is that all of these are paid (15-35$ I think). Couldn't find anything else that might suit you.

Good luck again. If I dig something else I'll post it

[RipperRoo]

you could always use netmeeting, it part of windows so nothing to download, nothing to pay for.

[Tloe69]

Hey guys, the Radmin works great. Thanks. Hopefully one day I will be able to offer you guys some assistance. Thanks again.

[DreamCaster]

Glad we could help