is user logged in to intranet?

[David Laplante]

is there a way to get all the user names of those who are currently logged in to the intranet of company X ???

I have this VB-CGI application and the client wants me to check, at logon, if the username that is entered is currently loggued in to the intranet...

this HAS to be possible some how...

thanks !

[David Laplante]

come on people, someone has to know
Aaron?, Serge? someone?

[Serge]

Are you talking about accounts that are logged into the Server (domain controller) or Computers that are showing up in the Network neighborhood (LAN)?

[David Laplante]

I am talking about accounts that are logged into the Server (domain controller)

please help me
thanks!

[asabi]

Well, I am not sure about it, but this is my idea ..

You have a session variable started when a person loggs in..

The ASP page sends the session id to a DB (with the IP address and the name of the workstation).

And then a program that is running on a machine (VB program or something), calls every minute an ASP page that goes over the ID's and checks if the session id is still active,if it doesn't, it deletes the id from the DB ...

this way you allways have the people that are logged in inside your DB.

just set the session timeout to be very small ..

What do you guys think ?

[David Laplante]

Does that DB contain the username?... The clients I work for want to authenticate my application logins with the ones from the intranet server. Meaning that if the username logging into the application is not currently logged into the intranet, then I don't let that user be logged in.

Are you saying is that there is a DB on the server where I can get that information? That would be great because it would also get me out of another problem where I don't want the user to leave his browser opened and always be logged in...

Do you know what this DB name is? Were it is usualy placed on the server?

[asabi]

O.K, let me clear things up ...

I am talking about an ASP page, that will be the first page (instead of index.htm you have index.asp)

And a DataBase which you create that will have just one table with the

session id
ip address
Machine name


with an ASP page you can create a session variable that will be timed out after a time you specify and you can get the machine name and IP address .. so practically if the user leaves the workstation for some time, the session will be destroyed after he doesn't use it for the specified amount of time you specified, and he will have to re login ..

now, the only part i am not sure in my "plan" is to check if the session id is still activated, but I am sure that there are other people on this forum that can help with that...

is that clearer ? if you have anymore questions, don't hasitate ..

[David Laplante]

I see...

You know when you log on to an Intranet, The server asks for authetication (unless you are within a certain range of IP Adresses (wich are reserved for the office LAN)

Now, when a user logs on, his username (And this is my true question here) is kept on the server for as long as he is logged in...

After all that, the same user types the address for my app. (A VB application the does the same thing as a CGI) and my app asks for a login name and a password (which are the same as for the Intranet logon (at least the Username))

At that point, when the user logs on to my application, I need to check if the username provided in my application is currently loggued in to the intranet as well (My application will only be available from the intranet but my client is a bit wacko about security)....

So I need to verify at the moment of the logon to my app if the username provided to my app is currently loggued into the Intranet...

So I need to know if there is a way to get all the usernames currently loggued into the intranet.

Hope that is clearer... if you have any idea... please DO help me, I am desperate :)

[asabi]

Why didn't you say so ???

O.K , so it is a security thing ...

Let's look at it from another angle, forget about the intranet for a second ..

the company has a range of IP addresses that they use right ?

why don't you just check if the ip of the user is within that range ?

if it is - then the client has to be from within the company ... if it is not, then he is an intruder ...

Did that help ?
if not, or if I didn't get it right tell me, I will ask some people and get back to you with a better one.

[David Laplante]

That solution would be great if the application was to be run only from one of the company's computers...
but the application will also be accessible from outside the office by loggin into the intranet the usual way (throught a popup screen from the browser asking for authentification)


Thanks again for your help

[asabi]

Some questions ..


Do you guys use a web server for your intranet ?

If a web server, is that an NT machine ?

What application do the users use to enter the intranet ? (IE and netscape ?)

Is your application running on the same machine as the intranet ?

[David Laplante]

these are questions that I should ask my client...
but lets assume the most popular setup:

1 - it is a web server
2 - on an NT/win2000 machine (I am almost certain about hits one)
3 - They do use IE and not netscape (that I know, anyways my app produces DHTML which netscape does not support)
4 - it has to be on the web server so I suppose it will be the same machine




[Edited by David Laplante on 08-31-2000 at 09:40 AM]