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I have over 100 staff on the network, I’m the IT coordinator for a First Nation, my department is just me so I Need a good tool to monitor network bandwidth use, our ISP bandwidth use and identify bottlenecks and inventory everything on the network more easily and eventually create a ticket system for staff to create tickets by email or portal to better track issues. We just moved to a hybrid voip/analog phone system and having some issues at times. We only have 1 server atm and 2 main switches all running through a watch guard device. Not a big network but lots of users on the network and growing quickly.

I know spice works does some, maybe all i need and im going to be checking it out soon but with my limited budget atm, will the free version do what i need or will it be loaded with ads and bloatware/adware or anything of the sort? What am i getting into before i check it out?

Is there any other free or VERY low cost programs if SW not a good idea for my needs?

5 Spice ups
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PS - We have 40mb down 10 mb up, need to track internet bandwith use to make a case to increase package if possible to faster speeds.

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Quick and easy answer - use SpiceWorks and give it a good try out - it sounds like it’ll cover your bases.

1 Spice up
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Hi Joe. I’m firmly of the opinion that Spiceworks will do what you need. Give it a go!

The helpdesk is great and you can set up email notifications to go your inbox (and others if you grew the department) when a ticket is created, so you don’t need to sit with it open if you don’t want.

The Spiceworks network monitor works nicely, though I found it a little resource hungry on my PC running through Chrome while I was doing everything else I needed to, so now have it on a separate laptop.

Finally, the inventory tool is very useful.

Very few ads in Spiceworks, and no bloatware :slight_smile:

I would offer alternatives but haven’t used any, as I haven’t needed to.

1 Spice up
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You can also take some free training here: https://community.spiceworks.com/spiceworks/university

1 Spice up
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There are two specific Spiceworks products, the inventory and helpdesk, this will do device inventory and helpdesk respectively, these are a single package, then there is network monitor ti give you live stats on usage and resources, but may require a little configuring.

The two applications should be installed on separate servers, VMs are fine, and should not be installed on Windows 10.

Spiceworks free is your only option, there is not a paid service that does any different, there is a paid option but it only removes the adverts and allows some customization - the ads are not that intrusive and you’ll soon not notice them.

Since all Spiceworks products are free give them a whirl, the community and support are here to assist if you need us.

2 Spice ups
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Im in a bit of shock as to what your all saying, but im certainly going to be trying it soon if this is the case. I was looking around at paid products and none caught my eye as worth it, now you tell me SW may do everything i need in one for free? Where have you been all my IT life spice works, would have saved me so many hours and $$ over the years. Whats the catch? how do they make money? how do they survive and pay their staff? Did Ron Paul secretly fund spice works to bring down big corporations who profit off our problems? lol… Oh well, joking aside, this is exciting information.

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