Software to Manage Mac Lab

Software to manage Mac Lab
My question derives from this tread
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1725088&tstart=0
I manage a Mac lab at a university, and recently student figured out an admin. password, and I changed the password. (Please see above)
I would like to know if there’s any freeware or really inexpensive software to manage Mac in a computer lab.
What I’m looking for is something like Deep Freeze.
http://www.faronics.com/html/deepfreeze.asp
From what people told me, when you shut down your Mac, Deep Freeze restores everything to what it was. In other words, no matter what kind of changes students make, it always brings Mac back to the initial condition.
If someone can tell me what kind of software is available besides Deep Freeze, it’s really appreciated.
In my Mac Lab, I have 26 Intel iMacs (2.0 GHz) with 10.5.3.
Thanks in advance.

After configuring your workstations how you want, back up one of them to a disk image using SuperDuper!. If some workstation gets compromised again, just wipe it and clone it back from the disk image.
To help make this work it would be better to have your users save their documents on a network drive or in a portable home directory rather than locally on the Mac's internal hard drive. Even better would be to have them bring their own portable media (DVDs, thumb drives, etc) and have them save their own work on them.

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My company has a web-based project productivity management software called ActiveFocus which works on any type of machine.
Check out the demo and let me know what you think: http://www.activefocus.net/AFDemo/AFLogin.aspx
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Message was edited by: Host

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Hey all,
I'm a long-time windows user who's been employed to create a disk image to be deployed to 19 new iMac computers loaded with Snow Leopard. I understand the process of creating and deploying an image (And have done so successfully) but come to you, the user base, for advice in terms of computer settings.
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JohnnyJ wrote:
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I can't get to the microsoft program at all as a student
What happens when you try? Have you enabled the Microsoft software in Parental Controls?
and as admin it has me locked out of the student account so I can't put short cuts in any of their folders.
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Hello FritzMills3,
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
For more information, take a look at:
FaceTime for Mac 1.x: Manage your FaceTime settings
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5652
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Have a nice day,
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I understand that is usefull have an A/V installed, even though there is no viruses for Mac. Is that correct?
Depends on your situation. I haven't run, or even installed AV software on any Mac I've owned for the past 11 years. I'll try to explain why.
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Downloading as we speak, and the first explanation that comes to mind is that both files have a .rar extension, and that since OS X doesn't support this archive format, you need to install a third-party utility to open them.
One files tool to open .rar files is The Unarchiver (here), and another is Stuffit Expander (there). 7zip also proposes a Mac version (here). All three will decompress a .rar file, and let you access the .dmg file(s) inside.
Also, depending on the browser you're using, and provided you might be inclined to open trusted files directly (I use Opera, and seldom save safe download; I click on "Open" in the download dialogue), your files could very well open... in the browser cache folder, out of sight. But if you use Safari, Chrome or Firefox, and you don't have any utility installed to handle .rar files, that's doubtful. I'm going to open your files now, and check if I can install them.
Stay tuned!
Edit: decompressing the first file using The Unarchiver shows that the archive is "incomplete". Which leads me to think that you might have to concatenate the two files to make one "complete" .dmg file.
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(e.g.:) "cat /Users/Your_Name/Desktop/File1.dmg /Users/Your_Name/File2.dmg /Users/Your_Name/Desktop/FinalFile.dmg"

Once and for all: Do I need anti-virus software for my Mac?

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Thank you!

Hi
I can only give you my personal experience on this one.
The short answer is "no". I've been using macs for the past 4 years, my partner for many more. Neither I nor she have an anti virus program installed.
We both use firewall on both the os x setup and via our router. I tend to install the security updates posted by apple after they are released and check the forums to be aware of any potential problems.
A much better idea is to back up your important projects etc on a regular basis to dvd and external hard disk.
I have one experience of anti-virus software on the mac:
About 2.5 years ago i thought i had a virus - my diskspace was being eaten up at a very very fast rate - and i was worried. Found out that the os update from 10.3.2 to 10.3.5 had an incompatability issue with the mcafee shock game controller driver (obscure eh!)
Anyway, after this experience and deleting the driver which i no longer needed, i decided to err on the side of caution and tried out both mcafee and norton. Both of which slowed down my system and norton especially caused problems when i was running logic pro etc. really really annoying.
Once i'd got over my "insecure" stage and having spoken to other mac users i realised anti-virus software was causing many many more issues than resolving any - and besides since then i have still had no problems and have never come across any viruses on mac os x.
It all depends on what makes you feel safer. Personally i wouldn't recommend ant-virus programs... i wonder if anyone has any positive experiences of anti-virus software on the mac?
that's my 0.02 pence

Software to Manage Mac Lab

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