I’ve been trying to find a way to send a broadcast message to everyone in a Windows Server 2003 domain. As far as I can tell there is no built-in utility that can do this. I miss the feature from Novell 5 which let me broadcast a simple message to all network users (such as the server is shutting down). Anyone know an easy way to do this with server 2003?
Thanks!
“NET SEND” at a command line.
Note that a lot of folks will have the receiving software (Windows Messenger Service, not to be confused with the IM client of a similar name) turned off because a lot of spam used to be delivered this way.
Thank you for the tip, I forgot all about that command. I tried it this morning but no dice. I am guessing that one of the may Windows updates hosed the messenger service since I can’t seem to locate it on any of my updated PCs. The entry in the services area no longer appears in the list.
Is there any other way to do this function? Thanks again for the assist.
Our IT staff uses email.
Email won’t work in this case. We’re trying to keep people from entering orders after the month has closed. The time can change depending on volume and people are not always at their desks when announcements are made over the PA. Ideally I was hoping to find something that would prevent them from working until they acknowledge the message but I’d settle for a pop-up that would do the job.
Looks like it’s going to be sticky notes on the monitor, either that or take the back end dataabase offline, so they can’t enter orders.
Or you could install some kind of third-party (or even bespoke) messaging client on all of the machines
Are you usre you’re looking in the right place? It’s listed as “Messenger” in services.msc, not “Windows Messenger”.
If you have a domain, it would be super-easy to enable and start the Messenger service via login script on the domain boxes. Also, don’t forget the NET SEND syntax: you’ve got those /DOMAIN and /USERS switches to deal with.
hmm, now that’s weird. I have been using MSCONFIG to get to the startup services and it does not appear there. However, when I just run services.msc from the Run menu I can see it there.
Could you give me an example of how I might script the activation of the service? Or would this be better suited to Group Policy? I’m pretty sure I remember reading that there is a policy that can enable messenger by default.
Thanks to everyone for the tips, it has been very helpful.
My mistake, the policy template exists to disable it but not enable it on startup. If this could be done via a logon script I would very much appreciate an example as scripting is not my strong suit.
You can set the Messenger service’s Startup Type to Automatic under Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\System Services. Note that this node is only available in GPOs applied to sites, domains, or OUs; it does not appear in the editor for an individual computer’s local policy.
Well, login scripts are stored on the server (\domaincontroller\SYSVOL\domain.local\scripts\script.bat is the default location) but run on local machines at startup, so you can use add the line
NET START MESSENGER
Of course, this only works if the Messenger service is NOT set to “disabled” on the workstations. If is you add the following line to the login script:
SC CONFIG MESSENGER START=auto
Here’s a complete example of a login script that will set the Messenger service to AUTO and start the service on the client machines:
@echo off
cls
sc config servicename start= auto
net start servicename
exit
If you need any help with login scripts, let me know. Also, remember that Group Policy trumps login scripts, so if you have Messenger disabled in Group Policy, the login script won’t work. The Messenger service uses UDP ports 135, 137, and 138 and TCP ports 135, 139, and 445, so make sure those ports are closed on your firewall (they should be by default).
Wow, you guys are awesome. Thanks so much for the assistance. I’ll try the group policy first, failing that I’ll use the login script. Thanks again for everyone’s help!