Getting Started with Spiceworks (2024)

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Getting Started with Spiceworks (3)

Getting Started with Spiceworks

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Getting Started with Spiceworks

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Overview of this book

Over 2 million IT pros have installed Spiceworks. It helps them with their daily tasks, streamlines processes, and even saves them money, all for free! Getting Started with Spiceworks is an ideal resource to install Spiceworks and run it on your network. After all, over 2 million IT pros can't be wrong, so learn how to join the Spiceworks IT revolution."Getting Started with Spiceworks" starts from downloading the app to having a fully functional Spiceworks installation in just a few minutes. It will cover Network Inventory, Help Desk, Self-Service User Portal, knowledge bases, and more in detail for you to get the most out of Spiceworks.Whether you have a decade of experience or you are new to the IT field, Spiceworks has tools for every IT pro's needs. You will learn how to make your daily tasks easier, streamline existing processes, and even save money with Spiceworks."Getting Started with Spiceworks" will walk you through the Spiceworks installation step-by-step. It will cover topics such as configuring Spiceworks to scan your network and organize information, setting up Help Desk and Self-Service User Portal, running reports that dazzle and streamline your purchasing process, and connecting with other IT pros around your area or around the world thoroughly."Getting Started with Spiceworks" will provide insights and tips from experts on Spiceworks. It is an ideal guide to progress quickly from installation to Spiceworks being an essential part of your IT day.

Current Title:

Getting Started with Spiceworks (5)

Getting Started with Spiceworks

Aug, 2013|124 pages

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Table of Contents (11 chapters)

Getting Started with Spiceworks

Getting Started with Spiceworks (6)

Getting Started with Spiceworks

Credits

Credits

About the Authors

About the Authors

Preface

Preface

Getting Started with Spiceworks (11)Free Chapter

Setting Up Spiceworks

Setting Up Spiceworks

Installing Spiceworks

Logging in and setting up Spiceworks Admins

Getting into the Spiceworks Community

Summary

Configuring Network Inventory in Spiceworks

Configuring Network Inventory in Spiceworks

An overview of the Spiceworks network inventory

Setting up a scan in Spiceworks

Navigating the Spiceworks inventory

Customizing groups and scan schedules

Resolving unknown devices

Summary

Configuring the Spiceworks Help Desk and User Portal

Configuring the Spiceworks Help Desk and User Portal

An overview of the Help Desk interface and User Portal

Setting up Spiceworks users, permissions, and e-mail

Standard and Custom Attributes

Creating a ticket in Spiceworks

Extending the User Portal and Help Desk using plugins

Summary

Configuring Other Spiceworks Features

Configuring Other Spiceworks Features

Reporting in Spiceworks

Network monitoring and alerts in Spiceworks

Purchasing features in Spiceworks

Mobile Device Management in Spiceworks

Other Spiceworks features

Summary

Taking Spiceworks to the Next Level

Taking Spiceworks to the Next Level

Connecting with other IT pros and vendors

Spiceworks extensions in the community

Real-world Spiceworks events

Summary

Index

Index

Customer Reviews

5 star

4 star

3 star

2 star

1 star

Logging in and setting up Spiceworks Admins

If you have chosen to start Spiceworks immediately after the installation, then you will not have to log in. Spiceworks will open directly to your dashboard. If you have chosen to not open Spiceworks directly after the installation, then just open a browser and type the machine name you installed Spiceworks on and the port number. There will be a login screen, just enter the username (e-mail address) and password you created when installing and you will be logged in.

Let's take a look at the first thing you see once Spiceworks opens, the Dashboard. This is the interface you will see every time you log into Spiceworks. It is fully customizable and the dashboard that you will have after using Spiceworks for a while will look very different than the one shown in the following screenshot. Let's have a look at the different components and give you an overview of what each component does.

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  • The area highlighted as 1 shows the navigation bar. Move your cursor onto each option in this bar and you will see the different pages within Spiceworks. We will be hitting on all these—Community, Inventory, Help Desk, Purchasing—in this book.

  • The area highlighted as 2 shows the notification area. When connected to the community this will show any messages that you have along with alerts from your network inventory and outstanding purchasing quotes you have active. Your username is also here in the top-right corner.

  • The area highlighted as 3 shows dashboard information. This tells you what dashboard you are seeing. You can create multiple dashboards that display different types of information, but we will get into that a little later in this chapter.

  • The area highlighted as 4 shows the Add Content button. Clicking on this will open up the widget menu and allow you to add different widgets to your dashboard.

  • The area highlighted as 5 shows the widget information area Here is where all your widgets are displayed. Right now there isn't much to display as we don't have any data within Spiceworks, but that will be remedied in the next chapter when we set up your network scan.

Whew! That is a LOT of information on one interface. You want to hear something crazy? We haven't even scratched the surface as to what Spiceworks can do yet. Now you should be realizing why more than two million IT pros use this software. Once we get some data from network scans and help desk tickets, we will be revisiting the Dashboard to walk you through customizing it to display the data you need.

Spiceworks users defined

Let's get to know the different types of users in Spiceworks. Here is an overview of each kind and what permissions each one has.

  • Admin: These users have full administrative privileges within Spiceworks. They can run any report, modify any device within Spiceworks network inventory, and can open, edit, and close any help desk ticket within the application. Only the highest level users should have this access.

  • Help Desk Admin: These users have full administrative access to the help desk portion of Spiceworks. They cannot change settings, see or modify network scans or inventory, and cannot see or run reports.

  • Help Desk Tech: These users only have access to help desk tickets that they are either assigned or cc'd on. Like the Help Desk Admin user, they cannot see or modify any of the other aspects of Spiceworks.

  • Reporting: These users only have access to the reporting portion of Spiceworks. They cannot see or modify any device, help desk ticket, or setting.

We will be going over only the Admin users right now. The help desk users will be covered in Chapter 3, Configuring the Help Desk and User Portal and reporting users are covered in Chapter 4, Configuring Other Spiceworks Features.

Setting up Spiceworks Admin users

Even if you are going to be the only active Admin on the system, it is always a good idea to set up another user with Admin privileges. One of the reasons is password reset. If you need to reset your password, you can log in as the other user and easily reset it. There is a manual way to reset it as well, but this way is easier! And we are all about things being easy, right? The process is very easy, let's walk through it.

First, mouse over the Inventory menu on the top of Dashboard. You will see a Settings option. Click on it. The option is illustrated as follows:

Getting Started with Spiceworks (19)

This will take you to the Settings page and there is a lot going on here. We will be getting to all these settings, but right now we are only interested in the Personal section, specifically the User Accounts option. Click on this and it will take you to the User Accounts screen. This screen is how we add new users that will use Spiceworks Desktop (in whatever capacity, reporting, help desk, and network inventory).

Note

End users that will use the Spiceworks Help Desk Portal do not need to be added here. Their accounts will automatically be created as they log into the Help Desk Web Portal and they will not need access to the Spiceworks Desktop.

Since you just installed Spiceworks, there should be only one account on this page. The one you created at the last step of installation. There is an Add button on the lower-left side below the accounts, just click on it and blank entries for each column will appear.

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Enter the e-mail address, the first name, the last name, password, and the user permission level (you won't have to change that as Admin is the default setting). Once you have entered all this information in, click on the Save button and like magic, a new user is created. See, I told you it would be easy! One more thing to know once the user is created is that an option on whether you choose for this user to receive email notifications will now be visible on the far right side where the Save button was. There are four options here. Let's go over what they are.

  • None: A user receives no e-mail from the Spiceworks app (default).

  • Alerts: If this box is checked, then any alerts that you set up will be e-mailed out to the user. If this box is the only one checked, the users will not receive any e-mails on Help Desk Tickets or Weekly Summaries.

  • Help Desk: If this box is checked, then the user will get all notifications on new tickets and also if a ticket has been assigned to them. If you are setting up for either of the Help Desk users (Admin or Tech), this box should be checked.

  • Weekly Updates: Spiceworks generates weekly updates on what has been added to your network and also some Help Desk analytics. Check this box if you want these to go to the user.

Since we are creating an Admin user, let's just go ahead and mouse over the None option under the Email column and once the menu bubble comes on the screen, click all the three boxes. There is no Save button. Just move your mouse off the menu and it will be saved automatically. If you know that there are multiple Admin users that you want to add, feel free to do that now. Since we are focusing on Admin users now, we won't worry about creating Help Desk or reporting users so just hold off on those for the moment. What we need to do now is get you logged into the Spiceworks Community.

Previous Section

End of Section 3

NextSection

Getting Started with Spiceworks (2024)

FAQs

Getting Started with Spiceworks? ›

In June 2021, Spiceworks Desktop 7.5, became unavailable for download, and at the end of the year, end of life.

Is Spiceworks discontinued? ›

In June 2021, Spiceworks Desktop 7.5, became unavailable for download, and at the end of the year, end of life.

How to set up spiceworks help desk step by step? ›

Set Up Your Help Desk
  1. Step 1: Decide How You Want To Receive Tickets. ...
  2. Step 2: Set Up Your Email. ...
  3. Step 3: Set Up Your User Portal. ...
  4. Step 4: Set Up Your Notifications. ...
  5. Step 5: Configure Your Email Response Template. ...
  6. Step 6: Add Ticket Rules. ...
  7. Step 7: Configure Your Ticket Views (Queues)
May 24, 2011

Is Spiceworks completely free? ›

All our products are free. No limits. No feature upgrades. No cost.

How does Spiceworks make money? ›

Spiceworks Pricing and Compromises

As we said, Spiceworks Cloud's price tag is zero. The company makes money by serving ads directed at IT pros using the software.

What is better than Spiceworks? ›

Desk365 is often considered a superior alternative to Spiceworks for several reasons. It offers a more user-friendly interface, enhanced automation capabilities, and robust integration options that streamline the management of help desk operations.

Is Spiceworks safe to use? ›

Security. As free asset-tracking software, Spiceworks' commitment to network security is commendable. The provider offers a number of mechanisms to keep data safe, including a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate checker, a subnet calculator, and an internet protocol (IP) lookup.

What is the difference between help desk tech and admin in Spiceworks? ›

Roles: Administrators can view/edit all tickets and reports, while Techs will only see tickets assigned to them.

Is there a Spiceworks app? ›

With Spiceworks Help Desk (mobile), Spiceworks users have the tools and info they need to do their IT jobs – at their fingertips. Used by over 1 million IT pros worldwide, Spiceworks free IT management tools & apps (and online community) simplifies “everything IT” about the IT workday.

Does Spiceworks have a desktop app? ›

Spiceworks IT Desktop is the only application that combines Network Inventory, Help Desk, Reporting, a built-in TFTP Server, Monitoring, Active Directory Management, and Troubleshooting in a single, easy-to-use interface designed for IT teams in small and medium businesses.

Is Spiceworks HIPAA compliant? ›

There is no patient data stored in SpiceWorks. So it is HIPAA compliant as far as any system having nothing to do with HIPAA compliance is. So it is as HIPAA compliant as our door or your car are.

Is there a paid version of Spiceworks? ›

There is no paid version of Spiceworks, all products are free. ad2022: What are the comparison between Free and Paid Spiceworks?

Who owns Spiceworks? ›

What happened to Spiceworks? ›

Last year, we made an announcement about our IT Tools & Apps with a focus on Spiceworks Desktop 7.5 that we deprecated in December 2021. Alongside that, we explained that we discontinued the development of Help Desk Server (HDS) and were re-evaluating its future.

Is Spiceworks end of life? ›

As a software tool, it offers free tools that help teams manage their network and support ticketing. In 2021, Spiceworks announced to its community that its On-Premise software Desktop would be end-of-life by the end of the year.

What companies use Spiceworks? ›

Who uses Spiceworks?
CompanyWebsiteCountry
uShipuship.comUnited States
Druvadruva.comUnited States
EPAM Systems Incepam.comUnited States
SAP SEsap.comUnited States
1 more row

What apps have been discontinued? ›

The apps below have all been useful and successful at some point, but were made obsolete and have thus been discontinued.
  • AirTube. Web Videos on your Apple TV, hassle free. ...
  • AirVLC. AirPlay Audio Sync for VLC. ...
  • coucou. Your whole network at your finger tips. ...
  • Pipvid. Snaps videos to any corner. ...
  • Porthole. ...
  • Reign. ...
  • Tapetrap. ...
  • Timeless.

Is Spiceworks a reliable source? ›

Its reliable and also the Spicework Community is a great resource for answering technical questions. We actually use two installations of this: one for the IT team to document their work and also one for our Maintenance department to document maintenance requests and tickets and it works great.

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