Our institution has hundreds of Win-XP terminals. The users do their daily job using client-server type apps. (Desk-top apps, not web apps.)
In rare occasions, our database server starts behaving erratically, and in order to diminish server work-load, we ask users to stop using the app by telephone!
What are your solutions?
(By the way, our users don't use instant messaging. And they won't view our web-app group-ware while they are busy working.
And we have no access to the source-code of those client-server apps.
The solution should be independent of the app, amd preferably some OS hack or FOSS.)
Addendum : I checked our network and found that all the clients are WindowsXP-SP2 machines, and that, in XP-SP2, the Messenger service is disabled by default. (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/839018) Changing settings of hundreds of machines is unthinkable. So "net send " is out.
What are my options now?