Possible To Detect Ps/2 Mouse And Keyboard?

[shadowx 0]

Is it possible to detect the presence of a ps/2 keyboard and mouse, and also a USB mouse/KB?Reason being at work (a school, i dont work in an office of animals!) keyboard and mice tend to vanish or be unplugged, so i was wondering if there is a peice of software, perhaps a driver, that can be installed to check for the presence of the devices and then either log it locally (or just give an error message) or even better, send an alert across the network, perhaps via email, to notify us that is unplugged. Even better if it can log the time etc... so we can pinpoint those that seek to remove!!Any ideas? Im not even 100% that this is possible. I know the bios can detect it but thats more on the hardware level rather than software :|EDIT: Im thinking now perhaps some software to detect if num/scroll/caps lock is on. The reason being that the machines all seem to start up with numlock on. I know its easy to bypass but the students wont know the system is there, and wont know how it works... It would need to be trialed first but i wonder if its possible to do a check for these keys? Im not afraid to code, though i must admit to not knowing any true programming codes, i stick to PHP, JS etc... but i have some experience with VB, whether or not i can get my hands on an IDE is another problem but we will see....My last thought was some system to load with the BIOS as the BIOS is easily able to identify if a keyboard is present, and as a last resort enabling boot monitoring of some sort so that we can alter the BIOS to hault if a keyboard isnt present and then the boot monitor will send an alert through the network (we use novell, but ive only been here two weeks so i dont know if its possible as standard through novell. PPS: We use XP on the machines themselves but a novel preboot execution environment or PXE). If someone can point me in the general direction to get started id be very grateful!

Edited June 8, 2009 by shadowx (see edit history)

[bluedragon 0]

If you want to code and make up your own application , I'll suggest u use a language that can work up on hardware level for you. I generally code in C and I know that C can interact with hardwares...and this is completely possible in C -- As far as I understand you want to detect the removal of a mouse or keyboard and if there is an error just signal the server.This can be done in C but I dont think you would want that.There will be two part to the whole Application. A server that will be listening for errors and a Client loaded on all the machinesServer visible to the operators is not a problem but if the Client is detected by the user, he might just close the application and you cant do anything about it.So you are stuck with the language. If you can , Then try and find a way to make VB interact with BIOS. I dont know if that can be done. I worked with VB 6 once when I was at school. Don't remember it much now. I am not sure but there are methods in VC++ for hardware level interaction. Try and find a pro for this. Good Luck.P.S. Its a great idea :XD: May be when I am free with my exams I'll try and write up the code in C

[shadowx 0]

the students noticing the program isnt an issue, i would make it run in the background and since they dont have access to task manager they wouldnt really be able to kill the program. I understand the need for the client/server relationship, thats not really an issue either methinks. Itd be handy if there is a commercial (be it free or not) program available. Im going to scour the various sites related to educational places (like RM) and see if they have anything. Currently were going to try to get the teachers to keep an eye on things but we all know they wont bother!!