I have never written anything in AppleScript, either by hand or with Automator, so I'm trying to decide whether my overall goal justifies the time and effort spent on making a script...
Basically, I manage the LAN in my complex, and there are 20-40 residents. About half are Mac users, and I've noticted that it is fairly consistent that when viewing the usage stats in dd-wrt, the MAC addresses that don't have host names are Apple, Inc.
So I thought I'd send out an email with a list of IP addresses that come up blank and a set of instructions on how check your IP, and if you are one of the blanks, go into System Preferences and change the host name to something that won't resolve to blank. (I'm fairly sure the problem is either with Host Names that are too long or have spaces, not sure.)
But I'm hesitant because the instructions may be confusing, especially the bits about parameters for new Host Names, etc.
So I was thinking I could write a fairly simple app that checks the host name, and if it doesn't pass, brings up a dialog with a suggested replacement. If they like it, they say okay, the host name gets rewritten, problem solved. If they don't, they can enter something else, this entry gets checked, and if it passes, done, if it doesn't they keep trying.
So I guess I'm not sure if it is worth the trouble to write this if it may be just as frustrating to the user as instructions would be.
Also, I'm not sure if it is realistic to think "Oh I'll just whip this up" since I have no idea how difficult or even possible (security-wise) such a script would be.
And lastly, I was wondering if there was some way to do this all through a web app? I'm guessing that's a big fat, as browsers don't tend to change local settings, but perhaps there is some angle I'm not thinking of (Safari maybe allows apple script to run if the user enters password, for example).
I'm not just worried about people getting the instructions, but EVERYONE understanding them, as even one person showing up blank leaves me with detective work.
Thanks