Anyone have lots of netbooks yet?

[dsk]

Hello!

Ive done some searching so i hope this isnt an an epic fail post!

We've got about 200 netbooks deployed around our school. Dell Mini10s with our 'standard' curriculum build and aruba wiress dotted around the school. Went for the aruba stuff as I think rukus wouldnt work with our vlan config. We have some laptop trolleys that hold 25 netbooks for whatever department has been issues them.

Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone else was in the same boat, how are you finding, how is it working etc?

I think the main problem ive come across is that initial user log on time seems to be a bit dodgy if the coverage isnt 100%. Also we've had to adjust the build as once they get loaded with all our apps/ the apps they want, and our A/V it becomes a little chug fest. I think contribute on macromedia studio was probably a bit abitious to have installed as that seems to go through a lot of rubbish when opening office files.

A rough list of whats on the build:
XP SP3, IE8
Office 2003
Macromedia studio8
Google Earth/Sketch
Clickview client
Kaspersky
Securus
some other stuff that wont really cause slow downs

[robknowles]

Hello,

We've got about 40 Netbooks (to begin with, but can see this ramping up quickly). However, what I've done is that they run just windows with only the VMware View Client, so once started they login to a Virtual Desktop running on our server cluster/cloud.

This seems to work well - very quick logging in as well.

We use to have a couple of trolleys of traditional laptops but they were too slow - not neccessarily the processors, but the fact that they had to be turned on, wait for them to connect the wireless and then students logging on, and then the reverse at the end of the lesson - all very slow.

Thanks,

Rob

[dwhyte85]

We have 130... soon to be 270 netbooks.

We do not have a managed wireless system, we allow students to collect to our normal Wifi - the machines are locked down & in general performance isn't super but it's useable. Thankfully ours are usually assigned to one user or one set of users, 100 are allocated to VI Formers (one per machine) & 30 netbooks are for our year 7s (each are allocated to a machine) - once it is cached it does make things a bit easier. In terms of speed easily 3 minutes for a new user with good connection, with bad coverage 5-8 minutes.

We do not have a trolley, we have lockers which sit in certain rooms which means the children carry them round - not ideal but this is what the school had decided. I would like to make a 'Wireless Trolley' so it'd make things easier but they will not spend the money out on the trolleys as they are too big to lock away effectively.

We give an AP to the member of staff (if they can plug it in by themselves) or set them up as needed in the poorer coverage areas - this is more reliable, 30 seem to connect fine to our portable WAG102's.

Our build consists of:
XP SP3
Office 2k3 with compat pack
Google Earth
IE 8
Flash plug-in
Java updated
Adobe Reader
Sophos

In all honesty it's a pain in the balls when they rely on the static APs we have, these are fine for general use but nothing as intensive as a full class all trying to access network shares. With the addition of the next 140 it is going to be near impossible as they all situate around the same area unless we either find time to filter Macs or get a managed system.

Ideally I had said they'd just be saving to mandatory profile and uploading to the VLE but that was never going to happen, they wanted the moon on a stick. We don't have the money for managed WiFi but they want to keep increasing the numbers in wireless devices and coverage across the school, on top of many other things at the same time - but I like a challenge.

As you can tell it's a bit annoying... but currently, once all the niggly problems were fixed in the first week of term we rarely get any complaints/support issues. We have to check 17 VI form laptops a day too which is a bit annoying but necessary on top of this as the VI formers use them at home.

NC10s & NC20s (forgot to add).

[Soulfish]

Took delivery of our first 16 Netbooks yesterday . Opted for the Dell Latitute 2100's and I'm just looking at laptop trolley options for them.

This is going to be our first deployment of laptops for student use, and since we don't have a managed wifi system (only a access point that will sit with the trolley) we're still looking at configuration options. Going to be testing out some of those options between now and Christmas with Science getting their hands of them end of this term/start of next year.

If it's successful we'll likely be rolling out a managed wireless system and seeing a big increase in the number of netbooks

[stevenlong1985]

Make sure you get the netbook with atom processors running at 1.6 or 1.66Ghz its helps and have them on high performance mode on.

oh yeh if you can go for wireless N but depends on your APs, if you need new Wireless look up Ruckus Wireless

XP SP3
Office 2k7
Google Earth
IE 8
FireFox <--- Use Firefox don't use ie8 as its crashed a lot and slows your netbook
Flash plug-in
Java updated
Adobe Reader
Sophos

150 Asus EEE PC 1000H
Steve

[maniac]

We have one cabinet of Netbooks - we opted for the Stone Neo netbook for our first set which so far have proved to be excellent. Logon times are quicker than some of our laptops, we don't get any problems with them on our aging Cisco wireless system, they are some of the most trouble free machines we have in the school!

We will probably be buying a second set soon, not sure if we will stick with the same or possibly try a different make. I've decided to start buying netbooks as a replacement for laptops in departments which don't use their machines for more than web browsing and ocassional word processing.

Mike.

[fayfrancis]

Hi,

I visit a lot of schools that have these issues, some of the problem is the netbooks and the specifications in some cases but mostly it is due to the wireless. Using a cell based technology is the difficulty I always reccomend a 4th generation wireless as schools is one of the few enviroments where everyone logs on at exactly the same time so many times a day.

Thanks
Fay

[ndavies]

We've got 167 Lenovo ideaPads for 5 Y7 classes. They have purchased themselves, but we put a network build on it.

The main issue I have is anti-virus/malware because they are self purchased, the kids get to take them home and therefore need to be priviledged users on the machine (to change the proxy settings) ..obviously being able to install what they like at home...

They all have our network av on them but I'm getting alerts constantly...

Also problematic are logon times, because we don't have managed wireless yet, I've installed extra APs with success in some classrooms, but less effect in others.

Synchronising files seems to be an issue as well, when I followed the procedure it worked...but in the hands of 11 yr olds..it seems not to..go figure..

Finally, despite the rebuild time being fairly short, I seem to get more than I thought I would...most of which are just looping round the old Start Windows normally..

The network build unfortunately is actually a lot more than it needs to be, need to sort this out next summer and trim it down to bare minimum

[maniac]

therefore need to be priviledged users on the machine (to change the proxy settings)

There should be no reason they need to be priveledged users to do this, just tweek the group policy to give them access to the right menu in IE and it should allow them to change it. Better still you could write an intelligent login script which can tell if it's on or off the network by looking for one of your servers, and then set or unset the proxy settings accordingly by changing the relevant registry key - it's surprisingly easy to get this functionality with VBS.

Mike.

[leon999uk]

We've got 167 Lenovo ideaPads for 5 Y7 classes. They have purchased themselves, but we put a network build on it.

The main issue I have is anti-virus/malware because they are self purchased, the kids get to take them home and therefore need to be priviledged users on the machine (to change the proxy settings) ..obviously being able to install what they like at home...

They all have our network av on them but I'm getting alerts constantly...

Also problematic are logon times, because we don't have managed wireless yet, I've installed extra APs with success in some classrooms, but less effect in others.

Synchronising files seems to be an issue as well, when I followed the procedure it worked...but in the hands of 11 yr olds..it seems not to..go figure..

Finally, despite the rebuild time being fairly short, I seem to get more than I thought I would...most of which are just looping round the old Start Windows normally..

The network build unfortunately is actually a lot more than it needs to be, need to sort this out next summer and trim it down to bare minimum

with changing your proxy i managed to find a free download which installed an icon in IE and all you had to do was click on it.

Cant remember what it was called though.

but helped out with staff here when they keep taking there laptops home and having to disble the proxy.

[fayfrancis]

We've got 167 Lenovo ideaPads for 5 Y7 classes. They have purchased themselves, but we put a network build on it.

The main issue I have is anti-virus/malware because they are self purchased, the kids get to take them home and therefore need to be priviledged users on the machine (to change the proxy settings) ..obviously being able to install what they like at home...

They all have our network av on them but I'm getting alerts constantly...

Also problematic are logon times, because we don't have managed wireless yet, I've installed extra APs with success in some classrooms, but less effect in others.

Synchronising files seems to be an issue as well, when I followed the procedure it worked...but in the hands of 11 yr olds..it seems not to..go figure..

Finally, despite the rebuild time being fairly short, I seem to get more than I thought I would...most of which are just looping round the old Start Windows normally..

The network build unfortunately is actually a lot more than it needs to be, need to sort this out next summer and trim it down to bare minimum

You can get products to assist with the security implications of devices that are leaving the network Total Traffic Control Demo for Schools also when you look at the wireless you are able to get a wireless product that can have an entirely separate network for offsite devices that can go straight out to the internet and loop back in via your VLE, so that there is no security comprimise.

[ndavies]

Cheers guys. Only just seen your replys. If anyone can point me in the right direction for that icon in IE I'd been much obliged..

Have tried adjusting the GP for a new test user in the RMMC but it just doesn't work!! Am able to show/hide all tabs under Internet Options apart from Privacy and Connections...even though I've allowed them....

Any ideas

[RabbieBurns]

weve got about 200+ acer aspire one's... going fine so far no issues.. Wireless coverage is pretty good and we're on course to have 1 AP per classroom by Jan. Run 2003 office, clickview , all the usual plugins etc.. I think Adobe CD is on them too, will need to check