New Equipment - Laptop Trolleys

[BooBoo]

Hi. I am looking to buy a laptop trolley over the next few days and wanted to hear peoples opinions on the make and models they are using.
The two makes that I'm looking at are Bretford and Lapsafe.

Many thanks :?

[Geoff]

One of the primary schools locally has a Lapsafe. They are fairly sturdy. I had to reattach the door because the hinge had come unscrewed a few months ago though.

On the whole I dislike the idea of laptops/laptop safes. Dedictated IT suites with desktop PCs are much better solution.

[BooBoo]

One of the primary schools locally has a Lapsafe. They are fairly sturdy. I had to reattach the door because the hinge had come unscrewed a few months ago though.

On the whole I dislike the idea of laptops/laptop safes. Dedictated IT suites with desktop PCs are much better solution.

I completely agree. However this is coming down from above, we just don't have a room to turn into a dedicated suite. So we are having a mobile suite for Science (Place your bets now on how long it is before one 'falls' in a sink or 'I didn't know the tap was on sir!')

We have to make us of the wireless network now its in.

[plexer]

Get a lapsafe with integrated charging if you can afford it.

The bretford ones are nothing short of tin boxes on solid rubber castors that are horrible to push about fully loaded.

The only change they've made since we got out is they now have an electrical system that prevents a surge when plugged in to help prevent trippings breakers.

Ben

[ChrisC]

SMT decided we should get 2 RM Notebus units, and already we have had 1 laptop stolen, and the other trolley has had the back mangled up by someone with what appears to be a screwdriver!

my initial reaction is AVOID!!

As they say on robot chicken, "If you buy things like that, you're funding TERRORISM!"

Chris

[Geoff]

I completely agree. However this is coming down from above, we just don't have a room to turn into a dedicated suite. So we are having a mobile suite for Science (Place your bets now on how long it is before one 'falls' in a sink or 'I didn't know the tap was on sir!')

We have to make us of the wireless network now its in.

I see, so the SMT inisists on learning the hard way rather than listening to thir technical staff. Oh well.

BTW, a single access point will not cope with 16 odd laptops running wireless.

[alan-d]

BTW, a single access point will not cope with 16 odd laptops running wireless.

You must have duff kit :P we run 16+ on a single point on a regular basis. Granted it can sometimes be a little slow but once logged in there are no problems

[Geoff]

Buffalo 56g APs. Buffalo 56g PCMCIA wifi cards. Dell d510 laptops. Gets to about 10 and then the collisions on the WiFi make it impossible.

[alan-d]

Same kit as ours but without the Dell laptops. We have Rock and HP laptops. Most are centrino but some of the older ones use a standard buffalo card.

[ChrisC]

A little slow, was that sarcastic alan?

We run 2 d-link "wireless routers" (they don't like being called airstations) to link 18 Laptops, both with deperate SSIDs, channels and bands.

Chris

[alan-d]

A little slow, was that sarcastic alan?


Chris

Nope - we are removing Ranger this summer which was causing some delay logging on over wireless, but we found that if the students staggered the logon in the classroom to 3 or 4 at a time it worked fine. We are hoping to get 32 on in September May be pushing our luck there but going to try it anyway

[Geoff]

Nope - we are removing Ranger this summer which was causing some delay logging on over wireless, but we found that if the students staggered the logon in the classroom to 3 or 4 at a time it worked fine.

Now you see that's the problem. Here, the staff assume that the wifi laptops will work just as fast/well as a desktop machine. If they can't log the entire class in (about 20 odd machines) and get down to work in about 5 minutes they complain quite loudly.

[Dos_Box]

I agree totally with Geoff on this one. Several years ago we tried to run a room of 20 PC's with wireless cards fitted connecting via 2 baseststions (all Buffalo 54g kit). It was a total disaster. AV updates, patch roll outs, software installations and all of the other things that happen in the background which we take for granted chew up any signal you may have had. In short, unless you spend many thousands on a decent bespoke wirless network the wireless will never be a replacement for a classroom LAN. Wireless should be used sparingly and in moderation only by staff in areas where having a LAN connection is inpractical, or by small groups of say 5 or 6 laptops in a light network usage situation.

[ChrisC]

Aren't there murmers of a new wireless standard upto 1Gb (not laser, before someone says). Can't remember where I heard about it, but i'm sure I did....

Chris

[BooBoo]

I've installed Cisco Kit, on 802.11a and 802.11g going back to WLSE for verification. Staff use AP's on g and the pupils will be on a. One class of 30 should be within very good to excellent signal strength.

The teachers have been warned not to expect micacles, mandatory profiles are down to 750K so that should help as well.