Leeds Learning Network

[Marshall_IT]

Just wanted to get a quick idea as i know there are a few Techs on here from Leeds.

 

Who is Leaving and who is staying?

 

EDIT: Just wanted to say the poll is anonymous and you don't have to post a reply.

Edited March 13, 2013 by Marshall_IT

[sted]

i work in leeds but in several schools and im pushing them towards anyone else. LLN have proved time and time again they dont know what they are doing, dont answer e-mails, dont call back when they say they will and generally make life a pita if you ever have to deal with them. Even something as simple as requesting they link the curric and admin networks (which they have a config file for the ciscos) can be a pain ive had it before where they have wanted to charge the school, wanted the headteacher to write to them they arnt even consistent. The recent issues where logons randomly diddnt happen etc and the insistance on logons rather than say using a smoothwall etc is antiquated and problamatic esp for touch devices.

 

Their replacement plan is long on good ideas but they dont seem to have a clue how to get there (like me saying im going to go to the moon its technically possible but its just not going to happen)

[Marshall_IT]

I must say it seems like they want to shoot themselves in the foot with this latest string of service instability, but maybe that's c®apita getting the hump a little also, or maybe I'm giving them too much credit.

 

LLN said they have had 145 returns on the 'expression of interest' forms, and 141 indicate an interest in the offer. I can see that 50% of those responses are mainly because they want to see the price.

[sted]

I must say it seems like they want to shoot themselves in the foot with this latest string of service instability, but maybe that's c®apita getting the hump a little also, or maybe I'm giving them too much credit.

 

LLN said they have had 145 returns on the 'expression of interest' forms, and 141 indicate an interest in the offer. I can see that 50% of those responses are mainly because they want to see the price.

 

yup without a price how can anyone express an intrest but it needs to be much cheaper than current as its a rip off

[sted]

oh quelle surprise they do some work and now its not working. does anyone there have a clue what they are doing?

[hallb15]

I'm sure you've all seen the proposed pricing by now. Can anyone tell me what I would actually be getting for my £7 per user, per year?

[sted]

I'm sure you've all seen the proposed pricing by now. Can anyone tell me what I would actually be getting for my £7 per user, per year?

 

from what i can tell (and this is opinion only) they manage the free office 365 email accounts so someone in the school cant just do it in 10 mins

[Marshall_IT]

From what I understood about office 365 is that LLN would set up your domain with users then give you the Admin account details so you can manage it yourself.

 

The £7...

[IrritableTech]

Their proposal includes a help desk. The seven pounds per account covers their costs to provide this service. I've been told.

[wroberts]

From what I have looked into we will also be leaving !

 

They charge too much for a poor service when other companies can eadiky provide a much better service at a cheaper price !

[sted]

From what I have looked into we will also be leaving !

 

They charge too much for a poor service when other companies can eadiky provide a much better service at a cheaper price !

 

they cant even now keep to their sla says on the autoresponder we will reply within an hour they havent so far was 2pm yesterday i sent it iirc all i want is some ports opening for target tracker

[IrritableTech]

I think it's important to remember that most of the issues suffered by schools recently are due to Capitas infrastructure, rather than Leeds learning. However the LLN signed up to, and extended (twice?), a contract with Capita which included a five day SLA on firewall changes.

 

Going forward Capita are not involved, but I'm yet to see a SLA from ICT4Leeds.

[sted]

I think it's important to remember that most of the issues suffered by schools recently are due to Capitas infrastructure, rather than Leeds learning. However the LLN signed up to, and extended (twice?), a contract with Capita which included a five day SLA on firewall changes.

 

Going forward Capita are not involved, but I'm yet to see a SLA from ICT4Leeds.

 

well theyve sent stuff out saying schools need to sign up for a 4 year contract starting in april by the 24th of may this year. I will see if i can get a look at the paperwork they have sent heads but i will be suggesting schools tell them to take a hike esp as there is no get out clause i believe and its the same infrastructure for the next 2 1/2 years.

 

finally got an email after 24 hours saying its been passed to 2nd line

[IrritableTech]

As I understand it, the only infrastructure continuing to be utilised after 31st March will be the LLNs Ja.net connection through Civic Hall. The biggest question about that is how big is the pipe? Virgin hope to be awarded the contract to provide Internet access to the LLN PSN network after current contract on the civic connection expires.

[sted]

As I understand it, the only infrastructure continuing to be utilised after 31st March will be the LLNs Ja.net connection through Civic Hall. The biggest question about that is how big is the pipe? Virgin hope to be awarded the contract to provide Internet access to the LLN PSN network after current contract on the civic connection expires.

 

mt understanding was the cables from you to highschool to wherever are staying as they are for 2.5 years

[IrritableTech]

I've DM'd you sted.

[SchoolsBroadband]

As I understand it, the only infrastructure continuing to be utilised after 31st March will be the LLNs Ja.net connection through Civic Hall. The biggest question about that is how big is the pipe? Virgin hope to be awarded the contract to provide Internet access to the LLN PSN network after current contract on the civic connection expires.

 

Evening folks,

 

LLN only has 1 x 700mbit Internet connection which looks after all schools, libraries and council offices in Leeds. How do i know this? Well I was at the meeting at South Leeds stadium when Virgin, LLN, Smoothwall and Microsoft were there.

 

It was interesting as Virgin and LLN were banging on about how they have a 1:1 Internet connection for all schools in Leeds. Funny really. I think there's about 260 schools in Leeds all with at least 10mbit Internet connections which equates to. Total traffic of 2600mbit if it was 1:1 and that's not even counting the majority of secondary schools that actually have 100mbit links.

 

So I think you can work out easily that he contention is not 1:1!

 

It's also interesting as in the current Capita contract you all signed it says and I quote "your school has a 1:1 contention ratio all the way to the Internet" which of course you don't. I'm not making this up here just to be trying to cause trouble and get you to go elsewhere, it's in your contract black and white and you're not getting it.

 

Don't get me wrong I'd love you all to ditch LLN and come with us but I'd recommend you go with anyone other than LLN due to the history you've had with them. I think the votes and answers speaks volumes.

[SchoolsBroadband]

As I understand it, the only infrastructure continuing to be utilised after 31st March will be the LLNs Ja.net connection through Civic Hall. The biggest question about that is how big is the pipe? Virgin hope to be awarded the contract to provide Internet access to the LLN PSN network after current contract on the civic connection expires.

 

They have a 700mbit Internet connection for all schools, libraries and council offices in Leeds

[sted]

They have a 700mbit Internet connection for all schools, libraries and council offices in Leeds

 

i thought it was 2 700mbs one at emlet (i think) one at seacroft library.

 

the actual contention dosent bother me in and of itself the poor service and unreliability do and getting a class of 30 5 year olds to put a username and password for the internet is a right pita

[IrritableTech]

I too was told 700mbit at the south leeds stadium meeting, but actually that was by a virgin rep rather than Leeds learning. I've also heard other figures, which I guess is why I asked the question.

 

The network is contended at various points, but the fact that the LLN will not openly publish figures doesn't fill schools with confidence.

[sted]

I too was told 700mbit at the south leeds stadium meeting, but actually that was by a virgin rep rather than Leeds learning. I've also heard other figures, which I guess is why I asked the question.

 

The network is contended at various points, but the fact that the LLN will not openly publish figures doesn't fill schools with confidence.

i honestly think THEY dont know i think anyone who new anything left a long time ago and documentation is incomplete or made sense to them but not the current crew

[Marshall_IT]

It is only 1x 700MB, but that isn't even the first point of contention for my school, that happens at the second hub site, if not the first.

[waltflanagan]

After several years of a lower than average service and lousy connectivity, were finally giving LLN the boot.

[bms713]

Hi there,

 

can anyone give me an idea of how easy it is to manage the accounts of a 400+ school using Open Directory and Microsoft365? We're looking at the LLN vs. SchoolsBroadband issue and one of the concerns is -if we go with SchoolsBroadband- how much of the LLN user account/email acounts admininstrative work will be passed on to our ICT manager.

 

cheers, Ben.

[Marshall_IT]

It depends on what you want to do.

 

LLN will sign you up to office 365 then import a list of users. After that, everything is down to the school to manage.

 

Are you a primary or secondary? I believe schools broadband offer office 365 support in their gold package but you'd best contact them.