rusty155 Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 hi everyone, I have recently started to get all sorts of problems with teachers installing and configuring their own wireless networks at home for their laptops. Sometimes this isn't a problem, as the windows systems works as it should and connects at home and school with no problem. However there are certain broadband suppliers such as BT with the Home Hub that use their own utility and seem to only be able to connect to the Home Hub. Has anyone else had similar problems, if so how do you cope with it? Thanks.
tscnmuk Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 Know this isn't really a help but we had a teacher ages ago that couldn't get his school laptop to connect to his home wireless without removing it from the domain, which as a local user he at the time had the right to do. 2 or three mornings a week he would bring his laptop up to me to have it rejoined to the domain. Don't we all just love teachers Not sure about the BT Home Hub but I know that some of the NTL Cable connections use a proxy server so this could be the problem? If it is just write a bit of script to change the proxy when he is at home to whatever it needs to be. Tom
bossman Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 Rusty155: Have you said you would take on the responsibility of the teachers laptops at home? we run a policy for the laptop for teachers and that is they bring them in to us when they need updates which is usually every month and after that they are solely responsible for their own laptop which includes home broadband connections.
tscnmuk Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 I think what he is trying to say is that when they have got connected at home, the laptop will no longer connect to the school network properly? I may have misunderstood it though. Tom
gwendes Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 Our laptops also have to be connected to the domain so I tell teachers not to connect to the internet at home. Still end up rejoining the occassional mistake... Too much hassle - tell them not to.
tscnmuk Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 Our laptops also have to be connected to the domain so I tell teachers not to connect to the internet at home. Still end up rejoining the occassional mistake... Too much hassle - tell them not to. There is a local security policy somewhere to deny them the ability to remove the computer from the domain. Can't find it for the life of me at the moment but this is how I worked around the problem.
Geoff Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 Teachers here get a choice. Either they can have them connected to the domain and we'll look after them. Or they are configured as standalone machines and we have nothing more to do with them. Also, if your teachers are taking laptops home. Ensure that either the school insurance (unlikely) or the teachers car + home insurance (also, unlikely) covers any loss or theft of the laptop.
tscnmuk Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 Teachers here get a choice. Either they can have them connected to the domain and we'll look after them. Or they are configured as standalone machines and we have nothing more to do with them. Also, if your teachers are taking laptops home. Ensure that either the school insurance (unlikely) or the teachers car + home insurance (also, unlikely) covers any loss or theft of the laptop. I have been tempted by offering this solution several times. However, if one of them really screws things up making the system unusable, don't you find they go running straight to the SMT who eventually will have you ending up doing the job anyway? Just a thought. Tom
Geoff Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 Re-imaging a laptop really isn't a big deal here.
tscnmuk Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 I suppose not no, I just like to be quite draconian about things, and if I have said I won't do something, then I won't do it. End of story as far as I'm concerned
Geoff Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 Investigate the insurance thing then. It'll prevent the machines going offsite.
EvLPhenom Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 @Rusty155 - we had a teacher come into our office the other day saying that she couldn't connect to our school network wirelessly...anyway cut a long story short, the software that comes with the BT hub had to be disabled for here to work on the network...but we didn't have to rejoin here to the domain. afaik she just uses the windows wireless tool thing to connect to here home network and the schools.
rusty155 Posted January 22, 2007 Author Posted January 22, 2007 Thanks for all the help people! looks like i am going to have to remove as much of the bt stuff as i can to get it connected to the school wireless. And then cross my fingers that it'll still work at her house! If not then - I have made it clear in the past that i will try and accomodate home wireless systems as much as possible but that the school system takes priority. So if it doesn't work at home after i've messed with it - tough i'm afraid.
tscnmuk Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 tough My favourite Teacher/Network Manager communications phrase
NetworkGeezer Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 Other than the IE proxy setting and outbound personal firewalls , home internet has not been that much of show stopper. You may need to set the "Never dial a connection" setting on the Connections tab of the Internet Explorer tools dialog on some ISP setups.
frontal Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 Good old proxy.pac is the best script to get around school proxy settings at school, and not using them at home.
SimpleSi Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 I set them up with Firefox for home use and IE for school. regards Simon
plexer Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 Why not firefox with proxy switcher add-on or is that too complicated for them? Ben
limbo Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 If any of you use Toshiba Laptops for staff then take a look at config free - toshiba software that switches profiles depending on the Wireless network it is attached to - including proxy settings and default printers. It can also disable the wireless card when there is a cable present.
Lee_K_81 Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 Just out of interest: http://www.schoolsnetwork.org.uk/uploads/documents/ICT_Update_A06_124051.pdf specifically page 6. Are they using the laptop for personal use on their personal internet? If you really dont want them changing settings tell them it is not allowed unless they declare that they are using it for personal uses and will pay tax on it. By taking it home and using it on a network (Internet) which we have no responsibility for, can not guarantee security of, it would constitute personal usage. Anybody have thoughts on this matter?
_Bat_ Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 My NM made a batch script that will ask the teachers where the heck they are when they click on the shortcut. If they answer 1 (school) the proxy settings are added and IE is opened. If they answer 2 (home) the proxy settings are removed and IE is opened. If they answer 3 (do nothing) it does literally that. If anyone wants it, let me know. Its only a few lines but it might save somone the hassle.
steve Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 We've started using ProxyPal to turn on / off the proxy settings in IE at the click of a button. We had been getting staff to use Firefox at home, unfortunately ActivStudio doesn't like it.
tosca925 Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 We too have had teachers install broadband settings, join home wireless networks and remove from the domain(as they are local admin users) Its only a couple out of 13o staff laptops but its normally an easy fix to put right. The odd one or two have had to be re-imaged but the staff are normally apologetic.
Midget Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 I use a firefox extention to switch between my 4 proxy options. It sits in the bottom right and you just click and choose the proxy to use.
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