Little-Miss Posted June 13, 2011 Posted June 13, 2011 (edited) Ok, had fire blah blah..majority of the school is now housed in an old convent down the road which was being used as conference and hotel facilities. When i say old, i mean old...a handful of single sockets here and there. My problem: They are going to be there at least 12 months. I need them to have some sort of network down there. What i buy i want to be able to bring back to the school and use here, nothing is permanent. It cant cost the earth (but i also realise its not going to be free). There are 360 kids, 12+ staff. I have zero experience of anything like this. Ideas: 1) We have a p2p connection from one building to another. There is no clear line of sight so if this is the way we go it means bouncing the signal off another building and then to "hogwarts" as its known. 2)Clone our network, have a wireless system put in, use mobile devices such a netbooks...but what happens after 12 months? My plan was that the DC at hogwarts would come back and be used as a member server on my "real" network. Wireless replaces what we currently have left over from the fire (we had managed HP, might be a good excuse to get Ruckus). What would you do in my situation? Anything i haven't thought of? Edited June 13, 2011 by Little-Miss
Domino Posted June 13, 2011 Posted June 13, 2011 Is there net access at hogwarts? with external IP's etc? Could you set up a site- site VPN and have the temporary place as a second site on the same domain as the main school for a while? 1
X-13 Posted June 13, 2011 Posted June 13, 2011 When you say wireless replaces what you currently have... What do you mean? Upgrade? If so, do that. However, a decent wireless network is going to be kind of expensive, and if you make it yourself I doubt the school will pay out to get a "proper" wireless network. TBH, I would have a word with your LEA techs, if you have them that is. They'd be able to suggest/do something that'd be perfect for you, as they should know the infrastructure better than anyone. 1
soveryapt Posted June 13, 2011 Posted June 13, 2011 For me, I'd go with the wireless option .. it's something that you can relatively easily have transferred back to your main site once it's all up and running again, but gets you sorted down there .. it's also something that would benefit your main site I'm guessing once you did move back in .. depending on the work being done, laptops might be better, but you'd know that (I tend to go for laptops just as the screens are that bit bigger) .. that way you can store them in trollies too and you don't need huge numbers of plugs fitting in to keep them going, just put them back in the trollies overnight and have them charge .. which is probably where a netbook would be better I suppose .. though I've got some HP ProBooks that last a good 5-7 hours depending on the use and if you make sure staff put them away over lunch to get a quick top up you should be good .. I guess though that it would be handy to have connection between sites though? So on that level, would it not be feasible to P2P and have the server set up with DFS so that it's already a member server but hosts locally the files but they're sent back up on your and sync'd on your chosen schedule? Keeps everything a bit easier to re-integrate and means you can support all parts of the school from one place if you need to .. 1
Jamman960 Posted June 13, 2011 Posted June 13, 2011 p2p wise I'd see what your LA can offer, if you could connect both sites to the RBC you may be able to communicate between them at a reasonable speed. This may be an expensive option though. We looked into using leased lines to connect our sites before but found the costs to be in the region of 10k per year plus about 5k for installation. Fibre via the sewer was another option but still incurred rental fees although they were slightly less. In the end we forked out for an FSO link with radio backup which is working wonders. Is line of sight entirely impossible even from the roof with a pole/other extension? we found that from the very highest point of our building we just about had line of sight
FN-GM Posted June 13, 2011 Posted June 13, 2011 When you say clone to network how do you mean please?
Little-Miss Posted June 13, 2011 Author Posted June 13, 2011 I guess though that it would be handy to have connection between sites though? So on that level, would it not be feasible to P2P and have the server set up with DFS so that it's already a member server but hosts locally the files but they're sent back up on your and sync'd on your chosen schedule? Keeps everything a bit easier to re-integrate and means you can support all parts of the school from one place if you need to .. Ooh, that sounds clever! Life sure knows how to try and make you learn new stuff quicker!
Little-Miss Posted June 13, 2011 Author Posted June 13, 2011 When you say clone to network how do you mean please? Suppose i should have said clone my DC...
Popular Post X-13 Posted June 13, 2011 Popular Post Posted June 13, 2011 Suppose i should have said clone my DC... So it's an exact copy? Make sure you breed out some of the intelligence so the original remains superior. http://charltonhestonsvest.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/stewis-and-bitch1.jpg?w=390&h=231 [i've been watching too much family guy...] 5
FN-GM Posted June 13, 2011 Posted June 13, 2011 Suppose i should have said clone my DC... How many DC's do you have. Personally i wouldnt do it, can cause all sorts of issues. Can you pick it up and move it to the other site?
Little-Miss Posted June 13, 2011 Author Posted June 13, 2011 Just the one DC.... I need it at this site... the infants is still functioning as normal...
X-13 Posted June 13, 2011 Posted June 13, 2011 Back on-topic for a moment... Do/did you have something like easylink? If you do/did, why not just hand out laptops and let them access files through that? Or is the file server FUBAR?
FN-GM Posted June 13, 2011 Posted June 13, 2011 Just the one DC.... I need it at this site... the infants is still functioning as normal... In that case i would setup a second DC on the Second site. They will be one domain then. When your ready demote the old DC and carry on as normal.
Little-Miss Posted June 13, 2011 Author Posted June 13, 2011 All my servers surivived....ran into burning building when i was allowed to so i could rescue them (not quite as dramatic as that sounds! lol). If we had something like that it would be perfect. We only currently have BT broadband down at Hogwarts. LA wants to charge us stupid amounts of money to provide any sort of internet. So we currently have no filtering...
Little-Miss Posted June 13, 2011 Author Posted June 13, 2011 Oh and btw, Network Services Birmingham if you're watching....YOU SUCK! 1
Edu-IT Posted June 13, 2011 Posted June 13, 2011 All my servers surivived....ran into burning building when i was allowed to so i could rescue them (not quite as dramatic as that sounds! lol). If we had something like that it would be perfect. We only currently have BT broadband down at Hogwarts. LA wants to charge us stupid amounts of money to provide any sort of internet. So we currently have no filtering... Could you run the free Smoothwall version perhaps? 1
X-13 Posted June 13, 2011 Posted June 13, 2011 LA wants to charge us stupid amounts of money to provide any sort of internet. So we currently have no filtering... Find something free that'll do it. You may find it works better than LEA supplied filtering. Which could save you a bit of money, which can then be spent of upgrading ICT equipment instead of just replaceing what was lost. X EDIT: Holy crap... ninja'd. 1
Devontechie Posted June 13, 2011 Posted June 13, 2011 There's a FREE smoothwall? Yep. Smoothwall Express Express Open Source Firewall Project
Netman Posted June 13, 2011 Posted June 13, 2011 1. Sign up for Google Apps for Education (free) - create users as needed and get any users who need files at both sites to upload them to google docs Google Apps for Education - Free Hosted Email (Gmail) for EDU 2. ADSL connection at Hogwarts with Firewall/Filter as required 3. Quick and dirty wireless network at Hogwarts with whatever devices are cheap and cheerful to connect 4. Completely separate domain and DC/DNS/DHCP/Print Server if you need it at Hogwarts for group policy etc. 1
X-13 Posted June 13, 2011 Posted June 13, 2011 Oh and btw, Network Services Birmingham if you're watching....YOU SUCK! I'll see your "Network Services Birmingham", and raise you "our LEA ICT support survice". [Not saying who for fear of reprisals] Job logged nearly 3 years ago with them... Still not fixed. Whenever something does get fixed, after god knows how long of waiting, I'm never told what they did... Sometimes they don't seem to know either... When it goes again, they act surprised that I didn't fix it. Websites blocked for no reason, very dodgy sites left open with no way of getting them blocked. Hell, they even killed our network by changing our I.P to one that doesn't exist. [it was a mis-type... but the wrong numbers are no-where near each other on a keyboard... I sense sabotage.]
Little-Miss Posted June 13, 2011 Author Posted June 13, 2011 Link2ICT have always been good to me...until i needed to get intouch with Network Services...
alan-d Posted June 13, 2011 Posted June 13, 2011 Link2ICT have always been good to me...until i needed to get intouch with Network Services... I'm sure that when they've settled down in their new home in India you'll be the first priority
soveryapt Posted June 13, 2011 Posted June 13, 2011 (edited) Ooh, that sounds clever! Life sure knows how to try and make you learn new stuff quicker! Indeed .. Distributed File System - works great on 2008 R2 server, works on 2003 R2 server (I know them both having done it on both) I think it was available on earlier servers but under a different name .. but it's brilliant for keeping server directories sync'd up .. means you can use domain style directory structure (if you don't already .. eg \\domain.name\share\folder) and you can use the same set of GPO for both then as they would be a member of the same domain .. also means that by having them as a WAN style setup that user passwords / new users would transfer as you never know how long you're going to be there, so if you get the little darlings moving up to the other site it means all their stuff will go with them .. Obviously, the speed may be an issue, so it might be that you set it to auto sync every so many hours or overnight, so it's not instant, but the support over the connection would obviously be instant .. but it means you would need proper access (either over P2P or using external access IPs and all that jazz) .. obviously, P2P would be best option in terms of getting the same filtering for the network too .. but as others have mentioned, there are always free get you by offerings .. Good luck with it all though .. I certainly don't envy the task ahead for you .. Edit: PS. with you being in Brum, I can recommend the services of Unique Business Solutions (http://www.ubsol.co.uk/) for getting help with the P2P and getting stuff up and running .. they're really good guys .. Edited June 13, 2011 by soveryapt 1
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