ozydave Posted November 2, 2011 Posted November 2, 2011 Any Schools that have gone completely wireless with laptops. Our new build is going that way. Just interested in making a visit to somewhere that has done it and the experiences. Laptop damage, charging etc. They are even want DT (using solidworks), media and Art to use wireless on laptops. I have my views but would like to get the thoughts of others. I am in the south Cheers
glennda Posted November 2, 2011 Posted November 2, 2011 Any Schools that have gone completely wireless with laptops. Our new build is going that way. Just interested in making a visit to somewhere that has done it and the experiences. Laptop damage, charging etc. They are even want DT (using solidworks), media and Art to use wireless on laptops. I have my views but would like to get the thoughts of others. I am in the south Cheers I know of a school near me that does this - will pm you the name. Although they also have fixed desktops for some stuff as laptops can't cope. They also have a type of buy your own solution. 1
ozydave Posted November 2, 2011 Author Posted November 2, 2011 *ahem* BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA You took the word from my mouth!
AyatollahPies Posted November 2, 2011 Posted November 2, 2011 Currently in the process of getting one of my schools re-cabled as someone thought it a good idea to make even the fixed desktops wireless. All running over a dodgy 56MB wireless network. Groan.
SYNACK Posted November 2, 2011 Posted November 2, 2011 I know exactly what you need for that build, a new job to escape to. Eek.
Max_Power Posted November 2, 2011 Posted November 2, 2011 We dont have all wireless for obvious reasons but our lower school is all wireless - consists of around 300 laptops and some ipads serving about 300 kids. Being lower school they dont use what youd describe as hardware hungry software like photoshop etc - more the likes of office, scratch, and google earth etc. Happy to have PM discussion if you want to know more.
Davit2005 Posted November 2, 2011 Posted November 2, 2011 Be prepared to switch the Laptops Wireless back on more than once a day or try to source laptops that you can disable the wireless switch. Also get someone in to do a proper wireless survey and get this documented to save a few headaches. Get departments to take responsibility of thier own laptops (i.e. putting away, switching off etc) when a laptop goes missing, gets damaged etc. it is that department who will suffer without a laptop. Laptops are generally more time consuming to administer.
localzuk Posted November 2, 2011 Posted November 2, 2011 I'll put it this way - we have a couple hundred laptops here and a couple hundred desktops. Support-wise, we have to fix 5 laptops a day for every 1 desktop related issue. Wireless is full of little glitches all the time.
ozydave Posted November 2, 2011 Author Posted November 2, 2011 Just come from a meeting Defo, 3 fixed PC suites .1500 laptops personal laptops for students. The 3 PC suites are for IT and Business studies so it will be Media, art, and DT with 3D modelling on laptops Madness
ozydave Posted November 2, 2011 Author Posted November 2, 2011 Nope. The standard response I keep getting is The building is designed to government standards.
localzuk Posted November 2, 2011 Posted November 2, 2011 With that number of devices, you had better have rock solid wireless, with redundant management controllers?
Flatpackhamster Posted November 2, 2011 Posted November 2, 2011 Nope. The standard response I keep getting is The building is designed to government standards. Do they class that as a sign of quality? I'd class it as a sign of impending doom.
Michael Posted November 2, 2011 Posted November 2, 2011 Nope. The standard response I keep getting is The building is designed to government standards. I'm sorry, but that is the most ridiculous comment I've heard in a while. What does it actually mean? I'm hoping your servers aren't going to be wireless, so they're 'government compliant'. With 1500 laptops, you're going to need a lot of access points. Maybe someone needs to be told they're going to be connected with network cables. I've come across it before that people in management positions think wireless literally means no wires at all. It obviously needs to get data and power from somewhere, which means you're going to or already have cables running to each area where you require wireless connectivity. In my experience, whiteboards + laptops just do not work well in practice. A dedicated desktop with cables already plugged in 'ready to use' keeps problems low.
synaesthesia Posted November 2, 2011 Posted November 2, 2011 Rubbish - what planet are they on? Sorry but for the cost of a managed wireless network that will cope with everything completely wirelessly you could have a 10gbe backbone and decent gig to station network. Man hours will be increased. Updating will be a pain Load will be a nightmare - solidworks is a *!"£"! in the first place let alone before you add wireless into the equation. How will software be deployed? What happens when you need to roll out OS updates that can only be done on a wire? Will the staffing be able to cope? This is not a dig at wireless which is a wonderful invention, this is purely a "What the Living Hell?" statement when considering a secondary school with high demand software. Sorry for being blunt but it just sounds like someone that isn't knowledgeable has been digging for buzzwords in their latest copy of PC World magazine.
GrumbleDook Posted November 2, 2011 Posted November 2, 2011 Nope. The standard response I keep getting is The building is designed to government standards. Seeing as there are not any government standards for technology at the moment and the previous standards were categorically not to be used as a shopping list, but a framework to help identify the technology needed to deliver certain functionality. They can say that the design and specifications met certain requirements and that it meets all legislative requirements too (H&S, etc) ... but that is it. Can they produce these standards for you to read and digest? Can they give you real, working examples of these standards being used? Specifications are not standards.
BKGarry Posted November 2, 2011 Posted November 2, 2011 We are a an Almost Completely wireless site, all domain machines (except about 16 admin machines) are wireless and are laptops. I am happy to speak about it through a PM, I can say it is not as bad as what you may think. We have all of year 9, 10 and 11 with 1:1 laptops, and about 1:2 in 7 and 8, we do also have some non domain wired machines (about 30) but these are light use. We also use 63 MacBooks for music, media and Art
rad Posted November 2, 2011 Posted November 2, 2011 Laptops been charged no stop all day every day will knacker the batteries, the power connector and power packs break, the screens are a pain to change, and I am only talking about the laptops issued to staff for use at home. Wireless does not allow the updating of equipment as easily as Desktops.
Davit2005 Posted November 2, 2011 Posted November 2, 2011 I'm sorry, but that is the most ridiculous comment I've heard in a while. What does it actually mean? I'm hoping your servers aren't going to be wireless, so they're 'government compliant'. With 1500 laptops, you're going to need a lot of access points. Maybe someone needs to be told they're going to be connected with network cables. I've come across it before that people in management positions think wireless literally means no wires at all. It obviously needs to get data and power from somewhere, which means you're going to or already have cables running to each area where you require wireless connectivity. In my experience, whiteboards + laptops just do not work well in practice. A dedicated desktop with cables already plugged in 'ready to use' keeps problems low. Agree totally, this sounds like blue sky thinking by a consultant who has no technical knowledge, no thought of the infrastructure/support practicalities and no knowledge of current technologies/limitations.
synaesthesia Posted November 2, 2011 Posted November 2, 2011 Ongoing cost is going to be really rather high - you won't be upgrading machines like a desktop, memory maybe but that's about it. In the days of tight budgets do they really want to urinate money away like that?
ozydave Posted November 2, 2011 Author Posted November 2, 2011 Thanks guys, just thinking I was the only one who can see the pit falls. We feel like we are the ones that are barking mad and we are not from this planet. Just waiting for my space ship to come and take us back to our home planet!! I not against wireless, just the fact that they fail to see that it should not be the only solution. To cap it all my team and I, (currently 4) will not have an office in the new build but will be housed in the primary school attached to the main build. Apparently we will be out and about all day long so there is no need for an office. Strange then that we will be the central storage for video cameras, headphones etc for people to book out. BKGarry You say you are almost completely wireless, how may laptops may I ask? How do you manage large deployments of software, Office, Adobe, operating systems, updates and the like? Do you still do this over the wireless, I can’t imagine how this would work for 1500 laptops
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