sidewinder

We have a GSM7328 and GSM7352 stacked as our core switch. I haven't upgraded the firmware for a few years but I now need to as the current version has a complete lack of Auto Voice VLAN options. We're currently on 8.0.3.34 and the latest version is 10.0.0.53. Now despite their reliability, my beef with Netgear is a serious lack of documentation, and in this case the release notes state absolutely zero about which versions can be upgraded to the latest. Long shot but does anyone know? It's scary enough doing this on the core as it is, let alone when you don't know if you have to do several upgrades to get it up to a compatible version or just one!

This x1000 Would also try and sneak in 8GB RAM too So I'd go for the HP and hope the £28 difference covers at least one of those upgrades

Pretty cool. I can see my flat! Well the streetlights on my road anyway

OK, so after me insisting there wasn't, there was leaked toner on the transfer belt and roller which I spent a lot of time cleaning, but the effect is the same, it isn't diminishing and there are even a few lines of cyan in there now too. @Joanne if I print blank pages, they come out perfectly blank

In 12 years, 2 schools and with countless cabling contractors, I think only once have I received test results. No doubt most would provide them if you ask but honestly, if there's any issue with a point they've installed I get them back in to fix it - which is hardly ever. Edit: speaking for copper here. I do insist on test results for fibre

Ditto, never seemed to work properly for me, so always reverted to master and slave. Haven't worked on a PC with IDE for probably going on 10 years now!

Have you actually got any Smart interactive displays (not Smartboards) before you make this decision? We have some Clevertouch and some Smart (6065's and 4065's) and while Clevertouch hasn't been perfect, the Smart displays have been infinitely more problematic. They are a constant pain, probably the most frustrating part of my job. I wouldn't touch another one with a bargepole. Every time I think I've sorted one, teachers are complaining it's missing out parts oif writing - compare this to Clevertouch where writing is flawless every time. For software we still use Smart 11 , which isn't going to last forever but is fine with Clevertouch for now and saves us having to pay anything. Hoping eventually to get staff using something like Onenote, anything that's hardware neutral.

Yeah thats what I mean, it's a consistent pattern that never fades. It's really bizarre.

I'll check again but almost certain it hasn't - there is no mess whatsoever. Also if the toner had leaked would it not print in solid sections rather than in lines?

Changed it, still happens Not really sure where to go from here

Ahhh why didn't I think of changing the toner! Will try that, thanks

Got an HP Colour Laserjet M551 which has been playing up in various ways but this is a new one. Whenever anything colour is printed, a load of magenta lines are printed on the left hand side, and a portion of the top left of the page is printed in magenta lines in the bottom right (see attachment) My first thought was a driver issue but it happens even when I print a demo page from the printer itself. It's not residue on the fuser or anything like that, there is no mess and it's definitely deliberately printed lines. Any ideas?

This is my school and the job will involve working with me The job description and application form can be found on our website - King's House School : Job Opportunities It's a great place to work, extremely friendly and always plenty of new challenges. We're a fairly small school so you might not be knee deep in network cable all that often, but the work is very varied and never boring. Would suit someone just starting out in IT, as there will be a lot of opportunities to learn and help with new projects. Happy to answer any other questions anyone has. Closing date is Friday 24th February.

"We’re excited to announce a new customer-initiated free trial program for Systems Manager, Cisco’s Enterprise Mobility Management solution. This program enables anyone to get started with Systems Manager right away through a more managed and supported experience, and replaces the previous SM Free 100 device program." ^ This sort of thing really p1sses me off! Why not just be honest and say 'we weren't making any money by allowing 100 free devices so we've decided to charge everyone after the free trial'. Completely fed up of companies cutting or removing things and then making out the new worse option is actually better! It's almost always about money so stop treating customers like mugs and just be honest.

Saw this on Reddit and it's supposed to be a joke, despite it being obvious they don't believe it till they take that test. Dutch humour

One of those things I really can't get rid of yet sadly. Despite Chrome being installed on all PCs, me recommending staff use it and every default being set to it, a lot still use IE.

Been SIP only for 4.5 years now, not a single issue. Got a dedicated connection for them, plus a backup. We have still got an analogue line that is patched into the office, but it would hardly be much of a backup if everything did go down.

That is what I worry about, and may well happen. So perhaps I'm thinking a bit too much into this. Afterall I don't boot up my 2011 i7 MBP and think oooh this processor is really showing it's age

Ok.....has nothing to do with what I asked though. My beef is with the lack of options and updates hardware wise, not configuring it.

Oh they will be happy to pay - they know what is coming and although it may be more than they are expecting, they will go with whichever solution I suggest, within reason. But that doesn't change the fact that we could spend £15k on 2 year old hardware only to see it refreshed in a few months. At least I know when I'm buying PCs that I'm always able to get the latest technology, or at least less than 1yr old. If I'm honest perhaps I'm to blame a bit - I should have gone with the SSDs last year to tide them over, then waiting a few months to see if anything new is released wouldn't seem so excruciatingly long. Also as they are now the only machines in the entire school without SSDs, they seem even slower to staff than they actually are. It's the same situation for me personally. I love Apple hardware and I would desperately like a new Macbook Pro. But with the prices jacked up SO much, and my 2011 one still working, even if it does feel very bulky, theres very little to get me to upgrade

We have a suite of ageing 2010 Mac Mini's with Core 2 Duos and dog slow 5400RPM drives - they are awful. So finally the time and money becomes available to refresh them, but since we bought them, Apple have seemingly stopped caring entirely about their desktop lines. I can either replace them with 'new' Mac Mini's which are 2 years old in terms of spec (yet cost far more than the ones we originally bought) and pay through the nose for the privilege of buying them with SSDs since Apple still insist on using horrible spinning drives by default. Or I can wait a few months in case Apple update them. But then equally they could kill them off completely. I could buy iMacs and pay all that extra money, but they still are overdue an update and honestly I don't think they would physically fit in a room that was designed around compact computers. All this literally just for Garageband. There is nothing else that we cannot get on PCs, apart from Logic Pro too I suppose. But I've never had any issue having Macs in the school, even if configuration is occasionally a headache. And I have a music department who wants them - I can't tell them 'no - we're going to PCs that can't run the one piece of software you want' but Apple are almost making me do this Any ideas/thoughts? One idea I suppose is putting SSDs in the current ones as they have enough RAM but realistically how long are Core 2 Duo's really going to be good enough? It might get me an extra year but the problem remains.

Great news, although 'some' sounds limiting I'd like it just to be able to watch something, anything, to pass the time on train journeys, where 3G/4G coverage always seems to be so abysmal web browsing or spotify is out of the question, let alone streaming netflix. Barely used the BBC one as there isn't much I watch on there, used Amazon's though to watch Mr Robot on planes in the summer.

I agree. I know it must be a constant headache to support, but if you've clearly stated multiple times that hardware needs to be replaced, and it starts failing, state that to staff: reiterate that you given no money and they should take it up with the head/SMT. I bet money would be magically found in a lot of cases with all the teachers on the heads back. I appreciate financial situations vary wildly between schools but there really is no excuse these days for putting zero money into IT and expecting it to work. Computers are an essential teaching tool, why are they not a priority at every school?

This has started happening on a number of different computers now, some with Clevertouch but also now wityh our Smart displays, which were working without issue before. Presumably, either a Windows update or Intel Gfx driver update has caused this I've just put a shortcut to displayswitch.exe /clone on the affected computers desktops so they can at least solve it easily.

Would you be able to give a ballpark figure of costs?