alexknight

Trying not to be too dense and showing my woeful inexperience, I have a question? How do you navigate to the Group Policy window?

I am trying to find a course that will get me the MSCE certification. I know that Lancaster college do it at a reasonable price but i would like to do it somewhere nearer to home, i.e Somerset. Does anyone kn ow where in Somerset or Somerset borders that does this type of course??

I am going to be installing some software to monitor the use of printers. What i am looking for are examples of print quotas allocated to users. i.e how many shets of papwer per pupil, staff memebr, department etc do other schools allocate. It would also be useful to know if this figure is per term, half term or academic year. Also what charge per extra sheet do you make for mono and colour. thanks Alex

You could also mention that you would aim to have the college obtain the ICT mark, see link below. tThat would be a three year rolling programme for ICT support and curriculum delivery. http://schools.becta.org.uk/index.php?section=lp&catcode=_le_sr_02&rid=10848&rr=1

Where can you get details of one Zero from?

Where can you get details of one Zero from?

I have to also give a thumbs up to Dell. Have had no problems and they can be sourced at a reasonable price.

I generally do a little bit of extra work each day, along with a five minute lunch break etc. Most of my research at home wil be reading. Personally i dont mind doing this as the school appreciates what I do, I get a little overtime pay and they are flexible if I need to go off site some times. Peerfect really. In the long run the school gets free time from me as I do more hours than I should with no pay, but hey, I love my job, (most off the time).

Hi I may have found the answer which I will put below. Does this sound like it could be the problem? ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Your problems appear to be the same as problems that are occurring at Frome, Oakfield. Somerset have changed the engine that the CA Anti-Virus uses from ‘Inoculate IT’ to ‘Vet’. The Vet engine scans files deeper that the Inoculate engine. The Somerset scripts kick off a full system scan the first time a user logs on after a machine boots. This means that the Anti-Virus is deep scanning any programs that run at startup and causing the extremely slow logon etc. This is particularly noticeable on lower spec machines. We are in discussion with Somerset to see if we can find a solution. As a work around, Oakfield are starting all their machines in the morning and logging on as a student. The system scan takes about half an hour to complete. When the scan has finished the machines are logged off and not shut down until the end of the day. I will keep you updated as soon as I have any further information

Hi Still no luck with the computers. They still are runnng like slugs and I have run the virus software and looked for the PAGEFILE.SYS, and done a restore point to when the workstations were working fine. I have set up a new workstation which we got from the Tesco vouchers for computers scheme. This has literally only been aded to the network a few days a go. That is now saying virtual memeory low. At the moment I am just re imaging some of the new dell computers to see if that fixes it. Apart from that I am at a loss to se what the problem is. Would it be anything to do with the servers and profles when users log on to the network?? It is really strange. Help. Alex

Hi Still no luck with the computers. They still are runnng like slugs and I have run the virus software and looked for the PAGEFILE.SYS, and done a restore point to when the workstations were working fine. I have set up a new workstation which we got from the Tesco vouchers for computers scheme. This has literally only been aded to the network a few days a go. That is now saying virtual memeory low. At the moment I am just re imaging some of the new dell computers to see if that fixes it. Apart from that I am at a loss to se what the problem is. Would it be anything to do with the servers and profles when users log on to the network?? It is really strange. Help. Alex

It is isolated to one room all are dell comuters that are no more than nine months old. We have say 18 that are nine months old and 10 that are one month old. It just seems to be so slow once they have booted up and gone into the operating system. All the programs takes ages to load and run like slugs. I aM RUNNNG A VIRUS CHECKER ONCE MORE AND WILL THEN REBOT THE pc'S. iT WOULD BE VERY STRANGE THAT ALL THE MOHERBOARDS OR raM CHIPS FAIL TOGETHER. Sorry for CAPS just presed the wrong button. Alex

I have an odd problem that has just occured in the last couple of days. It statred with the machines in just one particular room runing very slowly and coming up with the message, 'virtual memory minmum is too low' . Your system is low on virtual memory. Each machine was workng ok just a coule of days ago and no new software has been loaded. I have checked the virtual memory alocation and it is 384MB, but I have increased this to say 500 and even set it to run automatically. When I loo at the memory usuage it comes up as say 956 mb but there are not a lot of processes going on? I have run four virus chekers, MS Antivirus, Adaware, Ewido and the schools/counties own comperter asociated anti virus. Most of them came up with the usual 40 or so virus/cookies but Ewido is coming up with 1500 to 5000 items of cookies/malware. With these run through the machine I reboot, but it still asks for more virtual memory, even though i am not runing any applications and the task manager process page shows no pieces of software taking up lots of memory usgae. All the workstations are DELL I am now scratching m head??

Also in our LEA the money allocated has a 16 month lifespan. i.e you get the money in April and you have until August the following year to spend it. The amount the school gets is dependant on numbers on pupil roll. Alex

I received the same offer from LNL for a free printer. You have to purchase three sets of toner during the time you keep the printer, this could be 1,2 or 3 years say. It dioes also state that if you find 'genuine consumables' i.e not refilled toner, at a price less than they are offerng you can either buy elsewhere, or they will match the price! Sounds ok to me. As long as you keep the bumff Alex

I think content is king. I have visited all the sites mentioned and I have to say that I appreciate all the ahrd work put in by those that have set this site up. A web site like this is a community thing and it doesn;t matter how many school techie sites there are, as long as they have content. Personally like this site as it has quite a few contributors and it has become a community. As we are professionals we won't knock any other sites as we are all working towards the same goals?? I would say that this site is the leader and as long as it remains in the same format it will stay that way. As they say you can please some of the people some of the time but not all the people all of the time. Keep up the good work. Alex

Hi Here is what I would say. The truth. I have interviewed people before and they will see right through a cover up. Basically time off for stress is not a bad thing. Explain what situatution you were in and why you have been off. If your new employers are a caring bunch they will appreciate your honesty and dedication. You don't have to make a big thing off it, just be brief and to the point. If they want to know more they will ask. The time off will not be the main focus off the interview. You could perhaps mention the lack of any time of before, i.e a good sickness record. Good luck Alex

Ok, I've listened to the replies and have retrieved the requisition order form '' As soon as you mentioned Becta Specification I sat up with ears pricked. I,ve just had a quick trawl through the Functional Specification: Institution network design and security. (it is in draft though) '8)' So I will re phase my question, what managed switch shall I purchase. Currently I have a Netgear FSM726 which has 2 GB inputs and 24 10/100 Mpbs outputs. Anyone care to recommend one that can be linked to the existing switch and has 24 port GB outputs. Alex

Could anyone recommend a 24 port unmanaged gigabyte switch. Thanks Alex

The survey should encompass what the role of the ICT Manager/Technician includes. In other words the job descriptions may differ but the title could be the same. So you may see an inbalnce in salaries but this could be explained by extra responsibilties. Perhaps a baseline job description could be posted for ICT manager/ICT technician/Network manager etc??? Alex

Hi I tried the link but got this message?? While trying to retrieve the URL: http://vle.stamford.tameside.sch.uk/ The following error was encountered: Connection Failed The system returned: (111) Connection refusedThe remote host or network may be down. Please try the request again.

You can get even cheaper, I have heard that some people use vegtable oil in their diesel cars!! It works but you do get the odd whiff of chip shop.

1/2 technicians come in very handy when we have to carry out network cabling through the low ceiling voids. We have bolt ons at our school as you have to be nuts to work here ''

I am very fortunate at my school. Having started in Jan 2003 as a part time technician working in the corner of a library I have grdaually seeen my hours/salary/environment improve in line with the added increase in the IT infrastructure. I am a one man band here and currently have one 2003 PDC server, one 2003 SQL server, one 2003 ISA server, and a Espresso server. 160 network machines, 10 standalones, 7 whiteboards, 30 teachers laptops, 9 projectors, digtial cameras and other odds and ends such as data logging and control equipment. I am also in control of the ICT/Curriculum budget, the infrastructure budget and the ELearning budget. (I have the power ) I thoroughly enjoy my work and don't get paid what I am worth, BUT I do get paid a decent wage and can claim over time when needed. I can also attend conferences, eh um, roll on Manchester 2006. I am now at a point where I am getting snowed under and we have reviewed my workload and getting 1/2 a technician. This will happen if any bolt ons are added this or next year My school is famtastic and the kids are lovely, and no you can't have my job.

We get all teachers and users of laptops to sign a laptop agrement form as well as a network agreement policy. I have attached our laptop agreement policy. laptop_agreement_form.doc