OverWorked

That's what I did first. The machines all had XP SP2 and were using windows, not the vendor's utility to manage the connection. You're right about the vendor's utilities, though. I have many problems with these, and always find the windows management is much better. I'm confident that I've fixed it now, thanks to E1uSiv3. In my case it was the fancy 3com managed switches that were causing the problem. I disabled Spanning Tree Protocol on the ports that the AP's connect to. (Once I'd worked out how to do this). I did this at the start of the holidays, then left it. I've just checked them again this morning (first day back), and they all work. Hooray! I've had this problem for about a year, and now think I've finally solved it.

@ZeroHour How much did you pay for WinInstall full version? I use LE at the moment. You're right it has some starnge problems, like screwing up shortcut icons if they're not pointing to a .exe.

I used to shut them down, but then the Head moaned because he came in during the holidays to work, so now I leave it all on. I had a scary time in my first year here, when rebooting the only DC a week before the school restarted. Dead motherboard. It was an old server so there was no way of replacing like-for-like. I had a good tape backup, but that wouldn't restore on to a different hardware. I ended up buying a new server (we needed one anyway) and rebuilding the entire domain from scratch, user accounts, GPO's, the lot. It took 6 weeks before it was fully functional. Now I have 2 DC's in case this happens again, at least I'll have a good working machine with the AD.

Off site backup!!?? Errmm... Good question! It's something we should do, but don't. I gave up using AIT tape for the curriculum area as it was too unreliable and expensive. I just built a NAS device out of an old PC and large HDDs, and backup to that. I used to backup the admin stuff to tape as well as disk, but the tape drive died. I have a replacement, and will replace it next week, now that you've reminded me.

No limits - yet. I have a 100GB partition for 300 pupils + 60 staff. After 2 years it's about 50% full. I keep a spreadsheet of its usage and update it when I remember. It's filling up at an ever increasing rate, so I'll have to impose quotas probably next year. I'll probably make it 100MB for pupils and increase it for those who need it.

Same here. Can't log on to the domain. I have to log on as local admin, and try to repair it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it just won't.

* 1 bottle wine from the head (everyone got one - but nice anyway) * 2 bottles of decent beer from a teacher (great bloke) * 1 heavy parcel from the women in the office (bit worried about that one, knowing them - daren't open it in front of family) * 1 bottle of something from a teacher * 1 box chocs from a teacher [i feel a bit guilty about saying this, but what the heck. The last item comes from a teacher who shouts at me in front of the kids all year round. This happens every year. They treat me like a bad pupil, then buy me small gifts at Christmas and summer. I'm sure that means something, but can't think what.]

I've tried the utilities that come with the wifi cards. I have various makes, but not Dell. They're all useful for giving the MAC addresses of the APs it can find, and the signal strengths, but they still can't do anything for the DHCP. If I click 'repair' for the connection, it all goes well, until it tries to get the IP address. It tries for about a minute, then gives up. ipconfig /renew is the same. At this point I can set a static IP and it works, then set it back to dhcp and it won't. What's bizarre is that this problem only affects wireless, not wired. If I get a patch lead and plug the laptop into the wall, there's no problem. This eliminates the DHCP server as the problem.

@Mark That sounds about right. It's definitely something to do with the switches. I just need to know what exactly. It's some sort of configuration/protocol problem. The trouble is I can't just replace the problem switch, as it handles the fibre link between the two ends of the school.

Oh yes! I've never used that one, just the links in the top strip.

Stewart, Glad to know I'm not alone. I've had the same problem for about a year. Most of my access points have no problem. A few have this persistant problem where they get a good signal strength but cannot get DHCP. Giving them a static IP works (temporarily, and only sometimes) but this is not the ideal solution. Resetting the AP (switch off and on) usually fixes it for a few hours, then the problem comes back. Sometimes resetting the AP and giving them a static IP doesn't work at all. This is the most frustrating. The AP's that have this problem are connected to a 3com managed switch, so this seems to be the common cause. Other APs connected to cheap unmanaged switches work for weeks on end no problem. Elus1v said that he had the same problem and fixed it by turning off spanning tree protocol on the ports the APs are connected to. I'm only vaguely aware of what STP is. I'm still looking into it and will let you know how I get on. I'll have a proper look next week when the school's closed. Please let me know if you find a fix. I've googled for dhcp, "cannot connect", wireless, but not found anything useful - just sites selling wireless gear. I don't think it's anything to do with security, as our wifi doesn't have any! (I shouldn't have said that publicly)

It looks great, but where's the 'home' button gone? I just keep typing the url.

Dos_box is right. A lot of .msi's seem to do more installation when the user first runs them. All it's doing is setting up files in the user's profile. MS Office does it too.

You don't need to create an MSI for Acrobat 7. It comes with one. When you run the .exe downloaded from Adobe, it unzips the .msi to a temp folder. I can't remember where it is - I think it's in the 'local settings' folder in your profile. Run the .exe, but don't go through the install wizard - just leave it. Search for *.msi files. I think it's called Adobe Reader 7.0.msi. Copy this and all the files in the folder with it somewhere else for deployment. I've created a .mst transform file which removes the desktop shortcut. (I like to keep the desktops tidy). You can have a copy of the .mst if you like. When you add the .msi to the GPO, go to the modifications tab and add the .mst.

I bought the IDMark 4mm stencil system. I'm quite pleased with it. You're right about the UV marker pen being easily removed. I used the alcohol wipes that came with the IDMark kit to clean plastic laptop cases and it brought the UV pen off no problem!

In case anyone's interested: I got Print Manager Plus 5.5 working agian by reinstalling it. Works with no problems now. Don't know what caused it.

I'm not homophobic but... Heurrrgghh!

I use Print Manager Plus 5.5. A few weeks ago it refused to print reports, and no longer gives users messages when their quotas are low or out. It gives a C++ runtime error if I try to get a report. I emailed support Software Shelf but they say they no longer support v5.5! They want £203 to upgrade to v6 + £137 for a maintenace contract. Not impressed! - Before this happened I would have been happy to recommend it.

I'll second that. I do it for desktops as well, and place useful stuff there like shortcuts to the school intranet.

A agree about Misco. I use them for a lot of sundries and computers now. I get loads of phone calls and emails from them, though. From Lanway, I get loads of emails but no phone calls. I don't mind emails. It's the phone calls that are annoying.

Thanks Ozan & Chris, You've convinced me. I tried installing WSUS a few weeks ago, and even that has difficulty going through ISA. I've also had a lot of problems with other software & ISA - RM Securenet for one. There's another issue: ISA was installed before I arrived here. I did a license audit recently and can't find any evidence that we've paid for it. Oops. I'll have a go soon.

Hello, Does anyone recommend Smoothwall Express as a firewall & proxy? Rather than pay for ISA server? Thanks.

Great!

They may be the same company, or just another with similar practices. They keep changing their name. The name we were warned about had a name similar to Millenium Computer Systems, but was something slightly different - I can't remember what. I got the first call from MCS, then a second call from the same person months later, but the company name had changed again. My suspicions were confirmed when I couldn't find a web site for them - very strange for an IT supplier.

Yep, that was her. Some strange accent - could've been irish. Offered to take me out for a pint etc.