OverWorked

Thanks Geoff, Ric and everybody. This is enough to be getting on with. I'm hoping to be able to get a decent dual-core machine at Christmas, so I'll use my old machine for playing with Linux.

I've followed the links from tldp.org to http://www.linuxcommand.org/ This is very useful, though I'm just reading through it at the moment. I still haven't installed Linux! It's like going back 17 years and learning MS-DOS all over again.

Thanks. I've spent most of the day downloading Fedora and Mandriva .iso's as they seem to be two of the most popular. I'll have a stab with them later. I'll also check out the recommendations above. I'll also look into the Linux Made Easy O'Reilly book.

Can anyone recommend somewhere to get started with Linux? Preferably aimed at someone with good general IT skills. I've been in IT for a few years now, but I'm very much a 'Microsoft Man'. Its about time I got involved in this Linux thingy. It seems to be where all the interesting stuff is going on now. I use quite a few windows ports of Open Source apps already - Firefox, Thunderbird, NVu, OOo. I'm very impressed with the standard generally of Open Source nowadays. Last week a got a copy of Linux Format, fired up the Gentoo CD from the cover, then got stuck. I had no idea what to do with it. Help! Thanks.

@Russ If you've got much networking experience (and it looks like you have) then you shouldn't find Network+ too difficult. The hard bit is memorising facts about older technologies that you are unlikely to see nowadays, but still need for the exam.

@Ric_ Yep, that's what I have to keep doing - reset the AP. Some need it every few days and some never need it. I'm looking into Spanning Tree Protocol now - it's doing my head in!

I'm not sure what you mean. However, the Network+ is only one exam, so you can do that whenever you want. The A+ is two exams, which should be for the same exam version. (A+ gets revised every 18 months or so). There's no time limit on the other CompTIA certs. You can do them at any time as they're independant. The CompTIA website will tell you what the current exam version is, and when they plan to retire it. Make sure you buy the books for the correct exam version.

Thanks, E1uSiV3 Spanning Tree Protocol? I've never come across that one. I'll have to look it up. Some of the APs suffer from that problem, and some don't. It could be down to the switches they're on. I'd never thought of that. Thanks.

You can do them in any order, and they last for life. They don't expire over time as technology changes, like the MS certs do. I got A+ four years ago, and the N+ recently. (The main reason I did the N+ was that it counted towards the MCSA I'm currently working towards).

We've got (or *had*) 12 laptops on a 802.11g wireless network for pupils to use. We've had a variety of problems. The batteries don't last, and the laptops don't get plugged in to charge overnight anyway, so they have to be run off mains all the time. Wireless is erratic. I've got a strange intermittant DHCP problem. The laptops can get a strong signal, but can't get an IP address via DHCP. I've resorted to giving them static IP's. (Any suggestions? - I'd be very grateful). Most important: Laptops are meant to be used by one careful adult. They are not designed to be used by 300 children. We have a very high rate of damage. After 18 months only 2 out of 12 are working. I spend about 10 hours a week dealing with laptop problems. They are very time-consuming. Having said that, we're just about to order some more. Arrgh!

I've seen Boot ROM's for the RTL8139 on sale for about £9 each. Can't remember where though! Sorry!

I know this doesn't really answer your question, but I've had the same problem. I had a load of PCs with built-in adapters that would only support RPL boot. Floppy drives no good as the built-in adapter wasn't supported, and many floppy drives full of fluff anyway. I ended up just buying a load more 3com PXE capable NICS. They're about £20 each, so I just bought them steadily a few at a time so the Finance Manager wouldn't have a fit. http://www.misco.co.uk/productinformation/~42741~WW~/index.htm It's paid off though. I now have all my network PXE capable, and RIS images for everything. I can re-install a machine completely in just 2 minutes of my time.

Yes you can self-study. I would recommend self-study as anything else is very expensive. All you need is the Mike Meyers books at about £40 each. There's one each for the A+ and N+. They really are the best books, with an easy-going conversational style. http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0072126795/202-7854361-7087833 http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0072131640/qid=1129209789/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_11_3/202-7854361-7087833 Book the exams through Pearson VUE. The exams are about £140 each, I think. Remember there's two for the A+, and one for the N+. http://www.vue.com/ I got ripped off £900 for a crap A+ self-study course provided by Wave a few years ago when starting out in IT. I bought the Mike Meyers A+ book as a backup to the course, and quickly realised it was much better than the Wave stuff, and only £40 instead of £900. Although they are worth having ( I have them both and they count towards the MCSA/MCSE) they're not worth spending loads of money on. Hope this helps.

It's on its way.

We're not fortunate enough to have CMIS. I'm not even sure what it is. Is it a school management system? We're on RM Integris here.

Thanks. I'll have a closer look.

I've just had a quick look at the demos of both MRBS and DigiRez on the websites. Do MRBS and DigiRez allow you to create a timetable like a school day - periods and breaks instead of times?

@ jcs808, Your story sounds familiar. We have a number of teachers who also do admin work, and were always walking the corridors looking for admin then curriculum computers. The head was always against it. I resorted to writing a 2 page essay on the benefits of joining them (teachers able to do their admin work on the same machine, less admin overhead for me, admin staff able to access teachers docs) and a description of how the security would work. He took one look at it and accepted it straight away, after a year of opposition.

Thanks everyone! We originally had a spreadsheet on the staff share, then printed out a copy for the staffroom wall. People would either book on the printed sheet, or the online sheet, but not both! We had a lot of clashes and arguments over who booked it first and who had the greater need. I eventually just stopped printed the thing off. I'll have a look at MRBS and DigiRez. They both seem to do what I want. They'll be useful for the whole school, like the laptops and the sports hall etc.

@ Chris Thanks for that. I'll have a go. We've already got MySQL runnning on one server for a reports database, so I can put it on that.

I'll probably look into it after I've got into Linux, then. I'm planning to install Smoothwall Express 2.0 soon, so I'll pick up some Linux then.

Great! Thanks. I think that was it. I'll have a good look at it later. Will it run on Server 2003? I'm hopeless at Linux. I know I'll have to get into Linux soon, but it's a job for the future.

Does anyone here use an application for handling room bookings? I remember seeing a posting in an unrelated thread here somewhere. I can't find it now. At the moment we're just using spreadsheets in the staff share, but its not ideal. Thanks.

I agree - go for it! When I came here three years ago, there were two separate networks. It was for purely historical reasons - originally (years ago) admin had a small network, and teachers and pupils had standalones. The standalones were joined to form the curriculum network. I asked our LEA if they had any objections - they hadn't. The way I do it is to allow admin staff access to shares that the teachers use. Only some teachers (those who need it) have access to admin shares. GPO's limit the desktop, and mapped drives pointing to the relevant shares. The admin staff have a very bland GPO, giving them almost free control over their desktops. Teachers have a much stricter GPO locking down their desktop do it's similar to the pupils. The shares are controlled with NTFS permissions. I did it by just doing a double backup of the old admin server, before blowing it away, reinstalling and joining it to the existing curriculum domain as another DC. Then just restore all the admin data and set up shares for the admin staff. It may be harder for you, but that approach was the easist for me. It took me five days in the holidays.

I agree with ICTNUT, except I don't know what he means when he says there's no profiles. I don't see how it's possible to do without profiles. I used to use a mandatory profile (ntuser.man) but it caused a lot of problems. I now have a desktop heavily locked down with GP, and roaming profiles. It works for me. As for the desktop: Just use folder redirection to redirect the all the pupils' desktops to a single shared folder. Make it 'read only' to them with NTFS permissions. Do the same with the start menu folder. This is what I do. Andrew - I'll send you a dump of my pupils group policy object giving a thoroughly locked down desktop. To summarise, use roaming profiles and GPO's to lock down the desktop. That's my advice anyway - it works for me.