crc-ict

Yup, got one here too! And another where the server sits in the corner of the ICT Suite. First thing I did within an hour of starting work there was attach DO NOT TOUCH signs all over the box and the console!

Might I pick your brains about a problem at home... I've got a D-Link DSL-504 ADSL Modem Router here which shares my Wanadoo 1Mb broadband out to my computers and a wireless AP. It's pretty good most of the time, but tends to crash fairly frequently - all the lights stick on and the Internet goes off. It comes back on OK after a power cycle, but it's a devil to get the Internet back afterwards. Although the it gets a connection immediately, it often takes 1 or 2 more power cycles and a couple of ADSL Re-trains before browsing is back after a crash. Any thoughts? I'm thinking of replacing it, but I like it and don't want to ditch it if there's a simple solution Chris

I would personally love to use Dreamweaver - my training and experience is in it, and I know next to nothing about Frontpage because I've never used it. The trouble is, we get Frontpage for about £30 through the LEA and I don't think I'd get them to stump up the cash for Dreamweaver. On that note, does anyone know roughly what an educational licence for Dreamweaver (possibly Studio) would come to? I'd ideally like to be able to use it at home on my PC to develop the site, then transfer it to school to maintain the site. Cheers

One of my headteachers has mentioned to me about renewing the school website. They have asked me to estimate how long (i.e number of hours work) it will take me to build them a new site from scratch. Although the design is not decided yet, it appears that it will be fairly content rich and updatable, but I'm not envisaging anything too fancy, or involving much in the way of coding or a CMS. It'll most likely have to be done in Frontpage. The problem I have is putting a number of hours on it! We need to decide to work out if it is an affordable project before doing too much planning but it seems difficult to work out before its planned! Anyone care to share any ideas or experiences about how long it took them to build a new site from scratch? I'd be sooo grateful for any thoughts...

Yup, this is certainly possible, as long as you have an upgrade version CD. It can be done in place with an OEM or full version CD as far as I know. I did at home a while ago, with no adverse consequences. No need for a set instructions really, it's just a standard Windows install. Remember to run setup from within Windows, though. The other (and maybe simpler?) option is to install the Windows version of Apache, unless he needs specific IIS features.

Congratulations :-) All the very best to you all. Chris.

Can anyone help me with this puzzler? We have a set of laptops running XP Pro through Viglen Classlink. The problem I'm having is working out how to get the power meter to display on the pupil profiles - the batteries are getting a bit dodgy and we need to be able to keep an eye on power levels all the time. Although it's Viglen, from what I can work out it's largely just a pretty interface to the standard AD setup, so I'm hoping someone can point in the right direction. I'm guessing it's in GP somewhere, but not too sure where. Cheers

Make sure you specify glass-front flat screens. Sticky little fingers don't mix too well with the normal TFT covering - as our iBooks will testify when Reception have been using them... We have glass front TFTs in virtually all of the rooms and they're tons easier to keep clean!

Two possible theories: 1. The new switches have a light permanently on to indicate connectivity, which then flickers off to indicate activity, rather than the normal pattern of an un-illuminated indicator flickering on. 2. The old switches have Spanning Tree Protocol enabled, the new ones don't and there is a loop in the network cables somewhere May well not be either, but hopefully the suggestion might be helpful!

I don't know a great deal about big RAID arrays like that, but if I saw a PC with a hard disk light permanently on, I would fear that that drive in question was, not to put it too technically, knackered. Either that, or perhaps connected incorrectly. One of my first experiences of a hard drive fatality (a 20Mb (yes Mb!!) Seagate unit on an old Tandon 286 given to me by my IT teacher at school) showed a permanently illuminated hard disk LED as one of the symptoms. The fact that nothing worked was the other, of course! Although a sharp kick got things moving again for a few minutes! Seriously, the functioning of the drive is probably worth checking - you might not notice a lone disk failure in a large array like that. HTH, Chris.

It's always handy to know where the decent freebies are, though. Otherwise you end up going, then finding out someone else you know got a free laptop/Ferrari/Week in the Sun or whatever that you didn't see and then you end up feeling left out! Decent free stuff is essential!

Well, for Christmas I didn't get much in the way of 'geek' gifts, although I did get a very nice (and loud ) Philips Home Cinema DVD system. Subwoofers are so good! I also got a bit of money, which I spent (plus a bit more besides) building myself a new rig! Core 2 Duo E6400 with 2Gb RAM, in a nice big Antec case. Only drawback is because of all the fans, it sounds like I'm sitting next to a Jumbo Jet! Very cool, though! On a side note, have Microsoft given up with XP activation? I moved my retail of XP Pro from the old machine to this new one, but because of a screw-up by my suppliers* I had to change the motherboard to a completely different model - I was expecting an uncomfortable call to the Microsoft Activation people, but I got internet activation for the same copy of Windows on two consecutive days with a different motherboard each time! Spooky! I'm guessing they have bigger fish to fry with Vista now? New Year Greetings to all, Chris. *Mis-listing the board as supporting 1066MHz FSB when it didn't D'oh!

Dear All, Just found this great page with a huge collection of funny, sometimes cynical, variations on popular Christmas songs: http://www.bobrivers.com/audiovault/tunes/xmastunes.asp All are available free for streaming, although you can't download them without paying $0.79 They were playing a selection of the less un-PC ones on local radio earlier. Really good Christmas Eve fun! Merry Christmas to you all, have a good one! Chris.

I feel your pain! I have a whole suite of 98 machines to look after at one of my schools. As for 'cleaning up', I would echo Dos_Box's suggestion of Scandisk, and add a defrag. Clear out the caches, cookies and histories in IE, delete any unneccessary crap from the desktop and My Documents, try to rationalise the amount of start-up programs that run (I like Startup Explorer - Google it) and perhaps use CCleaner (again, Google) to clear out the hidden depths of Windows and maybe try it's 'Scan for issues' function too. Can't think of anything else you could do - unless then mean physical cleaning of the machines?? HTH, Chris

Does anyone know how to set advanced file permissions on machines running Windows XP Home? I have a problem with Sherston 'Problem Solvers' which won't run on limited user accounts because of not having full read/write access to the folder in Program Files. I have been onto Sherston support before about this issue with other titles, and they told me to disable Simple File Sharing, and give Everyone full access to the folder. Works fine on XP Pro, but I can't work out how to do it on Home, because Simple Sharing can't be disabled. I found a tip online to change permissions via Safe Mode, but I have a number of machines to do, and this is going to be pretty tedious. I'm hoping there's a simpler way. Cheers, Chris. P.S. We are using Home because the school's preferred supplier provides that with new machines. I know we should be on Professional, I know Professional is cheap on School Agreement, but changing is not an option for solving this problem - it'd never be sanctioned.

I had a computer doing this yesterday. And what makes it doubly bizarre is a that it is an XP Home machine, which has no mechanism for the user to be able to lock it! Very weird - are we seeing the effects of another 'high quality' MS update, or maybe the payload of a new virus??

Yep! Over here! One of my schools has a suite of '98 machines, and an elderly collection of '95 machines in the classrooms! Not as many ancient ones as you, but just as old

I'd love to help if I can, but I can probably only get up for one day, probably Wednesday or Thursday, and would need some time to look around too, but I think I could find you a couple of hours... Let me know if this is any good, but I'll have to see a little nearer the end of term whether I can swing it. If not, I guess I'll be coming on the Saturday...

How about a general 'Primary issues'? The concept of IT Support in primary schools isn't one that is often addressed, but there are some of us out there! There is a unique blend of issues, often concerned with trying to make ancient machines do the latest things, the perils of managing large numbers of standalone or peer to peer machines and often not having an Active Directory or Group Policy in sight! Not to mention the manpower problems - the unfortunate have only the IT co-ordinator. The slightly more fortunate have a tech like me, working across 8 schools, but still only getting paid a 19-hour week!

I've been toying with Vista, but changed to serious trials just this week, and I'm finding a similar experience with RC1, although on a P4 540 (3.2GHz), 1Gb RAM, NVidia 6200TC. Some things are a bit like cold treacle, but on the whole, it just 'seems' more responsive than the about 9-month old XP install on this machine

Just an update: I have contacted the University to check on the copyright status of the TuxTools suite, and if I get confirmation that it is OK to release, I will sort out a distribution mechanism and post here with the details. Please PM me if you are interested in the tools - I will only release if there is sufficient demand to make it worth my while! @CyberNerd: The suite basically provides a file management interface to get things in and out - it doesn't stop the need for imported files to be in PNG format, and doesn't stop things coming out in PNG format.

That's a good point there, Geoff. I'm actually not too sure about that, didn't think about it when I offered the tools. I don't particularly want to go down the open-source, official part of the distribution approach (the source probably isn't neat enough to show others...) but would be happy to let site users here have access to the executable files if they'd be useful. Maybe if anyone takes me up on that and says they find them good, I can explore the issues of getting it out more widely.

Well, at work, the e-mail is provided by County and they seem to do a pretty good job of spam filtering. Home, however, is a different story. I am fighting a losing battle with SpamBayes (fully trained), Outlook 2003 junk mail filter and ISP filtering at the second to highest level (highest level deletes proper mail too). Still getting perhaps 8-10 spams in the Inbox each day. Does anyone manage not to get those damned 'stock quote' spams? They are the bane of my life and nothing seems to catch them.

Agreed, TuxPaint is an excellent resource for young children. If anyone is interested, as part of my degree, I wrote a suite of utilities to make living with TuxPaint easier - including tools to import and export children's images for easier use in other programs, a tool for the easy addition of stamps to the library and a configuration tool. I would be willing to make these available to any fellow EduGeeks who would like them. Leave a message here, or PM me if you would like to know more. Chris.

Thanks for the comments, guys, some real food for thought. Certainly seems worth the upgrade, looks like it might make a formidable Vista machine with some decent graphics added... Will certainly think about doing the main bit and waiting for funds to allow a graphics update...