Andie

Well it's late at night and I have just had a quick scan through, but it looks just what I needed to me!! Thanks!

Does anyone know of a good guide to wireless networking (for beginners!)? I've looked on the wiki and done a search on here, but can't easily find anything suitable - although there are plenty of good threads on wireless. We have a wired network here, plenty of network wall points and good switches. To this, the head wants to add a trolley of about 15 laptops which would need connecting to our server (Win2003). But I have no experience of wireless, so need to read up on it before talking to companies who may install (I want to try and make sure we have a solution that suits us and not one that the companies think would suit us!).

I didn't know, and now I have learnt something. Thanks for asking!

I can't physically connect the printer to the client, as it is huge and there is no space or time to move either the client or the printer. Do you mean that I should try the add printer wizard on the client in the same way as I did the server?

OK, I've done that. The driver for the 2605dn says it is the version for Win2k as well as XP and Server 2003.

I have installed a new HP Colour LaserJet 2605dn. The test page prints fine across the network from the server. XP clients print fine. But the Win2k clients are printing in black and white. I've checked the printer properties on the older clients, and nothing is set to print in b/w as far as I can see. The server is Win 2003. When I installed, I used the Add Printer Wizard on the server, and was prompted at one stage for the CD which came with the printer, and so the drivers installed are from there. I suspect this is a driver issue, perhaps with me needing to install additional drivers for the older clients?? Not sure how to go about fixing things though. I've been on HP support site and can't see anything helpful there. Have emailed HP but so far no response.

When I have time to get my head round adding stuff to the wiki, I will!

We (junior school) are just investigating wireless/laptops/trolleys, as Head very keen. This has been a very helpful thread, and given me lots to think about. Suspect the budget agreed by Governors based on cobbled together info (because we need to come up with a figure now) will be way too small to do a proper job (what's new!!).

Thanks, Simon. You have just saved me hours of bother. I've just installed an HP 2605dn through the Add Printer Wizard and creating a TCP/IP port, as in your instructions for the 2600. It got it's IP address itself when first plugged in to the network, so I just created a reservation for that address, which is now active. Doesn't seem to have bi-directional printing enabled anyway. (There is one problem at the moment, only with older clients, posting that separately if I don't hear back from HP soon). I created a FITS build procedure as I went along (70 plus steps!!!). If anyone out there needs instructions in greater detail than on the wiki, I am happy to send a copy.

Sorry! I meant that unfortunately the user credentials aren't the same, not that that method doesn't work... Ooops! The laptops are not being brought in from home, but they are teacher laptops supplied by the school not on the domain. They spend most of their time connected up to IWBs, and sometimes teachers forget to lock their desktops when they leave the classrooms. Staff can already access a shared folder on the network with teaching resources in it, but now one senior member teaching staff has asked if he can have access to his home folder. I explained to him that it could be done, but that if he left his desktop open then potentially a pupil could get into his home folder and possibly access sensitive data (reports, SEN stuff, etc). So he asked if I could find a more secure way of doing this.

Our school, and a lot of local secondary and primary schools, have gone with a company called e4education. They design and build, and then train you to add content. We outsourced because of lack of time and expertise mainly. I won't say that it has the quickest or most foolproof method of updating, but the site does look good and the company provide email/phone support which usually sorts out any problems or rethinks with design quickly. We can pay using e-learning credits at the moment (until they disappear). Sorry, can't give you the annual cost. Their website, with examples of their work, is here

Found this on an official copyright website: Copy protection devices There is other stuff here about copyright and how it relates to schools. However, none of it really relates to conversion to another media, and there is such a thing as fair use. I would contact the company who supplied the VHS, and talk to them about the need to have the material in a different format and see what they allow. Probably they'll try and sell you the material on DVD, but it's worth a try???

Right. I looked at the instructions from Grumbledook, at home because they are blocked by LEA filter. They are very comprehensive, but maybe a bit complicated for my current level of knowledge; and at the moment I only need teachers to be able to access home folders from within school. I was fairly sure we had rdp and ts set up here. But I've only ever used it as admin to connect to the server remotely as admin. Anyway, I've just done an experiment with ts on rdp, using mstsc with a staff username and password. Took a deep breath and tried to make the connection - sorry, but this feels strange to be allowing an ordinary user to connect to the server! Anyway, it more or less worked. It loaded and applied the user settings, as happens when you log on to a client normally. I got access to the correct home folder. The only thngs that weren't quite right were that I was missing some desktop icons (my computer, my documents, some others) and the menu was the standard XP one and not our enforced classic menu. And it was a bit slow. So, a few further questions: 1. Can I fix the desktop items and get the correct start menu by making some changes to GP? If so, any ideas as to where? 2. Is this going to seriously cause load/speed issues if we have eight teachers connecting to the server this way to access their home folders?

Ah, wondered if it was the persistent bit that I was getting wrong. However: 1. Using your command line, would the user be prompted for username and password, or do I have to add in the other switches/parameters for that? 2. Once the user has entered their credentials, wouldn't they still be given access even if they close their home folder? In other words, wouldn't the connection stay until the user logged off the laptop? I would want the teacher to be prompted each time they tried to access the folder (although, of course, that doesn't take account of those who will just minimise the folder window!). 3. I would presumably need to have to create some sort of batch/command file with this in that the teacher could run, or that would run on startup?

Proactive Learning in East of England did our installs and provided training as part of the package. This was on-site. According to their website, they will also supply training only packages. Not sure if they would come as far as you, but may be worth a try. I think teachers here found the training good. Link below: Proactiveworld UK - Education > Training

Umm... I've just realised that some of the solutions offered here are for accessing the home folders offsite. Sorry, I only need something much simpler: a secure way to get the teacher prompted for their network password each time they access their home folder from their standalone laptop whilst in school. I've tried variations of net use, but, after I've put my password in the first time, I never get prompted again, even after logging off and shutting down. Possibly the terminal services solution would be what I need; so far I've only ever used it to generally connect to the server so I don't have to go to it each time I need to do some network management, but presumably from what has been said here you can also use it to specifically connect to a particular folder.

Sorry, forgot to post back. ERGO did sort things, but it did mean sitting through my lunch hour for two days watching a remote support engineer going through exactly all the things I'd already tried, and then failing to fix it, and then agreeing to send me yet another replacement hard drive. This time it installed the SMART drivers OK and so far all seems well.

Unfortunately not. Bother the LEA filter!! Never mind, I just love working from home... ;-) Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far. Will look up WebDAV, and, when I can access it, the web link from Grumbledook.

Is there a relatively secure way to allow teachers to access their home folders from standalone laptops? What I'd like is for the teacher to be prompted for their password each time they try to access their home folder. I managed to be prompted when I connected using net use with an asterisk for password, but I was only ever prompted once.

Do I then need to still do the net use * /delete /yes bit? And then reconnect with net use? Do I need to reboot? The only reason I ask is that I have just gone down to the laptop to try this out, and I have deleted the connection to the server/domain as in your instructions. But the teacher still had some files open, some of which come from the accessible part of the share. And even though I have just deleted the access credentials, I can still get access to the share as that basic user. I also tried using Add to add in the correct password, but it still wouldn't let me access the Staff Only folder.

I think I may have done something stupid! Our staff laptops are not on the domain, but staff wanted access to printers and a central resource share on the server. On one of the laptops, I set the printers up first using add printer and giving the network address of the printer; when prompted for a username and password I gave a very basic level user. OK. Then I used create shortcut to connect to the network share. I just right clicked on the desktop, chose to create a shortcut, put in the pathname to the share and gave the shortcut a name. I wasn't prompted for username or password, presumably because this was taken from the connection to the printers. The problem is that there are certain folders in the central resource share that are set up so they are only accessible to teacher users, and this teacher wants access to these and doesn't have that access because of the basic user credentials I used to make the connection. And now I don't seem to be able to disconnect and reconnect with the correct credentials. I tried going to command prompt, and typing net use * /delete /yes. That seemed to clear the connection, but then when I used net use to make the new connection I get a message telling me that I can't connect the same share to two different users, or similar, and I need to disconnect the share first. Do I have to clear the printers too??? What have I done wrong??? Help! Please!

I know what you mean, but the problem appears before I even get to taking or sending an image. It's not to do with setup, it's just getting the client to talk to the server in RIS to actually take/send an image. The setup currently on these machines had all the drivers installed properly. But the machine is now on a new domain and server, capable of RIS, and so far I haven't been able to get as far as taking an image of the new configuration using RIS/Ghost. I have had to use the old server, Ghost boot floppies and a multicast session. Thanks. The machine was bought from Viglen, and the delivery note says the motherboards are Vig500S, so I had looked on the Viglen ftp site; one of the BIOS files there, I think, has a newer date and I have downloaded it. If the date isn't any better, would I have to open up the machine to see the exact manufacturer? Also, (sorry, basic question) how do I use the downloaded BIOS to do an update? Is it the same as running any exe file or is there a special procedure I need to follow?

I have some old Viglens with Intel Pro/100 VE network adaptors on their Viglen 500S motherboards. These don't respond to RIS (I get a message saying that information about the network card isn't available and the session terminates). I have managed to trace some possible solutions to this via the Microsoft and Intel websites. What I think I need to do first is to update/install something called the Intel Boot Agent, which as far as I can tell resides in some ROM on the card and needs to be flashed??? The problem is that the network card is part of the motherboard, and there is a lot of info about downloading the latest card driver and possibly updating the BIOS for the motherboard to support the Boot Agent. I have managed to download a couple of BIOS files from the Viglen ftp site for the 500S motherboard, and also what looks like the NIC exe file for that motherboard. But the dates on one BIOS and the NIC pre-date the purchase date of the computers, so would not be any newer than we have. Plus doing this kind of thing is completely new to me, and may have serious results for the computer I try it on. Anyone out there had to do something like this themselves, and can give me some help? Anyone got experience of these network cards or the Intel Boot Agent?

I've been looking into the new Harnessing Technology Grant after finding this thread. Although elcs were very annoying because they could only be used for software, and then not on all software, we have found them useful for paying two big bills which they were allowed to fund: Espresso subsciption and payment to the company who designed and host our school website. I did wonder if the new grant would mean that we would have to find other money for these, but it looks like we will be OK depending on the amount of grant allocated to us. Espresso is really coming into it's own now that we have the IWBs, and the website currently helps us keep parents informed about the school and what is happening here. The website may change once we start looking at the Kaleidos VLP we have been given by the LEA, and we will presumably need to use the grant to pay for this after a couple of years, but at least I think we are safe to carry on for now. For anyone else interested, some links to info about the new grant are below: Becta Local authorities - Funding - Harnessing Technology Grant - ICT funding 2008 to 2011 Department for Children, Schools and Families : Publications : e-Strategy

This would put us in a much better situation. I have just gone back up this thread and looked at the link to ratio info, which seems to agree with what you are saying. But the link is to a local gov site, which doesn't quote an official source. Have done a quick Google search, and a search on the dfes/dcfs site, but can't find the official statement of the recommended ratio and how to measure it. Can anyone paste in a link to THE official info on this ratio? We are looking at ICT spending over the next month, and thought we had to replace computers over 5 years old regardless of their ability to do what we need them to do, especially as the LEA had told us this on a training course. If I can get an official statement to wave at the powers that be, we may have more time to consider things!