Andie

We were told last month on a training course (LEA) that anything over 5 years old doesn't count for the ratio. That wipes out 27 elderly-but-working-fine networked desktops in classrooms. So we are back up to about 7 pupils to 1 computer.

Quote from John 15/04/08: "Although first annoyance is i need the SN off one of my boards to download and obtain a link to download, thats pritty annyoing, I know that the reason will be to stop anybody just downloading and using it on a Promethean, Hitachi etc board but slightly annoying as I'm going to have to trek over to get one" (Sorry for the DIY quote but the LEA filter has suddenly started blocking some edugeek functions!!) The company who installed our SMARTboards very helpfully attached a sticker to the front of each junction box listing the serial number of the board and projector, so at least if I do get round to/forced to upgrade, then I shall be ok on that front!!

On my feedback form after training, I suggested that it would have been helpful to have someone from RM present to answer questions that were beyond the LEA trainers...! Will ask about consultancy days, though I doubt the reponse will be very positive. We have a planning meeting scheduled here for June when we hope to decide on rollout, among other things, so a consultancy day sounds like it would be useful.

I imagine you've already seen this, but, for anyone else who may find it useful, I'm attaching a SMART support pdf about removing permanent ink from a front projection SMARTboard. Haven't tried this, and no doubt others will post saying it isn't any good but... Actually, I was suprprised to see that you are allowed to write on them at all! Think I'll keep it quiet here! Removing permanent ink from fron projection SMARTboards.pdf

Just to warn you that our LEA wide approach has meant that training is being done by LEA staff, delivered to small groups of school staff at a time. I took part in the Portal Administrator training, and we have two teachers currently going through the Role Based Training. My main problem has been that those leading the training for us didn't exectly inspire confidence; I honestly don't think that they had had enough time using the system themselves before they passed on the training to us. We were also allowed to do things that I have since found out were not a good idea (eg. change the name of a main site). So I spent a lot of time after training restoring the damage. Be very careful if you are going to play around with it. Don't delete anything! It took me a long time to get my head round how all the sites hang together. We weren't able to view any of the other user group sites (eg. pupil, parent, teacher) on our training to see what they look like to those users, and I still feel I am operating in a bit of a vacuum as an admin user. My advice would be to wait until you can get hold of some manuals and then read through those. I learnt more doing half an hour of that than I had on the two days of training. Hopefully your training will be better! I'd be interested in swapping experiences, as yours is an LEA purchase like ours. Are you primary based (I am) or secondary based?

Don't know whether this has been announced elsewhere, but I've just found a link on the SMART tech homepage to a Notebook Viewer, which supposedly allows you to view Notebook files on computers that don't have the full Notebook software installed. Am just off to download it and see if it will install and work. Will post results (and link if it's any good!).

Have just found this help on the Intel website. Intel® PRO/1000 GT Desktop Adapter - Intel® PRO/1000 GT Desktop Adapter fails to install using Microsoft* RIS It relates to a similar problem, and covers the particular network card we have in these machines. I'm going to try and update the boot agent and drivers for the network card, and see if I can then use RIS.

We have just gone through the System Admin training, and a couple of teachers are due the role-based training soon. Our LEA bought it for all primary schools. Haven't done much with it, and certainly won't be rolling it out to staff, pupils and parents fast. Will see what I can find in PDF format on Monday and send it over, but unless you already have a login then you won't get a proper idea until you've done the training.

Ok, I have now worked around this problem. I did find what looked like a solution on the Microsoft support website, but it involved installing a hotfix on the server that came with a lot of warnings about being untested so I decided against this. However, I recently demoted the old server so that I could use it as a general extra storage space. This was the server that used to act as dc for the machine I am trying to re-image. It still has Ghost on it, so I tried the old multicast method and loaded the image onto the old server. It worked fine, and I was able to then use the image to repair a couple of the same type of machines which have been out of action for ages. Of course, if the old server dies, this won't be a solution anymore. But in the meantime it will do.

You've probably found this yourself, but there is an organisation call Foundation & Aided Schools National Association, with a website http://www.fasna.co.uk. Governors can become members, but haven't looked at it in great detail. They also have a contact us email link. Maybe they can help??

I downloaded netdiag to a network share, then installed it on the problem machines from there. The download link for netdiag is: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1EA70814-7E6C-46E5-8C8C-3C439A732E9F&displaylang=en Instructions are here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321708 I found that the download installed into C:\Program Files\Resource Kit, so that when I went to command prompt, I then had to type (from C:>) cd \program files\resource kit ENTER netdiag ENTER I transferred to another thread to ask some questions about the results from netdiag here (basically the DNS test failed): http://www.edugeek.net/forums/showthread.php?t=16776 The problem is now fixed. The machines had fixed IP addresses, but I have kept this arrangement for now. They had also been set somehow to use our old DNS server, so I changed this (Start>Settings>Network and Dialup Connections, right click the network connection and choose properties, click on TCP/IP and click on Properties). Once that was done, I manually created the DNS A and PTR records in DNS on the server, rebooted the machines and they are now booting quickly, logging on quickly and having the correct policies applied.

Thank you to everyone who contributed here. I discovered a further problem, in that the machines were set to look at our old DNS server in their TCP/IP Properties settings. So I changed this to the correct DNS server IP address. I decided to keep the fixed IP address for now, but may change back to DHCP when I have more time over Easter to make sure everything works OK. I created the A records in DNS and the PTR records created themselves. On rebooting the machines, they are both booting quickly, logging on quickly, and applying the correct policies.

And how do I create an A record??

This explains how to create alias records, but Geoff said that I need to create A and PTR records.

Quite possibly, but I think the IT provider set these clients to have fixed IP addresses for a reason. Possibly a dodgy bit of network cabling. But the addresses aren't registered in DNS and the login is slow and the clients aren't picking up GP when logged in as lowest level users. Yeah, it's a long story!! I really need basic instructions for creating the records in DNS, please.

Two questions (regarding Windows 2000 clients on Windows 2003 server): 1. Is there a way I can locate and move my old Ghost images of our Win2000 clients from our old server (running Win2000 server) to our vanilla Win2003 server, and if so would I be able to deploy them from the new server using RIS (I think I would then need to make some changes to the client)? 2. Is there a way to locate a remote install of Win2000 for clients on our old server and move it to our new server in such a way as to be able to deploy it using RIS?

I think I may need to keep the static IP addresses. How do I manually create A and PTR DNS records for them (I can open the DNS console on Win Server 2003). I need very basic instructions, please!!

OK, I have done some more digging using ipconfig /all and looking at the Properties and Configure parts of the Network Settings of the faulty machines. Turns out that they are not DHCP enabled. They have been given a fixed IP address. The network adapter is Intel PRO/100 VE. The addresses are not registered in DNS. Should I do this myself and if so how??? Thinking back to when the new network was set up, we did have problems with these two machines straight away. I seem to remember the IT provider actually physically moving one of the machines out of this classroom and down to the IT Suite, where it booted and logged on fine. I think that was intended to check the integrity of the network cabling (not done by the IT provider). Possibly these machines were given fixed IP addresses as a sort of fix by the IT provider. However, one setting does puzzle me. These machines have also been set to use a preferred DNS server (rather than obtain the DNS server address automatically). We are a small junior school, and we only have the one server which does everything. The DNS server address on one of the faulty machines is different to the DNS server address coming up on working machines and the other faulty machine. Should I change the odd DNS server address to match the others?? These machines are taking well over five minutes to boot up and then the same to log on. I can't believe that no one has reported this to me and I only found out because another fault developed with one of them!! I must either have very tolerant users or they have no faith in my ability to fix things at all!!

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OK, I found the DHCP console. We have a scope setup and there are current machines listed as having leases assigned. The faulty two machines are not on the list. How do I tell if a client is configured to use DHCP?? (As far as I know, all of these machines - we have about 14 other identical ones - were set up the same when the new network was installed about 18 months ago).

Um?? How do I tell, please?

I already tried rejoining the domain way back when I first discovered the problem with group policies, with no resolution. I have now found the DNS console (sorry, but these things were all set up by our IT provider, and this is uncharted territory for me!). In the Forward and Reverse lookup folders, I can't find either of the faulty computers listed (others on our network are there, but not these two). How do I go about fixing this myself, and is there any poss I can make things worse (ie. what are the risks involved??)?? Server is Windows 2003, and I am using the DNS console part of MMC.

I have a problem with two older machines on our network that aren't picking up group policies when logged in as pupil users; these machines are also very slow logging on. The problem was posted here: http://www.edugeek.net/frms/showthread.php?t=16379 But I am starting a new thread to get more specific help. The machines are Win2000 Prof. I have now downloaded and installed netdiag and have run it on two machines, one that is faulty and one that is OK. The faulty one has passed the DNS test, but has a warning as follows: DNS test . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Passed [WARNING] Cannot find a primary authoritative DNS server for the name 'computername.asjs.internal.'. [ERROR_TIMEOUT] The name 'computername.asjs.internal.' may not be registered in DN This warning doesn't appear on the netdiag for the computer that is fine. There is also a failure for the DC list test and an error on the Trust relationship as follows: DC list test . . . . . . . . . . . : Failed 'ASJS': No DCs are up. Trust relationship test. . . . . . : Passed 'ASJS': No DCs are up (Cannot run test). Secure channel for domain 'ASJS' is to '\\SERVERNAME'. Whereas the computer that works has the following results: DC list test . . . . . . . . . . . : Passed Trust relationship test. . . . . . : Passed Secure channel for domain 'ASJS' is to '\\servername.asjs.internal'. Note: I have edited the actual computer name and server name out. Can anyone tell me if I can do something to fix this. I found a post on a similar theme, suggesting doing something about reverse DNS lookup, but I don't know how to go about checking this and fixing it.

Ok. I have done a bit of digging on other threads and tried a few things. Some won't work - possibly because they are XP commends and my two problem machines are Win2000. Results as follows: 1. Teacher users logging on are pulling across the GPs. 2. Administrator users are also pulling across the GPs. 3. Pupil users are not getting the GPs. 4. gpresult for pupil users confirms the presence of the domain, but all policies listed are local. 5. The extra desktop icons and start menu items are coming from All Users. 6. The IP addresses of the two rogue machines are odd - three digits at the end rather than two, and way out of range. 7. The host names for these two machines are being reported as just the machine name, whereas all other machines (inc identical makes and models) are reported as machinename.domainname.internal 8. I have a program on the server called Look@LAN, installed by the IT provider. I can get whizzy graphics up with info about the network, but haven't much idea what it is telling me or how to use it for further diagnostics. 9. I have tried pinging one machine and that is fine. I have also tried ping -a IPaddress and that worked too. 10. I have tried another working network port. 11. I have tried the equivalent of gpupdate. 12. I have tried removing a machine from domain and then joining again. 13. I have deleted user profiles from the machines, but not All Users (which should be suppressed by GP anyway). Can I run netdiag on the server and would that help?? Any ideas?? I am rapidly getting out of my depth here...

No, it is all pupil users at least. I have checked for policies that may have been left on the local machines, but there aren't any that would be causing problems. I am currently gathering some advice from a few similar threads that I have found that may give me some more diagnostic info. As the machines are in a classroom, access is a bit restricted (junior school) so I have to dash in and try stuff in breaks. I do have reason to suspect the network connections though due to other problems we had earlier on.