hudzen76

https://www.eteach.com/job.aspx?network+manager&vacno=860789

Thanks to all for running event; found my first EDIT a really good day so definitely on my must attend list for next year!

Yep, having fun here with it. Have downloaded the latest Chrome ADMX files and updated central policy store, then set the "Whether to allow certificates issued by local trust anchors that are missing the subjectAlternativeName extension" to enabled. Now it asks you to login when you try to access intranet homepage, so have sent out email telling staff that it's fine to put username in in this situation but at least they can get to it. Fun.

I'd like to join please! Appreciate it's more around Chromebooks, but could usage tracking for students within the console be on the cards?

We've seen similar issues here; only some Publisher and Powerpoint files causing an issue; others open fine on same computer, and those documents will open on other PCs so suspect it's as the update hits the PC. Hope update today does trick; haven't seen any site of it yet...

Bit of a nudge for this topic; how are people in the SWGfL generally finding internet connection at moment? Got (another) call open regarding our slow/intermittent connection, but it's a repeat of the last one trying to run speedtests to prove a problem... Spoken to other local schools who are seeing similar issues to us, but how wide does it go? Appreciate there was another DDOS the other day, but it's generally pretty unreliable at moment although fine this morning!

Yeah, understand feeling about Excel. Thought that when we looked at it originally; what's point of running spreadsheet that's instantly out of date? Deputy Head loves it though; pulls reports out at push of button and chuffed to bits with them. Still got tidying and additional data to sort, but feels like we're getting to grips with it now. Gotta say the seminar we went to in Bristol last week was eye-opener to where it's going and how the web bit might work to publish live reports to staff based on their teaching groups etc. Should be nice closed loop for staff to see results they input feeding into headline figures and give them ability to see how their groups are doing. Scary, but useful to avoid any surprises come results day. Still need convincing about price being worth it, but they're making a good case so far to us...!

robk, we're Facility and have just set up DataToolkit here; took a fair bit of work around mapping etc. but we're somewhere near now and looking forward to upcoming release... Feel free to PM if needed!

Rolled it out a couple of years back; ran a trial for some staff from Easter to summer break, then migrated everyone over during the summer break. Minimum training, couple of questions popped up more than once ('how do I mark an email as important?' and 'how do I sort by sender?') but easy as anything. Ditched Outlook except in a couple of cases (finance system needs MAPI connection so use Google Sync for Outlook to connect to a 'finance' email). Didn't go down SSO as didn't want logins to be reliant on our internet connection; really need to use Google Password Sync to change Google passwords when domain one does, but haven't tested/deployed yet. Device Management and Two Factor Authentication available and implemented for key users, using Drive to share markbooks, school policies etc. from central point so no regrets here!

We use an internal SMTP relay server to send messages out from an 'automated' address so I had to raise change request to get ports open. For some users that needed a MIME compatible client, I'm using the Google Apps Sync tool (https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gappssync) to work with Outlook; that doesn't seem to need any ports opening so may be worth a look...

Dunno if it'll help, but spent ages mucking around with command line then found the Volume Activation Management Tool which made process loads easier; bulk deploy keys and activate remotely. Think we've got KMS keys deployed properly in the Windows 7 and Office 2010 image but using VAMT got me out of hole...! Process I use is to update status for PCs in question, deploy KMS keys, then activate. The DNS entry went in easily enough so they find the server automatically. Download: VAMT 2.0 - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details

Would be interested in hearing how you get on with that; just in process of changing our MX records as we've been running pilot dual-delivery until now and are about to go fully live for September. Any hints or tips welcome! Still have Postini option available but also can see the org settings for Email objectionable content and content compliance....

Went for the Motorola Defy (despite the dodgy advertising!) and still well chuffed with it a month in. Far quicker than the missus' Galaxy Apollo, not as bad looking as the rugged label may indicate. Battery life OK (at least comparable with other smartphones from what I understand). Finally moved from Orange to T-Mob due to number of people having 3G problems on Orange and haven't been disappointed as coverage is brilliant round here.

Looking really seriously at Google Apps; like the pitches of both 365 and Google but from what I can see Google will be cheaper route (plus as personal GMail and Apps user I may be biased) but still trying to get my head around the SSO side of things and email filtering/tracking/retention. Anybody using Postini additional service? Is it needed? Working with head of ICT who's starting to see potential of online shared documents plus presenting to head and assistant head next week so keen to line my ducks up....

Not doing too badly this year; had better, but not worse...

OK, starting to get updates through on email now; they did manage to link to a blocked site the first attempt, though - say no more...! Text of Google blog below... ------------------------- An update on encrypted web search in schools Monday, June 14, 2010 at 8:59 AM We recently launched a beta version of encrypted (SSL) search at https://www.google.com to prevent people from intercepting our users’ search terms and results. However, because encrypted search creates an obscured channel between a user’s computer and Google, users who go to https://www.google.com can bypass some schools’ content filters. This can make it hard for schools to stop students from accessing adult content. One option is for schools to use our SafeSearch lock feature, which is designed to help keep adult content out of our search results. But given how many computers some institutions have this is proving impractical in many cases. So to prevent students from bypassing their filters, some schools are blocking encrypted search. However, a side effect of this action is that it also blocks other services hosted at Google’s secure URL, including Google Apps for Education, and many of our other services which require authentication to keep information safe. We’re working hard to address this issue as quickly as possible and in a few weeks we will move encrypted search to a new hostname – so schools can limit access to SSL search without disrupting other Google services, like Google Apps for Education. Longer term, we are exploring other options like moving authentication to its own hostname so that we can return encrypted search to https://www.google.com. Safety and security matter to Google, and we are committed to working with our partners in education so that we help keep students safe and secure on the Internet. Posted by Dave Girouard, President, Google Enterprise -----------------------------

Cheers all, have received copy of email via unofficial channels. Looks like the good old Smartcache is flummoxed again, bless it. Definitely looking like a secondary solution will be needed at some point (naming no alternatives (cof smoothwall cof)), or a serious clampdown on anybody found using https to access Google which at least I can do at moment...

Anybody else been taken by surprise as Google applications (Gmail, Picasa, Docs etc.) failed to work this morning? Found the article on the website explaining why they've done it (SSL searches on Google bypassing the filters) so appreciate why they've done it, but why do we only seem to find these things are happening afterwards, or is it just me?!

We've started seeing same problem - it's something in the Local Settings \ temp \ Temporary Internet Files \ Content.ie5 \ etc. etc. which doesn't exist. We already run mandatory profiles, and haven't got a Local Settings folder on the server profile, and can't find the file on the local C: drive. Have had 'Delete Roaming Profiles' enabled but doesn't clear local profiles, we have to do that manually. Any other ideas as I'm stumped...?!

Think you can do this using the Security Filtering at the bottom of the group policy management console - add the PCs to a group, then set an alternative proxy GP so it only applies to your student group and those PCs. Tried a similar thing with a policy I only wanted to apply to some laptops a while back and seem to remember it worked... just check the Group Policy Inheritance is set OK so the policy applies later than your default proxy policy.