Abe

I have selected the Cache content for clients connecting from: "only local subnets" option, so it should be OK, but then again my experience with Macs to date is that a lot of things that should work don't tend to! In any case, no clients from other schools will be able to see the DNS entry on our local servers that specifies the Apple Cache public IP range to use.

I think I've managed to get the Apple Caching Service working for a SWGfL connected school, although this may not be an option for many unless like us you happen to have a backup ADSL Internet Service. I found this blog useful to start me in the right direction: Fraser Hess: Caching Server: Enterprise Edition SWGfL appear to block connection to the Apple site needed to register a caching server, so it was necessary to provide an alternative path (via our ADSL connection). Once successfully registered as a caching server and with the required DNS entry added to our local DNS servers, I was able to see the "Cache Used" start to show content building up as I downloaded updates on a Mac client. I used a SWGfL public address range of 46.60.253.1 - 46.60.253.254 and also had to specify a public address range that included the public IP of the caching server Mac going via our backup ADSL connection. This has the potential to save a lot of Internet bandwidth for us in future.

Just make sure the Invigilator dashboard is running (doesn't matter if you've logged on yet) before launching the test player on the student PCs. As long as the Invigilator PC is on the same sub-net as the students ones, then the clients should find it almost immediately.

Have you tried using a local administrator account i.e. one with a local profile? It's possible that this won't work if Group Policy has been set to define a common shared profile path (mandatory or otherwise) for all users combined with enabling "Do not log users on with temporary profiles". We've been struggling with this software for a couple of years now and at some point about a year ago Invigilator Dashboard just stopped working as a non-admin user, which is when we resorted to using the local admin account on the invigilator computer.

Using 7-Zip to extract the contents of the latest exe (Scratch-431a) I found the following command line options for the installer contained therein: "Install Scratch 2.exe" -? Available Options: -silent { -eulaAccepted ( -location ) -desktopShortcut -programMenu -allowDownload } This installed to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Scratch 2" on our 64bit systems when using the options -silent -eulaAccepted. Adobe Air was installed first using the offline AdobeAIRInstaller.exe -silent. All of this can be scripted or packaged in System Center Configuration Manager.

Are you (or anybody else) able to provide a any pointers on where to start with integrating SMS2 and pGINA for Remote Desktop Services authentication? Cheers,

I have seen a weird case once before where a small form factor desktop PC (powered by external brick) had problems with booting when connected to the Smartboard and appeared to struggle to drive it if it was plugged in after booting. The monitor used with this computer happened to have a built-in USB hub and feeding the Smartboard connection through this solved the problem. You could try putting a powered USB hub between your computer and Smartboard to see if this helps.

Have you needed to extend the USB cable run beyond 5m? This would cause you problems unless you use active USB or passive Cat 5 extenders to exceed the standard distance limits. We have had good results in a couple of awkward classroom setups with passive extenders and Cat5e ethernet cables. It is possible to buy USB cables which claim to have better shielding or to use shielded Cat 5 cables with an extender.

Thin clients can be an attractive option, but I would suggest that VDI is overkill for the vast majority of applications in School. Remote desktop sessions should be perfectly adequate and much more efficient in terms of resources required and of course cost. You could also consider Windows Multipoint Server, although it's cost effectiveness will depend on how you are licensed.

+1 for DBAN. I'm in the process of wiping a number of old servers' SCSI raid arrays at the moment. We either PXE boot into DBAN or boot from a CD-ROM, then use the default DoD Short setting (3 passes of random data). For the Dell PERC RAID controllers we've been dealing with recently the best approach appears to be to break the array and configure one array for each disk so that they appear as separate disks in the BIOS. DBAN can then wipe them in parallel.

No the performance problems we saw were specifically 2003 R2 SP2 servers with mapped drives on Windows 7 clients.

I assume you have SP2 applied, in which case this may well be the cause of performance problems seen especially with Vista/7 clients: An update to turn off default SNP features is available for Windows Server 2003-based and Small Business Server 2003-based computers

If you give staff too much personal space they will fill it with inappropriate stuff like their own photos, videos and music collections. Much better to have only a few gigabytes of personal storage and plenty of shared space for departmental resources that should be shared rather than each teacher keeping their own copy of everything. Just my 2p!

Yes! Be aware there are two slightly different widescreen ratios available (16:9 and 16:10). I was just trying to find out what aspect ratio the Promethean 387 is and think it is 16:10, whereas any full HD projector (1080P) will be 16:9. The cheaper widescreen projectors do tend to be 1280 x 800 (16:10) but this native resolution may not look very good on your 22" monitor, although using 720P mode may be a reasonable compromise to look OK on both projector and monitor images.

If you want to label a lot of cables at one go, then you can simply buy sheets of A4 Laser printer labels and use mail-merge in an office application to generate your labels. You can buy polyester based waterproof or metallic labels if you want something really permanent.

Your most important choice is whether to go with 10/100 Mbit or Gigabit capable ports, as this will make a significant difference in the price, unless this is no object (unlikely). Of course the backbone will be need to be Gigabit (possibly trunked) or 10G. I remain to be convinced that the vast majority of desktop computers will need any more than 100 Mbit for the foreseeable future. Consider fan-less switches for classrooms to avoid noise - We have some Procurve 2610-24 for this reason (the 48 port version is NOT fanless).

Have you tried connecting a monitor? It might be defaulting to external display only for some reason. Have you tried the hotkey for switching between displays? Good luck!

We use Xibo with a mixture of news feeds, powerpoint slide shows and scrolling text windows on each screen. To start with we were using Showpoint, which simply displays the most recent powerpoint slide show in a specificed folder: PresentationPoint | ShowPoint control remotely

Hi All, We are looking to replace quite a few old projectors that are beginning to die with increasing regularity. Unfortunately, in the 5 or 6 years since these were installed, the commonly available throw ratios of low to mid range projectors appears to have been reducing steadily. Standard throw ratios for most manufactures are now in the range 1.5:1 - 1.9:1. I have found a few going as high as 2.2:1, but many of our existing installations need around 2.4:1. The only models I have found so far that cover this throw range are the Casios which have a much larger zoom range and go up to a throw ratio of 2.8:1. There are other advantages with the Casios such as solid state light source, 5 year warranty etc., but they are nearly twice the price of many education projectors with a 3 year warranty and money is tight. At the moment it looks like we will have to go for the more expensive Casio option for up to a quarter of our classrooms, where moving the ceiling mount could cost more than the difference in price, but I was just wondering if anyone was aware of any other standard projector models with a throw ratio range covering 2.4:1? Cheers,

We've found that a tiltable wall mount for a large screen TV normally leaves enough room to mount an ultra small form factor PC such as an Eeebox directly to the wall behind it, using the bracket that comes with the computer for mounting on the back of a monitor. Abe

If you get a "Cruiser Style" memory stick it may be possible to slide the inner out quite easily, rather than having to split a glued plastic case apart. These are less than £5 each for large quantites from here: 7dayshop.com - Online Store Alternatively go for the smallest ones you can find and keep their own case on to protect the electronics and just add an extra case over the top. Good luck!

We are using a mixture of 42" LCD TVs and projectors for our digital signage project. We also have some 50" Plasmas we put in some of the smaller classrooms instead of projectors. These plasma are driven at their native resolution of 1360x768 via the VGA input, but we are having occasional problems with one of them where the cable length is around 15m, so will probably have to move it or invest in a decent VGA over CAT5 extender. Some of the latest large screen TVs only have HDMI and no VGA inputs, so watch out for these. Also beware of some of the amazing offers on large screen plasmas at the moment, where you may find the native resolution is only 1024x768. Although the EeeBoxes we use can't play back HD video, they can make use of the full HD 1920x1080 resolution for displaying powerpoint slides, pictures etc. It's good to drive them at the full resolution in locations where people get close to the screen, becuase it does then avoid it looking fuzzy or pixellated.

Sorry, forgot to say yes we are running XP Pro on them.

We are using our Eee Boxes for looping powerpoint slide shows in the main, although we have tried SD video without problems. I wouldn't suggest that this device is capable of playing back HD content! It did stutter a lot on some of the HD sample files available on the Microsoft web site.

Hi, We are using tiny Asus Eee Box PCs to drive a number of information displays around our site. They come with a bracket for mounting on the back of an LCD monitor (75x75 or 100x100 VESA mounting holes) and this can equally well be used for mounting on the wall above or behind a large screen LCD TV (if the TV bracket has enough clearance). When choosing a suitable TV, go for one that has a serial control input. The EeeBox needs a USB-Serial converter cable (and a gender changer) to connect to the 42" LG screens we have, but then allows scheduled jobs to be run on the PC to turn the TV on and off, select the correct source input, disable the IR remote and buttons etc. The EeeBox will quite happily drive a full HD TV at 1920x1080 resolution via a DVI to HDMI cable.