Wildebeaste

We've just been quoted (by County IT Services) for a terminal server to support 25 users using Office 2010 and SIMs. The machine they've specified is a HP ML120 G6 with a dual core Pentium and a 160Gb HD. No mention of RAM. I've no experience with TS, but I've always considered it necessary for a somewhat chunkier specification. Can someone give me an idea of what I should be telling them we need? Thanks.

Hello folks, I'm having problems with an installation of Moodle (created from a backup of the database and moodledata). When any user logs on, they are met with a blank page. Nothing at all - page source is also empty. If they then use the browser 'back' button and click on the 'Portal' crumb on the top-left they are in and Moodle works fine. I've turned the debugging on, and there are several errors, with this bringing up the rear: Fatal error: Cannot access empty property in .../moodle/enrol/database/enrol.php on line 42 Can anyone suggest a solution? There are several pages on the Interweb referring to this but no solution that I can find. Thanks.

Hello all. Just bought three and re-installed several other machines for our Admin office (all XP Pro). I was just wondering, on the off-chance, if anyone out there in that big wide world, knows what *bleeping* permissions are needed to run Nova-T4 properly. Running simsperm.bat has no effect (didn't think it would but hoped). I am advised by our local support folks, that users needing Nova-T4 should be local adminstrators on the machine. Apparently this is 'The Way'. I really don't like this idea. Do I have to put up with this poor practice to make this top quality software function properly? Solutions gratefully received. Ta ta.

Thanks for the replies, folks. At the moment the switch is up and running and has been reconfigured. It took about thirty attempts with Express Setup but it finally held an IP and after several power ups it's still holding! It remains to be seen whether it'll last... the switch is over five years old so if it forgets itself again, it's time for a visit to Mr Skip.

Hello, I'm having problems with a Cisco Ws-C2950T-24. It lost power for a few seconds yesterday and came back on a little 'brain dead'. It seems to have lost all it's configuration, which wouldn't be a problem if I could get it to accept any new configuration. For Express Setup the switch is connected directly to a laptop, which works fine but when I save, nothing seems to happen. Connecting back to the normal network there's still no access, so it would seem that it's not accepting the changes. I've tried manually erasing in Telnet with 'write erase' but it just hangs. Either way, unplugging the power returns it to the factory default settings. Is my switch deader than the Nowegian Blue?

Babylon 5 Series Box Set!

Perhaps we need a new forum. 'Pimp my server', anyone?

When I dealt with Ergo, they were far too interested in selling me Server Virtualization and Hitachi SANs than listening to what I wanted. That was last year and the contact has moved on, so things might well be okay for you. But having said that, they guy before him was keen on flogging this stuff too. Targets must be met! Be prepared to have your coffers emptied. I wanted 110 laptops and I foolishly said I wanted to pay no more than £400 each. The price - a magical £399 each! I got much better quality laptops from Lenovo at £320. They're a British company (I think) and they're still going, so they can't be too bad, eh... surely...?

I had a little chat with someone on the Information Commissioner's helpdesk. They suggested that the data should be treated like exam results, or if students give their permission then it's okay to publish. This I understand but I would expect restricted access so the whole school couldn't see it. There would still be no protection for the data, a lovely Excel file sitting on a shared drive. It could be copied willy-nilly. The school still thinks that their end is being covered by their standard Data Protection application, that data can be published anywhere in school to staff and pupils for 'educational purposes'. Ho hum. I think I should buy myself a paper copy of the DPA, roll it up and use it to beat people with!

I have a data protection question for y'all. A member of staff wants to publish a spreadsheet containing the academic performance of individual students in his subject. This information will be available to all (staff and pupils) via a shared drive. My somewhat limited knowledge of the DPA suggests that this is not allowed, that personally identifiable information such as this cannot be published to all and sundry. Am I correct? Thanks

As a Network Manager or responsible person, it is part of the job to know what is being stored on your network (as far as reasonably practicable) as it can impinge on you. Students can encrypt whatever they like on their own computers, but they will NOT do whatever they like on the school network. If I cannot get into a folder or file, then they won't because it will quickly be an ex-file.

Thanks for the replies so far. Domain EFS, PKI stores, Certificate authorities. That sounds like a lot of work! Can anyone recommend a book or website (I'll try Microsoft in a moment) which goes into these topics? Can the password option in Word/Office be turned off? Muchas gracias!

Hello folks. I'm after some advice really. Our head of ICT wants students to be able to encrypt files and folders on the school network. I think this is a **very** bad idea, as I absolutely don't want 'little Jonny' to be able to stash away his dodgy file collection on my servers. At the moment I've said a big NO to this, that I (Network Manager) need to be able to access all the files on the network, i.e. have copies of any passwords or keys or be able to gain access. But he seems to think that they will fail their course without showing evidence of this. How have others managed to deal with this thorny problem? Advice gratefully received. Ta.

Hello A teacher is leaving the school over summer and wants to buy their >5 year old laptop from us. It's a Toshiba Sat Pro SPA10, Celeron 2Ghz 265Mb RAM, 30Gb HDD. How much would you sell it for? The teacher doesn't want to pay much (shocker - tighter than a gnats anus!) but I don't want to give it away. Any ideas? Ta.

Licenses? The EMBC knows which schools are connected. They should know how many pupils and staff in each one - or they could ask. Every member of staff and every student has an email address. They then tell the school they have n+ licenses and that they are using n++ and need to do some housekeeping. I don't think it's that complicated. None of the tools work. Each time we get a problem, they fiddle with something, move along a stage and it still doesn't work. Half baked? I don't think they even bought the ingredients.

Pens from Hitachi are approx £75 for the chunky old style AA battery type and I think when I last looked £35'ish each for those nasty rechargable ones. Welcome to Hitachi Software Engineering (UK) Ltd. Far too much money, if you ask me!

Just spoke to the Synetrix helpdesk and was cheerfully informed that the WAT tool will not be available until 'towards the end of the week' (Nottinghamshire LA). Great. Awesome. So, sometime next week then... ha ha ha ha....

This might be a dozy question, but does the user who's trying to print have a quota? - try unquotaed.

This could be considered as bad... I think... http://www.nerdtests.com/images/badge/nt2/48f2ff73a65d1e70.png ... but I really should be watching a Babylon 5 episode, or perhaps TNG, or Firefly...

Outlook client working... portal still not

Oh joy! Portal access to email has broken now too. "Exchange Active Directory Topology Service on server localhost cannot be contacted via RPC interface. Error 0x6D9" Cobblers!

Hurrah! The WAT tool will be available... sometime in the future! According to the latest fantastic update, the admin tools will be implemented the week commencing 7th April. Wow! I can hardly contain myself! Such speed! Those hamster wheels must be spinning violently down in EMBC HQ. T'was as I predicted though.

I could talk to the LA. But as it's the LA, in combination with the EMBC who get us in this state, I might as well just bash my head against the wall until it all begins to make sense. I was hoping for a 'bright new dawn', out from the clutches of Fujitsu... into the death grip of Synetrix! I repeat my earlier point. All the parties to the new contract knew when it was going to start. They should have put ample resources in to have it ready. T5 anyone? A complex project, absolutely. And I'm sure that many people have been working very hard to get it right. They are after all being paid to do it. At the very least I'd like to know why it's moved from 'this tool will be ready on 1st April' to a 'might be this week, as long as the cock crows three times and the hens lay addled eggs'. When staff moan at me, I suppose I'll just shrug, cast the runes and mutter darkly, 'EMBC'.

Depends how many of the 'valiant' teaching staff decide that they can't possibly strike because it 'hurts the children's education' . School probably closed, but with remaining staff in. We have an inset on the 25th, so they'll just have another long weekend. As far as I'm concerned, if they're in the NUT, they need to get their *rses out, or move to another union that isn't striking. I have no time for those people who want the benefits and protection of a union, but can't be bothered to put themselves out. Was quite surprised when I heard they'd voted for it. Didn't think they had the bottle! Of course they're completely mental if they think they're going to get a 4/5/6% pay rise. Teachers are well paid for what they do - great perks - 13 week holidays! It's just one long rant from me today. Mr Grumpy Pants!

Had a chat with the Business manager before Easter. Hopefully they'll tell me exactly what I get at some point... possibly... maybe... Just had a new SIMS server put in £5K. 2 x Quad Core, 8 Gb RAM. Lovely. Should keep things going a while. Probably get about £6K to maintain servers, workstations, projectors, printers. Get a 3 year loan for 110 new laptops to replace the 4 year old ones the staff use for SIMS - about £40K. Replace about 90 workstations (£27K) and about the same number of TFTs to replace CRTs (£8K). Then there's the new Media Studies room 10 machines (£4.5K) + fibre networking and a couple of new Gb switches - and I need some fast storage for their top quality project work - £????. Then there's the new Music Tech room. 3 or 4 Macs. Networking. Then there's the moving of two computer rooms - networking, new fibre. £???K That's not even mentioning the £5K I've got to buy some more storage space. That won't get much of a SAN unless I build my own . And all for September. Bugger.