machman

Thanks for the info , the college however has went ahead with Danwood using papercut software , one thing tho the install was 2 weeks ago , we ran out of toner and they said oh you have 8 printers , I said no we have 5 , so I asked them how they could see the other 3 old ones I just plugged in to finish of the toners , to which they did not answer. On Wednesday during half term I logged into the print server to find the Papercut software logged in and pointing at help pages , I know for a fact it was not me and no one else has the server logon or key code to the room except a premises officer. If it was a hacker they would not be interested in how to get Papercut working in advanced mode ie the help pages , so the only conclusion I can draw from this is that Danwood somehow are in my server , I have not questioned them about it yet but would be interested in your opinion first.

I am a NM in an East Midlands College and I have been using Ranger remote for 7 years or more now and it does exactly what it says on the tin , teachers can take control of the whole class or just one machine , I can also use it from my office to keep an eye on things around the college with a refresh rate of 5 seconds on all clients I rarely miss anything , I have it set up to follow certain Network nosey students if I am unable to sit down and watch , it takes a snap shot every 15-30 seconds or so and I can look at my leisure when I have the time , it can be used to send and receive homework or files or even dish out commands/scripts etc. I find it very useful indeed and saves a lot of leg work at times.

I agree with you , it might be an effective way to manage a school as you say it's down to the school , and I agree that even most people on RM Would possibly be able to manage a vanilla network , my point is for me and the way I want to be able to work , We were with RM 4 years but found we have saved money and gained more from managing our own than to have it managed for us, I like to drive , and prefer not to be the passenger , I only knock them from personal experience not anyone elses , goes for most things in life some people get by and have no real problems with anything but some do , .....

I agree it's an easy path for some , just a very limiting and controlled one , for me it makes my job for satifying knowing I did this and that and fix it all myself rather than have some RM tech flick through pages on the phone with me ! whenever It falls over , but to each his own I guess

Yeah , but it's much more satisfying looking after your own network and making executive decisions on hardware/software etc took me a year or so to straighten it all out but I'm pleased with our network , we even have our own exchange server , not that EMBC email thingy.. I did not like their mindset , like they all came out of the same thought factory

We used to have an RM network about 7 years ago but have been Vanilla ever since and to be honest I do not miss them , expensive , elitist , controlling.... resistance is futile , unless you get out of their grip...

Hmm , I have bought over 200 Stone Pc's over the last 6 years or so and have always found them to be reliable and the cases sturdy if not a bit basic , out of all these machines perhaps I had a call out for about 7 , usually duff ram or a Gphx card but nothing major and it was always sorted next day , also find them good for AV installs , free advice , quotes etc , all in all one of the better companies out there , I have about 10 call me a week , we do this and that bla bla. I have 1 years warranty on most of them for now , and perhaps just for the sake of something different may try Dell or HP , but can highly recommend them for service and good kit IMHO.

HI Slider , I know it's a couple of years ago from the date of your post , but I guess it's still relevant , we are currently looking at Danwood for our printing needs , but judging by the number of negatives they have on here i'm guessing it's not a good idea , however could you give more info as to why not to go with them. Ta very muchly

HI Mate , I have had a myriad of issues on my network , slow logons and the exact problem you have just described , I must admit it's driving me nuts , I have had Phil from Ranger support logged in remotely more times than I care to remember, tried reinstaling it , creating new groups , reinstalling Ranger account manager , nothing solves it for me , hoping the update fixes these niggles. The only conclusion I can work out is that it must be Ranger version 7.0.0.4 and hopefully they will sort all the issues with it soon

nice to see a teacher do some work hehe...( only teasing, nice to see you here , tho why are you not on that beach