Tricky_Dicky

Ours a locked down heavily. Remove all desktop and start menu items and redirect both to where we want. No System tray for pupils, remove windows commands such as run and System properties. IE is where we do a lot of restrictions such as proxies, control panel, security. Rich

That's a great analogy. I first thought the problem would be a wireless one, but I can't see how it could be. We use a Ruckus system and all the clients have had the 3rd party software removed so it only uses the Windows one. The only wireless that is in there is the Ruckus one and the children/teachers have no access to change anything like that. Could there be some external factor changing the wireless settings or blocking the authentication? As srochford said it happens a lot more on the laptops and I hadn't had a reported case on the desktops until this morning when I tried to log on I got the "domain could not be contacted". I'm presuming that the way DNS servers work, like most servers, is that they try and give out the correct information but if that server is to busy at the time then the next DNS server in the entry will try and process the request. Hence why when a class of 30 laptops log on the server can only handle so much and the incorrect DNS was being used. Rich

Thanks for the quick replies. Just before I do this can I just check a couple of things. I have 2 servers, both have DNS enabled, should I put there IP addresses into the DHCP DNS Server Scope (option 6) and remove the other two DNS servers that are currently in there that belong to the LA? The forwarders appear to have already been setup to the External DNS servers on both machines. Would screen dumps help explain what I mean? Rich

I'm not sure what's going on here, so any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Reasonable size network (50 PCs and 120 laptops, 2 DCs with DNS, DHCP) and every now and then the laptops won't log on to the network because it says it can't find the domain controller. By logging on to the local machine you can then just re attach to the domain and it's happy. The DNS thats being given out is for the local server and also 2 of the LA one's as second and third. It was set-up this way by the LA approved supplier, should it have been? Any ideas why it's doing this? Cheers Rich

I don't know about the original poster but I'd love a look at that. Rich

You are a Scholar and Gent good sir. My first PXE boot is just kicking off now :D

Very much so, what do I need to set and where? I tried setting Option 67 in the DHCP scope and pointing it to the file that I had created for PXE booting but the computer I was trying to boot from just said "no file found" or something to that effect. Any ideas? Rich

Just out of curiosity how did you do the deploy? I've been working on PXE booting and doing an automated install with little success

Great tip TomStanley. Very useful for debugging

Surely this needs to be put into perspective a bit. We are not talking about people walking around with swords, they are small ceremonial knives and as far as I can recall(and I would be happy to be corrected) one has never been used in a knife attack in this country. Instead of just banning everything that may be dangerous, how about we trust people until proven other wise and then properly punish those that can't be trusted.

I'm still waiting on the Email addresses to become available and have already started raising concerns. I pointed out your SSO solution penfold_99 but was told in no uncertain terms they were not interested due to the SSO solution they are working on. I can't remember the name of it now but the idea is that there should be one shared system that talks to all MIS/VLE/Email systems. I have also heard the the BGFL are looking at making a standardised Active Directory structure for all schools. Should be fun

I totally get where you are coming from. It's wierd being on your own and not being able to just pop down stairs and say hi to people, also I imagine you are missing the things that your parents used to do automatically for you and you never realised. (The Magic washing basket in my case). Give it a few months and it will be great and you will probably end up with a stronger relationship with your parents because the time you do see them is time just to see them and not first thing in the morning when you are tired and grumpy. I can highly recommend getting some mates round for LAN parties/Xbox/Poker night. Rich

I'm just starting to use WDS on a spare server and have got a boot and image file available for machines to boot from however I can't seem to get PXE to work. I presume I need to set up scope option 67 to point to the boot file on the WDS server? so is that "\boot\x86\pxeboot.com" or am I missing something? Cheers Rich

Yes it would, but why do you need to install it? If you are just trying to manage it via a GPO then you don't need it installed on the server.

Why do you need downtime? That setting appears to control all versions of IE.

Blocked at BGFL

I'd happily take CS2 off your hands and Illustrator would be quite good fun for some of our kids.

Awesome. Thanks very much Rich

Hi All, Is it possible to move a GPO from one OU to another? Basically I'm just setting up a "test" OU and if it works ok I want to move everything, mainly software installs, to an existing one and was just wondering if that was possible and how to do it? Cheers Rich

Really? I've been reading them today and they seemed to imply that's exactly why the folder was there. You have to extract them first to to make them .msp and then it should pick them up.

Would you mind posting up the final XML file that you used? Rich

Sounds like it will be fun I can see my summer being like that, replacing half the classroom PC,s and re-imaging every laptop and desktop to Windows 7.

I've got it running on a 4 year old laptop and it's fine. Not quick mind, but it works. If it were me, I'd factor in some training from a proper company as it is a very complicated piece of software to get the best out of. Rich

Mine are just in normal 100Mb points and we quite often have 30 machines at once logged on.

I can only spot a couple of things that seem odd: Why are you displaying all the info when doing a large install and why aren't you accepting the EULA? Surely that means that you have to manually go round and accept it? I think: sUpdateLocation should be SUpdateLocation. Not sure if the capital makes a difference but it might. Rich