fafster

No, VMWare converter looks at the server and creates a modified image. Nothing at all to do with Ghost. I've used it a few times and never once had a problem. If you're consolidating your hardware, have you looked at VMWare ESX server or XenServer?

Could you explain?

How much are the microlites? I can't see prices anywhere. And what's battery life like?

The multicasting is swamping the network. Unless you're ghosting a whole room, always use unicast.

We have roughly 200 desktop machines here. I'd get around the suites in a day with no problem, but the classroom machines would be out of the question.

Any reason in particular? I found this: http://www.pctechbytes.net/forums/showthread.php?p=64655

Bloody HP and their stupid BIOS. I'll have to see if MSI have BIOS downloads available too.

Sirbendy: When you say do a weekly walkaround of the machines, do you also include those individual machines in classrooms?

That HP looks smart. The Asus U2E looks good, too, but I think will be out of your price range.

Where would I find the CPU flag using XP? The CPU codename is Brisbane.

It has a stepping of 1, if that's any use?

I have a HP dx2250 PC with an AMD X2 5000+ processor. I'm certain that this comes with AMD hardware virtualisation, but I can't find any way to turn it on in the BIOS. It's not on by default because neither Virtual PC nor Xen can detect it, though I have used a little utility to confirm that the CPU does have the capabilities. The machine uses a MS7297 ROM, so I'm thinking if this BIOS doesn't support the option I might possibly be able to use another one. Any ideas? Cheers.

Hi all Our default internet policy is to deny all, and after upgrading to ABControl 5 (which filters internet access at a lower level) the kids can't get clipart through office. What servers should I be allowing on the filter list? I don't really want to downgrade back to version 4. Cheers.

Sorry, I meant the WinConnect thing! Yeah, we're definitely looking into thin clients. We'd like to set up a test suite where we can put older machines to run as TCs so as to avoid buying the extra hardware just yet. We actually have a whole building with only about ten machines in, so I may convert it in it's entirety. Viglen are pretty competitive for license prices, and I've been quoted: Windows Server Standard 2008 @ £48.70 each Windows Server 2008 Device CAL @ £3.11 each Windows Terminal Services 2008 Device CAL @ £8.81 each If I was running linux on the clients, would I need a regular device CAL? We have a surplus anyway, but I'm curious. What are the actual figures for bandwidth usage? We have a 100mbit fibre connection to the building I mentioned above, so what's the maximum number of connections that it could comfortably handle? Cheers

Hmmm, seems that this may be more trouble than it it would be worth then.

I've put a question in the *nix forum, but it's also applicable here, I think. Here's the link: http://edugeek.net/forums/showthread.php?p=158310

Wasn't sure which forum to put this question in. I've found a piece of software called WinConnect Server XP. Let's XP handle more than the maximum (2 or 3?) rdp connections, pushing up to a maximum of 21. I've tested out a trial of the software and managed to open eight connections, so I'm guessing it's legit. I want to know if I can set up some thin clients to connect via rdp (rdesktop maybe?) to a winconnect-enabled machine without using a boot server. Thinstation looks promising, but I wouldn't know where to start. If I could set up a simple load-balancing system then brilliant, but otherwise I'm not bothered. The idea is to put a couple of beefy machines running the software in key locations (such as the IT classrooms, keeping traffic local) and have a poor-man's thin client setup. Cheers all.

I'd be interested to know what this was and if it's been resolved. And how.

How busy is the network interface on the DC? Are you pinging the DC via ip or hostname?

By screen size you in fact mean resolution? I agree that an extra 100 pixels on the side would be nice but it hardly cripples the device. You can use the mousepad to scroll horizontally and vertically and I'd rather put up with the 7" screen than pay an extra £50 for a larger one.

A bit of tinkering with font sizes and other settings means the screen size isn't that much of an issue. Browsing the web, word processing, some SCUMMVM etc. What more would you want it to do?

Please elaborate.

How about running the SIMS server virtually? There'd be a delay between the time it took to move the virtual machine to another host, but it would be less problematic than trying to set up a cluster. In fact, I'm sure you could store the SIMS database on a DFS share (It's MS SQL express, I think), and run the server in the virtual machine. Then store multiple copies of the virtual machine on various computers and simply switch them on if needed.

How much traffic do you expect to have? 2mbit upload still isn't that much if the line's going to be used to host a website AND for pupil use.

Currently our managed service prevents us from switching our servers, unfortunately. Cheers for the info, though. I love how this is going, so I'm going to find a use for it somewhere.