Dav3y

Thanks, Sounds like as i thought that it's our choice what services we use. I'll give the ICO a call and enquire about the Data outside EU thing as i've found our ICO registration. Our local School ICT support provider in Kent also seem to be of the opinion that it's up to us what we use but will send me over some information regarding safe use which falls more into line with policies and network use and general sensible use and setup.

Hi people, We are currently investigating using Google Apps for education and my Head has asked if i inquire it's allowed by our L.A. (Kent) Does anyone know where i would find such information or indeed whether the L.A. would have a say in such matters ? I've been all over the KELSI website and anything else i can find and all i seem to be able to turn up are usage policies rather than rules about what services schools can sign up to and use. I would have thought Becta might have had some information on such things but as they've been gone for a few years now i don't know where else to look. Personally i don't see it should be a problem given that we already have services such as Kerboodle and Parentpay that hold student data offsite but if anyone can enlighten me or point me in the right direction to any rules/documentation that would be most appreciated. Thanks

We have parentpay with their MIS sync application and there's a seperate option to process pre admission students. I would imagine your sync utility will probably have a similar option somewhere.

I wouldn't bother with SQL2008 now as support will be ending and require a change to SQL2012 fairly shortly. The bad news is with SQL2012 that if you were using the per processor licensing model that Microsoft have now changed this to per core instead.

Out of interest dobsonl , what are your views on the system now that it has been running with a proper load ?

I have a major issue trying to use the site at work now since the change. If i go to browse forums via the Forums tab up top, i can see nothing other than people actually using the forum. No categories/posts anything show up. All i get is occasionally a complaint that Ads are blocked in some way instead of the add showing although i can view the site fine. If i click on the What's new tab, this does show up posts and these are the only ones i can read. What's going on ? Is it the Ad blocking that's happening somewhere that's preventing me from browsing the forums, and if so are the ads hosted on the same domain or elsewhere so i can unblock them ?

Sounds pretty good. Is there a particular client or O.S. you are using on the netwooks to gain this functionality as i've only seen this built in to servers ?

Looks a better model than our one too !!

If the remote machine is only there for the com port, you could always use one of these We have one setup down in our main office where all the sixth form card swipe readers used to connect to an old p.c. but now talk to our remote server over the other side of the school.

Compares quite favourably with my WD MyWorldBook NAS drive i got a couple of months ago. Looks pretty as well with the LCD display I guess the optical drive is useful for offloading critical backups like your SIMs database directly from the box for offsite backup purposes. Can't see i'd use it much at home though. Not bad for tight budgets i guess though.

We paid a lot of money for Kaleidos a few years back. We stopped using it a couple of years back and that was definately a positive step Of course it may be much better now if the full web version ever got released.

I've had this happen with batteries in 2 APC units one summer so you're not alone. They blew up like balloons and were near impossible to remove from the units. I take it these are in a cool room and the temperature stays fairly low? Anything much over 30deg will shorten the life of the batteries whichever make of UPS you have. Temperature was the prime cause of the failure i had some years ago and that was immediately prior to having aircon fitted to our server room and certainly helped my cause in getting this fitted in the first place. Thanks for the tips on those other places to get batteries too guys as i normaly use CPC for my UPS batteries and as mine are now due for replacement due to age i'll most probably be buying them direct or from the other place posted instead as pricing looks slightly better.

I regularly buy toners from Emma, thanks for the suggestions. I'll get back to everyone once i am able to access my work email again. I'm unable to do anything about any of these quotes currently due to this as we have no power at the moment and quite possibly won't have tomorrow as well

Oooohhh, I'm all excited now

Just about to Pm my details to you other guys as well. I have also updated the original post with the pricing i have seen prior to my requests on here.