localzuk

This server is now offline. New pack coming shortly. World file available if anyone wants it!

Vanilla server has been updated to version 1.20.6.

The current server has been up for a long while now and it seems everyone has stopped playing. So, the next pack is up for vote! Vote here: https://strawpoll.com/poy9W9omPgJ The packs up for the vote are: DeceasedCraft - a post-apocalyptic world, with city generation. Modified health damage, progressively more difficult. Definitely one for "co-operative" play. Prominence II RPG - an RPG pack with custom talent tree, questing, and a story campaign that apparently updates monthly FTB Integrations by Parts DX - a complex pack with lots of mods being integrated with each other, making all aspects of mods useful FTB Genesis - rebuild from a desolate post-apocalyptic landscape

In terms of reliability - I ran 30+ Unifi switches for about 7 or so years at my last place before the connect the classroom project replaced them. In that time, we had 2 switches fail - an 8 port that overheated, and a 24 port that just died. Took about 5 minutes to swap them, as the functionality in the controller for doing so is very simple to use. They're cheap enough that you can have spares on the shelf I found.

One thing to consider is multi-gig ports. Current generation wireless APs require 2.5Gbps ports. So, base model 1Gbps switches aren't really the ideal to install everywhere. We put Aruba 6100M and 6300M switches in my last place, and this place has so far been going with 6100M models - though I will be reconsidering this next batch due to price. Neatgear are very well priced for their capability, as are Unifi (for edge switches only, not really suitable for core yet IMO).

Thanks. Done that. We'll see how it goes now.

Current top (though load is quite low at the moment):

So, the last alerts we received were: 1F140500: Warning: System load average is 8.82 4.38 3.46 1F085300: Warning: System load average is 6.01 4.17 3.35 1F111500: Warning: System load average is 11.18 6.41 4.82 1F085400: Warning: System load average is 6.28 4.46 3.54 The system was heavily overspecced until recently (32 virtual CPUs, 128GB RAM). Now reduced to much more realistic 16 Virtual cores, 24GB RAM.

I am trying to resolve an issue with our Smoothwall VM where it regularly increases its CPU usage to high levels and sends me an alert email. One thing that concerns me is that we have too many web filter rules - so my question to you all is how many rules do you have and do you have any load issues? We have 35 Web filter policies set up, and to me that seems like too many.

I would suggest that the comment from @FenderJay about contractors is itself not a perfect view either. As with all data processing, you need to look at it on a case by case basis. If you have a contractor that attends site very regularly (eg. photocopier engineer that visits the site monthly for example), then having them in the SCR is not problematic from a GDPR point of view. If you are adding someone who comes to the school once a year to do the water legionella testing, then that's not really sensible to do as a year is a long time to hold data for no real reason. There is also no legal definition of a time period to hold data for - so saying "28 days" is not accurate either - that is a judgment call by you as an organisation, and as with a lot of GDPR related decision making is down to your risk assessments and own processes - you simply need to document why and be reasonable in your decision making process. Remember also that the guidance for retaining visitor logs is at least 6 years.

So, the EU has passed a law covering the import of lamps with mercury in them, effectively outlawing the lamps used in projectors from various dates (over 2000 lumens from Feb 2027, under 2000 from Feb 2026 I think?) I know we're not directly affected in the UK, but there will likely be a knock on effect I'd guess, as a lot of companies treat the UK and EU as one market (EMEA). Are any of you adjusting your purchase plans to accommodate this? Moving to laser/LED projectors or touchscreens? Or are you sticking with lamp based one in the hope it doesn't end up affecting us?

Or 1 very large, like my new school. But realistically, if you use A3/A5, you've got nothing to worry about.

C17 connector. Been around ages, just not hugely common.

Server now offline

Voting closed. New server is live.

Announcing the next EduGeek Modded Minecraft server ATM9 Server address: mc.edugeek.net:25566 Dynmap address: http://mc.edugeek.net:8192 The overworld has been pre-generated out to 120 chunks - so about 2000 blocks in each direction from world spawn. This is a 1.20 Forge modded Minecraft pack. You can download it via the FTB App Current pack version: 0.2.5.1 As always, to be whitelisted on the server, please visit your Profile on the site and add you Minecraft username to the field there. The server updates the whitelist every 30 minutes. Up to date information is always available via the Discord channel.

As the current pack is seemingly unpopular (as there's only 4 of us playing still), please go ahead and vote on the new pack via the Straw Poll linked below. https://strawpoll.com/mpnboMvGLg5

We ran our trust on Unifi switches at the edge for about 8 years. Worked well. We had a couple of failures in that time. But we had spares on the shelf, so downtime was as long as it took us to swap out the unit and update the config. We didn't have Unifi at the core though - we had HPE Procurve 5406R zl2 there, as Unifi still doesn't seem to do core switching properly. We had Unifi wifi in one school and Ruckus in the rest - and it all worked well. All been replaced with Aruba now under the DfE's connect the classroom scheme. Extremely expensive setup, easily 5x the price of the Unifi equivalent. Works well though. All except Aruba Central, which is buggy, slow and weird.

May I ask what you're in need of running as a script at logon? We've not had login scripts for years now.

We just had Aruba kit installed across our 6 sites under the DfE Connect the Classroom project, and so far the WiFi itself seems to be pretty good. Good coverage, good speeds. The Aruba Central control panel is bad though. It is slow, weird to use and can be buggy (not to mention, its expensive for what it does). Prior to that, we ran Ruckus in 5 sites and Unifi in the last site. Both were stable and easy to manage. If we had been paying for the WiFi ourselves, we would've been installing Unifi.

Yes, still online. Details in the Discord server.

For those trying to run Win 11 on older kit, MS are definitely going to be removing legacy support as time goes on. For example this is happening with the next release: https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/windows-11-will-soon-no-longer-boot-on-pcs-that-are-too-old-to-boot-it-anyway

Such a shame about Arrival. Can't help but think the biggest cause is terrible management. Rather than getting the nuts and bolts right, they kept releasing new stuff. Look we can make a bus! They seemed like Crypto-bros in the end, unable to see through their own hype to solve their issues.

For a lot of businesses, a Chromebook is an ideal tool. Manageable centrally via MDM so nicely ticks all the data protection and security boxes, fully integrated productivity suite, a huge ecosystem of tools that link in, and allows the user to customise and treat it like a personal device. Easy to fix issues (powerwash and bam, fixed, for most things). Its an ideal enterprise tool IMO. Which is why people shouldn't really question whether ChromeOS is an enterprise OS under the DfE's guidelines.

Announcing the next EduGeek Modded Minecraft server SteamPunk [LPS] Server address: mc.edugeek.net This is a 1.19.2 Forge modded Minecraft pack. You can download it via the Curseforge App Current pack version: 21.5 As always, to be whitelisted on the server, please visit your Profile on the site and add you Minecraft username to the field there. The server updates the whitelist every 30 minutes. Up to date information is always available via the Discord channel.