netadmin

At the request of my SMT, I am working on a multi-year technology plan for our school. We will be due for pc upgrades in about a year. Right now, I am looking at the Dell Optiplex desktop series and trying to come up with a cost estimate for this part of the technology plan. Does Dell generally discount off of the prices listed on their website if you go through an account rep (we do not have an account rep yet)? If so, how much is a typical discount? I am looking at buying about 75 desktops with LCD monitors.

I read the following trade mags presently: -THE Journal -Eweek -Network World -Information Week

I would look at Adito--I am in the process of implementing it and it seems to work very well (free also). You can setup shortcuts to RDP for user desktops. They only have to login to the Adito website (runs on your server) and run a java applet--no config on home computers needed.

I was looking at Microsoft Licensing online and found the following item under Academic Open volume licensing: Server Windows Standard 2008 Windows License Only No Media Included (Open), Full New License (English) Manufacturer Part# P73-04145 I was wondering if anyone knows if the "Full new license" part means that Microsoft has changed policies and this volume license could be legally installed on a brand new server, with no previous OS. I know that desktop OS licenses are only upgrades through Volume License. I am guessing I still need to buy a retail copy of Windows Server 2008, but wanted to check. Thanks.

I found Edugeek one time when I was using Google to try to find a solution to a server issue. One of the top search results was for a topic on the Edugeek forum.

I record my maintenance schedule in Google Calendar. This way, I can update/view it from anywhere and easily share it with other techs who might be assisting with a project, if needed.

Works for me.

The machine is 2.4GHz (Celeron), 1gb RAM, 80GB hard drive, Windows XP Professional. The video card is EVGA 7300 GS. I am running TightVNC 1.3.9 (the latest version). I am running the latest version of the video card drivers. I have not found any settings about keyboard use in TightVNC. I did check and I am not in "view only" mode.

I have reimaged most of our classroom computers remotely this weekend. The new image works well on all of the computer, except for one. This machine is the same specifications as the rest, except it has an upgraded video card. For some reason, on this one system, TightVNC will not allow any keyboard input remotely. Since the school is closed for the holidays, I do not know if the system is allowing physical keyboard input or not. Remote desktop allows normal keyboard input. Any ideas on things to try? I have re-sent the machine image three times now, reinstalled the video drivers, reinstalled TightVNC, and checked device manager (no issues). The event log shows no errors. Thanks!

I use FOG Imaging and it seems to work perfectly. It is nice, if you have VPN access to the network and set your computers to PXE boot first, you can start the computer imaging process from anywhere. FOG is free. I have created one desktop image for about 7 different desktop models. We used to have different images for each model, but that was making the image process too confusing. I am presently working on scripting an automated sysprep (using the mini-setup) and using FOG to rename the PC and join the domain automatically. My scripts initiate a series of restarts to run gpupdate and trigger the Group Policy deployed software to automatically install, so that the entire imaging process is zero-touch. Hope this helps. Here's the link: SourceForge.net: FOG - A Free Cloning Solution

I found the company through Google, downloaded the demo and was impressed. They have incorporated a number of feature requests and reported issues into updates. Netcontrol2 does have thumbnail view as well.

That makes sense now, thank you!

We are planning on purchasing a few new servers in the next few months and I've started to look at Microsoft licensing for Windows Server 2008. What is considered a "qualified upgrade product" to be eligible to use a volume license for Windows Server 2008? Meaning, what operating system would I have to already be licensed for, to use a volume license for the server. I've looked over the Microsoft documentation and could not find any helpful information on this. Thank you.

I like the Hitachi projectors. One nice feature they have is you can install a Windows application on your classroom computers and control the projector through the network. This also allows you to monitor the status of all projectors at a glance. (For the projectors without an ethernet connection, we just add a Lantronix device server, and the program works the same as if it had an ethernet server built into the projector)

I have been using Wininstall LE to repackage MSI (I used the discover mode, where it tracks changes using snapshots before and after a program installation). However, Wininstall LE will no longer let me activate the free LE version (says their registation server is unavailable, or something similar). Does anyone know another free program that repackages MSI using a discover mode? Thanks.

Keep in mind that you only have to have one XP Professional or Vista Business volume license to legally be able to reimage all XP Professional workstations with the volume license media and VLK. We went ahead and purchased one XP Pro volume license for about $75. For all the time it saves in imaging, it is worth every penny (in my opinion).

I am just starting out using FOG Imaging and it seems to work perfectly. It is nice, if you have VPN access to the network and set your computers to PXE boot first, you can start the computer imaging process from anywhere. FOG is free I have created one desktop image for about 7 different desktop models. We used to have different images for each model, but that was making the image process too confusing. I am presently working on scripting an automated sysprep (using the mini-setup) and using FOG to rename the PC and join the domain automatically. My scripts will then initiate a series of restarts to run gpupdate and trigger the Group Policy deployed software to automatically install, so that the entire imaging process is zero-touch. Hope this helps.

Assuming the computer is on a domain... Create a separate sub-OU for the workstation and create a new group policy object for this OU. Then, open group policy management console on the Windows 2003 server and go to Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > User Rights Assignment. Double click on the "Deny Logon Locally" setting. Add all user groups except administrators and staff to this list. Hope this helps.

We are currently considering installing a new internet content filter on our campus. Right now, we have a very basic setup with router (DD-WRT) content filtering and Opendns.org filtering. We also have five access points connected directly to the wired network (no VLAN capable switches yet). This setup works ok, but we have found we really need more logging and a bit more control than these solutions offer. I am wanting all of the domain computers to silently connect to the proxy server, and log the username so that we can track student usage. I do not want students/staff to have to enter a username and password each time to use the internet on the domain computers. I do want students/staff to be prompted for a domain username/password when they try to use the internet on a wireless laptop. My plan was this: -Purchase new basic Dell server to run Smoothwall Express and Advanced Proxy. -Install new server in place of current router and activate transparent filtering -Configure Advanced Proxy for Windows Server authentication (I was not sure if you can have this and transparent filtering at the same time. If not, are there any ways to eliminate the need for users to change proxy settings?) I appreciate any and all input. I have previously tried to set this up in Vmware and to setup Dansguardian and both did not work well at all. We have a relatively low budget for this.

Attached is what our custom start menus look like for the staff logon accounts. The student start menu is the exact same, but does not have the "Staff Tools" folder. If you have any questions on how I setup the start menu on our system, let me know. Hope this helps!

Maybe FOG Imaging. FOG :: A Ghost-like Computer Cloning Solution - Home From what I have read, FOG Imaging allows you to create various tasks (backup, restore) that can be automatically run. When the computer starts up, it uses PXE boot to check with the FOG server to see if a task is scheduled. If so, it runs the task. Otherwise, it boots Windows normally. Again, I have not yet used the program. I am in the process of setting it up as I speak.

For a web-based file management system, I recommend you take a look at HTTP Commander (Web file manager - web based file manager - HTTP Commander ::: FEATURES). I am currently testing the Active Directory version on my network. So far, I was able to get it up and running, and all of the admin accounts setup in about 30 minutes. It runs on IIS. The testing has gone well so far for me, and we'll probably be buying the license next school year.

Yes, I did get all the roles moved over. The event log now has no critical errors. Thanks for the link. I'm printing it out as I speak for future reference. Very handy!

FN-Greatermanchester, thanks you again for all of your help and advice. I finally completed this server replacement today, and it worked fine--no major issues. I did forget to demote the old DC, so that caused a few minor issues with DNS and DHCP. If anyone else forgets to demote their old DC in the future, I recommend looking at the "removing a dead dc from ad" pdf document on the following webpage: Remove Dead DC from AD Thanks again for all the help!

I have just started using Spiceworks. Seems to work well, no problems yet.