trekmad

Here we have 3 laptop trolleys and 3 ICT suites. We stated from day 1 we would help a teacher setup a lesson once using a suite or a trolley and give them all the support they need. After this they would be on their own. Sounds daunting but part of using ICT in a lesson includes setting up the necessary equipment/apparatus in plenty of time for it. Same goes for projector set ups. The first time we give them support and after that we will only assist if something is not working. If we didn't hold to our guns on this we would spend all of our day running around after teachers setting things up instead of repairing and maintaining equipment/network/telephone system/CCTV/photocopiers/AV/access control etc etc etc. We get a few members of staff who think it is unfair and "how can they be expected to set up equipment for a lesson..." but overall everyone is happy with this.

I would just like to say that we have been buying i-desks for a little over 4 years now and have 82 desks on site. We have recently seen an upgrade of our original room with new cassettes and monitors and are soon preparing the upgrade of another. Over the years I have seen numerous changes and some minor problems which have been addressed and fixed to great satisfaction. A timetable mess up this academic year led to us needing a 3rd ICT room at very short notice and i-desk pulled out all the stops to get us 26 desks supplied and installed within 2 weeks of placing the order. Yes sometimes there are some minor issues with the product but this occurs with anything you buy these days. The fact that i-desk pull out all the stops to make sure their customers are happy with their products and fix any problems is commendable in this day and age. I am also sure you can all understand that the experience a person has with a company is controlled by the quality of their sales reps. When you get a bad sales rep chaos soon follows and the fact that i-desk have let 3 of their reps go is a sure sign they mean business. Our sales rep, Eric Catton, has been superb throughout and my experience with Steve Morgan and all the installers we have had on site over the years has been fantastic. Please get in contact with i-desk if you have any problems. Stuart Winfield St Edmund's College

Thanks for the comments so far. We have ruled out switching to SIMS due to our past history with the company and the comments on this forum back up our decision. Although it would be easy to upgrade to the PASS academic system we want to ensure it is a good package before we jump in. I have heard a few comments regarding timtable integration which concern me and would appreciate any feedback.

I know this question has come up in preious topics and entries but I would like a more recent impression on available MIS'. We were previously a SIMS user but, due to numerous problems, we decided not to upgrade to SIMS.NET and instead moved to CMIS. Initially we had not major problems with CMIS but over the last couple of years have been plagued with a large number of faults, incredibly poor bug fix times and general lack of development in the product. This has led us to consider moving to a new MIS and we are currently looking at WCBS Pass, which we use for our accounts system, or Hebron which has apparently improved considerably over the last couple of years. We are looking specifically at these two products as we would like to combine both our academic and accounts systems (as long as the product does both well). I know this is a lot to ask but I would apprecate feedback from users of either system with comments on Usability Timetabling Assessments Cover Accounts (for Hebron only as we are happy with PASS Accounts) Core data and reports from it Web access Roll Call Examinations Many thanks Stuart

We are not yet using VLAN's although we will be later on in the year to segment off students with their wireless laptops.

Sorry, should have stated that it's the hardwired connection I cannot connect with. I have also checked conflicting computer names and IP addresses. When AP is in proper location it will not authenticate users via radius nor can I connect via the RUI. When the AP is back in the office it works fine.

We are experiencing a strange problem where some machines and some wireless APs will no longer connect to the network in their original location. If I bring the equpment back to the office for testing it works fine but will not work when I take it back. I have tried all the basics such as NIC, network cable, PSU (for the AP's), socket on the switch and, where mutliple switches are in a cabinet, plugging it into a different switch. Has anyone come across this before? I could understand the fault as hardware error if the equipment didn't work anywhere but we have multiple machines and AP's now doing this. Network Setup - Server 2003 R2 active directory, HP 5308XL core switch connecting to edge switches via fibre 1000 base. 3COM 4400 switches on the edge (will be changed to HP 2600 this year).

This has happened on several occasions. We booked an engineer on the first occasion and when he came out he left us with a few spare so we could replace them ourselves. To change them you unlock the back panel, unplug the IEC cable from the power hub for that bay (worthwhile doing now for safety and to be able to use the rest of the trolley). Then unscrew the bay from the front of the trolley and pull out. Then using a socket set with an extension rod you can dismantle the module and replace the individual charging cable. The charging cable has a connector which makes it easily swappable without soldering etc. Hope this helps.

The trolley is a smartline S 30 which stores up to 30 laptops.

The trolley is three years old and we have just purchased new laptops to be housed in the existing trolley. With the new laptops come new voltages for trickle charging and connectors. We have been quoted £750 ex vat for the work to be carried out and at time of order were quoted 6 weeks lead time. We accepted with the plan that the work would be carried out before the start of term. Now they are giving us a date in september which is nearly 9 weeks from order and the trolley will not be ready for the start of term. Normally I would agree their customer service is pretty good but on this occasion we find their upgrade pricing high and the wait time from order to be extremely excessive. Many thanks Stuart

Not only are we being charged £750 to change the charging units on the trolley we were given a 6 week lead time from the company. This was cutting it fine but still left us a few days to have the trolley ready for the start of term. After chasing them for weeks for an install date they now tell us it won't be until the middle of september (9 weeks from order date) :x So here we are, a loyal customer with 3 trolleys, now left with new laptops which can't be charged for the start of term. I don't know what lapsafe are playing at but I am not impressed. I think it's time to start looking at other trolleys for the future. Still the only bright side is I can watch them squirm when I complain at the Bett show in January when the stand is busy in my nice loud voice.

Did you purchase one of these? If so what do you think of it. I am looking into buying one as it seems to do pretty much everything a mid range SAN does but at half the price Stuart

To give you further advice on our experence we have had the following problems. 1. Staff trapping charging cables in the doors slicing the cable. 2. Staff leaving the network cable in place when they move the trolley not only damaging the cable but the socket in the classroom as well as the socket on the back of the trolley itself. 3. Staff not plugging the trolley back in upon returning it to it's home. The next lesson then has laptops with dead batteries. Trekmad

Anyone thinking of puchasing a Lapsafe trolley please be aware than when you need to replace your laptops with new ones there is a hefty price to pay lapsafe to adjust your trolley accordinly to do this. We have a Smartline S 30 trolley (holds and charges 30 laptops) and want to upgrade it with new HP laptops and have been quoted almost £750 ex vat for the work. We are proceeding with the upgrade but will not be purchasing any more of the lapsafe trolleys in the future. Trekmad

I would say 4 to include: 1 Senior NM 1 Assistant NM or IT Manager 1 Senior Technician 1 Technician The two technicians would be involved in fire fighting most of their time leaving the required time to manage the servers and databases while managing the department. Depending on the amount of lesson support you have to give this may increase to 5.

I am looking to move away from my domain controllers also being file servers and would like to add a nas/san with tape backup for offsite requirements. Primarily it will be for file storage but I will be adding the exchange mailboxes as well later on and will be using Symantec Backup Exec 11d for continuous protection. If you use this method of storage/backup what setup have you employed and with what equipment? Many thanks

We have used the following to extend the USB to 13m without a problem http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?sku=CS14133