tmcd35

I pay VM a little less than £30pcm for 60Mb. They're threatening to double it for free to 100Mb (their maths is better than mine it seems), who am I to complain? That's all I've paid for years now. Freeview/FreeSat is good enough IMHO if you really need live TV. Personally I've made do with a combination of YouTube/iPlayer/Netflix for a long time now. Add in the odd Plex/Torrent content, and I've all the TV media I need. And 60Mb is more than speedy enough to deliver it. I did have Sky Now for a while - less than £10pcm for the basic sky channels streamed, plus on demand, might found I never actually watched it.

I'd suggest the first priority is the 38 desktops over 9 years old. I'd upgrade the two existing server to 2012 R2 as you suggested in option 2, and then make some immediate in roads on those with the help of ICT Direct. But spending this £2k must be backed up with a longer term development plan that slowly upgrades all the kit over a sensible life cycle. So next year you want to get another chunck of those desktops out the way along with some of those projectors and maybe some staff laptops (although given ages I'd say the oldest desktops probably take priority).

That's very interesting...

I know you're nervous about the age of some of the kit, but unless leasing is an affordable option then you need to accept that you don't have either the time or money to do everything. The best thing you can do is work with someone like ICT Direct to come up with a 5-year rolling plan, prioritise. 1 Server plus 9 Staff laptops per year? Look at how you can re-purpose existing servers to tide you over. Can you virtualise? Can you combine hardware into a Frankenstein box? Will the old hardware run Server 2012R2 (probably yes). Rather than replacing old hardware wholesale, I'd look at cheap hard drive and ram upgrades to tide you over a couple of years, yes SSD's on the desktop. IWB's can be ignored. Projectors, sounds like out situation here! A rolling program replacing 3-4 with Casio LED's and replacing 9-10 bulbs each year until you've replaced all the projectors with longer lasting bulbless. Don't though any working hardware away if you have the space to store it. Old projectors, PC's, laptops will get you out of a jam with spare parts, or as full working spares, when the some of the overused ageing hardware starts failing.

Can it open/convert Smart notebook files?

There are those that believe that life here...began out there...

Only two cables are required. A splitter should duplicate all connections (live or not). I'll put money on a splitter working.

Used to get similar stuff all the time, which is why I only buy USB now. That and bent pins. I started my IT career having to straighten pins to rescue keyboards. If it's anything like the ones I've seen in the past, the rest of the PS/2 connector is still plugged into the back of the PC - you may need a pair of pliers

Relised my mistake after I posted - that would be a class B network

My understanding is there are three private ranges, one based from class A (10.), one based from class B (172.x.) and one based from class C (192.168.). Which one you use is completely arbitrary so long as you have enough IP's for your requirements. The actual class of the network is defined by the subnet mask not the base IP. So 10.122.76.0 range using 255.255.252.0 is actually a class C network. The only thing that is important is you have enough IP's and all assigned IPs full within the subnet mask.

It's difficult. The pay schemes I've seen don't tend to differentiate the roles by network size/number of computers, but by number of staff managed, strategic responsibilities, and possibly budgetary responsibility. For what you've described, based on the documentation I have in front of me, I'd put on on Grade F (I guess that's Grade 6) with Job title 'ICT Support Engineer'. If you're supporting external schools - a cluster - then under the reward guide for our LEA, that's grounds for Grade G (ICT Technical Manager), as would line management of staff. Higher grades tend to ask for more strategic independence, budgetary control and line management responsibilities. Personally, I'd go in asking for full time at Grade 7 and a term time junior tech at grade 4 or 5.

I'd imagine VeryPC, Stone, or Novatech could sort you out with a very nice i3 with 8Gb Ram and 120Gb SSD for under £450. I bet VeryPC could even put your school logo on the lid (they're very good at that!).

Yep, no problem. in fact solves some issues. They take their laptops home can install their own drivers and software. It's a tool for them to use in lesson planning. They are all kept up to date with the latest AV definitions and everyone knows that if we find stuff we don't like on the laptop when we service it then it will be wiped clean and whatever is on there will be lost forever. They're adults, it's generally best to treat them that way - until they give you reason otherwise.

If there's no beeps when powering up then either the internal speaker is faulty or, more likely, there's a deeper fault in either the PSU, motherboard, or BIOS. Personally I'd send it away to a specialist to repair and wait for them to supply an obituary.

I'd say that looks overpriced and under spec'd. Speak to Novatech or VeryPC for something more realistic. Or ICT Direct if you you want amazing, cheap, and don't mind refurb.