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.

Does it POST? you should hear a single beep when you power up. If so how long have you left the machine with the second monitor plugged in?

Assuming it's not under warranty I'd have canalised a working one for diagnostics. If it's under warranty, especially AiO's, then it's someone else problem!

In order (to try)... Input source on monitor - is it set correctly? Connections - is the VGA/DVI/HDMI cable fully plugged in correctly at both ends? Cable - try another VGA/DVI/HDMI cable incase the one you have has a break Monitor - Find a PC that works, plug this monitor into it, do you get the same problem? Computer - find a PC that works, plug it's monitor into your computer, do you still have the same problem? Graphics Card unseated - open the case and reseat the graphics card - does it need power from the PSU? Graphics card - if possible test in another working computer and or replace with new After that you're in the realms of motherboard or CPU faults. But if it's any component inside the case that's faulty it should beep on POST, unless the isn't powering the system.

No mystery: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/how-do-you-do/155715-itunes-movie-library.html Just wanted to say thanks of for sending my thought processes in another direction - although they've hit another brick wall, but one that's not insurmountable - just requires a little thought (and a common google account).

Thanks, I think you might have given me a solution to a problem posted elsewhere!

So, our Science department have asked us to set up a shared folder to host some video resources - not a problem, so long as it's all legal and above board says I. We want to buy episodes off iTunes says them. At this point I'm a little stuck. Does iTunes include DRM? Are the videos only playable through iTunes? or are they DRM free? I've checked Amazon and they don't have the video in question. If we bought the DVD, more expensive and more episodes than we want, can we rip it? Only to be shown to a class, for education purposes? I know if we recorded the episode of TV when it was last broadcast it wouldn't be an issue. I'm usually good on copyright, but my head is drawing a blank on this one. It's an episode of Brian Cox's Human Universe, if that helps. At the moment my head says install iTunes on all Science teacher PC's but then the movie will need storing locally and there'll be a limit on how many PC's can be associated with the account? And/or the iTunes library might need hosting on a network share - anyone done this, is it possible. They have a reasonable request, I just can't see the wood for the trees in fulfilling it! Thanks.

A proper punch tool is easier than a flat head screw driver

Go for two lower spec'd host rather than one super powerful host. Just make sure both hosts can run all the virtual machines you want to run on their on. Day to day, just load balance and split the VM's equally between them. If one goes down, or needs to be taken off line, just move it's VM's into the spare capacity of the other host until you can bring it back online and move them back again. As for the host licence, no you don't need to pay extra for it. Windows comes licensed for the host plus x number of VM's depending on edition purchased. The low resources used by the full GUI OS, and the extra hassle of not having a GUI in Core or free Hyper-V means it's really not worth it. Just install full Windows on the host and be done with it.

1. It's the cheapest option, since it's included in the price of Windows - which you need to buy anyway. 2. Correct. 3. What spec do you want/need to assign each of those servers? Add it up, double it, add an extra CPU core and 2Gb Ram for the host. There's your answer. I have hosts with 2x12 core Xeons and 128Gb Ram for about 10-12 machines. Unless you have a very good reason, or very tight budgets, nothing beats traditional fat clients and given form factors like the Intel NUC doing anything else is a lot of effort for little gain, IMHO.

Quite possible, I may have misunderstood the quote I got for advantage. I can't put my hands on it right now (is on my desk *somewhere*). I could have sworn the the annual price for the Promethean boards was significantly higher than the annual price for the Smart boards. As I say, I'd love to be wrong as I can re-evaluate our long term plan around different choices of boards. Like a lot of places we're heavily invested in Smart now, changing would be a pain, so we have to get this right. EDIT: I've re-dug out the quote and have very obvious reading comprehension skills deficiencies. You are right, the £300 licence included the 1st year advantage, then advantage at the same cost after that! Bonus! I'll adjust our plans accordingly (after a trip to Specsavers!)