tmcd35

He was doing ok for the first couple of paragraphs. Then he seemed to suggest the likes of Google manually vet each webpage they trawl, confused a search engine with an ISP, and forgot that most of this stuff is hosted in foreign institutions beyond his control. I came away wondering if he had any idea how the Internet actually works beyond "wires and pixie dust"? Oh-hum, Getting ISP's to install a central filter that I can opt out off via a simple web interface isn't such a bad, end of the world as we know it, idea. How ISP's go about confirming that it's an adult that turned the filtering off is perhaps more interesting. I think he needs to talk our friends at Smoothwall about transparent proxies on our out going connections at LINX... (then we can all just get VPN's to Somalia and be done with it!)

Both Christian Bale and Joseph Levitt-Gordon are mighty fine actors. Having either on board as Batman might make me want to watch it, although I'm not sure if Joseph can pull off the part (he's my age (mid 30's) but will always be "the kid from 3rd Rock"). The last Superman film was just plan pants! If it's the same actors/directors/writers/etc then count me out!

@Firefox has the general order of work. We have done a few server upgrades/replacements for local primary schools over the past couple of years. The one thing I would add is TIME. Seriously, you need lots of it. We spend weeks on this. At a rush I think we can do it in a fortnight. That's not to say it can't be done quicker, I just wouldn't want to. Each step needs time to make sure the changes have fully replicated across the domain controllers and are working as expected before going on to the next. This is especially important for the DNS, Global Catalog, and FSMO roles. I've borked AD's in the past by not taking it slow.

I thought something similar earlier. So google.co.uk is defaulted to uber strict safe search turned on. Fair enough, what happens when I go to google.com? Auto-redirect to google.co.uk based on originating IP? Fine, what if I use a VPN or transparent proxy? I'm guessing ISP's will be asked to block these then? I tell you it's like being at school

Just had a quick reread of this thread and I'm left slightly confused. What exactly is your brief? You mention "today's ideal infrastructure". Is it to make a case for/against 1:1 devices with a preference towards the Apple model? or is it a case of defining the requirements of the core infrastructure that will support the devices and software the school chooses for teaching and learning? Is this a document that will define that questions and requirements so decisions can be made about what to purchase and what to put out to tender? I agree with others, it may be worth taking a step back from the end product or a single supplier and taking a wider view. It almost seems that questions and decisions are being formed around a final solution rather than the other way round? Can I ask what your role is in the project? I'm getting the sense of a governor/parent being asked to take a lead. If that's the case then a consultant or network manager may be a good investment?

I nearly posted that earlier (don't know why I didn't now). Also thought, look how well that's worked out for them...

http://swotti.starmedia.com/tmp/swotti/cacheBWFKIG1HEA==/imgmad%20max4.jpg Given the current heatwave - anything's possible!

Have a look in task manager and see how menu CPU cores are showing. I think the fact it's only using 50% of the available resource is a coincidence not a licensing issue. @john is right, it's a paperwork issue. You don't to put a second license key in anywhere. It would have worked even if you'd bought only 1 license - it's just that Microsoft would have been very, very unhappy with you

I was going to ask how you got the animated gif there (I did try) but then I saw the answer in the quote - I was going to use that one from Wikipedia but couldn't import it into Edugeek

Being from Norfolk we think it's something to do with the local footie team... Did remind me of this though....

Although, I wouldn't advice "experimenting" with a production server - especially if it's the schools sole server, I can understand why you'd be a bit reticent - I will say this, you'll never get the experience until you actually do it! (Something I'm very found of reminding the techs here). Before doing anything, build a couple of virtual machines, set up test DC and experiment. See what happens when you do a direct upgrade, try and work out the steps to doing a fresh install or a migration. Once you've seen it working in a test environment you'd be much more confident in which way to go and how to do it on the live environment. As for instructions, there are some old threads around here. I'm sure I posted to one or two in the past.

Talk to someone like Phoenix or Millgate and you should be able to buy the education licenses (about £30-£50 each if memory serves) for the latest version then use the downgrade rights to get 2010 for the Volume License Service Center website.

@sonofsanta - Kudos for the most imaginative RAM/CPU analogy I've read yet - love it! It appears my saw doesn't have access to enough screwdriver

How did you get such a lucky break? To say I'm jealous wouldn't even begin to cover it! Things I'll think about... Internet Connection - Gigabit fibre carrier with EFM backup Routers, Firewalls and VPN Switches and VLAN's Managed WiFi - 802.11ab (I think that's the new standard replacing 802.11n) BOYD/1 Device per pupil - Tablets/Android/iPads Server Virtualisation - HyperV vs VMWare - failover clustering SAN's System Center 2012 Thin Clients Virtual PC's and/or Virtual Apps iMac's for Music, Art, Media CAD tools and 3D printers for technology Management Information System Help Desk software, Asset Management and Room Bookings Finance Software Assessment and Behaviour Software I think I've bearly scratched the surface with that list! EDIT: Just realised that list is based off an assumption that the Free school is a secondary school or pretty large primary. For a primary, I think the list would be a little different

I think, expand on answers already given, it may be worth noting that System Center is a suite of related products and not just one product. It would help to understand exactly what parts of System Center you want to use and how you plan to use them before any real advise on licensing can be given. As as been rightly pointed out most of the licenses for use with desktop PC's are included in EES to if all you want to do is use features of System Centre with your desktops (Anti-Virus, Config Manager, etc) then you probably already have all the licenses you need. If you want to manage servers (Virtual Machine Manager, Data Protection, Anti-Virus, etc) then you almost certainly need to buy additional licences.

fixed

Sounds like the game just doesn't need to use all the RAM you have available. So adding more isn't going to do anything. If you're CPU is hitting 100% it's obviously being maxed out. So a faster CPU might help. Since you're running games though I'd hazard a guess that either a) the GPU isn't good enough for the game you want to play, or b) graphics settings are set too high (drop the resolution, reduce the colour palate, turn of AA, etc). Laptops aren't exactly known for being the best gaming rigs. The link to your laptop spec pretty much confirms this. 4Gb ram is plenty (thus 65% used) but the Pentium T4500 and Intel graphics chips don't make great gaming combinations. Unfortunately there's not a whole lot you can do as they are rarely easily (if at all) upgradable by the end user. You might be able to put a faster CPU in there but the GPU is still going to bottleneck the performance.

R2 is 64bit only, so if your 2008 install is 32bit then it's a reinstall only I'm afraid - can't be upgraded

But slower write speeds. And since it's for CCTV video, I'd go less space more speed on this one.

Given the number of drives, I'd go for RAID-10 with a couple of hot spares. 16Tb, speed, redundancy and fail over.

It's a basic question without a one size fits all basic answer! Easiest thing to do is cover off the basic functionality of each device and let you read into it what you will (or ask more questions). The CPU processes the instructions for every running program. The faster it goes - more Ghz - the quicker programs will run. Running quicker generates more heat. How much heat depends on the exact make and model. In most instance, unless you are overclocking, it shouldn't matter if the CPU is hitting 100% - that just means it's being very efficient. If you are having problems as it get's near 100% then you have a heatsink/fan cooling problem. The RAM stores the instructions the CPU is going to process. The more RAM you have the more instructions can be stored there without the CPU being made to wait for the slower Hard Drive. It doesn't matter how much RAM you have, the computer should never run any hotter. The advantage of more of one over the other depends largely on what you using the computer for. And for most people it's very easy to spend too much money buying more of either than they really need. Can't say either of those dials tell you very much anyway. Your better off taking a peek at the Resource Manager/Task Manager to see what the computer is actually doing.

Oh, how I wish that had turned out to be true! Got lots of complaints trying to migrate from Office 2003 to OpenOffice 3. Not a murmur when we installed Office 2010.

Lol - I was more wondering - which fish? and do they still bite? Must say this is the perfect thread for building up an appetite this fun Thursday lunchtime... Mmm, Mmm, Mmm

Reminded me of this...