Lee_K_81

YOu've got way too many daisy-chained switches. I would recommend that your 3Com 24 Ports all plug directly into youe NetworX MaxSwitch. That should help speed thigs up a bit. If you buy any more patch them directly into your MaxSwitch too. What do you use for your mail? It is usually recommended that your mail server is not a DC as this drastically increases the load.

Where's it based? Am i just being thick or does it not have a location on it?

RDC and TS are the same i believe. WS2003 comes with 2 TS licenses (aka RDC). Have you enabled / changed any TS license settings recently? We had same problem a while ago. I'm embarrased to say we couldnt figure it out. It was just before summer and the only thing on there was kids work which we copied off, formatted re-installed server 2003 and then put work back on. Might have tried to find a solution if we hadnt got 6 uninterrupted weeks to sort it out.

Exactly what I was looking for. Money's there to be spent and I don't have time to build, install and train technophobe staff a PC to do this. Thanks for the quick response people. Sam Bare in mind that with the one from SVP you still have to install the DVD drives. Which ever solution is best for you. I believe it only took my techie 10mins to build the kit from starmount.

DVD duplicator kit. You have to build yourself but it's very simple. very cost effective too. Various options for speeds, number of duplicators. http://www.starmount.co.uk/category/202.html

We're about to convert toilets. Currently my techies work in the server room, which ends up with everybody and his mate walking in to for various reasons. I dont like people that close to MY servers! :twisted: I'm fortunate enough to have my own cupboard. Out of interest how many NMs / SMs work in the same location as their techies. Our SMT have said i MUST have my own office, for various things such as Performance Management, etc..... I'd prefer to work with them, at least then I could demand tea! I know this is off the original topic which started a year ago, but what the hey. I didnt start it! It was Mr_T. Craaazy Foool!

Webman, i notice from your gallary you have some Buffalo Terrastations. Been looking at them as they seem a cost effective (read: cheap) NAS solution. They any good? Sorry to wander off topic.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6247939.stm funny thing is cant find anything on the RM / qca site. Wonder why that is........

lol, they should subcontract it to the school.. no, wait.... Amazing isnt it. They say they want to do a managed solution, but dont want to manage it themselves, so they pass it on to a third party, who may even then pass it on to a forth party, or be bought by another company, so who would we be working for if we TUPE over? I think the "prefered supplier" route would be best. i.e. Dell or whoever wins the contract offer their PCs at a lower rate knowing that all the schools will want to buy, or offer better support, etc. The whole mangled services / you must have THIS hardware / must work for us or change role thing , just doesnt sit well with me. Technicians in schools are flexible, we knoe teachers should give 24hrs notice minimum, but if they come in 10 minutes before we do our best to accommodate, (provided they bribe us with biscuits / cakes). Under a mangled service we'd say, nah, not enough notice, even heads wont be able to give direct orders as we dont work for school. And if they go above it's a case of "Well, we had other important roles to do for company we TUPE'd to"

Funny how RM are also involved in BSF. I'm actually pretty glad they seem to have the anti-midas touch.

Quote from our head today when i mentioned BSF and managed ICT Services: WE're in wave2 so hopefully it will go the same way as the KS3 ICT Tests by then

If you fail to plan..... then the plan can't go wrong..... and you dont need a backup plan, because that would just be a plan by virtue of there being no previous plan, and as we're failing to plan, that would mean we failed to fail to plan, therefore if we fail to fail to fail to plan we succeed! Yup, it's friday!

recently done the digital signage thing, so i think i'm going to buy a new kick-ass server, as we have a two server set-up for CMIS/eportal at the moment. Other than that our webserver could probably do with replacing. Plus we've been given the go ahead to hire another techie (YAY!), and convert some under utilised space (toilets) into a proper office for my techies. At the moment they use the server room (as i did when i was a technician) but it makes me shudder when you're standing in a room with 100k worth of equipment, drinking tea/coffee, students, teachers, and even student teachers wandering in and out asking for support, passwords reset, general social conversations, etc. Not exactly best practice!

Sounds like drunken talk to me! Was somebody (other than me!) on the "pop" last night?

We got the NetTopBox also. Had a company called Reflex in to do it. Installed screens etc for us also. It was only on the third visit (after order was placed) though that they mentioned sound wasnt included and would be an extra £1000! So now we have great signage, BBC news 24, etc, but no sound. I think we're going to implement the sound ourselves. Very positive experience of system but not installers.

We only use CMIS as an MIS, but our SEN department use Senco Manager (which is very very VERY poor), and for discipline they use Sleuth, which is average at best. Neither tie in with CMIS particularly well. Every year we have to run a list report of pupils so we can import into both these apps. plus there's the drips and drabs that come in throughout the school year. Senco Manager only allows one password, which is VERY annoying when somebody decides to change it! NOTE: opinion is based on design (basic front end on an access database) other tech aspects. Functionality maybe ok for people who use them.

I'm not saying you dont need experience or that it isnt important, but at the same point i'm not saying that qualifications are any more or less important. A good balance is needed. I was a bit ignorant to assume that because you were arguing the case of experience over quals that you were unqualified. I apologise. But at the same point, you may not have gotten the jobs, been given backing for projects, etc, that gave you the experiences you got were it not for those qualifications. This is what should be happening more. These types of tests would provide more proof of what a person is capable of doing. Just because somebody has qualifications doesnt necessarily mean they go straight for a book, especially in IT. I hated books at uni. By the time they're published they're usually out of date within 6 months. It may amuse you both that i didnt actually want to go to uni after college, i wanted the work & experience route, i just couldnt get a job, everybody was after graduates.

As qualifications they are fine. However the problems seem to be stemming from people lying about what qualifications they have. If all the CVs that come in have a long list of qualifications listed on them how else can you differentiate between them? But surely you are in the same position when it comes to people lying about their experience. If somebody hands over a certificate (assuming it's not forged) thats proof. If i say i've got 10 years working as this and that, etc. There's very little proof. I agree if you dont have the experience then it will show up pretty quickly but only the same as those who have the qualifications. Most computing students have some interest in IT and will have good practical skills to build on. But if someone sees an error for the first time, by definition they've not dealt with it before, so having experience doesnt necessarily give you an advantage in that case. Once you have qualifications you build up experience on the job, I would strongly recommend to anyone without qualifications or certifications to get some if they want to progress further. As somebody with qualifications nothing will change my mind, much the same as Jake and Geoff will probably be arguing the opposite. @Uraken: what have you started!

I'm against you on this one Jake, I know paper MCSE's have devalued the cert, but at least it's something. Anybody could put on their CV that they have x amount years experience, and ask a friend at the company to write a reference, but an MCSE / or BSc / MSc / CCNA / etc. are there and can be handed over as proof. Ok, yes somebody might not be able to do something straight away but a good education / certifications shows an ability to learn. Even those people who have just read the book and dumped it onto paper to get their certs have some sort of intellegence about them. I'm not knocking experience, i think it's great, heck i'm getting mine now, but i know for a fact i would not have progressed as quickly as i have now if i hadnt got qualifications.

I agree that in the first instance experience SHOULD win over, but long term you will probably find it's those that get the experience and quals. If you were interviewing candidates: Cand 1: 9 years experience, no formal quals Cand 2: 8 Years experience, MCSE, CCNA Cand 3: 6 years experience, Degree, MCP It would likely be cand 2 or 3 right? Obviously this is very generic and in an actual interview situation cand 1 might blow them away while the others flop, but on paper you'd be looking at 2 or 3. The point i'm trying to convey is that experience is great, so is qualifications, either academic or professional, but it's when you combine the 2 that you really do yourself the best chance. There is no hard and fast rule on this career path, as there is in accountancy, law, or medicine.

NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.... Our *four*...no... *Amongst* our weapons.... Amongst our weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise....

Blimey - you went to finishing school - was it in Switzerland? Seriously - those of us of a "mature" age usually just drifted into IT from other things (I have a degree in Industrial Engineering), when there was a shortage of staff in the 80s. I tell kids to train up to be accountants - its a lot more use to them than IT. :? Yes, skiing in the alps every day. They taught us elocution (but not spelling) and how to carry oneself in a correct manner. OK, i meant "After I finished school". Jeeze grammar police or what!

After finishing school I went to a college and did a BTEC ND in computing. (Some uni's wont accept these now, but it was better for uni course as it gave me more experience). After that i went on to uni, and did a degree in computer science. After that i got a job as a full time technician, but went back to uni in the evenings to do a Masters degree in computer science. After almost 2 years as a tech, i became a systems manager in charge of 2 techs, which is what i'm doing now. 10 months in and things are going well, about to get a third tech.

I would say that a big part of the decision about having one or two domains comes down to staff ability (teaching not technical) before we migrated to one domain we had: one RM2.4 domain and one pure NT4 domain. They were set up not to trust each other and staff kept having issues with differing log ons (come on we know it's hard enough for them to remember one log-on!), saving work in one home directory and it not being in the next, etc. Now we have one domain it's much easier for us. LIke limbo said, unless there is completely seperate wiring, the security risks still exist regardless of whether it's one domain or two.

I highly recommend AdInfinitum (no i dont work for them!) We only really use it once a year , but it's great for bulk import, creates all the directories and shares, set permissions, can be used to set all AD properties including exchange ones. etc. Great stuff. I think we paid £120 or something like that.