jamesfed

Check in the PCs BIOS to see if the SATA controler is set to ACHI mode - if so then you need to change this to IDE or Legacy Mode. (Windows XP wont boot in AHCI)

What OS are the laptops because if its XP with just SP2 consider an upgrade to SP3 as there were a number of Wi-Fi improvements in it. Also have you looked at machine (instead of user) authentication? Basically it takes the machines AD username and password instead of the users and authenticates that against AD - its what we use and it works very robustly.

For use in a server or a desktop PC? (by that I mean what kind of qulity card do you need)

We haven't had anything offical about social networking from our LEA in quite some time - maybe some kind of parents consent form would help here?

Anyone interested in taking a 2 day FITS practitioner course in August? We will be tentatively holding a course here at Fitzharrys School in Abingdon in August on the 15th and 16th, if we get the numbers. If you would like more info just PM me and I will be happy to pass on the course information to you along with contact details to sign up for the course.

SSTP is your thing works over HTTPS so no special ports need opening - its what we are working on at the moment.

Its the NIC with a direct connection to the internet and no support for NAT that throws us.

We took a look at it but our LEA dosn't support IPv6 yet - would love to deploy though. In the end we just went with a SSTP VPN, still trying to get my head around the right security cert for it (but hopefuly I've figured it out for tomorrow!).

We use it to do a full bare metal backup (AD, DNS, DHCP, File Store, WSUS, WDS and everything else!) over iSCSI to a Qnap NAS box at our Primary School. Whole system works a treat and the entire backup of about 300Gb of data can be done in about 2hrs. The whole setup was very next next next done and haven't had to touch the settings once since the first time setup. It does full weeklys then daily incrimentals and I think we have about 100 backups on the rosta at the moment - did a full test a few weeks ago and worked a treat

A Lenovo X100e was going to be my fallback in the event that I couldn't find a HP dv2 (by the time I bought it the dv2 line had been retired) but in the end bought it at John Lewis for £200 off and the usal 2 year warranty - ripped Vista off it instantly and put on a clean install of Windows 7 If you wan't something seriously good keep an eye out for the new HPs with the AMD E-350 APUs in - even more powerful with much improved battery life.

Did a WSUS install when it came out and didn't have any problems on XP or 7 - its now included as part of our standard image and we have no issues installing the updates.

My HP dv2 runs off an Athlon Neo II - think of it as a super supped up Atom (in fact I can even run Crysis on my laptop at low detail levels). One thing I would strongly suggest is that you look at getting a SSD for your laptop - even if you only go for a 60Gb it will make all the difference.

Sorry its part number is Q3677A and on the side it says HP Color LaserJet 4650.

Hey, If anyone is in need for a HP 220v fuser unit then do let me know - we have a brand new one (been sitting in stores for a while) still unopened and would be willing to part with it for about £70. Happy to arrange pickup from anyone close to Abingdon or we can work out postage via PM if needed. Thanks, James

Hey, I've got 4 of these if you are still interested - just let me know. James

We're looking at getting a SSTP VPN up and running (just need to sort out a problem with the SSL Cert) - as the whole thing runs over HTTPS it should be difficult if not impossible for anyone to throttle it. One of the key selling points about it is that because its just plain old HTTPS its very rare that any public hot spot would have any reason to block comms over HTTPS.

What Wireless system is it that you are using?

As I understand the reason you can't put the key in the GPO is that GPOs are stored in the Sysvol folder - as the GPOs themselves aren’t encrypted and sysvol is readable by everyone on your network anyone would then potentially be able to read that key. We use 802.1x authentication here with our Aerohive WiFi - works like a treat and I don't ever have to worry about putting keys in manually as everything is looked after by the GPO. If you at all can look into 802.1x and RADIUS – it makes life so much simpler than playing around with scripts and once its setup it is very hard to break.

Take a look at Kaviza VDI as well - just bought out by Citrix and well aimed at schools, we've got 20 clients here at the moment and setup is a dream as theres no need for SANs (just internal storage in the servers). Everything runs over Citrix HDX and as already said its a very smooth protocol with even flash video working out very well indeed.

I can at least try If not eBay may soon get paied a visit...

Sorry nope all 10zigs here and although many thanks for the offer I doubt I'll ever see us use another brand of thin client

A few months ago we were sent a printer by one of our long term suppliers to keep - only problem is we have nowhere to put it besides in its box under the workbench! As such if anyone wants it we have a unused (still in its box) Ricoh Aficio GX e3350N printer (link to specs) which we would be happy to sell for about £100 (or nearest offer!). If you are able to pick it up from Abingdon (Oxfordshire) then by all means if not then we can arrange for postage. Key features are- 29ppm printing in Colour/Black and White Networking built in 250 sheet paper tray If you want to know anything more just post on here or PM me!

I've got a HTC Pro 7 and my sister has a HD7 - can't say I've ever had a problem with either of them and WP7 is nothing like WM6.x so don't worry about being left with something pantsy. The one thing that I like most about WP7 over iOS and Andoird is that WP7 has more options on hardware than the iPhone (like with Android phones) but has the same very fluid user experiance as with iOS (mainly because Microsoft monitors the app store).

Wow and there I was thinking that SSTP VPNs where cool (at least once I get it setup) - might just have to see if I can get something like that setup next year for our DL165 G7s.

I've wondered about that but never thought it were possible? Do you know someone whoes done that (dual controlers with DAS between 2 servers)?