steveg

We had very poor results with the hdmi over cat5 adaptors. In the end we got a fiber optic hdmi hybrid cable, and this has worked perfectly with whatever we have plugged into if over the last 3 years. It is 20m long. Steve

At the time we deployed it, the education version didn't exist! We haven't increased numbers since then, so i haven't tried the education version. Steve

We use filebrowser business, with our mdm we can push app settings out so it has the network shares already setup. Seems popular with staff, is a one off fairly small cost per ipad, and it has always been very reliable. Steve

I wonder if it could just be that you notice it more though? Any heavy online user probably sees 100+ adverts per day, and we ignore most of them. You mention Argos, and are then looking out for an advert for it, so do see it. You may well have had 3 adverts for Argos come up throughout a day anyway, and just not noticed. I wonder if you had just thought about Argos but not actually said it, you would have still seen it because you were actively looking for it? Steve

How about a Hyundai i30n? looks like fun, cheaper than others in similar sort of spec, although a little over budget because there aren't many old ones out there, and not sure how well it will hold value. Think it meets all of the other specs though. Hyundai i30 N 2.0 T-GDI (275PS) N Performance 5 Dr Hatch, Used vehicle Blue 797 miles Steve

I get the cheap ones from hills components, and have had no issues with them, although we only use them for charging, not sure what they are like for data. I'd say they break a little more often than the genuine ones, but seem to last pretty well. Steve

Most encrypted sticks if you put the wrong password in 6 times, it completely wipes and re-sets it, not sure if it is the same for these ones. Steve

My daughter uses Squeebles for her spelling - we can record the words for her, and it tests here. Haven't had a chance to trial it at work yet, but they seem to do quite a few school apps Schools Steve

At home I have had sky broadband for a while, and have used the supplied router, and 2 extra Netgear wireless points to cover the whole house and annex. We recently upgraded to the max broadband package, and got sent a new router. The extra speed has made us notice how slow the netgear access points are (they are very old) so I thought I would use the old sky router as an access point. I have disabled dhcp on the old router, and given it a static ip address in the same range as the new one, but outside the dhcp scope of the new router. It is connected to the new router via a cat5 cable. (it was previously connected to the open reach modem via the same port) I can now connect a windows laptop to the new router over wireless, and it works perfectly, getting the full download speed. The problem comes with my Android phone, an android tablet, an alexa speaker and one of our 3 (wired) sky boxes (the other 2 are fine). These now all randomly fail to connect to the internet, and it doesn't matter if they are connecting to the original sky router, or the new one, the same problem happens - sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. I've checked the ip adress, dns and gateway that my phone is getting, and it is correct. I have also tried disabling ipv6 on both routers, and this actually seemed to make it better (until i did this the tablet would not connect at all) but it still happens quite regularly. If I turn off the old router, and then connect to just the new one, all devices work fine. Anyone got any ideas, or should I stop being tight and just buy a new access point? Steve

Did anyone visit the Griffin stand at Bett? I had a look and was really impressed by their cases. They had a range of colours, about 5 or so I think, but I cant remember exactly which model it was (possibly survivor All-Terrain?), and their website doesn't show any cases in the range of colours I saw at Bett. One of the guys on the stand took my details and was going to send through some samples, but not sure how long this will take as I'm sure a lot of people spoke to them, and I need to place an order soon. I really need the range of colours to stop ipads keep going to the wrong place! Apparently different letters for different trolleys aren't simple enough! Steve

How big is the school, how many sims users do you have (concurrent and total)? How big is your current sims database? What other servers do you already have, and what is virtualised?

Which url are you using? We were using one for ages which still tried to load silverlight, changed it and now it seems to work much more reliably, although we do find the system pretty slow at the best of times! The url we use now is https://juniorclassic.microlibrarian.net/?customerid= with the customer id after it, ours begins U01 Steve

Just tried it here, it would appear that anything in the search just takes you back to the home screen. On the right hand side (not in search) there was a link to a festive competition, clicking that opened fine, and from there I could open pdfs. Steve

Depending on the layout of the suites, could you mount something like this under the desk https://www.amazon.co.uk/Star-Facilities-Cabinet-Lockable-W160xD80xH200mm/dp/B000SHOTGQ/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1509540030&sr=8-3&keywords=key+cupboard and then run 5m usb extension cables from each pc into the box, with all the dongles then stored in there? Not practical if you have a lot of individual desks. Steve

Fencing shouldn't cause too much of an issue, but trees will, although not so much in winter. I've put 2 links in in the past using ubiquiti bridges, one was around a mile and line of sight and worked fine. The other was only a few hundred meters between my house and the school, but through a line of trees. It worked fine in the winter, but failed completely when the trees were in full leaf in mid summer. Steve

Netsupport Notify should do everything you want. Steve

I'm looking at getting a 3d printer as a Christmas present for my dad. He uses sketchup extensively, and often designs things that it would be great to print. At the moment I am thinking of this printer https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00ZBS86ZW/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2G08JDF826PFO It seems to have some great reviews, and generally seems to be reliable, which is often a bit of an issue in this price bracket. Has anyone got any experience of other similar priced printers (this is upper end of budget)? Thanks Steve

https://www.ebuyer.com/614165-corsair-ssd-mounting-bracket-cssd-brkt1 Not very cheap though for what it is. Steve

We looked at both, and went with CPOMS. Also know a lot of other local schools that went with CPOMS too. So far, staff have been very happy with it. Steve

I got our last one from server source, costs was less than half what I could get the same spec for direct from dell. Been running 14 vm's on it for 6 months now with no issues at all. Steve

We have some Aver ones which are very good, and can work directly with a projector / screen. If budgets are tighter and you are happy going through a pc (which has other advantages too) then the Hue HD usb ones are very good, especially for the cost. Steve

We are a primary school, but use the safeguarding side of things very heavily. We are fortunate that 99% of the things we have dealt with on it have been behaviour issues rather than safeguarding. We have it set so all violations are emailed (with a screenshot) to myself (Network Manager, amongst other roles) Head, and 2 deputy heads. We can normally tell if it is genuine or not from the screenshot, but if not it is set to record a 1 minute video too. Once we are sure that it is genuine, myself and either the Head or a deputy will go to speak to the child. We always aim to get there asap, normally within 5 minutes of the incident occurring. This makes a huge difference to the impact, and also allows for the many times that it was a group of children involved on one persons user account. Sanctions are then given in line with the schools behaviour policy, or the issue dealt with in-line with our e-safety policy if it is a safeguarding issue. We keep a file of all incidents that happen on the computer, keeping a copy of the screenshot, and an explanation of what happened, who dealt with it and the outcome. 3 Times per year I compile details of all the violations (nothing user specific) and share this with Governors, as part of my Network managers report. We had Ofsted a year ago, and they were very happy with our procedures. Steve

Encore is no longer actively developed, but you should still be able to download it. Install sounds like a pain though, as you have to install the old version of premier first (which you can then remove) https://helpx.adobe.com/encore/kb/encore-cs6-installed-cc.html Steve

I think the 2 biggest reasons are lightning (pretty unlikely, especially at low level) and potential earth difference. - If the 2 buildings do not have a common earth, there is a potential voltage difference between the earth in both buildings, and this can then cause a voltage across the copper cable. In most cases it will work fine, would just be worth checking the garage has been earthed back to the fuse board in the house. My parents live in a log cabin at the bottom of the garden and all their network sockets are cat5 cables run underground back to the comms cabinet in our house, and it works really well. (they are powered off the same supply and earth as us) Steve

What new things will the next Impero update break? :-)