steveg

We've got an hp officejet pro X576dw in the main office here, and its been really reliable. We don't push huge amounts through it, prob about 2000 pages a month, as we have networked copiers everywhere else. It's really fast, networked, touch screen for things like emailing and just seems to work. Takes huge ink cartridges that seem to last ages - not sure of exact page counts we get out of them though. I'd never seriously considered an inkjet for network use before, but have been really happy with it. Is only A4 though, not sure if you needed A3? You can also return it after 90 days for a full refund if you aren't happy at the moment!.... https://h41201.www4.hp.com/WMCF.Web/uk/en/promotion/2812/Details/ Steve

We got 5 nikon coolpix s32's (i think that model has been replaced with s33 now) for the kids to use and they have lasted really well. Mainly use them for school trips and kids photography projects, as they have ipads for everything else. They are pretty robust and water proof, so no worries when they are out and about. They have rechargeable batteries and are simple to use. The only thing I don't like about them is they use non standard usb cables, but I couldn't find any that did and were suitable. They may be a bit over budget for what you want, especially when you have got sd cards for them, but worth considering just because of how well they seem to last. Steve

I've used netcam studio to do this before, if you email them they will give you a free licence as a School. Steve

How about printing it, laminating it and sticking it to the top of the monitor? :-) Steve

Is there any advantage of having them set up in a raid array rather than just making the backup twice on 2 different drives?

Is the date and time correct on the laptop?

Either go wireless as sted suggests, or if you want a cabled solution I'm pretty sure they have a mini display port on them, so you can get a mini display port to hdmi adaptor quite cheaply, and then don't have to worry about drivers etc for a usb adaptor. Steve

It was all looking very simple up until about an hour before the deadline, when we got 2 more apply! Great that parents are showing an interest, just more work for us! Steve

Thanks, I'll have a look into both of those options. Steve

We need to elect a new parent Governor, and having gone paperless for all of our communications the head is keen to do this electronically. We have explored the possibilities of having a dedicated email account for parents to email their vote to, but concluded that we could not make this secure enough. I have had a look on-line, and there are a few companies that offer it, but are fairly expensive for this - some were over £700 - we have around 1100 parents that will be eligible to vote. The current paper system does have a cost, both in admin time and printing + envelopes so it is something that we would pay for, just not that much! Has anyone else ever done this before? Our local Governor services say it is an acceptable way to do it, as long as it is secure and meets all the rules of a normal parent governor election, but do not offer a specific solution. Thanks Steve

We got our Ofsted results yesterday, so made a little video to celebrate..... Took me many many hours of editing! I'm fairly easy to spot in it, either holding the camera or dancing completely out of time to everyone else! Sadly doesn't work on Mobile devices because of copyright issues. Steve

We get the unbranded ones from Hills Components, and touch wood haven't had any problems so far, have had about 30 in use for around 3 months now with none coming back to me. Steve

The UPS itself will shut the server down, there should be no need for someone to be around. A server is much more likely to come back up after a power cut if it has been shut down properly and not just had its power cut! Also of all the power cuts we've had over the last few years here, and there haven't been that many, they have all lasted less than 3 minutes. Steve

The limit for cat5 is 100m including patch cables. Sometimes you can get away with 100mbit over a run longer than 100m if the cable it good quality and terminated well, from what you have described with joints etc this doesn't sound like it is going to work. (and certainly never do it in a work environment!) You only need 2 twisted pairs for 10 or 100mbit, but gigabit (and poe) uses all 4 twisted pairs, so you need to set all ports to work at a maximum of 100mbit. Steve

If it's a student owned device, then you wouldn't be licenced to install a different os under the school's ees agreement as far as I know? I know the office licence permits students and staff to install, but pretty sure it doesn't extend to the operating system licences. Steve

I have an amazing ability to loose rechargeable batteries! Not quite as economical or good for the environment, but I like just being able to get a ready to use battery out when I need it! Steve

I've tried the really cheap ones, but in things like remote control cars etc they tend not to last long enough. Steve

Apparently Christmas is coming.... I have 2 young children, so am going to need to stock up on a range of batteries before the jolly bearded fellow brings them lots of electrical gifts. Where does everyone get batteries from at a reasonable price? I normally get Duracell's from Amazon, but does anyone know anywhere cheaper, or other brands that are just as good? Thanks! Steve

We use filebroswer business, and using AirWatch mdm we can push the settings out to it so when the user opens it, it has the network drives showing and just prompts for their username and password. I have got it pointing to a dfs share, and then add our other shares to this, if anything moves I just update the dfs share location and the ipads are always looking in the right place. I preferred this as it was a one off solution, rather than the annual cost of foldr - we did try it, and were really impressed, just couldn't justify the cost. Steve

My argument would be that wireless is a shared bandwidth, so anything you can remove from it is going to make it faster for the devices that do have to use it. At the very least remove things like printers from the wireless by having them on a wired link. If it's going to be a school with very few desktop computers, as everyone has a chromebook then yes, the structured cabling requirements can be considerably less, but if there is anything that doesn't need to move, run a cable to it! Steve

I got ours from https://www.use-ip.co.uk/ and went for the hikvision range - good spec at a good price, and so far seem to be reliable - only installed over the summer. The guy that runs the company seems to know what he's talking about, and is always very friendly when I call up for advice. Steve

We have just moved to air server for that exact reason, worked out cheaper and so far I have found it to be more reliable. Steve

I like that you can customise the events that happen when keywords are triggered. Here we have it take a screenshot, email that to me and some of the slt, and then record a 1 minute video. This helps to get the context and decide if it was a typo or genuine activation. The email is good as we will often turn up at the computer while the child is still there, the shock of that normally gets an instant confession without the need to show them the video or screenshot. Steve

Depends on the budget, if its fairly tight I would say replace the hard disk with an ssd, and also consider upgrading the os as 8 and 10 should both be a little quicker than 7, although obviously a lot of other things to consider with this! By the price you mention for the newer pc's I'm assuming you are having them built to order, if this is the case then when you come to replace the pc's could you get ones with no hard disks in them, and move the ssd's across? Although 3gb of ram is a little low, I don't think you'll notice much of a performance increase by upgrading it, and this will be lost when the machine is replaced, so may not be good value in the long run. If you do have the budget, may just be time to replace them all - factor in the time all of the above will take when making the comparison. Steve

Why not run cat 5e? Much cheaper, especially for any containment, and will happily run gig over it, especially over the relatively short runs you will have in a house. I have wired my whole house in 5e over the last few years. Home internet connections are not going to go beyond a gig for a very long time! Just run it to the main points you will need it, 4 points to the main tv (I only put 2 in and had to run more - tv, sky box, dvd player and console all wanted a wired connection), some where you want a phone, and any desktop pc's etc. Allow enough to put additional wireless points so you have good coverage throughout - I have 3 ap's to cover the whole house and garden. Steve