steveg

You've spelt would wrong! That's it you've ruined my Christmas now! Happy xmas everyone! Steve

Why not collect the money in a sort of edugeek charity fund, that can then be used to fund small scale IT type projects directly. For example a touch screen for a SEN pupil etc. Would mean you have more control over where the money goes, and would be good publicity for edugeek as well? Guess it might end up being more hassle than its worth, but just an idea! Steve

Have you got whole site wireless network coverage? Could get some ip wifi phones maybe? Steve

Has anyone used hannspree netbooks before? They are pretty new to the market I think, but at the moment I can get a 10" netbook, with 5 hour battery life, 11b/g/n wireless and xp home (will upgrade using school's licence) for £168.70 ex vat after cashback, which seems like a pretty good deal to me, just not sure what they're going to be like long term? Steve

Ok, thanks for the advice everyone, I'll request a socket next to where each projector is going. Steve

Ok, that should read a qualified electrician can re-terminate the cable! Steve

Is there much advantage of having a socket vs wiring it in? On the wall with the whiteboard will be dado trunking up to where the whiteboard will go, so if the socket is in the end of this, it will look a little messy being plugged in, and if the socket is on the wall (going to be wall mounted ultra short throw proj) then this will add to the cost of the install. I know it would make it easier if we ever changed the projector, but we could easily re-terminate the cable if it needed a different connector. Steve

I was hoping it would be that easy! Not sure how it would be PAT tested though, as it would be wired in at one end? I assume it would just get a visual inspection? Steve

We're going to have some new projectors installed as part of a new build, and at the moment I need to specify what sockets etc the new rooms have. With regards to power for a projector, am I right in thinking if I request a switched fused connection unit to be installed, then when the projector is mounted, a flex can be run from the FCU directly to the projector? - The flex would be terminated to an IEC C13 (kettle lead plug) at the projector end. I assume there is no requirement for the projector to actually be plugged in, as I would be able to isolate it with the switch on the FCU? I wont be doing any of the electrical work, I just need to list what we require now. Thanks Steve

I normally do smaller jobs like that for beer or chocolate! Steve

I'd say the processors are a bit over-specced, and the hard disks a bit under. - Do you really need 2 quad core processors? I've just ordered a very similar 2900 for a similar role, but put 6 hard disks in and only 1 quad core cpu. Be worth speaking to Simon @ CPLTD, he managed to beat a very good price we had on our Dell premier account, which I didnt think was possible! Assuming the rest of your spec is pretty standard, and only has a 3 year NBD warranty, you should be able to trim £100-200 off the price you have. Steve

The ceiling! I've never come accross a trolley that actually works very well, far better to get it installed if you can. Steve

So the only difference is having to install another bracket to take a different short throw projector? Sure I can manage that for £500! @CPLTD I think you've got my details, as we've had a couple of quotes from you before, although you normally just miss out to my normal supplier on price! (If my current account manager ever leaves you'll probably get a lot of orders from me!) Steve

What are the advantages of using a 680i board over using a normal 680 and any ultra short throw projector? Seems normal smart board plus an ultra short throw is about £500 cheaper than buying the 680i package. I need to get 2 of these now, and another 11 next year, so if its saving £500 a unit thats quite a saving! Steve

Ah ok, that somewhat stuffs up my plans then doesn't it! Guess the best bet it to nurse this server along for the next week or 2 then, and hurry up and get the new one ordered!

Have had major problems with the network card in one of our servers (which is due to be replaced in the next few weeks) that means it runs about the speed of a 56k modem. Tried all the usual replacing cables etc, and even tried a new NIC, but the server refuses to boot with it in, so have given up fixing it, and used VMware convertor to make a VM over the weekend. The VM should finish copying to its new host in the next hour or so (been here since 6). At the moment I have the server that it was created from running (the network, and therfore staff, arent happoy without it), I intend to turn this off and boot the VM strait after. My only query is, this server is a DNS server and domain controller. Will this be an issue? - it will effectively loose everything that has happened since about 10am on sunday when the VM was made, we have made sure we haven't added or removed any machines or user accounts from the domain, and everyone knows not to save to this sever, so files wont be an issue, the only differences i can see are the DNS updates from this morning, is this going to cause problems? Thanks Steve

I was a bit confused as well, not sure what you want to achieve? Also you can't have 2 drives in a Raid 0 + 1 array, that needs a minimum of 4 drives. Steve

Yea of course it is. Its car paint. Cars have batteries in them. Batteries are electric. Therfore it's an IT job!

I've got a budget of around 2k to upgrade our oldest file server. We currently have the following servers on the network: File server 1 - this is the one to be replaced, it is a domain controller, file server and secondary DNS server. Most of its roles have now been moved to FS2. File Server 2 - this is a reasonable spec machine, but now takes quite a hammering as it does most of the work. It is also the main domain controller and DNS / DHCP Server Exchange server - this is fairly new and a good spec, can't see it needing upgrading anytime soon, other than a bit more ram. Runs exchange 2003. SQL / SIMS server - as above, its a pretty good spec and should do the job for a few more years. Terminal server 1 - Good spec, for pupil use Terminal server 2 - ok spec, used for staff remote access We're a primary school, and have around 180 client devices, and 400 pupils. We intend to move the 2 file / domain servers to 2k8 as part of this upgrade - my plan is to install 2k8 onto the new server, join it to the domain, do all the domain upgrade stuff and then migrate all of file server 1's roles, and a lot of file server 2's roles onto it. Then either move the rest of server 2's stuff onto it temporarily while it gets upgraded, or just back up server 2 and upgrade it over a holiday. I think its probably best to leave the sql and exchange servers as 2k3 for now, unless anyone can come up with a good reason not to? The server I was looking at was a dell poweredge 2900 rack mount: Quad core xeon E5405 4gb ram (will add more later, its a lot cheaper than buying it from Dell) 8 x 146gb 15k rpm SAS hdd, 7 drives in Raid 5 with hot spare Dual Gigabit NIC's Dual Power supplies £2080 My only concern with having this 1 server doing most of the work is it becomes a single point of failure for the network. If I I use this to run vm's of the other key roles, is it simple a case of creating a backup of the VM every so often, and restoring this to another machine should this server fail? I imagine its a little more complicated than that! Also I believe it isnt good practice to run a domain controller in a VM? If so will this need its own physical server? Thanks for any advice! Steve

How about using a mini-itx based pc, or perhaps even an atom based one and wall mounting it? Then just have a wireless keyboard and mouse (we use some that have a keyboard and touchpad below) which can be stored away. This means the pc is always attached and ready to go, you just get the keyboard out, so no problems with teachers having to wire it up. Steve

Assuming it is a pci network card that you want, something like this USRobotics 10/100 PCI Card - Ebuyer should do everything you need, for £2.19 each! Supports Windows 98 through to XP, so should cover most old pc's, although if they are running windows 98 i'd be very cautious about using them on the internet! Steve

Disaster recover doesn't have to invlolve anyone external, it can just be a plan that you would impliment if something went wrong. For example when we first started out with just 1 server, our disaster recovery plan in the event of a major failure of that server was to use a high spec workstation we had as a temporary replacement - it had an extra disk in it with server installed on it, ready to be plugged in and go if there was a problem - would have taken around 4 hours or so to get the network back up. My biggest school has 420 on roll - I now get a budget of around £25k per year, although in the past this was around £50k a year, when we were trying to get things sorted a few years back. We have 2 file servers / domain controllers, a SQL server for sims, an exchange server and 2 terminal servers all in a dedicated server room. Luckily I have the full support of the head and school business manager, and IT has been a priority here for over 5 years now. One of the hardest parts in this job is getting management to understand what needs to be done, and ideally to trust your judgment. Not something that always happens quickly - I have some schools in a similar situation to yours. The best thing to do is put everything in writing, and try and come up with a 3 year plan to get things to where you want to be, with costs for everything included. It will either mean they will listen, and you can improve things, or it will cover you when things go wrong and you haven't the resources to sort it out. Steve

You say its a small primary, but with around 360 pupils on roll (according to your website!), you're far from the smallest ever. (I support some with around 120 on roll) Does this "server" also serve the admin network - e.g SIMS or the equivelant as well? Do you have any sort of disaster recovery plan in place? It might be worth spending some time with the head and defining what would be an acceptable loss for data, and acceptable downtime for various parts of the network. For example, the following may be acceptable: Pupils work, up to 2 days lost, down for up to 24 hours. SIMS Pupil data, up to 4 hours lost, down for up to 12 hours Internet access, Down for up to 2 days. One you have this defined, you can then go back and list what you need to stand a chance of achieving this. (you may find they are unrealistic about how little downtime is acceptable, until they see the cost of achiving it, then a comprimise is found in the middle somewhere) Do you have an allocated IT budget? For a school of that size I typically get between £5k - £16k per year for IT excluding consumables, with around £10k being average. Steve

I'd look at getting a new server, they might not notice it being old or slow, but they will notice if it fails! I'd go for a new server from one of the big suppliers, Dell or HP etc. You should be able to get a good spec server for around £1500 with a 3 year warranty. You'll also need to look at some sort of backup solution if you haven't already got one? Perhaps a few external usb hard disks you can rotate on a daily basis? Steve

I'd start by trying to install it with the extra ram removed, and everything that isn't essential disabled in the bios. Also remove the external keyb, mouse and monitor (i'm assuming its a laptop, if not that might make it a little tricky!) Steve