Butuz

Wow this is great!! I have been looking at several helpdesks including Liberum and Sharepoint with Helpdesk template. I would love to try yours out! Please give me a shout as soon as it is available! Andrew

Put simply is the switch a managed switch? I.e it has a web interface and lots of settings that you can configure? If so then chances are the switch supports teaming / trunking, if it is not managed then there is no way your going to be able to team your server cards. Andrew

IS this still available? What width/depth size is the cabinet? EG 800x800 or 600x800 etc. Cheers Butuz

Splitting like this can cause problems with managed switches because they sense the two communications channels via the one cable as lots of collisions etc. If it's for the home then you will be fine - but I would not do it in School. Andrew

Whatever you do dont get PC World confused with PCWB (PC World Business) - I've recieved great service from PCWB, next day delivery if order before 4, and the coupleof returns I have had to do have gone smoothly. I think anyone that shows some promise in a PC World srore is moved up to PCWB. Butuz

Our server room is kept at about 22 degrees. When we move out of the server room and in to our office soon i will nock the air con down as low as it will go - probably 19-20. Cool integrated circuits = reliable integrated circuits! Andrew

Yes we are based in our server room currently. A room is being created for me, my techie and a couple of the ofice staff to share - I am really looking forward to no noise of fans and air con!!! Should give us lots more room to work with too! Andrew

Yes the 2848 is the one to go for. Its not overly quiet though. Andrew

All I can say is - Pay Peanuts get Monkeys! *Pats HP Procurve* Andrew

What kind of figures are you talking about? Round here the LEA reccomended Disposal company charges £5 per PC and £5 per monitor which is quite hefty in my oppinion! Andrew

I am actually only using a 2826 here at the core but we are quite budget constrained and it's doing a very good job to be honest. Will do us for a few more years - then time to move to 10gbit Andrew

Can you PM me if you have any older workstations going? P2/P3 etc Cheers And i think the swap shop is a fantastic idea. Anyone want a Single Pentium pro 200 fileserver? :x Butuz

I am running Client Connect here. The user interface the Thin Clients get is almost ideantical to that of Windows XP Fat Clients - just no active desktop so it does not look quite as pretty. have 25 HP thin Clients connected at the moment as well as 19 RM Fat clients converted to boot from the network (the terminal server has PXE set up so any workstation that can boot from network and will autmatically recieve linux followed by a CC3 log in screen). This is not something you would be able to set up your self to be honest - it will be an RM engineeer only job. No doubt you could set up a Vanilla 2003 server but you won't get the CC3 interface and tools on your thin terminals - and keeping a consistent desktop throught the school was my aim. To be honest I can see far lower total cost of ownership with thin clients as well as being alot easier to upgrade systems in the future. (want to upgrade 50 thin cients? Just upgrade the server and hey presto) Overall - very happy with it! Andrew

Running HP Procurve here too throughout the network. Fantastic, reliable good value kit. All our cisco stuff has been replaced with HP. Frankly I don't rate cisco any more at the budget - mid end of the market its a pure rip off and theyre riding on their name. Andrew

I am just assembling parts to make my first water cooled PC at the moment. Just a bit of fun really something I have always wanted to do Andrew

Ours is running as part of the network and we do not have these problems you mention. Have you contacted RM about it? Andrew

Very good to know - and yes I use the mini drivers as thats one of the things that annoyed me so much about HP is having to install a 100mb driver onto a server just to do simple printing. 2mb for the Kyocera mini drivers! john: there are no printers that are well built nowadays they are all built down to a price, and made out fo the thinnest possible plastic with the least steel. Having a HP Colour LaserJet 3800 and a Kyocera FS-C5030N side by side i have to say i think the Kyocera is built better - certainly a far more sensible layout and far more vandal proof. Andrew

Digital blue is a steaming pile of brown stuff. Thank god we only bought 10 cameras before we realised! No more! Andrew

The Dell machines allow you to set paswords in the bios for accessing usb drives, accessing hard drives, accessing floppy drives. Reset the CMOS / unplug the PC take the battery out for 15 mins. Should fix you up. Andrew

No offence but if you have to ask other people to suggest things that you need - then are you not your wasting your budget. If you need something - you would know about it? Andrew

Have you ever brought this up with your line manager or the head? Also, is your school an 'Investor in People'? (I know, it is a laughable scheme!). No - I have not brought it up before, and Yes we are of course an investor in people whatever that means :twisted: Andrew

No - if it breaks It's your problem 8O I'd prefer that not to happen. You can use any branded server hardware you like in an RM CC3 network. Dell, HP, Intel, whatever. They will charge you an extra comissioning fee to comission non RM servers though so factor that into your costings. What RM are not keen on is random no name untested build it yourself type servers - and I agree with them about that one! I started off with Dell server on my CC3 network but that server's now failed 4 years on and overall I was not impressed with Dell's support - they seem very "distanced" for want of a beter word and the account manager didnt seem to really be bothered much about speaking to me. I have gone back to RM servers with 5 year warrantys, fat clients with 3 year warrantys and thin clients with 5 year warrantys for piece of mind and i've negotiated discounts to make offerings comparible with Dell's kit. I've still got a 10 year old RM P233 server that works fine and a couple of RM P100 workstations that have only had a bios battery change 6 years in - amusingly amazing reliability! If your dealing with RM hardware you have to be proactive in negotiating discounts with your account manager otherwise you will pay through the nose. Andrew

Don't be intimidated by the word "Manager" they seem to be looking for a more Technical roll Rather than an outright Manager type judging by the payscale - apply for it! Andrew

Agree with that mate - if you look at what we do, It's probably one of the most important jobs in the school. I am not allowed to be SMT even though I believe I should be - I make whole school decisions every day of the week that affect 100 teachers and 1000 pupils but there is no real reward. I am not allowed to control the ICT budget as a whole because I am not SMT - and yet I am by far the most qualified person to hold it. Money has been wasted over the years because of this - and I have to go crawling to SMT to get my order for 50 network cables signed. Dont get me wrong - I have a very good working relationship with SMT - and I've driven things forward considerably since I have been here. But I dont feel valued. As for the Govenors question - in the 6 years I have been here I have not once had a meeting with any of the govenors. I have no idea what they do here to be honest. They probably have no idea what I do either! Andrew

What is bad about the Kyoceras out of interest? They seem pretty well built, theyre certainly well designed - and the drivers are very compact and easy to install unlike some of HP's recent efforts. Cheers Andrew