Butuz

Have previously been HP only - but having recently bought a few different Kyocera lasers both colour (C5015N / C5030N) and mono (4000N) i have to say I won't be buying any more HP's again. Andrew

Strange because we're running a much weaker server than you and performance seems to be very good with aprox 100 users (we use for registration etc) I have found that the network infrastructure makes a massive difference to SIMS - are you running Gigabit to the SIMS server and a fully switched network? The fact that its semi intermittent indicates maybe your having network problems - broadcast storms or something. Andrew

What Specification is your SIMS server? Andrew

What you doing with your 2650's mate? I have one here thats failed wondering if I could plunder any/all of what your now not using? Andrew

I too am running all HP Procurve managed switches - they're fantastic. 2824 at the core, linking servers and inter-buuilding links @ gigabit 2626/2650/8000's around the place serving 100mbit to the desktop. Personally at the moment Gigabit to the desktop is pointless. In 5 years when 10Gbit is available at a realistic price, and workstations are faster - then it will be worth going gigabit to desktop. Not currently though - waste of money IMHO. Cant reccomend the HP Procurve enough though! Andrew

Join the SAS - they'll teach you how to get 8 wipes from one piece of paper. Now thats saving the environment! Andrew

Lol I have been through this too - 5-10 years ago when most of the cabs were put in switches were not much bigger than a fag packet - We are all HP procurve now and I have had big problems with cabinets. Some of them have had to have the doors left off, one of them i had to put the switch actually on top pf the cabinet and secure with duck tape Not ideal! Andrew

Go for 800mm - provides much more room to work in / around. If your going to the cost of buying these reacks then you may as well buy something that is a bit bigger than you think you need? I'm hopefully ordering an RM 42u rack soon when budget allows - they look really good quality. Andrew

Yes this is a great site I am glad to have signed up! Andrew

What an interesting thread! We here are called "Associate Staff" - wheras before it was a mixture of Support Staff or Non Teaching staff. I guess at least we now have consistencey! To be honest - I don't see what all the fuss is about. You kicked off about a few words on your pay slip - and got them changed - and now the whole world shows you a new form of respect, doctors and lawyers bow when you walk past, even the queen now calls you by your Forename and salutes every time your mentioned............ your quality of life has improved by getting your name changed on your pay slip? Personally - I dont really care what I am referred to as - non teaching, support, associate, technician, techie, manager, Sir, Mr Butters or Andrew. I am all of the above! Respect has nothing to do with your job title. I know I have earned the respect of both teaching and associate coleagues by the way they all say hello and smile every time they see me, and the way the Headteacher always says "sorry to bother you" when she calls me in to her office. My title on my pay slip is meaningless. (could do with a few more zero's on it though!) Andrew

Believe me I know exactly what you mean. I keep a fridge full of lollys in the summer! But the wall mounted air con units are temperature controlled so they automatically nock of when the temperature is low and kick in when the temperature goes high. Andrew

If you are moving ICT suites you would be better off waiting till you move and then getting proper air con installed. The portable units can be quite powerful nowadays - bu they simply are not designed for heavy use i.e being left on 24 hours a day 7 days a week - they are unreliable compared to a fully fitted system - not to mention noisier! Andrew

Nope no R in sight! Andrew

I would say the 100mbit nework connection will be your main bottleneck. Andrew

Are you sure about that? As i understood it workstations that were already comissioned would simply automatically have the old CC3 sofware packages uninstalled and new CC4 software packages installed? Andrew

Wow you guys must spend an awful lot on all of this software! Andrew

Hello I am new too. Found this site through the RM forum. Be gentle! :twisted: Andrew

I'll leave that to the RM Engineer! He spilt a cup of coffee over the last one! Andrew

Got a lot of things going on at the moment. One is Improving our backup system - moving from a tape drive in every server, to NAS devices with Disk-Disk-Tape. Makes everything alot faster, and will save money to boot. Another is having Thin Clients - and having remote acces for staff (and hopefully pupils) using Terminal Services - anyone with a web browser will be able to log on to the network as if they were in school! The main thing I am working on now is reducing TCO. Costs are escalating every year and I am pretty sure the way things are going financially, the money is simply not going to be there to keep improving the network, or even god forbid, keep what we already have going. So - Reducing Costs, whilst Increasing provision - thats my goal now. Andrew

Yes - if you can get all of your servers to 2k3 then you will be in a good position when the time comes to decide. In my case - our CC3 win2k forest root actually failed over Xmas and was unrepairable so we have just had a nice new forest root delivered with 2k3 and RM are comissioning it on Thursday! Andrew

I think the thing to remember with CC4 is that it is a "evoloutionary upgrade" rather than a "revoloutionary upgrade" to quote the sales speak. The sales speak is correct this time though. CC4 is kind of like a service pack for CC3. As long as you have Windows 2003 server installed on all your domain controllers - you can upgrade to CC4 yourself as it will be supplied on CD. No engineer time is neccasary. This is a big plus for me - as the C2.4 to CC3 upgrade was a long, labourious, expensive process. CC4 will not be like that. Slap the CD in the servers, restart, and hey presto, CC4! CC4 will allow you to run Vista Clients on the network and manage them through the managment console - but it will also allow you to run and manage XP SP2 clients as well - so you are not forced to upgrade to Vista (like we were forced to upgrade to XP with CC3) Overall - I like the idea of CC4 - I will be upgrading to CC4 in the summer of 2008 - BUT I will be sticking with XP clients all round as they are faster and more responsive than Vista clients. Currently, I see no real reason to need Vista on the desktop. Andrew