MK-Jester

Sorry a late contribution, but I would like to continue this discussion. Rather than re-establishing TLS 1.0 surely we should be pressuring sites to fix the problem. Like David44 we use LLoydslink and I am amazed that as a bank they have not updated the site. And if you check the technical requirements for lloydslink they are keen to point out that Windows XP is supported! We are encountering problems with http://www.tponline.co.uk which is the site used by the school to perform a List99 check. Sometimes I despair

Hi Marci, Thanks for the clear response. However I have to ask for some extra explanation..... Are you a developer at Wonde? Or are you a developer of an application taking data through Wonde? I am neither of these and only based my post on the discussion that I've had with Wonde. I was clearly told that Wonde took all the data defined for an application regardless of any options settings from the MIS. There is a feature used with SIMS that does subset the data at the point of extraction, but this is only SIMS. And this is the extract from a Wonde document on this topic...... "Whitelisting allows us to control the exact data which is extracted from an MIS (SIMS only at the moment) so that we only take the data that applications require." I would be really pleased to find out that they are wrong and data extraction is more measured.

Please note that this is just my understanding. An understanding that has been gleaned by constant querying Wonde. First key point is that Wonde expects a user within the MIS with access to all data. Via the Wonde console you can excerpt some control over the data that passes to the final application. This is done via an interface that is probably derived by the screen shots shown in Marci's post. Some data is defined as mandatory and some is optional. However it is worth noting that the default for optional data is that it is transferred to the requesting application. The starting point is optional data set to enabled. There is no restriction on the data extracted from the MIS. Wonde takes it all ready for the selective passing on to the application. Previous posts have suggested restricting the access rights given to the Wonde user within the MIS, but what happens when a second application comes under the Wonde umbrella? This may require tweaking of the access rights. Overall I feel that at best Wonde is a technically bright idea that may not meet today's need of careful control of a school's data. The more cynical view is that are deliberately taking advantage of confusion about who is requesting data and who is holding the data. The school is keen to use XYZ application and that application does not use any sensitive data, but to get that data to the cloud based app Wonde will extract everything from your MIS. Again do remember that this is just my opinion.

Has anyone ever built their own laptop storage cupboard with charging? I've been asked to consider the feasibility of building storage for 20 laptops. Reasonable security only. But to include electrics to support charging via the mains adapters. If anyone has succeeded at a similar project or even attempted such a project then I would be interested in any tips and recommendations. Cheers John

So did you use specific SIMS access rights or did you create a custom access definition? What did you find worded for you?

What are the current views on Wonde? We are getting pestered by Wonde. Asking to set up a date for its installation on our network. The source of these requests appears to be Softlink (supplier of Oliver library software). I am annoyed by this for many reasons..... 1. I never gave my email address nor the librarian's email address to Wonde. Must have been passed to them by Softlink. Who gave them permission? 2. Softlink are still developing the interface to Wonde. 3. The current arrangement is perfectly acceptable. The library software is updated from SIMS using Groupcall Xporter. This occurs within school and does not need data to be sent externally only to have it pulled back to the school. 4. It appears to me that Wonde is going around and aggressively signing up companies. I suspect that they have a campaign that is based on get one application in a school, capture data from SIMS and then convince other applications to sign up because they already have the data. How do we protect the data with Wonde's harvest it all and then control what is passed on? How do Wonde prove that they are secure?

I've just been looking at how to restrict group creation and I have found exactly the article mentioned in this thread. Yes, it is possible to exclude some users (students) from creating groups, but this restriction impacts the fundamental operation of Office 365 and some of the apps are affected. The tech article closes with how to test that the restriction is in place - user Planner and create a new plan. This will fail. So by restricting group creation we will prevent some apps from working. Has anyone worked around this problem? If so how? Or are you just working without some of the Office 365 features?

And an update on my problem...... we rolled back the Inverness 8 update and as if by magic our problem went away.

We are also experiencing problems following an update to Smoothwall. It was not the Kenilworth upgrade, but the Inverness 8 fixes. I have traced the problem down to the connection between the smoothwall and the core switch dropping out. Investigation on the switch indicated that it could be caused by one or both ends renegotiating settings. Both Inverness 8 and Kenilworth contain improvements to Ethernet controller. Just a thought.

soapyfish asked how long did a restart of services via the SSM last. Well..... touch wood..... they still appear to be working ok. So that's 7 days. However, we still have only device connected. (problems sorting out Office 365 accounts, but that's another story)

We have the "Teacher App Services are Offline" problem here. Only one iPad being tested and this problem has started. I'm just about to try the restart of services via the SSM solution. It will be interesting to see how long it lasts.

Apologies to everyone (except Cunninghams)… Yet again I feel the need to vent my frustration about the poor support provided by Cunninghams. Technically they are capable, but organisationally they are terrible. The poor women answering the phone promises a call back and nothing happens, you call in, sorry I can’t connect you, they will call you back – repeat until bored. I would recommend that any taking on a cashless catering solution from Cunninghams establishes a clear SLA as apart of the support contract. Timely support will be important to you.

I'm sad to say that I have to agree. I reported a serious problem last Wednesday and despite calling Cunninghams every day they have not called back. I can only assume that they do not have a call management system that correctly escalates calls. Consequently I would have to conclude that their support organisation cannot support the customers.

We are reviewing our web filtering solution at the same time as introducing a whole school wireless solution. We are looking for a solution that can differentiate between traffic coming from different SSIDs/VLANs so that the different wireless devices can be treated differently. The solution needs to support a school of 1500 students where in the long term students are able to bring their own devices to school. And the school wants to use iOs devices. We are considering offerings from Smoothwall and Bloxx. Has anyone got any feedback on these products? Is there another solution that we should be looking at? Any comments much appeciated. Cheers John

We also have the same problem where the SmartCache struggles with AD authentications, considers this a problem, decides to restart its processes and consequently breaks the internet connection. RM will only try to diagnose the problem if we set up a SSH link to the SmartCache. Setting this up would be a problem for us. Therefore like other here we will have to consider an alternative. Kennysarmy - what did you decide in the end? Have you switched to a smoothwall solution? Regards John