srochford

Do you have split DNS (ie different DNS servers for outside and inside)? If so, you can set it so that (eg) OpenDNS resolves to 77.89.142.244 from outside but to the internal IP of your server. At the moment, I'd guess that things are getting tangled because when the internal machines try and connect to that IP, it gets passed to the ISA server's internal address which then tries to fetch it via its external address. I don't know that you can't do that but it seems like it could get tied in knots :-)

Sorry; I'd guess that wasn't clear. Sharepoint Services is free but if you want to use it easily then you really need sharepoint designer; that's not free. The other thing is that I'm not sure how much granularity of access permissions you can get with sharepoint services. You can do lots of different sites (eg one for admin, one for students etc) with a top level site linking to them. If you do this then you can't search across the different sites (may not matter)

DotNetNuke is good. It has some AD integration off the shelf and you can expand on this (it's a while since I did it so I'm not sure of the exact details) Sharepoint is good but it can be very expensive depending on what you want to do. As an example, if what you want is a content management system then you probably need something to create that content. For Sharepoint that pretty much means that you have to buy Sharepoint Designer or you have to create files using something else and then upload them (eg Word, Excel, PDF etc) but it then stops being a web site and just becomes a document library. DNN has built in editing (much like this web site) which makes it very easy to use (and free!!) The website for DNN is here and there are a load of sample sites to show the sorts of things people have done with it. If you need any consultancy for DotNetNuke I can recommend Brightcode.

There's some stuff here that I used at my last job. Basically, you give it the name of an OU in active directory and it will find the list of machines under that OU (including any sub-OUs). It then uses DHCPcmd to query the DHCP servers and get the MAC addresses for the appropriate machines. You need to put dhcpcmd and wolcmd on a server share and define that at the start of the script and you need to add the IP addresses of your DHCP servers in these bits: BuildMacList "10.128.0.1","10.128.0.0" BuildMacList "10.160.0.1","10.160.0.0" - basically, you're querying server at 10.128.0.1 for machines in the subnet starting 10.128.0.0 - change as appropriate, delete any un-needed lines.

a couple of people have talked about using safe mode - this is a good idea but do you know that "safe mode" isn't always safe? Basically, safe mode starts the processes listed at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot (there are two keys under there; minimal and network which should be obvious ...) If a virus, trojan etc has added something to the lists here then that can interfere with normal operation. I would try and boot from BartPE etc disc and then use regedit to load the hive from c:\windows\system32\config\system - you can then be reasonably sure that what you're looking at is the genuine thing and not interfered with by rootkits etc. If you do see anything you don't recognise then you can delete it (you will have taken a backup copy, won't you? :-)) and then see if the machine starts OK I understand the desire to learn how to fix obscure problems but given that this machine has been virus infected you could be fighting a losing battle. It really comes down to deciding do you want to beat the virus writers or do you want a working machine? Good luck :-)

Just realised I didn't reply to this. I think that this is one area where some people just work differently and organisations which started off using public IP have just stayed with that because it works and there's no need to change; changing to private IPs and NAT etc just makes work which doesn't need doing. As an example, try doing an nslookup on machines in the range 155.198.x.y etc - I think the whole of that range belongs to Imperial and is used. We only use private IPs for things like management interfaces on routers and for machines which aren't registered on our network - they can connect to a web site and register; at that point they get allocated a public IP.

not sure who you want to provide email for, but you would only need the external connector if (eg) you wanted to set up email for your parents or other outsiders. It's not needed for external access by your own users.

We have different charges in different places (details here) but it varies from 3-4p for mono and 10-15p for colour. Students get wildly varying amounts of credit for their course.

If you just want to test out an OS then the easiest way to do it is as a virtual machine. Download and install Microsoft Virtual Server or Microsoft Virtual PC and you can then download a ready installed virtual machine - just put that on the external drive and add it as a new VM You can use Virtual Box or VMWare to install Server 2008 but this way all the work is done for you :-)

Any of the boot CD options mentioned is good if what you're looking for are recovery tools. if you'd prefer a Windows environment then look at Bart PE, Ultimate Boot CD for Windows or Microsoft's WinPE (download link is for WAIK which includes WinPE) Downside of PE is that you don't get anything much in the way of tools with it but you can add them to the disc. There's some interesting stuff here about how you can shrink WinPE so that it fits on a 128Mb stick.

Pretty sure it should work. When you go into disc management, does it show a disc as "missing"? if so, I think there's a right click option something like "reactivate" which should bring it back - I've had this happen with USB drives before and although it's not the same it might be a similar issue. Dynamic disc should work (you can get problems moving them to other machines but the same machine should be fine) but basic discs might be easier. I don't think you're doing anything which needs it to be dynamic so it's probably worth a try with basic.

As @meastaugh1 says, you can use group policy for doing the folder redirection and also for enabling off-line files. There is a time penalty but it's only really an issue when it's first set up (a cache has to be built locally which involves copying everything from the home folder to the laptop). After that, sync happens at logon/off or when the laptop is connected to the network but it's fairly quick (just make sure the user knows not to cancel it!) this is one area where Vista is much better than XP; the synchronisation is much smoother.

What does it say in the event log after you've run gpupdate - you should get a message saying the group policy was applied successfully. If that's not there then GP hasn't applied (the reboot would be caused by the machine bit of group policy but you seem to have a fault with the user part). Have you run a gpresult? What results does it give? Is it listing the GPO that should be preventing access to the C: drive? When you say she can see the servers, what do you mean? Just browsing network neighbourhood? If so, this is exactly what should happen unless there's a group policy to block it (and it does look as if GP is not applying properly - you've not yet said whether it is or isn't). I also don't understand what you mean about asking for a password - if I type "\\server" into explorer I'd expect to see a list of share names with no prompt for a password. I'd only get prompted for a password if I tried to connect to a share to which I shouldn't have access - is this what you're seeing? If you check the properties of the user, what groups is she in? - Check each group in case somehow a group has moved into administrators or similar "powerful" group.

I hate this kind of attitude from suppliers. Microsoft make beta copies of their software available to companies like Capita (and many others) so that they can check that their software works and they can say so to users. Capita have now had 6 months to test it and come to a decision. If they've not yet done so I'd guess I'm not surprised but it's pretty annoying :-) If they're not saying that it does work and you have problems then I wouldn't be surprised to find them blaming SP3 even if the fault almost certainly can't be linked to it.

if you log on as her and run gpresult /v then what result to you get - this should tell you what's going on and I suspect will say that there's a problem applying the particular GPO. It might also give a hint as to why there's a problem.

What should stop her seeing the C: drive? Is this a group policy setting? If so, have group policies applied successfully (do a gpupdate /force and check the event log) Does the problem just happen on one machine? If so, then suspect the cached copy of the profile or the process which applies group policies (if you have a 1202 error in the event log then you can google for that - the event log message tells you what to look for!)

I think this might be a forlorn hope :-( How long do you think it will take kids to learn that if they type mis-spelt words, w o r d s with spaces, numb3rs etc that they can get through? What about words which are not "nasty" but can be used in a nasty way or even words which are just newly made up and not in any filtering system?

I've got a Lenovo N200 and I love it. I've had it for nearly a year now and it's been brilliant :-) The one I bought was stupidly expensive but it's got a 1680 x 1050 screen which is really useful. It's quite heavy so if you want to take it around with you that could be a problem but if you just want a laptop so it doesn't take up half your house then it's perfect. that Misco advert lists it has having 802.11g; not sure if that is the case because mine has 802.11n and that is also really good.

it would be interesting to know just how much is spent on calls within an LEA or to other schools. If there aren't many calls made then there may not be much in the way of savings potential. By definition, the numbers called are going to be local so there may not be huge costs. Janet has a project going to look at how VoIP can be used over the academic network to link universities etc - some of what comes out of this may be appropriate for schools and LEAs I suspect a big problem will be getting it all configured. Most companies that set up a VoIP system won't be terribly interested in adding this sort of functionality - essentially, you're going to have to have some sort of routing which works out that numbers in a particular range (or in a table) don't go out through the normal ISDN line but go out to the WAN. There then has to be something which makes a connection (SIP??) to the appropriate switch for each of the parties you're going to call. None of this is impossible; I think you probably have enough skill to set it up for yourself but that doesn't make it easy for us mere mortals :-) What may be cheaper to do is to negotiate with the phone company for preferential rates for school to school calls. Depending on the size of the LEA and the bargaining skills of the purchasing people it should be possible to get pretty good rates (eg we have a mobile deal which I think gives us free calls between mobiles on the contract)

@tmcd35's advice is good. It's important that you show that you recognise that your job is to provide systems which support teaching and learning - you're not just there to provide a good network which no-one uses. A couple of simple examples: Microsoft regularly release software updates which have to be deployed to all machines. Pushing them out at 9am would make it difficult to start work in the morning but you can make sure that they go out (eg) overnight. Many users save work on their desktop - an inefficient network makes this a poor location because all the files have to be copied to/from the central folder location at logoff/on but it's possible for you to use folder redirection so that that doesn't happpen and users can work in a way they find comfortable. Basically, you're trying to think of things which you know how to do and then explaining why you do them. This isn't just true in schools - it should be the case anywhere IT is used - but there will be differences in an educational environment about some of the things you allow or don't allow.

Trouble is, if you don't know that you can't spell it then you don't know you need to look it up - there are lots of people who think that they can spell so don't check because they "know" the correct spelling. I suspect that LeMarchand's teacher with "desplay" thinks he has it right; I'm sure that most people who put "of" when then should put "have" think they have it right and when you get into words like "there" and "their", pretty much all bets are off!

Which I would say is pretty likely. You could get some pretty wacky things happening so I really wouldn't do it like this except as a very brief proof of concept. If you just want to do a slide show then almost any old PC would work and would save the risk of private correspondence etc being shown on the foyer screens :-)

Asterisk is good but it's Linux based and if you don't have Linux skills that might be a show stopper. 3CX is windows based which might make it easier to use. There's a free edition which would be suitable for very small users and then a variety of paid for versions, none of which is any where near the price of things like Cisco, Avaya etc. The web site will link you to companies that can give you support on this so you're not just buying a bit of software and hoping it works.

It's probably worth remembering that many posts on here (and across most of the web) are "I tried X and it doesn't work; how can I fix it" rather than "I installed Y and it worked fine" That means that if you look for stuff on SP3, you're going to find people having problems rather than the people who installed it without problem. A quick count here shows 8,5000 PCs with XP; of those, about 5,500 have SP3 and I'm not aware that we've had any significant problems with it.

Agree with the disabling auto-archiving - it's a complete nightmare - but remember that archiving is not the same as backup. backup will let you recover from a disaster; archiving is more about keeping a copy of something you're not currently using but might need to go back to at some point.