Andi

Thanks to all that got back to me in this thread, even though it wasn't mine to begin with! I now have made good progress in setting up VLans throughout the school using the ip helper address instead of having a virtual lan adapter for each segment. CHEERS!!!!!

Ok great thanks.

I'm in the process of subnetting our network, and setting up the relavant scopes on the DHCP server. I was creating a new scope and suddenly noticed that teh DHCP server had labelled itself with the IP address of one of my virtual VLan adapters! I've been having trouble getting this new vlan to see the network, and I wonder if this is why? The existing subnets seems to be still picking up IP addresses correctly. Attached is a screenshot. Should I be worried about this, and is there any way of changing it? I've been through all the bits that I can see and haven't found anything yet.

Also you need to be aware that upgrading the firmware past a certain point on this series of switches disables the use of 3rd party GBICs. We have some Finisar GBICs in our switch that were bought before the current support team all worked here, and as such we've never dared upgrade the firmware.

I would like to do the opposite, kind of. I want to separate the boarding houses onto their own VLAN and only allow RDp traffic from that network to our terminal server so that the boys can logon and get access to their documents that way. If I'm feeling generous then maybe I'll allow them port 80 so that they can use internet directly from their laptops, but I have a feeling that this will get abused with http downloads flooding the network. Is there a way do do this?

Thanks Synack, I was still typing whilst you replied with your explanation. Brilliant, I'll look into that some more then.

That looks really helpful, thanks. Presumably then, the ip helper tells the computer requesting an IP address where to find one, then the DHCP server works out which scope that it should assign from? So I can get rid off all the virtual LAN adapters from my DHCP server? In all honesty I was kind of worried about having a server with 30 plus network cards in it. Thanks again for that, but do you have any idea why I'm not getting an IP address for the new vlan I setup today? I believe that if I can sort that, and then implement the IP helper address I can get flying on structuring this network.

Well that's how the guy that came in and set it up did it. I'd be interested in hearing/reading up on that helper address though.

Sorry to hijack the thread, but it is related, if a mod wants me to create a separate topic then please do let me know and I'll do that. I'm currently trying to move from a flat network to a vlan separated network to reduce broadcast traffic, I'd say we have about 500 nodes on the flat network. My plan is to have vlans for: Servers Switches Printers IP Cameras and then a VLAN for each cabinet location making 33 in total 192.168.*.0 /24 with the * incrementing for each VLAN. We had someone come in the other day and walked me through the steps for setting these up and made the first 3 for me (VLANs for wireless classrooms), and now I've come to slowly work my way through the other locations. The plan being to do a location at a time, leaving the servers, printers and switches until last as there's the most room for error there. So this morning I set about this: Created the new VLAN on the network card of the DHCP server giving it a name of ITSupp_VLAN and and ID of 120. The ip address of the virtual network card is 192.168.12.252 subnet 255.255.255.0 Created a new scope for the range 192.168.12.1 - 192.168.12.250 in DHCP with a lease time of 7 days. Set the options [Router: 192.168.12.254] [DNS servers: 10.0.0.3, 10.0.0.5] and [DNS Domain Name: monmouth.local] Then I tagged the port on the switch that the DHCP server connects to for VLAN 120, and the also the uplink to the main backbone switch. On the backbone switch I tagged the port the the server room switch connects to for vlan 120 ... all so far so good? ... My computer (the test bed) connects directly into this backbone switch (HP procurve 4108), so I untagged the port I connect to for vlan 120. As soon as I do that I lose network connection and can't get an IP address. I've checked and rechecked the route, but can't see anything I've missed... Can anyone help please?

Thanks everyone, we're currently researching the VMWare ESXi solution and trying to work that into the solution we were originally quoted for as that is the closest. Pretty amazing that it's free now! You gotta love VMWare. Nothing like being thrown in at the deep end....

We were planning to go to a Fujitsu blade system with VMware ESX over this summer break and move towards a completely virtual environment. All was going to plan and looking too good to be true when suddenly the company that promised us the prices suddenly said they couldn't meet our budget after months of saying they could. We're a bit stuck now and running out of time, so we were wondering what the MS Virtual Server 2005 is like, apparently it's free (!) compared to a few thousand pounds per blade for VMWare. Has anyone had any experience of the two that can offer a little advice either way please? It would be much appreciated.

I have no end of ongoing problems when adding new years, or upgrading versions of abacus since the outset. The fix for everything seems to be uninstall and reinstall, which is no good when the databases are populated with customised plans etc. Their software does at least seem to be getting better, pre-shipped msi's for the clients was a smart move, but I still often get difficulties with abacus software.

Has anyone that is running both version across their network had any problems when users migrate between the two types? eg opening outlook 2007 on one pc and reading your mail, then logging into another station with outlook 2003? The reason I ask is that a year or so back we tried this and all the rules got corrupted by changing between version.

Thanks for the advice guys. We are a private school so no LEA to help us in that respect. Will check out some of the other links though. Cheers.

Does anybody know whether Microsoft have any sort of discount scheme for educational establishments for their training? I presume not, but we are struggling for training here due to the cost of it all.

Impero have just added a feature to their latest version to force strict safe search on google. Works a treat.

So...a few years on is limitlogon still the best way to get this going? I only want to get it working for a particular set of students.

Thanks Iain, just spotted that as you replied.

How do you install a bpl file? That's the format the patch is in.

Yes our database administrator is just downloading it at the moment. Cheers.

Thanks, I thought it might have been a bigger issue than our MIS developers seemed to think.

I think it can be done with a group policy, which I have done now, but I was wondering on the implications of syncing with the DCs really/

Due to a glaring error at WCBS our MIS system PASS is out of action today as it's a leap year. Their solution was to "simply change the date on your PC". Now, we don't allow users to do that, as the workstations get their system time from the DCs and I don't want to go changing the time on those! What would be the implications of allowing certain members of staff to change their system time just for today?

Ok, thanks Geoff.

I take it that's a no then?