SteveB_NI

Thanks all - I appreciate everyone's input, and will get a quote for a new cable run. We have sufficient switch capacity to allow for this.

Thanks! I'm hoping the cable run will work in our favour as the distance to the cab is actually shorter from the room we hope to create than the further away ones I hope to move points from. (If that makes sense!) In the absence of any cabling diagrams this could prove difficult to get a quotation for the work in advance of course.

I'm hoping to create a new desktop computer ICT suite in one room but there is a lack of network points. There is however a quantity of spare network points - for the same cab in the rooms on both sides. I was thinking of getting a quote to pull the available ports from both sides together into one room. Firstly - I'm hoping this is possible as the same cab serves both rooms, but also is this likely to be more cost effective than new cable runs?

I have a large number of basic HDMI > VGA adapters in the College used with our Dell 3050s (Windows 10) to give the users a 2nd monitor - in most cases this 2nd monitor is the data projector - Epson X27s. I'm finding the HDMI adapters are randomly "going to sleep" - and need unplugged / left out for a few secs and re-plugged in for the projector to show the image. Unfortunately as they are added as a "generic monitor" within Device manager, there is no power settings I can adjust for them, nor due to the generic basic nature of them (Newlink HDMI to VGA adapter) there doesn't appear to be any drivers I can find to install. Any suggestions? I've already checked the BIOS and deep sleep etc is disabled. I'm thinking of buying a few USB powered adapters to test, but obviously I'd rather make use of the ones we've already purchased! Thanks

I'm hoping someone with more server knowledge than me will kindly point me in the right direction here - to assist with my server upgrade plans for Summer 2018 (not too long now!) Current Set Up: Server 01 - Windows Server 2008R2 - Roles: Active Directory, DHCP, DNS, File Services - contains 1TB of usage storage (its in a RAID set up) Pupil data 300GB, Staff data 300GB Server 02 - Windows Server 2008R2 - Roles: Active Directory, DHCP, DNS, File Services, WDS, WSUS New Server (not even switched on yet!) Disk Storage: 2 x 400GB SSDs & 4 x 1TB HDDs. Our license will allow us to install up to the latest version of Server 2016 I believe. My initial proposal would be to split the new server into at least 2 x Virtual servers, and replace both existing servers above with this, but is this the right way of doing it, and how?! Thanks for your time & any feedback received - much appreciated!

Using Papercut several years ago I decided to use a summer network upgrade as a good excuse to introduce printing restrictions at the same time. I needed to cut the massive yearly expenditure on toner to ensure I was able to keep the network going - particularly as some replacements were due. So from staff having free reign on the printers I implemented a 4 copy limit, no duplicates for 5 mins and for students even tighter restrictions on file names required etc. It didn't initially go down well but soon slt realised the incredible savings on toner (photocopier usage obviously went up but that was a lot cheaper anyway) and they were happy. Some staff for example admin have lessened restrictions for printing student reports etc.

Tried to move it into Program Files (x86) and it is still blocked despite a GP hash & path rule, except for when I right-click run as admin. Same issue when I copy it onto a Shared area. Must write to some temp area which is locked down

Thanks for this - yes it is Software restriction policies. I have tried creating a local test policy for it via gpedit.msc & pointed it to Thonny.exe within Default user but unfortunately it's still blocked - a message comes up saying the program is unable to be started correctly.

Working on our new Win7 Image I'm trying to pre-install 2 programs - both of which run through AppData\Local\Programs\ so are by default blocked. Is there anyway of allowing a specific program to be unblocked by name, but for every user account? For example the path required is: C:\Users\testuseraccount\AppData\Local\Programs\Thonny\thonny.exe but I need it to be accessible to all accounts. Tried to allow path %AppData%\Local\Programs\Thonny\thonny.exe but that made no difference - still blocked. Unless I right click and run as Admin - which standard users can't do obviously. Thanks in advance!

Well Belfast area certainly got off lightly compared to what I initially expected! Plenty of power cuts though but still time yet for more damage - the winds are still strong and persistent. On the plus side - 2 days out of school due to nationwide blanket closures but I've spent the entire time "on response call" as it were to update the school website & social medias as required. Our call to shut didn't come through until very late Sunday evening. The weather on Sunday evening was so weird though - a very strange eerie sense of calm before the storm. Stay safe people

I'm assuming you meant: https://www.astounded.com/shop/gooseneck-desk-lectern-microphone-stand-black/ ?? I'm looking at this thread in interest, as I'm looking for similar... I like the look of the mic stand, as currently we use a normal full size mic stand and it picks up every foot step on the wooden flooring - hoping this would help us? great price too

lol that's why he told me it expires in 2110 then lol!! I thought it was a bad line and I'd mis-heard him. Do they send engineer out or courier? At present I'm due to be off next week but that might change now!

I had heard about life time warranty, but never thought it would apply to such an old switch! Happy days - thanks very much!!

Unfortunately our core switch (HP A5500-24G-SFP) stopped working suddenly. It was used for 5 x fibre connections around the building (using H8519p2bnl-h3c GBics) and a small number of Cat 5E connections to the direct servers. I am looking for a replacement Core switch but not sure where to begin - the HP recommended replacement (JH149A) seems a bit overkill, as I only require the same amount of SFP ports (currently 4 in active use). Any pointers for possible replacements would be appreciated, Thanks

Interesting points, and I thank all of you for taking the time to reply. I initially liked the sound of having a further safety measure in terms of RAID 6 but I agree as it's not totally mission critical I think the additional storage available by using RAID 5 may be the way to go. Long way off even getting these ordered, so thanks for the inputs, very useful!

We aren't - we are continuing to keep them separate. I just need to refresh our own network servers. It's purely cost related why we have our own network - we simply could not afford the same amount of machines via the managed service contract. All Northern Ireland schools use this contract it's not our choice.

Yes most of the staff storage is on the other managed network and students also have access to this. This network which I look after entirely is used to service the Ict suites, sixth form study and a few random open access areas - it's not used thoughout the rest of the school. However we still need to accommodate all students as they use it at some point in their time at the school. MIS (SIMS) is taken care of on the other network as is the bulk of the printing. I have a basic Win 2k8r2 printer server on our own network too. Great idea to reuse one of the dcs as wsus and even potentially as an additional shared area after it's been decommissioned as a DC.

Thanks for both your replies - will definitely look into the Virtualisation - that's a great suggestion on how to split it up. I have no experience with virtualisation so would be interesting to learn! Can I ask why you would suggest at least 4 drives for RAID 5 out of interest?

I've never specc'ed a server before, so would really appreciate it if anyone was able to advise / feedback on the following replacement server options. Background: Number of users: 780 students + 10 staff (students mostly use this network with the addition of some teachers, staff do the majority of their curriculum work - such as SIMS usage etc on another separate managed service network) Current Set Up: 2 x Domain Controllers + storage breakdown as follows 1. 3 HDDs (500GB each) in a RAID 5 formation - usable space 930.50 GB Pupil MyDocument folders - 292GB - 60% free space currently Staff MyDocument folders - 300GB - 5% free space currently (* to be fair this is mostly my own stuff which I need to clear onto external HDD!) Deployment / Shared Area Folders - 297GB - 16% free space currently 2. 3 HDDs (300GB each) in a RAID 5 formation - usage space 557.75 GB WSUS partition - 195GB - 90% free space currently Staff Shared folders 2 - 195GB - 100% free space currently (not used at all) Deployment / Shared Area Folders 2 - 128GB - 66% free space currently Now, I'm hoping to maintain the high-speed drive choice and go for SAS drives (10K RPM) and hot swappable. I quite like the look of the Dell PowerEdge R730 - Xeon E5-2620V4 2.1 GHz - however, this comes with a 300GB SAS 10K drive. For the 2 servers I would then be proposing: For DC01 - purchase 5 600GB SAS 12Gbps 10K drives - RAID 6 formation gives me 1800GB storage space. For DC02 - purchase 1 more 300GB SAS drive, then use the 1 300GB drive which came supplied from DC01, and in RAID 5 formation gives me 900GB storage space. I plan to keep roles the same on both servers for the time being - and the increased storage on DC01 should be adequate, but I'm concerned about needing to add more drives in the future - is this possible without starting totally afresh? Thanks for any advice

Can I ask - If I apply the May or April roll-ups - does this include the fix for the issue? Or do I also need to specifically install the Windows update from March?

It cost £48 for me to get it installed. I drive an Astra so the cigarette socket is a permanent live connection on mine -therefore a cable from the socket in the car was not an option, so I had to get a connection made to the fuse box / wiring to ensure it switches off after every time I switch off the ignition. I also didn't want to mess around with the pillars etc to conceal the cable as there is airbags all round them - thought I'd leave that to the professionals due to the wiring issue also. Great solution - love how tidy & discrete it is.

I have a Transcend Drive Pro 220. I thoroughly recommend it & thankfully whilst it hasn't been needed the footage of various things I have transferred from it is great quality - especially at night. It was given to me as a present, alongside a suction cup dash mount. I then paid an auto electrician to hard wire it in & conceal the cam behind my rear view mirror, so it's very discrete. The convenience of just getting in car and setting off with the cam recording automatically was essential for me. Also handy feature is the collision detection / notifications and also the lane changing detection - both handy safety features.

Thanks all keep them coming. Main problem I have is when a group of students take the laptops to somewhere random in the school and don't return them therefore the trolley contents can run very low! The only good thing is the power adapters are hard wired into the trolley so they tend to make it back eventually to get a charge!

We have a number of ict desktop suites around the school and over the past few years we have started getting laptops which I originally temporarily allocated into trolleys. I'm constantly fighting a battle ensuring these laptop trolleys are looked after - not just plugged back in but actually chasing up laptops which are taken by students around the entire site! I can't tie to an individual wireless access point due to that being the set up of the managed service for site wide wireless so limiting their usage area isn't an option unfortunately. One of the options moving forward I'm considering is to replacing aging teacher desktops with these newer laptops. Essentially removing a trolley from use. Then allocate the older desktops into smaller clusters which can be added into subject classrooms (space permitting) thus benefiting small research groups etc throughout the school. Another option is to enforce a strict lock down on the trolley and give each teacher a key and ensure its always locked except for their classes. The problem with this is teachers complaining that it's not their responsibility! I'd be keen to hear how you manage this in your schools. I've used laptop trolleys in schools for past 12 years and it's never been as bad as now for complete lack of consideration when using them. Thanks

Seen something similar before - I believe it was a faulty colour toner ( in this case magenta). I would change the magenta cartridge as a check - if it's the same as my scenario there was absolutely no tell tale residue signs on the fuser unit or toner cartridge rollers.