dhicks

We use Apache Guacamole (https://guacamole.apache.org/) behind a Cloudflare zero-trust tunnel secured with (2FA-protected) Google logins. I have a Github project with the setup: https://github.com/dhicks6345789/remote-gateway The above project isn't quite production-ready, it might need a bit of tweaking to get working for your particular setup. The software (and my setup) is free. Cloudflare's zero-trust service is free for under 50 users, which works well for us.

We use Veeam (around £250 a year for a 5-VM-license pack) to back up to Backblaze (£6 per TB per month). Actually, for under 10 VMs you can use the free edition of Veeam, although sync-to-cloud-storage isn't included in the free version so you'll have to use a separate mechanism (I find a simple rclone sync command works fine for my home setup). We also backup our Google Workspace data using a local Synology device which we then also have sync with a Backblaze storage bucket.

Good point - might be worth adding we found these EDID Emulators to help in some cases: https://www.lindy.co.uk/audio-video-c2/hdmi-2-0-edid-emulator-p11244

We've found issues with the latest version (129.0.6668.80) of ChromeOS Flex on our 6-year-old Intel NUCs model NUC7JY (BIOS revision JYGLKCPX.86A.0054). We had 9 of those in our staffroom as general-use workstations, they suddenly stopped booting when they did an upgrade to v129. Trying to boot from a USB stick to re-format them didn't work, either. Other devices seem fine, including variously-assorted (and cheaper) NUC-alikes, it seems to be just that specific model. Your HP DC7800s might be similar.

Fiddling with the monitor refresh rate sometimes helps. I think the Windows default is 60Hz, but selecting the 59.94Hz sometimes seems to reolsve issues.

The way I'm thinking of it would - pupils would basically be typing any URLs / search terms into your own-hosted web proxy, for which you have control over. I'd have vaugly thought that would be how the Smoothwall captive portal handles things, though - sorry, we use client-based filtering for pupil ChromeOS devices so I'm not familier with the latest options available for other methods.

Similarly, you could host a web-based proxy which you then force all pupils to go through. You would need to be able to authenticate pupils so you could identify who was typing the rude words.

We're about to turn off our old Windows Domain Controller and file server, leaving just print server (Papercut), phone system (3CX) and door access (Paxton) to run as local Windows server, which could pretty much be run on a small NUC or similar. We have an on-site gateway / filter (Untangle), which can failover between our two internet connections. We have Ubiquiti network hardware, managed via their small on-site device, and we have a Synology backup device which we use to backup Google Drive, one of the larger 2U rackmount devices. We currently locally host a remote desktop server for a relativly few teachers who still want to use it, and a general scripts-and-stuff server which could both really be run on off-site servers if wanted. For everything else, we use Google Drive for file storage and workstations (Windows, Mac and ChromeOS) use Google logins. As we already have a server cupboard complete with dual UPS-backed power supplies, aircon (with backup) and dual internet connections we keep a couple of larger servers on-site that we could probably move off. It might be that we wind up hosting AI services on hardware in that space as we have the facility available.

We went from a Xen server setup with failover configured between two servers to two servers running Windows Server, one main server and one backup / standby. We're about to turn off our old Windows Domain Controller and file server, leaving just print server (Papercut), phone system (3CX) and door access (Paxton), which could pretty much be run on a small NUC or similar in a network cabinet somewhere.

I was just thinking my Sagem MY V-56 needed a new battery - turns out it's only 20 years old, figure it should still be good for a few years as yet.

Okay, that makes a bit more sense - starting with a well-defined problem of the kind of size a single person can develope a solution for, then work up from there if it's a success. I would recommend looking at Wonde and similar (Clever in the US, also now in the UK) - aggregates data from various school MIS systems and provides a nice, modern API interface for developers to use it. API usage and costs scale up well from a single school to multiple schools, and they provide test data for you to work on before release. They also have a marketplace for you to list your product.

If it's any help, I use rclone a fair bit: https://rclone.org/ You can sync a folder from your cloud storage, work locally, then sync back when done. You'd probably need to set up some scripts / shortcuts to run, possibly when a user logs in / out.

We have the Feitian K9 rolled out to all staff (around 100): https://www.ftsafe.com/products/FIDO/NFC They use both USB and NFC, we've had staff using them as 2FA keys for a couple of years now, and since September they've also been used for (Paxton) door entry and (Papercut) printer login tokens. They've generally worked very well - we've not rolled out to pupils yet, but might consider the Year 10s / 11s. People have them on their keyrings to use like they would door keys, and making them use the same keys for door entry has made sure they actually bring them in to school every day. There's been few problems, just a couple of small gotcha's: our nice, compact all-in-ones have side-mounted USB ports hidden away behind the screen, and mounted the wrong way around for someone to be able to press the touch pad with their finger when using the key. A short (30cm) USB extension cable solves that. Also, the USB interface is of the thin style, so it can be put in a port upside down, which can confuse some users. The NFC-capable Feitian K9 was a little cheaper than the Ubikey equivilant - we bought in bulk, a quick Google suggest around £20 each, which sounds about right, maybe a bit cheaper if you're buying 1,400. They were easy enough to set up for use with our printers - the printers have USB-connected NFC sensors and are managed by PaperCut, we have one of the same NFC sensors on an admin PC we use to set the keys up. You'll probably need to buy the sensors via whoever manages your printers, which is going to depend on your provider. I bought a couple of Thetis Pros for my own use, around £25: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BJP64YTT/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&tag=amzn-lnkeg-21&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0BJP64YTT&linkCode=as2 Has both USB A and USB C interfaces and NFC. I find the press-able button easier to use than the capacitive touch ones used on the Feitian keys, which can take a few seconds / bit of finger-wiggling to get to register a touch.

For our school-owned managed devices, of course, but not for pupil's own devices at home.

We had one for years, and at some point the question of renewals / upgrades came up and it turned out the admin office had stopped using it a while ago, so we didn't replace. I'm not sure what the procedure for postage now is, but I'm guessing simply buying stamps in bulk online as you suggest.

We use Chromebooks in school - school-owned devices, they don't leave the school. We use Securly for filtering / monitoring. If a child logs on with their school account to a Chromebook at home, or syncs their Google Chrome profile with their school account, then their filtering / monitoring settings would be applied. In practice, I don't think that's happening much, but it's handy for the parents that might want the option. Of course, it's quite easy for pupils to get around by logging out of their school account and logging in with a personal account, so it would need some parental supervision.

No, but I've seen someone else using a sort of mini-table / stand that sits on an existing desk and lifts just the laptop / screen. Might be worth considering if budget is an issue. A height-adjustable (gas lift?) screen mount might also be an option - rather than lifting a whole desk, just lift the displays and (of course) something large enough to hold a keyboard and mouse.

Hello All, We have a bunch (9) of ChromeOS Flex devices in our staffroom - Intel NUCs, model NUC7JY, BIOS revision JYGLKCPX.86A.0054, updated 02/20/2020 - the latest version, as far as I can see. Devices are around 6 years old - so old-ish, but not that old. ChromeOS Flex seems to have stopped booting after updating from 128.0.6613.163 (September 24 release) to 129.0.6668.80 (October 1 release - last Tuesday). "Stopped booting" here means they just freeze up on the initial BIOS screen, the "Press F2 for settings, F7 for boot selection..." message stays on screen. It's as if the OS is freezing up at the very start of the boot process, as soon as it gets handed over to from the BIOS. A quick test with a Linux boot USB stick works fine, and this problem seems to be affecting all 9 live devices and the couple of spares we had. Has anyone else seen anything similar - have any other slightly older devices suddenly stopped working with the latest update to ChromeOS Flex? Edit: woops, read the current version wrong, checked a working machine to see what version the devices should be running.

Same here - I've answered, but the answers may not quite fit the questions. We're the exact opposite of the above - the school buys the devices (Chromebooks), they are kept in-school (in classroom-based charging cabinets) and not taken home at all.

As others have pointed out, an MDM of some description is going to be the solution you want here. For logins, the MDM will probably allow your users to log in to MacOS with existing Microsoft or Google accounts if that would be useful. Otherwise, MacOS does have a built-in guest account which (I think) resets to defaults when the user logs out, which might be useful in your case.

Good point. Depending on the age of the building and setup at the school, one double point at ground level per classroom can be enough - wherever the teacher's desk winds up being in the room, you can always run a bit of trunking around the skirting board and plug a network cable in. If you have another point (or two) at ceiling level it means you can put a wireless access point per classroom if needed. Worth adding that if you're going to be running cables, especially for wireless access points, it might be worth running CAT6 to allow for faster speeds to newer access points.

That also, of course, has the advantage that pupils can access the environment from home or other locations, they don't have to be on a specific device. General practice (from a couple of previous threads) here seems to be to provide a virtual machine for pupils to use for development purposes, which means they can have a nicely-configured development environment that can be reset back to defaults easily. If I was doing that I'd aim for the VMs to be centralised on a server somewhere and for the pupils to be able to remote in, then they could use it from home as well.

We (Google Workspace school) enable (allow), but don't enforce. Children (and staff, really) aren't allowed phones in lessons, so we would have to issue 2FA keys. We might consider doing so for Year 10 upwards. Actually, pupils hand their phones in at the front desk on arrival, and generally only need to complete 2FA steps once when first logging in to their Chromebook, so it might be do-able to let them come down to the front desk and request their phone as a once-off when first signing in.

We use FirstMile for our general daily waste disposal (they charge per-bag for mixed recycling, food waste and general waste, picked up daily), they also provide more specialised bags for general electronics, toner and batteries. Probably more expensive per-kg than other methods, but we don't have the storage space to keep enough for larger bulk disposals and they seem quite happy to take random cables and all sorts.

For simple on/off functionality, we've found the most reliable mechanism is to put a timer on the mains socket. Around £10 for a digital mains timer on Amazon - there are cheaper mechanical ones, but those seem to break rather easily. Works well with our ChromeOS kiosk devices, but do check whatever device you are using is okay with simply having the power cut to it on a daily basis. There was another thread on here a few weeks ago asking about managed versions of those timer switches. Annoyingly, Ubiquiti (who we use for switches and CCTV) do seem to do those, but only in the US at the moment.