pallen

Thanks guys:D

Hi Guys, after recently changing jobs in september I no longer do as much tech stuff. So after months of coming to edugeek to see whats going on I think I need to go cold turkey. I find myself missing some of the things that go on in schools and feeling like a could make a difference site wide. So yes, I've gone over to the dark side and my job now contains training for s/w and h/w equipment for students. So I wanted to wish everyone a merry christmas and all the best for what the future brings. One things for sure, I know where to come if I need to come for help if I go back into IT Support. Thanks to all those who helped me, the site was a lifesaver many a time:D

@Griffo - good luck, I hope you manage to change more than I could when I was there. It was a good school, but sometimes it was like hitting a brick wall when you wanted to change things:rolleyes:

The problem does not only come down to timing. It also covers things such as people are only interested when it affects them. People would come in for a 5 min session if they were interested in learning how to do things themselves. Unfortunately there are still poeple who find it easier to ring IT support and get them to setup a projector instead of learning to press a FN key. I can appreciate that people are busy, but so are IT techs. If people are not interested in helping themselves then there is not a lot you can do. Maybe write an online intrsuction sheet so you cover yourself, but you cant waste more time trying to get people do things they dont want to do. Not without the support from SMT anyway.

Run the shutdown scripts as a schedule task. You would need WOL to turn the computers back on in the morning(if shutdown overnight). If you have seperated the rooms out, you can run them at different times depending if you have night classes etc running. I used to use Lanview to start the machines up in the morning.

I wouldn't think you would need to. Are you on about removing the options such as View? If so why you want to remove these options? As you say they are available through the menu options anyway. Or am I thinking of the wrong menu?

I dont think the point being made that NMs are demi gods. But rather that it is in your interests as someone who looks after the network(and data contained) that procedures are in place and people follow them. VLEs can be setup for pupils to submit work for teachers of their chosen subject, which can by pass the need for teaching staff to access pupils folders. I think the point being made is that the teacher is *probably* not the best person to decide how they should access and store this data. As GD points out, if they copy personal information which then gets out, who is respsonsibile for this breach in security? If the NM can put into place a procedure which allows the teaching member of staff access to the work they need, and keeps security of data for the school, surely thats what they should be aiming for? If a teacher wants a copy of relevent work then surely the school could come up with some policy and procedure which would allow the teacher to only access the work they need. Not a global access to everything? @Contink - teachers shouldn't have to be trusted with data, they should have an account which only allows them access to things they need. If you are employing a Technical person to perform backups, why does the teacher need to do it also? Teachers are responsible for the pupils, but in my experience here, they are not interested in the legal responsibility of what you should and shouldn't do with the school network. Hence many many complaints when I removed software we didn't have licences for when I arrived:rolleyes:

another brick in the wall?

Try running gpresult to see what policies are being applied. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/expert/gpresults.mspx

What did you change? Edit: I take it winsuite is not installed on this test machine?

Sorry to highjack, but we currently use winsuite(and yes still have Win98), but I would like to remove it in favour of using group policies. We have mostly XP clients now and am keen to go away from Winsuite as I find it overides some settings I am make in GPO. I am facing opposistion because the staff like the list of usernames to select from the logon and dont believe it would be good for the lower ability pupils to remember username as well as a logon. Has anyone else seen some free software that can achieve a similar logon screen to winsuite? What I would like to do is leave winsuite on our Win98 clients that are left and remove it from all XP clients.

If you shut your computers down every day, running delprof at startup shouldn't be a problem. Run delprof over the summer hols so that all your machines are clear and then set delprof to run at startup. You should only have a days worth of profiles on the local machine. I was thinking of setting this up for next year, as every now and then I get people unable to logon because their profile has been corrupted on the client. Although I managed to narrow the reason down to people turning the power switch off at the wall rather than shutting the machine down:rolleyes: But like other people here, I just have some batch scripts that run delprof for rooms regularly instead.

To be honest, what the network is used for is completely up to the school and its AUP. If it states that there is to be no use of webmail (as ours does)then it should not be used. So long as all staff and pupils are provided with inhouse access to email there is no need to access hotmail etc. As for storage, as someone has already pointed out, it depends on what the users are storing, if it is illegal content, it just gets deleted(you can inform the users so they can remove it themselves if your feeling nice) If it is work related then it probably a training issue. It sounds like you need to update your AUP to tighten up your security and update staff use of your network. If you could get this done before the summer it would give you the summer to implement any changes that you make.

Windows? Argh : SteveT - you beat me to it !!

You can put an IP address in the client security settings to only allow lanview connections from certain machines. You add the teachers IP address and your machine to allow you access to all the machines and the teacher to only be able to see their room. All clients show up in the Lan view manager, but the teacher cannot remotely access them. And as JJones says,make sure you put a password on the manager program so only authorised people can run it.

At what point do they freeze? Are you having all clients trying to cache the movie files when they are trying to import files? Or is it when they trying to edit the files or trying to output them? There is a few settings you can change in Movie maker which change the quality of the file. I know it sounds fairly basic, but could it be that the users are trying to use the best quality settings and your network cant cope?

You dont really need to do any more courses. You have proved that you are capable of learning by obtaining a degree. Dont downplay the 3rd level, unless you are trying to get a graduate job, it doesn't matter about the level of your degree. What you need now is to get experience somewhere. You could try contacting a couple of local schools and offer your services a couple of days a week while you are looking for a permanent job. You may find that you need to do some voluntry work if you are struggling to get your foot in the door. Once you have got some experience, you could then look at gaining more qualifications, and you would have a better idea of what areas you are interested in and which course to go for.

lol, cant even get to the article here as its blocked:p

I dont see it as overstaffing as the problem, but more that there is too many staff who are rubbish at their job. Instead of being made redundant for not being able to do the job they have been employed to do, they are moved to another department where it becomes someone elses problem. This leaves lots of people doing more work than they are employed to do and as a result they are being underpaid. The process of Job Evaluation was supposed to address this, but from my experience, its just been a cost cutting exercise. Personally rather than work out how much of a rise people should get, I would have liked a proper Job Evaluation done where the poeple who do more than their contract get their pay scale adjusted up. The people who do less, get lowered. This to me would have made more sense that working out if 2.4% is enough.

Does this happen with USB keyboard and mouse?

JE - Job Evaluation. Basically assess what task you do and what responsibilities you have and that you should be on the correct scale for your job (regardless of title) Support from the LEA - that is what the schools pay for. If the service level agreement is for 24-48 response time, then maybe that contract should be looked at, not giving more people network access. If you are not using the LEA support what is the point of paying for it? Sorry to say this, but if the IT Teacher is the NM then it is him who should be doing the tasks you carry out. If he wants full network access he should have it as the NM. Realistically it is you who does these tasks. If you do them all now, you should have a contract which states what you do, not wait until the next financial year. I would request a copy of both your contracts so you can identify where your roles seperate and who is responsible what. It sounds, just like many schools, that they want you to do all the work, but not give you the pay. I would request that you get things in writing from the head about who should be doing what, otherwise it could get very messy. Of course if the teacher is doing the tasks that you do, you could request that you should be paid the same for doing the same job:p

Check your contract and see who is responsible for managing the network. If it is you, then you could allow him the access he wants AFTER you have fully trained him. You wouldn't allow a new tech full access to your network without training to ensure they didn't break it. Same rules apply(even taking out that contractually the teacher cant do these tasks- unless of course he is also employed as a part time techie) start by training him with the basics, and increase this as his competency groes. Document everything, include the point that you cant be held responsible for anything that goes wrong if the head is giving authority to network wide settings to people who aren't capable of it. If you are not allowed to implement the things that need to be done, you cant be responsible when things break. Is any county support available to you? If so, could you not point out that they are the backup in case anything happens to you? Incedently, are you due to go through JE anytime soon? I'm just thinking that if this teacher gets the admin rights he wants, you will loose the sole responsibility of managing the network. If there are 2 of you doing the work it could be argued that the teacher is the NM and you are the techie implementing the things he wants done. I may be a little cynical here, but is something to watch out for.

Thanks Gatt.. Gave you rep as I couldn't find thanks

lol, I cant get access to the article as its blocked by county:rolleyes: But if our school is anything to go by, all the security that needs to be put in place can be overruled by the SMT. It doesn't matter if the NM can do a good job or not if the head only wants someone to do what the teachers tell them to do. As a result security is limited. Only yesterday I found someones password stuck to the computer, and when I asked them to remove it I was asked why.

Laptops get the same treatment as any other client. Our network is used for educational use only, and as the equipment is owned by the school, you should be authorisesd to look at any data stored. However, you would need a valid reason to go searching through files stored on someones user area. Like you say, if it is in the AUP they sign, then you already have permisssion to do what the AUP says. Every now and then I run a file scanner and if it picks up some dodgy files in user areas then I will investigate further. Everyone who uses the schools facilities signs an AUP which states that everything they do is monitored, this includes Laptops.