pallen

Loopback will apply the user settings regardless of who logs on. If you have applied settings in the computer group you will need to change them when either staff or admin logon to make them "reset" to the original configuration. I would have thought that the restrictions you would be setting are the same for all suites of PCs execpt the laptops for staff? If this is the case you could just make the laptops a seperate case and lockdown the rest of computers the same by using the user configuration. This has happened to me when I tried to make changes per computer group and found some interesting results with loopback enabled. I ended up making changes to the user groups and logon scripts to make the desired effect.

I think he means that different rooms have a different set of applications installed. Tech software in technology, IT, English ect. If you miss a piece of software used on 10 machines out of 200, it can cause problems. You just need to make sure you have all software that is used in school as part of your mandatory profile and it should be ok.

Could it be that the clients are connecting too quickly? Are they new machines that are having the mapping problem? I have had similar problems in the past but was generally down to network problems. Have you got the clients waiting for the network on boot set in the GPO?

Read it?

Dont really know that much about access,but have you tried to compact and repair the database? Failing that, when you have split the database have you used the network name for the backend? I have found it can work better if you use the IP address rather than the network name. Thats about the extent of my experience sorry. I'm sure someone will be able to help though.

PMP here too

Technical reasons not to install software requested from staff - none unless it comprmises network security. As Open office does not do this, there is no technical reason not to install it onto computers as requested. However, there could be training issues with how staff need to use the software. You have said that some staff are technicaly weaker than others, this is a training need and should be picked up by the member of staff who is responsible for training(even if it is as simple as showing someone to open the program first before opening the file) If the person doing the training in your school is the NM, maybe this is what he is referring to. You can see from the fact that so many of us who have replied that we are using Open Office in our school shows it can be done. But we dont know your network and dont know the full technical issues(unless i missed them) that your NM has given.

Could you not create a policy for the admin users and put it into the same OU forcing it to overide the restrictions you set? Never really used loopback too much, but I was thinking of doing the same thing as you have to apply start menu settings for each room. There is probably an easier way to do it though and i'm sure someone will suggest it.

Have you got loopback enabled on the OU the computers are in so that settings apply to the computers regardless of user that logs on?

No offence, but if you only work while users are in school then you are going to disrupt them. Send a memo (or message via the network) for everyone to save work and that the network will be unavailable for use. Force a shutdown of the machines remotely to ensure that all accounts are logged out. Change the logon hours or disable everyones accounts while you do the maintenance and test it. Simply chage the settings back when you are happy and let users log on.

Well if you are letting the kids use them, how about the digi blue movie creator. for more info try here http://digiblue.com/digital_blue/ We haven't really used them alot, but they have been used by some key skills pupils and i have been told that they are usefull in a primary environment. The build doesn't look good, but i have been told that they will survive being dropped by the young ones. We have used windows movie maker when doing some video editing, and it worked fine. I would have thought that it would be good enough for the level you are talking about.

There is no technical reason why you should be refused installation of Open Office to be working along side MS Office. However as people have pointed out, there will be other things that are not known on this issue. If your NM has a policy in place where they only install software over the holidays then maybe OO could be added to a list of software to be installed. If he is flat out refusing to install it onto a networked computer, then pehaps he can suggest an alternative solution which will satisfy both parties? Put simply your request is having the ability to use OO in your room. If the NM can provide this by any means he has given you what you want.

Not sure what your saying here. Are you implying that not teaching them the method of right-click the pupils are being disadvantaged? I dont really think that that holds up. A school should be teaching the principles of how things work and the procedure to follow in order to achieve a set of results. There are always numerous ways to obtain the desired result and different networks will allow different ways to achieve this. If you look at it another way, schools use various software to teach GCSE, not everyone uses Microsoft. It could be argued that by not teaching the so called standard office package that the pupils are at a disadvantage. This has been covered many times on here, but I believe that the pupils should be taught transferable skills how to do things. Different organisations use different software, have different restrictions, use different policies. The pupils should have the knowledge to work under different environments, not learn how to do things parrot fashion.

Yup, disabled here. Too many times the kids were doings things they shouldn't have been doing and a decision was made to disable it. Yes, it is frustrating when you are used to using it, but as always there are numerous methods to achieve the same result. Although it probably is a case of a few spoilling it for the many, it saves a lot of problems by disabling it.

Yeah, had the same problem and had to copy the files from the system folder on the DLK disk to the local machine. Worked fine, but a pain to setup.

I tend to try and open things in Open Office if they have been created in some other software. However, if it is for work done at home, I tend to advise them to do a save as and change the format to either an ealier version of word, or an rtf.

Could you not just copy and paste the content into something like word and print? We stopped pupils printing from the internet as they were wasting a lot of paper and ink printing pages of unwanted information direct from the internet. Doesn't really help your current problem though sorry.

Yes, I mean put the printer (which you want as default) as the last one that is mapped. It is then set as the default. Sorry if it was a bit vague, cant focus my eyes this morning

So are you saying your not being replaced then? There is no way they can advertise for an ICT teaching assistant and then expect them to be the NM. What happened to the pay scale? Have you got a link to the job? Sounds like your better off out of the place. Hope you got another job? Did the union help at all?

May be being a bit thick here, but cant you just move the default printer to the last one thats mapped? I have ours setup so that the default is the last one listed and I force the default printer in the script. That way if the script fails at any point, it has 2 chances to set the default printer correctly.

Once you get in yes. I have had a little trouble accessing the homepage a few times though.

Can you not put the empasis back onto the teachers? As you say, the number of ways that kids can bypass sites, and proxy servers are just too many to be able to stay ahead of all the time. If a pupil has been caught using one of these could they not get a ban of internet usage for a week or so? Repeat offenders get a total network ban? In order for this to work you will need the support of the teachers who need all pupils accessing the internet during their lessons. They will need to understand that the internet ban is for a reason. Failing that, I know of one school who has implemented a white list for all staff and works well. The only problem was setting it up so it had enough sites on to start with.

Same, no access to C. Actually their only access is home and a public folder. Permissions required by a program are added to the folders on the C drive to allow students to use some software.

Sometimes the layout of the room structure affects where you want to put the IWB faceplate. We had one here with an installation that had to have the connections in the trunking, through the ceilinig and down the wall to the teachers desk. We have had problems every since. We have an intermittant problem where the IWB does not get detected, sometimes a reboot will fix it sometimes not. I have reimaged the machine to make sure it was not the hardware, and eventually got the problem down to either the length of USB cable used or the faceplate it is fixed to. I am still waiting for the company that fixed it to come back and check the installation that was done last year. The cable used did not have a booster on and I suspect that we will need to sort it out as a school rather than rely on the installation guys to come back and fix it.

Yup, used movie maker, albeit with a class split into small groups. But we had no issues with it. As people say, save often and there shouldn't be a problem.