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Clearly the first thing you need to sort out is whether you want the holidays and associated time off you get with education vs the corporate lifestyle where you are likely to have more promotion opportunities and higher salary but this is at a price of extended hours, not being your own boss and of course the holidays are shorter. What is the company like, is it a large company, it seems to be growing according to your post, are they growing too fast for a small company will they be able to cope with the expansion or are they living the dream...look what happened to my football team for doing that!!! If you are looking for promotion then the corporate sector is probably a better avenue, if you are looking for a wage rise, try looking for a new job in education. I did this a year ago now, was on 20k as a Network Manager, I looked around and found another job as Network Manager at a slightly larger school and now earn £28K so you can effectively promote your salary without the promoting the postion, yes you will get increased responsibiliy but then that comes with the territory. In the end nobody can tell you what to do with this but have a long think about things, do you have a wife and children then maybe moving to a coroprate might not be for you, are you single then yes it could be for you because you have no other dependencies. Think hard then make your choice and good luck with it.

We use RIS to initiate PXE environment and then use Ghost 7.0 and use the Multicast server option to load images to a classroom. It works great providing someone hasn't disabled multicasting on your switches and lost the passwords as we had here at the start of last year!!!

When you right click and select properties on your http filter in the add-ins element is the http filter enabled and is the relative path set as HttpFilter.dll?

I go on holiday on Wednesday but I will surely donate on my return!! I'll be checking in on edugeek while I'm away of course.......NOT!! 8)

I can't see that there would be any issues tosca, I've just put wsus 3.0 on a new server and although the layout is slightly different I don't think there would be an issue with having both on the same server.

This is just a general query as I have seen many varying ways in which this is done within the school environment and thought that by raising this topic we may be able to formulate a standard of best practise for our schools so that we can all do this the best way. Personally I have RIS installed on a server and use this purely for the PXE environment, I then use ghost 7.0...yes ghost 7.0 to create images and use the multicast option so that i can do a whole room at once. \well, I did until I came to my present school where the jerkovs have, for some reason, disable multicasting on the switches as well as password protecting them and not left the all important passwords. I could reset them during the summer I suppose but FFS. Anyway what solution do you guys employ and does it work for you?

Thanks new order I did negate to mention that our vle is in fact Microsoft Learning Gateway supplied by Teksys who implemented Shirelands platform. I have requested details from Birchfield so hopefully they will be able to provide some sample content. Do you have a link for the COPE asdan content?

Probably the latter I think Russ with a view to giving them a start. The ideal solution would be to have a full content portfolio so that they could teach direct from it but I guess that would never happen would it!! We don't mind having to pay for content, indeed Shirelands are offering their content at £4000 but not having seen it its a lot to fork out!!

We are close to having our VLE installed and configured and while we would like to have our teachers creating their own content (ok you can stop laughing now!!) we would like to be able to give them a kick start by providing them with some already available content. Has anyone done this and can recommend some reliable and useful content providers?

What do you guys use for Pupil Assessment Tracking software, I'm not talking about the Pupil Achievement Tracker software you can use from the Dfes but this is for tracking student subject assessments. We have a product called PUPA that is designed by a local geezer, it works well but we are worried that as he is a one man band and getting on, if it he goes we are stuck!! Any help appreciated.

If you can get over the RM phobia, the RMOne is an excellent product. We have had one in testing for over a year now and it a great machine. They run to around £500 each. The add on bits like mouse and keyboard, like the Dell USFF are contained and so can't be pulled. There is no bulky power unit to find a place for unlike the dells and it is hard screen and anti-graffiti proof. The unit can be secured to the desk if required.

I'm not sure this is what he is looking for really, I may be wrong. Is it to try and prevent users from using the google plugin version of MSN Messenger?

Works just fine here, just dreading the official test days when the students do their best not to do it!!!

Can anyone tell me if you need to run the adprep.exe /forestprep on a DC that is running Windows 2003 Server SP1 before I add a member server with Windows Server R2? The Microsoft KB doesn't even mention adprep but I am sure that you need to do this on the DC to update the Schema am I right?

The spec of ours (just purchased) is as follows: HP DL380 G5 Intel Xeon 3.4Ghz Processor 4Gb DDR2 SDRAM (8 x 512MB 400 MHz DIMMS) Perc RAID Controller 3 x 146Gb Hard Disks (RAID 5) We will be supporting around 2000 mailboxes. £2350 (licensing not included in price) Chris

We are moving schools early next year and in advance of this we want to convert all our VHS videos to either DVD or a useable file format. We realise that if we use the file format that it will take up copious amounts of space and we have taken steps to provide the appropriate storage space for this. My question really is what do you guys use to do this and I am open to any "sensible" suggestions. Chris

Has anyone tried the Microsoft Business Desktop Deployment solution with regards to this yet?

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA sorry localzuk, have you tried to call them lately to get a quick answer, I called them last week prior to posting on here, I have had one call back to say they are sending a 6.80 CD out to allow me to install it, however the 6.80 CD is a base realease that can be upgraded from 6.78 and 6.79. Their helpdesk has gone right down the swanny of late.

Heebeejeebee I think I need to clarify this more. I am using FMS and currently on 6.80 (Server and two existing workstations) about to upgrade to 6.83 via solus. I have a brand new workstation that doesn't have FMS on it at all. I only have a 6.77 CD which will not allow upgrade to 6.80. I need to have a 6.78 or 6.79 CD to install and then upgrade via the server. I hope this is a little clearer now thanks Chris

Thanks HeeBeeJeeBee although this doesn't help me much as I have a 6.77 CD and nothing else!! Capita nicely forwarded me a 6.8 version but I cannot do an install direct from that. I have noticed however that we no longer need to copy out the FMSApplicationSetup.exe file as it will now only be overwritten by a later version. (Source: FMS 6.80 release notes) I would assume however that this will apply from 6.80 onwards!!! I'll have to see if I can get hold of a fresh copy of 6.78 I think. thanks anyway though and I will retain your notes for future. Chris

I do, we have a shared areas folder for students of all years to access, inside that folder is one for a each year group I set permissions on these folders for the year group and set ABE on the shared areas. When a student access the shared areas folder all they see is the year 7 folder and so on. I find it useful to tidy up areas for users as there a so many folders around on the network that they only need to see the ones that they can access. If they can't see them they can't make attempts to access them either by other means. I like it and use it quite a lot. Chris

I have a 6.77 installation CD, can I use this and how will this update, will it be an auto update via solus?

This is just a general enquiry to schools that have bought learning platforms. I am keen to find out whether any of you have had an resistance from your LA with regard to opening ports for your VLE. I ask because ours has told one of our schools who ae using the frog vle that they will not open the ports for them because they will be provided with a vle by the LA. Now Tony mentions in a post I made some time back that we should work with our LAs and while I agree the working with should, in my opinion work both ways. I realise that LAs have been given funding under 121a to invest in a solution for the Authority but it would appear that not all schools want to use the same solution for one reason or another and this denial of port opening to this school in particular seems pretty obstructive to me. We have purchased the MLG and will be doing the same shortly and worry that the same will apply when I make my request. Accordng to their network manager once he had requested the port openings the LA were on the phone to their head insisting that they do not pay money for the vle and that the ports would not be made available. I know the MLG is not listed on the becta top ten but in my view and recent activity with platforms such as rm and frog jumping into bed with sharepoint makes me believe that this is the way forward. Indeed the Dfes brochure on the subject shows schools that use MLG as their exemplars!! Just to add to this further, we had a meeting a short while back at which all 10 of the becta approved providers demonstrated their platforms and none were anything special. Finally, we are looking to move forward and start things moving so that we have something in place for 2008, the LA have not yet decided which platform they are going to force upon us!!

I am trying to do a FMS install on a clean machine. Could anyone give me a pointer as it is quite a few years since I did a fresh install of FMS onto a workstation. I don't have a 6.8 CD either!!!! Any help much appreciated

RM have also informed us that they have made available a new msi that you can deploy instead of the original one: Transcript of email: >START< Dear KS3 ICT test school, An issue has been detected with the auto-deployment (MSI) package for the 2007 Summative Test that may cause an error message to be displayed on pupil workstations and prevent the DPS from launching. Note: The issue will not occur if the Summative Test is manually installed on workstations, however we recommend that once you have installed the 2007 Summative Test, you log onto a workstation with the test installed as a student/pupil user and launch the DPS. If the software launches correctly you have not been affected. Symptoms In some circumstances pupil users see the following message at log on to a workstation or when they launch the DPS: An error has occurred in the Delivery Point System application. Access to the path “C:\Program Files\QCA Testing\Delivery Point System\Tests\KS3ICT-2007-S-SUQ 1059x” is denied. Contact your system administrator. [OK] Upon clicking OK, the DPS does not start. Resolution 1 – How to prevent this issue if you plan to automatically deploy the 2007 Summative Test but have not yet done so. A revised version of the auto-deployment (MSI) package has been allocated to your school as a software download. This MSI package corrects this issue and should be used in place of the original MSI package. Your school’s APS server should automatically download this revised MSI package. Using the revised MSI package • Log on to your server as a Windows user with administrative privileges. • In Windows Explorer, browse to [APS Folder]\FILE_STORE\Software\TDS • Look for the file KS3ICT-2007-S-SUQ 1059 (revised installer).msi. This file is the revised MSI package. • When the file has been fully downloaded it will be approximately 29MB in size. If you do not see the file, or it has not been fully downloaded, you can manually force communication to start the download. To do this, log onto the Admin Point System, choose the 'School' menu and 'Manage Internet Access' and then click on 'Run Now' from the bottom of the page. • Once the revised MSI package has downloaded, follow the instructions in Chapter 8 of the Installation and Technical Guide to deploy the 2007 Summative Test. When following these instructions, the revised MSI package should be used instead of the original MSI package referred to in the guide. Resolution 2 – How to fix this issue if you have already deployed the 2007 Summative Test to your workstations. The MSI package you have used to auto-deploy the Summative Test to workstations incorrectly leaves behind an empty temporary folder following its installation named: C:\Program Files\QCA Testing\Delivery Point System\Tests\KS3ICT-2007-S-SUQ 1059x (Note the x on the end of the folder name – the test itself is correctly installed into a folder of the same name but without the x). The DPS software is designed to handle this situation and will attempt to delete the empty temporary folder whenever it is launched. However an admin user would need to launch the DPS in order for this to be successful. Whenever a non-admin user (e.g. pupil) launches the DPS and it tries to delete the temporary folder, the DPS is denied permission to do so and an error message is displayed. It is possible to resolve the issue permanently on workstations by using one of the following 6 methods. You may find the deployment options at the top of the list to be the most time efficient: · Deploy a folder-permission Group Policy Object to workstations on your Windows Server Network. Detailed instructions can be found in Knowledge Base Article TEC915481 · Deploy the revised MSI package to workstations on your Windows Server Network (see Using the Revised MSI Package above). · Launch the DPS when logged onto a workstation as a Windows user who has administrator access rights and the DPS will delete the folder automaticallyhttp://www.rm.com/ks3ict/member/support.asp · Manually delete the folder C:\Program Files\QCA Testing\Delivery Point System\Tests\KS3ICT-2007-S-SUQ 1059x from each installed workstation · Manually change the permissions on the folder C:\Program Files\QCA Testing\Delivery Point System\Tests\KS3ICT-2007-S-SUQ 1059x so that all users have permissions to modify it and therefore automatically delete at initial logon · Schools running the RM Community Connect 3 Network platform: Create and deliver a revised test package for installation on the network. Detailed instructions can be found in Knowledge Base Article TEC916017 Support If you have any other enquiries please do not hesitate to contact us. Further technical support articles can be found in the support area of the website (http://www.naa.org.uk/ks3ictpilot) by clicking on the ‘Accreditation and technical support’ link in the left hand menu bar and then choose ‘Go to the accreditation and technical support area’ from the right hand side. You can log a technical support call online or by dialling 0870 870 1025 and choosing option 2. The Customer Services Team is available by email ([email protected]) or by calling 0870 870 1025 and choosing option 1. With regards, KS3 ICT Tests Customer Services Team Tel. 0870 8701025 Fax. 01235 854391 [email protected] http://www.naa.org.uk/ks3ictpilot >END< The above is clearly an RM solution and I take no responsiblity for its content. I'm just glad i've been off for a week Chris