dave.81

Thanks. That is what i thought would be the case, yes it adds in a bit more fault finding should something fail on the link but hopefully rare!

We are currently looking at doing a major overhaul over our main IT suite which will involve knocking down a couple of walls to increase the size. One of these walls is into the current server/storage room and we are looking at the idea of moving the servers to another location onsite, running some new fibre and connecting them back to the current location, probably teaming a a couple of 10g links. Budget will not stretch to running a fibre with enough cores to move the core switch completely but hoping this will be a half way house and allow more room for the IT suite. Will this have any effect on the network with them not being at the core switch?

This year we took over a local prep school and slowly turning the IT around to something that actually works. As shocking as this maybe they currently have no web filtering at all! I know all the main players in this having used most over the years, currently we use iBoss, but from experience they are all going to be cost prohibitive for what is a school of 50ish students and 20 teachers. What options would you suggest for a school of this size?? Thanks.

We have one which is used by staff who are on time sheets which has failed and have been asked to look into a more modern one that will do the totalling etc for us and hopefully link with the salto ID cards we already use. Does anyone use electronic clock in machines, what type? Would love to put it in for all staff but dont think the teachers would like that!

We run our own router so can change what we need when i can put a plan in place to implement the vlans.

Thanks for the info. VLANS is something i want to be moving towards but the school has been cabled in such a haphazard way will need investment in switchgear to put into place, i think. Maybe it's time for that difficult conversation about the infrastructure and how it needs a major overhaul! Edit: I'm a complete newbie to VLANS, if i moved the wirelss off to a vlan i need to tag each port with an access point on it to VLAN:50 say? Then set up a dhcp on the server for that vlan?

We've been running on 255.255.252.0 for a few years now but as the amount of devices has grown and grown. We have today maxed out the subnet and need to expand. If we moved to 255.255.248.0 this would give us a lot more but what is needed in the process? I know i'll need to change all the static devices over to the new subnet, do i then just add a new scope for the subnet and remove the old one?

Just checked and both subnets are associated to the correct site and checked that i've got the details correct in them.

We have just added a new location to our domain and added a new site to AD and for the group of users for that site everything works fine and if they are at our main site then they are able to login as well. But the users at the main site are unable to login at the new location, they get user profile service failed the login. Any ideas where to start looking as it's strange 1 group can access both locations but the old group of users are unable to use computers at the new location.

I'm going to be there on the Wednesday and Thursday want to catch some seminars as i missed them all last year only doing 1 day. Have some budget to spend this year so will be keeping an eye out for deals. Luckily enough to get work to pay travel and Holiday Inn, who would believe flying into London City is cheaper than getting a train

Bit far for me so cant make it sadly.

Sadly too far from Devon so will have to give this one a miss.

Right i think i've settled on the plan, will site with a single domain and replicated AD over the current link and use OU groups for their users/pupils. Give them their own DC and file server but for the 2/3 members of staff who switch sites and need office documents between sites i'll give them shares via GPO. Does the above mean i'll need to run on the same subnet/ip range or will the VPN be able to do the routing between the 2?

They have no IT support and i'll be expect to 'pop' over a few times a month to help with issues so want to put a system in place where i can do as much as possible without wasting 2 hours in the car to pop in. I did think about using a single domain but worried how the replication would work as they only have business broadband (46mb/5mb). I'll be giving them their own DC and file storage but will need to access certain shared files between the 2 sites. I've only ever managed a single site so more than happy to take suggestions on the best way, 2 sites or a single one?

Luckily we dont have to worry about exchange as neither of us use it. They are such a small site, less than 100 total users that i'm tempted to not migrate anything other than data and scrap everything else! So i am right in thinking that using Sites and Services in AD i can allow both groups of users to share resources and log in at both sites?

Sounds like a film but wondering on the best way to achieve this. We've taken on a feeder school which i am currently in the process of replacing their SBS2008 server with something newer and better spec'd. We will have staff logging into computers on both sites and need to share certain files, so would like to bring their domain into ours, or just replace theirs completely. Can i just add them as a site on our active directory and this will allow them to login between the 2 sites or is it more complicated than that?

If it is related to Java doesn't Chrome now disable Java with no override option now?

Yes it is just for the SSL certs really but would be nice for it to be right, although the SSL certs are the priority! How could i use DNS to get around the issue, never dealt with external SSL certs before.

I read that this can be done using RENDOM but how much of a risk is it? Our domain was named by a 3rd party and it's not a full domain name, "campus.schoolname" not the full "campus.schoolname.co.uk". We are now looking at getting SSL for our parent portal and obviously cannot purchase an SSL for this part domain. Is it best to match the school website when rename, if we are brave enough.

Thanks you pointed me in the right area. Took out the admins for the conditions list and left in just the users and it seems to work ok now. Seems windows groups dont work but user groups did as well.

I'm setting up Radius for the first time and so far have it working fine for myself and others who are registered as domain admins but no one else. I've added the domain user group to the conditions but when anyone tries to connect the are told they have incorrect username or password. Cant understand why Admins can but no other users can when both are added the same way.

Workstations are going to be a slight issues as the budget doesn't stretch do those, apart from upgrading their 60gb sata drives to SSD to help keep them going for another year or 2. Dont know much about the HP microserver are they up to running AD etc or just an oversized home user system? Althought just found the Dell T20 mini server which comes with a Xeon so should be up to the job of what they need.

We run our new air con at 21 and rooms is around 26.

Thanks for the hints, glad i'm heading down the right route, seems odd trying to scale down what we do for something so small. I've been burnt by buying refurbed stuff before so will stick with new with 5 year warranty save any worries on the hardware side. Dell tower with few extra discs purchased seperately seems best route, now just to find a good place to store it in the bag room! Not concerned by iPads we use them here and they are too much work but looks like they are going to get Learnpads instead.

We've recently taken on management of a local(ish) primary and have been tasked with sorting out the basics of a network to replace the mess a parent left behind who was running it before. We have a VPN setup between sites so they are making use of some bits, MIS, Anti-virus. Currently the plan is new server to replace the current homebrew one in a the comms cabinet running DC, DNS, DHCP. They use Office365 so no need for exchange to run on it. Will look at using Hyper-V and Veeam to then backup to a NAS in the other building they have. Being a small school, 30 pcs and hundred users i dont want to spend £4000 on a server, what kind of spec would be a good for this? Will put some Unifi wireless AP's in to replace the standalone home AP's dotted around and swap the 3 no name switches for POE ones. Anything else i need to watch out for in a primary school or extra's we can run ourselves to save them the money?