Chris_

We enable STP on our HP switches, and as a more physical approach to preventing this happening we un-patch any spare ports in rooms so that there's less chance of somebody linking two ports together.

I was having trouble with my car being vandalised whilst parked on the street outside my house (no off street parking). The police advised I put a camera up and didn't say that there would be any issues with it being a public road/pavement etc. YMMV

I was thinking about the 8 or 24 port HP 1800/1810 switches as they're fanless, although they don't have a command line so might not be as useful when learning about VLANs. A HP 2520/2530 8G have command lines and are fanless.

We've bought a suite of Viglen Genie Ultra AIO PCs to replace a suite this summer. i3 4th gen, 8GB RAM, 120GB SSD, 22" monitor, Windows license, 5 year NBD OSW. Got some quotes from the usual people and Viglen were the best again.

Might be worth looking at adding links between the edge switches also, enable STP and then have some redundancy in the event of one of the main links between the core and edge failing, being damaged etc.

The boxes are usually specific to the brand of trunking you use. Check what make the trunking is then try and find the appropriate boxes.

The camouflage mustn't have been very good if you could see them!

It's only the Nanostations that have a 2nd LAN port with POE passthrough, not the cheaper Loco units. Also, they are only supplied with a 24v 0.5a injector, it's recommended upgrading to the 1a version if you're going to make use of the POE passthrough port for AP/camera.

But how many schools can afford to drop £100k on a wireless network!

I should have bought shares in them earlier!

I had an email from them today offering licensing per server at £395 regardless of volume of data. I ran the analysis tool on our two file servers and the savings it could make were quite substantial.

Depending on how many people are using the databases, it might be cheaper to license to license the server + user CALs. For example you might have 5x people using a finance system so it would be cheaper to license server + CALs, whereas if all teachers use iSAMS for registration/reports you'd be cheaper licensing it per CPU/core.

Ubiquiti UniFi across all of our buildings.

We've had the same issue, Smoothwall reports the upstream proxy has failed/returned etc. Our ISP (RM) said that it was an issue with their proxies and the load balancing between them. Apparently they've fixed it now. Do you know who your LEA use for internet?

Just a heads up for people who are eligible for Shape the Future licensing, Viglen/XMA are still offering StF licensing as they'd bought them in bulk beforehand. Unfortunately we're not eligible

Although an ADSL probably isn't suitable. A 100Mb leased line would probably be more suitable. It wouldn't be unreasonable to expect to be paying 15-20k per year on internet connectivity.

I've looked at these things briefly, and also co-locating our own hardware in a datacentre. After some quick maths, it was still a very expensive solution, again we'd still need to increase the size of our internet connection in to the school and add a decent second line for redundancy.

We use a load of their 1U 500VA UPS's in our switch cabinets. So far we've not had any issues with them, they keep the switches online during power outages, not much more we could ask for really.

We have a business account and use them for various computer components, televisions, mobile phones etc. They're generally ok and delivery is usually pretty quick (5 day super saver often arrives early), although they usually use Yodel!!

We put a UniFi wireless system in after being given an astronomical quote from one of the big wireless providers. There's not really a great deal to say about UniFi, it just works. We put it in ourselves and now have it configured with our Smoothwall to provide BYOD radius authentication for staff and student devices.

I was going to suggest looking at the IDR route along with something like a PL3/4 remote panel at the front of the hall programmed to allow users to adjust the volume of the laptop input, or lectern mic etc.

I believe Promethean Activ Inspire can open Smart Notebook files. We've installed the Smart Express software on a few computers where staff have wanted to use Smart resources they already have http://express.smarttech.com/

Does this affect all RM computers? Would you care to say what the fix is?

I don't own a boat, and as I'm usually on my own, usually a Laser, or toppers (because school has some at the club ). I sail on a little lake in North Yorkshire.

Dinghy sailing in the summer months, and bits of instructing. Casual walking, cycling, canoeing when the weather is nice. Going to concerts, gigs etc. Doing some events work, live sound, light, power etc. I put some Nightbreaker Plus bulbs in my headlights, they were brighter than the ones in before. Although they have both blown now, I blame the potholes!