reardonp

It appears from a technical point of view that: 1) WSUS will NOT push the update necessary to bring up the Windows 10 "splash screen" offering the upgrade. However, at least in our setup, the update DOES show up when clicking 'Get updates from Microsoft Update'. 2) Windows 7/8 Enterprise will not be upgraded to 10, but should be able to be upgraded via the site license. However, MS has not been clear about what this means for Volume License perpetual upgrades, which we do something similar with Dell for ~$50 per Win7/8 Pro license. The OEM licensing is essentially the same as a home computer, so that should be fine with Win10 upgrades. Hoping MS clears all this up in the next couple months. EDIT: Just did some testing. The update is installed when getting updates from MS Update (not WSUS), but the Win10 splash screen does not show up. However, immediately after removing the computer from our domain, the splash screen does show up and gives the same offer as my PC at home. So it appears that WSUS does not push the update, and even if the update exists, being on a domain suppresses the upgrade offer.

Hi all, I'm a little out of my element here with a Comcast EVPL setup, and their support hasn't been super helpful. Before I try them again... We have a Metro-E comcast setup, just put in last month, at 8 of our sites. At our main site, we have a 100Mb EDI connection to the internet--that's hooked up to our firewall and working great. At all of our other sites, plus our main site, we have an EVPL line, at various speeds to each building. All connections are between the main site and the secondary site, for the purposes of sharing the internet connection, and I assume, local networking as well. I'm pretty confused about how to actually set up the EVPLs. We've been given local VLAN tags (10 through 16) for all of the remote buildings, and I've been told that each of these VLANs are to be set up on a managed switch at the main site as a trunk port, and then set up the ports with their respective VLANs at the remote sites. I'm also told it should be possible to use a router/firewall at each site to do this setup, as well. This would be my preferred method, as I would like to set up load balancing/failover with our existing Comcast coaxial connection alongside this new WAN. We also have been given a range of 14 IPs (/28) to use with the EVPLs. I'm unsure how to use these IPs, and if they are internet-facing, or behind Comcast's IP wall, or our own. They are not a local IP. Our current network is a flat network at each building, like so: Name: IP Structure - subnet - gateway Main site: 10.10.x.x - 255.255.0.0 - 10.10.0.1 Site 2: 10.20.x.x - 255.255.0.0 - 10.20.0.1 ... Site 8: 10.80.x.x - 255.255.0.0 - 10.80.0.1 Each site has a SonicWALL firewall with site-to-site VPNs connecting each site. We have Netgear GS748Tv4 switches at each location, SonicWALL NSA 3500s at 3 locations (including the main), and SonicWALL Pro 3060s at the others. We also have a Netgear GSM7328FS Fiber switch with 4 ethernet ports as well, which is our "core" switch at our main location. Does anyone have any experience setting up an EVPL such as this? How do I use the VLANs and Static IPs in tandem to get this service to work? I'd like all the buildings to still be able to talk, but separate VLANs and/or separate subnets are probably still a good idea, so we're not just one big network. Thanks!

I can't confirm your specific problem, as we have a very slow network so use local resources, but the majority of my regular desktop GPOs apply just fine to MultiPoint 2011. MultiPoint treats user sessions as RDP sessions, essentially, so anything you do on there should work. Do make sure that you get the Premium edition of MultiPoint, as the Standard edition (and non-education edition of 2010) only support up to 10 users and do not support domain add.

I am able to run USB audio through the local USB hub (which is built into the Dell monitors we order for these solutions). Works fine with my test headset, which is a logitech gaming headset I have from home. I can't seem to assign the device to the station manually, but it appears under the station when I plug it into the monitor's hub along with the keyboard and mouse. That's a good enough solution for me--we generally have to buy headsets for these solutions anyways so I'll just have to switch some of them out for USB headsets. Not sure if I was clear, but we're currently using this solution in small pods--3-5 stations per pod. Working out relatively well.

If I wasn't clear, audio works absolutely fine on the U170 devices themselves. The problem is indeed on the computer itself, monitor and audio plugged into the local resources. I had the exact same issues in MPS 2010. Seeing that the U170's audio is considered USB Audio, I'm pretty sure a USB solution would work. I have a USB headset at home that I'll give a shot soon. I have not directly posted on the MPS forums but I've come across a couple of very similar issues on their forums through Google searches, and only one poster mentioned something about redirecting the audio device, but never had a full answer, it was only theoretical. I'm thinking it's unfortunately just how MPS is coded, and I'm stuck buying some extra devices for the main stations. It's still cheaper than buying another USB station.

Hi all, Not sure if this has been asked, but I'm trying out MultiPoint 2011 with NComputing U170 devices as I once tried with MultiPoint 2010, but there were simply too many issues, mostly with the VSpace drivers. 2011 seems to run a whole lot smoother, and I think I'm ready to call it ready for deployment. However, there's one odd problem that stops me--the local audio on the main computer no longer works once the U170 drivers are installed and MultiPoint is booted into Normal mode. It works fine pre-driver and in Maintenance mode. The only device is "Remote Audio", which goes nowhere. I suspect that a USB Audio device would work for the main computer, and might be an easy workaround, but before I go ordering a bunch of USB Audio devices, I'd like to make sure that someone else hasn't run into a similar issue and been able to remap the audio on the main workstation. Thanks!

Hi all, We're a rather low-tech district that's rather quickly getting into more and more technology. We have netbook carts, thin clients via RDP, etc etc. all coming in at a very fast pace in the last year or so. We've never offered our students Active Directory accounts, and the Google Apps setup at the High School was a straight import from our SIS system with no active data links of any kind. Our SIS is hosted by X2 Development, now owned by Follett, I believe, and that is in the cloud, so we don't have a direct link to their data center (i.e. no ODBC, but an FTP file drop might be an option) I'm looking into the best methods of automating username and password generation for student users. I'd rather make this as automated as possible, since we don't always have a lot of manpower to handle data entry of this type. My initial thought was to have the SIS automatically generate a username field on their end (and password, possibly based on one of the student IDs or Lunch codes) and integrate that into the UI for teachers and staff to be able to know students' login information very easily. Then, the data would somehow be linked to our Active Directory, possibly via some manual interaction with FTP uploads or a 3rd party sync app, creating new students automatically and possibly disabling those who have left us. Google Apps Directory Sync, which we already use for our staff GApps accounts, would do the Google part, which would be simple if the passwords are also stored plaintext in one of the AD fields, which shouldn't be an issue. Does this make sense, or are there other methods that some of you use that are simpler or more complete? I'd like to do these accounts correctly, as this will either be all Middle School and High School students, or every single one of our students. Thanks in advance!

Hi, I saw a few threads on this but nothing particular to my problems. NComputing released the drivers for their U170 devices and Multipoint Server 2010. Our district purchased a ton of devices and licenses in order to prepare for the NComputing solution. However, I've had a lot of issues with these installs. First, I have reason to believe that Clonezilla doesn't get along with Multipoint (maybe Server 2008 R2 in general?). I've taken an exact image off of what ended up to be a perfectly working setup, then once I load the video drivers after a sysprep, I'd get random video distortion and the computer would hard lock. Also, the devices simply wouldn't get a picture. Again, after sysprep, the original machine had zero issues like this. Anyone have issues with Server 2008 R2/Multipoint and Clonezilla imaging? Is there another free alternative that works? One issue that I've had on all of the setups has been that I have a limited amount of policies placed on the NComputing pods [Just default domain policy, WSUS, User Policy to add students to Remote Desktop Users, and Forefront settings, although I did have Remote Desktop Activation on as well] but it seems that "Applying settings" hangs up long enough that on some boots, the devices will come on and get hung up, and need to be power cycled or the whole damn thing needs to be rebooted. On other occasions, the User Profile Service (there may be another word in there I'm missing) will hang for 1-2 minutes and completely hang up the devices as well. Other than that, the solution seems speedier than the Win7 32 solution I'm looking at, and without the desktop redraw errors since it forces the theme down to Windows Classic, essentially. I'd like to be able to use Multipoint, but without being able to image it and with all of the issues we're having with upkeep, I'm unsure if it's ready to be deployed in our intended locations (Elementary schools, High School computer labs, etc.) If anyone has been working with this solution and could provide some insight, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!