ToyHeartsFan

Teacher printed 29 ran out of paper so it printed the one left in the queue when you put more paper in.

Yes if they got them from Currys, unless it’s changed in the last couple of years you will need to use Apple configurator to add them to Apple school manager. I can’t comment on Smoothwall S8 I’ve never used it, we used the LEA’s internet connection and didn’t have access to logs etc on the filter. Then we switched broadband provider to RM and had RM Safety Net but as we were using Policy Central (Smoothwall monitor) on all devices we didn’t need to use the reporting on the web filter. If the web filter requires a tech to log in and generate reports then its not a suitable solution; the DSL’s need to receive the reports automatically, then come to you if they need any advice or want something blocked. I believe the new guidelines have an emphasis on monitoring which is where Policy Central was good (on PC at least) because it saved screen shots when a violation (keyword) was detected. The DSL’s can then log into the system and see all of the captures. They now provide a managed service so they will check all the captures (think thousands of false positives) and contact the DSL directly if it’s a high priority capture. The iPad version will never be as good as the PC version because of Apples closed ecosystem and the restrictions they have in place. It looks like Smoothwall monitor has a shared iPads option with google and 365 authentication now which might cover what you need, just bare in mind what I said earlier re running out of space on shared iPads if there are a lot of users. https://monitorhelp.smoothwall.com/hc/en-gb/articles/7949853296156-How-to-Install-Monitor-on-iOS-Devices#h_01HWYW7RYV3CWW7RBDFXR5MME6 https://kb.smoothwall.com/hc/en-us/articles/4410521366162-Additional-Configuration-Options-for-Shared-iPads I believe there’s a Smoothwall rep somewhere on here if someone could tag him / point him at the thread he might be able to give you more answers?

1. Ditch Apple configurator, sign up to Apple school manager – the authorization email has to come from the heads account they won’t accept an application from the network managers email address. 2. You need to buy all of your APPs again; contact your Apple supplier and ask for a voucher for Apple Volume licence credit (VPP?) – raise an official order for the voucher this is the easiest way to add credit to your Apple volume licence account once you’ve got Apple school manager setup (they will send you a redemption code). 3. Contact the supplier you got the Apple devices from and tell them they need to be assigned to your Apple School account (I hope they used an official Apple supplier to buy them). 4. Pick an MDM (I used Meraki because it used to be free) 5. Link your MDM to Apple school and assign the devices 6. Buy the Apps via Apple school manager volume licencing and assign them to your MDM 7. Use the MDM to create profiles, configure device restrictions and assign the APPS to devices RE Smoothwall monitor, I used it when it was still called Policy Central before Smoothwall got their grubby hands on it and ripped out the built in filtering. It was great on PC (most of the time) but the iPad browser was garbage you couldn’t even save favourites. It might have improved in the last couple of years but I wasn’t convinced it always worked as it should. Since the Policy Central days they kept promising to support other clients but never did, again this might have changed in the last couple of years. If you want to go down the Smoothwall monitor route ask for a demo / visit another school that is using it on iPads. At a Primary I assigned iPads to Teachers and changed the device name to the Teachers name, they were locked down with the MDM and the policy central / future digital (smoothwall) browser replaced Safari. A handful of ipads were setup for the children with a limited selection of kids APPS. I used the browser “allowed” list in the MDM to restrict internet access to a handful of pre approved websites that had been checked and didn’t have chat rooms etc… so no need for the Policy Central browser on those. Now in your case you could try using Apple school Manager to create Apple id’s for the users but I don’t know if Smoothwall monitor or your smoothwall appliance will pick up the Apple ids. Note I believe there is an issue with how many Apple id profiles you can have an iPad before they run out of space if they are shared devices. iPads are consumer devices they were never intended to be used as shared devices in an educational environment, things like Apple school manager came years later and were an after thought. There are still issues with Apple such as users being given the option to turn off tracking and I believe newer IOS releases can change the MAK address (for consumer privacy) which can cause other issues if it’s not disabled. (There are other products similar to Smoothwall monitor which you might want to investigate) - Good look!

The mind boggles as to why they would take in their own router... SLT did once arrange a loan / demo of a portable SMART board from an academy; I had to tell the visiting academy trust that NO they weren't leaving their shiny SMART board on site with a 4G dongle that bypassed the schools filtering... You would think an academy would take safeguarding seriously not try to bypass the schools filtering... I connected the Smartboard to our network, SLT then leased it not that any of the teachers ever used it; we were a Promethean school with an interactive board in every classroom and all the teachers flips were in ActivInspire...

The school I was at used an external council approved CCTV company who were given carte Blanche to do as they pleased by the Business Manager without any input from me. One of their tricks was to wire a new CCTV camera in to the back of an existing network socket so they didn’t have to run the cable all the way to the comms cab... Another was setting static IP’s on the cams that were within our DHCP lease scope so they caused IP conflicts… I had to figure out the MAC address of all the cams and make reservations, we had 4 NVRS and dozens of cams and the CCTV company refused to give me the login details for the individual cameras so I could check the settings because they had used the same login details at every school... PS its time SIMS died even CAPITA had enough of SIMS and got rid of it. I’m not sure what was worse managing a local install or dealing with the problems when the business manager decided to move to the hosted version.

Oh the joys of 10Mb networking with coax cable...

I slowly got rid of the LEA’s managed 10/100 Cisco switches and replaced them with simple Cisco SG200 smart switches so we had gigabit to the desktop. Budgets were tight, we had 9 comms cabs and circa 15 switches so high end switches weren’t an option; they were fine for what we needed at the time and I would update the firmware each year during one of the holidays. Our simple setup meant I didn’t need to manage a layer 3 switch so someone that is managing a layer 3 switch might be able to give you more insight into your discontinued Cisco 3750. https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/catalyst-3750-series-switches/series.html https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/catalyst-3750-series-switches/product_data_sheet0900aecd80371991.html From the data sheet it appears they have a security feature that “might” be able to cause this: “IP source guard prevents a malicious user from spoofing or taking over another user’s IP address by creating a binding table between client’s IP and MAC address, port, and VLAN.“ Is there any chance Apples privacy feature on the macbook has changed its MAC address? I’m assuming there’s no CCTV engineers etc. been on site recently that could have set a static IP on a camera etc. that’s causing an IP conflict? You could just use the new IP address and leave it a that otherwise I would try looking into the CISCO Network Assistant software mentioned in the data sheet so you can access the GUI and update the firmware, it might be worth giving your network support company a call for some advice. The switches will need replacing now they no longer get security updates even if you do update to the latest firmware. “Cisco Network Assistant Software provides an easy-to-use, Web-based management interface through a standard Web browser.” “Drag-and-Drop Cisco IOS Software upgrade simplifies the process of upgrading Cisco IOS Software by not involving a Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) server. • The software upgrade feature allows one-click software upgrade of multiple switches in a community of Cisco Catalyst 3750-E, 3750, 3560-E, 3560, 3550, 2960, and 2950 Series Switches. Configuration cloning facilitates rapid deployment of networks. The master switch automatically upgrades each stack.”

If you had hundreds of them then you would have had to pay for Meraki client licences so might be entitled to support unlike the free Meraki accounts. I used Meraki's Kiosk mode on Android tablets and the allowed / disallowed list on a handful of iPads, the android tablets would sometimes drop out of KIOSK mode and need to have the profile re applied but the ipads just worked. It's possible an update broke support on legacy devices or there could be a problem with your Meraki setup e.g. an expired certificate etc. A 30 second search of the app store and "Youtube Kids" requires IOS 14, the top 4 results when searching for "Speech therapy" required ios 13, 14 or 15. Apple have always had a cut off date for support this would have been known when the iPads were ordered and should have been factored into the schools ICT development plan. The iPads should have been replaced when they became EOL, yes I know how school budgets work and was made redundant along with most of the support staff when the numbers no longer added up but you can't polish a ****. iPad mini 2 was released in 2013 and hasn't been sold since 2017 so you have had them for between 7 and 11 years it's time to throw them in the recycling bin and instead spend the time working with SLT / the ICT lead to write a new ICT development plan because if you are trying to use 11 year old iPads there are probably other things that need replacing to keep your network secure.

Hi, is anyone else that uses BGFL 365 and Policy Central having issues where their browser (IE11 and Chrome) randomly stops responding or crashes? The problem stops if I take the Policy Central client off a PC but obviously, that is not a solution. We have a call open with link2ict and Future Digital but are still unable to find the trigger so cannot reproduce the fault for Future Digitals Dev team. We have reinstalled the client and even tried the beta of v7, which does not use java on one PC; the computers are running W7 Enterprise and have updates pushed out by WSUS. It is mainly SLT and admin staff that have reported it and it is driving some of our staff around the bend! It was working fine until around October, I do not know if an update has caused it or it’s a problem with the network accounts, group policy etc… Just that as soon as I take the Policy Central client off the problem goes away. Apologies in advance, if I am slow to respond to any posts our tech left a while ago after getting a new job and with budget restraints he has not been replaced so it has left me juggling first line support as well as everything else that needs doing. Thanks Edit: We're a primary so don't host our own Policy Central Server

We haven't upgraded to 10 yet, we were looking at it over the summer but there was just too much work involved given the time frame. I don't have any additional support since my tech got a new job, we can't afford to replace him... It didn't help that both of our dell servers had hard drives fail in them during the holiday so I was waiting around for them to ship the replacements and rebuild the arrays. - We've already got problems with the HR portal, not sure if that works without acrobat reader...

I've been using it for quite some time but I only deploy it to a few PCs, unfortunately they can be very slow at releasing updates i.e. their community edition is on 48.0.2 but I think Firefox is on 49.0.1 now, so I wouldn't deploy it site wide only as a backup browser. We use Chrome and IE11 which seem fine, it's always seemed odd that firefox haven't created their own msi's and GPO templates.

I already had a distribution agreement for flash, acrobat reader and shockwave and had to create an adobe id after they changed their website. I sent a request for a new distribution licence twice but never got a reply, I tried adobes online support chat who directed me to adobes forums because it’s a free product. https://forums.adobe.com/community/flashplayer I found a few people had created threads because they were experiencing problems obtaining the msi for flash. One user had reported that he had the agreement and adobe id but the link wasn’t working. https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2221518 He included the download link in his thread which worked for me when I clicked on it, I still haven’t received a reply from adobe with my new agreement details yet…

Java being one of my favourites... I've not actually searched to see if the installer creates an msi during installation but they provide the msi for the rest of activinspire its just the driver they are saying isn't available now which is why I think its an odd decision. I've scripted software install before it just seems a bit messy when you can allocate software via group policy, I've not had to resort to scripts for several years now and it seems a step backwards. SCCM would be nice but we're only a Primary and I'm not sure how much it would cost to get it up and running. I've seen people mention WPKG before but I haven't tried it yet I might take another look at it thanks for the reminder. I just haven't needed to deploy exe's, you can usually capture simple primary programs with wininstall or just install them on a network share.

We use Group Policy we don't have SCCM

We had a demo of a smart board and smart amp after which I decided to have a look at Classflow which we hadn’t gotten around to trying yet just to see what it offered. I can’t get it to work on our Learnpad Tablets but that’s a separate issue so I put it in another thread. Apparently they have replaced flash bridge with activrelay in 5.12.x which might be of benefit on our 500Pro boards apparently, information was a bit sparse as to the impact of the changes but I was going to try deploying the new driver which is when I found out they no longer provided the msi for it. It just doesn’t make much sense that you can create a network installation of activinspire and deploy it by group policy but now you can’t deploy the driver in the same way.

Does Classflow work on Learnpads? It seems to work on PCs and iPads but when I tried it on a Learnpad nothing happens after you enter the class code and add a name (using join anyway) the website just hangs. I’ve seen threads on the class flow community where other people have asked about Learnpads but no solutions, have Promethean spoken to Learnpad about the problem to see if it can be resolved? Thanks

Hi Could you tell me why Promethean have stopped providing its ActivInspire drivers as msi files? https://support.prometheanworld.com/article/?kb=How-do-I-install-ActivDriver-over-my-network The change in policy means that we can no longer update the drivers unless we either install it manually or bodge a script so we’re now stuck on V5.11.7 indefinitely. It makes no sense for promethean to remove the ability of network managers to deploy the drivers using group policy. All of our curriculum software is deployed by group policy and we have no other means of deploying software. We have over 30 Promethean boards and deploy the software site wide so that it can be used for lesson preparation and so that teachers can just plug their laptops in to one of the boards as needed. Thanks

Michael has beaten me to it. Policy Central is there for cyber bullying, grooming, to enforce acceptable use policies and hopefully capture things that do get through the filtering system. Years ago when I worked in a Secondary I caught a child putting her mobile number in a chat room that had got through the BGFL filtering. She simply didn’t understand the risk. It was completely by chance that I was using a remote monitoring tool and happened to look at her workstation – this is the sort of thing policy central is there to capture. When it works it is a great tool but when it goes wrong it does so spectacularly and yes there are times I would like to throw it out the window. Unfortunately I don’t think this will ever change when you think about it Policy central does exactly what malware / viruses do i.e. monitors what users are doing, closes apps etc… so Microsoft security updates are bound to break it now and again. Policy Central was a pain in the rear when link2ict first deployed it but then it settled down. Hopefully Forensic will fix the current round of bugs sooner rather later. In Birmingham at least you do not have to use it I think link2ict have a doc on their KB about it. But you do need to be using some sort of E-Safety solution to comply with their guidelines. And ditching it needs to be discussed with the Head / Gov’s because of the child protection implications it’s not something you can do on a whim.

****Windows XP and Office 2003 with all updates installed*** 5.1.3.0 Was fine for us until the Summer batch of updates from MS then computers started freezing / crashing. 5.1.4.1 Forensic have confirmed the problem with Publisher 2003 (It crashes when you open it). Forensic have confirmed others have reported issues with word 2003 its not just us (its never crashed on us but there is a delay between typing and the text appearing). I don't think they have had any problems reported with newer versions of office. Link2ict have added temp exclusions for both Word and Publisher 2003 to get around these problems until Forensic fix it - you will need to do the same if you host it yourself! 5.1.4.3 (No MSI available yet - Forensic said it should be available at the end of the week) David said he has only allocated it to a couple of schools in case there were more problems! It has fixed the Ending Program issue where you get a message when you log off / shutdown the PC and it sometimes says not responding. I'm not sure if anything else has been fixed - could do with a change log from Forensic. I only had David update 3 PCs to this version so far because I didn't want to break everything! My office manager is not very happy She has had a lot of problems with her workstation including CMIS crashing 5.1.4.1 Caused her problems: Publisher 2003 - crashing, word 2003 - slow, CMIS - crashing uninstalled PCE - Everything ok 5.1.4.3 installed last night - *CMIS crashed again this morning when she was trying to raise orders Office Manager on verge of nervous breakdown - uninstalled PCE again - Everything works ok again *Im not aware of any one else having problems with CMIS our other users seem ok ATM it just seems to be our Office Manager it doesn't like... David is probably running round like a head less chicken just with all the emails I've sent him this week... Has anyone tried the old V4xx since the last batch of MS updates? Just because it used to work doesnt mean it still does! The same MS updates that are causing problems with V5.x could also be causing problems with v4.x! So I would be cautious if you plan on trying the old version.

V5.1.3.0. Started causing us problems after the last round of MS updates (we are XP though) V5.1.4.1 is the latest version they have made public (unless they have given you a pre release version) and this version seems better (other than it breaks Publisher 2003).

You should give V5.1.4.1 a go then just be aware it breaks Publisher 2003! V5.1.4.1 stopped our freezing / crashing issue (on XP though) but broke Publisher 2003 Forensic are aware of the Publisher problem and are working on a fix. Speaking to David at link2ict so far the only version of Publisher that seems to have been broken is the 2003 version they have not had reports from people using newer versions of publisher. As a temp work around David has added the publisher exe to the policy central exclusions list until Forensic release an update. This should stop it crashing if link2ict are hosting it for you. If you host it yourself and still use publisher 2003 you might want to add publlisher to the exclusion list until they release the next version.

V5.1.3.0 worked ok for us until the last batch of Microsoft updates that were released during the summer holiday then I started getting reports of computers freezing / crashing (we are still using XP). I allocated V5.1.4.1 which seemed to stop the freezing / crashing but now every time publisher 2003 (yes I know it's out of the ark) is opened it crashes. “Microsoft Publisher has encountered a problem and needs to close” Because publisher is working ok on the PC I use for package building (doesn’t have PCE installed) and the computers have the same microsoft updates / applications installed I’m pointing the finger at policy central as the likely cause of the problem. Is anyone else having this problem? They have now decided that EES licence might be a good idea after all but want confirmation that if we upgrade office the problem will go away. So it would be great if someone could say yes they have publisher 2003 and its doing the same but they also have a machine with publisher 2007 / 2010 and thats working ok.

It does sound like the old Policy central bug - strange we don't seem to be having a problem yet. Only thing I can think of is to check your Sophos settings there were a number of exclusions you needed for policy central also HIPS scanning of suspicious files is off. I'm just hoping that we don't start having the same problems and that they can fix the filtering bug.

Strange... I’ve just checked two PCs in our Suite at random in add remove programs it still shows the version as 4.1 because it was deployed by msi but on the task bar it shows it has upgraded to V5.1.3. There are no errors in the event logs other than adobe flash player update service (thanks adobe arrgggh) and I spent a few mins opening various web sites including Eportal and nothing crashed! It would be nice if the filtering worked though…

I think its more of a Forensic problem than a link2ict problem it seems to be when microsoft release updates that a spanner gets thrown into the works. V4 was already broken for us (the filtering) and pushing V5 to our suite was an attempt to fix it I think David was being cautious by only allocating it to our Suite rather than site wide. I did email him today because the webinterface became unresponsive I imagine that he is rather busy trying to get it sorted but in turn he is relying on Forensic to fix it.