RobJohnson

Apparently it is a very forward thinking school....

Hi all... So IWB guru's... we are a Promethean house and have quite a few boards over the campus. A member of staff has been in contact with Smart to discuss purchasing their boards instead... but... We aren't going to get rid of the Prometheans (especially as 7 were bought this year!) so I asked if a Promethean board could run with Smart software, a rather cryptic email back says that if we promise to buy Smart from here on in we could get the boards working with the Smart software. Now obviously as said whatever happens we aren't replacing the existing kit as we don't have that much cash and I'd prefer, as well as most of the staff I'd imagine, not to have to learn two systems.. so is the response back from Smart correct? Can I run a Promethean board using Smart software? Thanks in advance, Rob

Hi, We have moved all our students to live@edu but our staff are still on an exchange system. We'd like to have all our staff email addresses in an adress book that students could search/browse from their live@edu accounts and I'm wondering if anyone here has done it or found out it can't be done... ta

Thanks Don, I did donate ages ago before we stopped using it at work, maybe Kevin has a list somewhere...

errr.... over 200! But looking to move to centralised printing hopefully for classrooms with only a few standalone lan printers for admin areas etc.

Sorry for dragging this post out of the backwaters... but is anyone still using LanView 4? I used to use 3 many moons ago to monitor our library computers. I seem to recall 3 had a slideshow function (launched via a seperate .exe?) that displayed all the screens of the connected stations. Does such a function exist in 4?

I think considering what we need out of our filtering the JANET service isn't something we are going to look at realistically. Thanks to Nile I've just finished a conversation with a chap at Smoothwall who is going to send me all the info on their products. Thanks for everyones feedback and thanks to Nile for putting me in contact with someone at Smoothwall. The only other product I think we may also consider finding out about is CensorNet, anyone have any feedback about that?

Staff on our Exchange server here with students this year being farmed out to Live@edu. Simple reasoning, why have to keep spending cash hosting emails for 5000 students when Microsoft would happily do it for free. With the increased mailbox, Skydrive and webapps it was a no brainer really. Staff will stay on our Exchange server as we have to maintain archives etc.

Make it a mandatory 5 minutes. If they complain explain to them that if they locked their workstations you wouldn't have to enfore such draconian measures.

Hi all, I work for an FE college based in Kent and we currently use WebSense Web Filter for or internet filtering needs... having a look at out JANET subscription and it would appear we may be able to use that instead. Does anyone here use it? any feedback/thoughts gratefully received. Rob

Last time our cleaners cleaned the PC's they somehow managed to flick the PSU supplies from 230 to 110... so they don't do that anymore... Cleaned when they come back for fixing and when they are imaged at the start of the new academic year. Monitors get a once over now and then. All mice have been replaced with optical ones. Keyboards get replaced when possible and if thats not they go in the sink with a scrubbing brush and some Fairy, then left outside on the grass in the morning to dry. We tend to strip classrooms down when we are imaging to allow us to clean and hoover the desks, doesn't take long and I have to find work for 5 people when there are no students so it's hardly an issue.

Unfortunately not.... we do it the crude way here, block game sites via websense and delete *.swf files as we find them or by a weekly purge.

For those people who wish to ban software (exe's etc) from running and use Active Directory look into Software Restriction Policy. Very easy to set up.

Yes I did and he was more worried about how it would look from an end user point of view. One can only do so much, I created the task pad and showed him how it worked but he still rather create work. Oh well......

Well once again thanks for the input peeps, the boss (in his infinite wisdom) wants some script... so... a front end with a button for each PC will send a single line to the Run part of the registry forcing it to immediatly shut the PC down. When a user books the PC the button is clicked and the line is removed from the registry allowing the Student to login, when they've finished and collected their ID card the button is pressed and the line is put back into the registry forcing the PC to shutdown if anyone tries to log in. A legal notice will be placed after CTRL-ALT-DEL informing the Student what will happen if they haven't booked in. Not quite what I had in mind but it is is free... now just need to find the whip and get the bod out the back with the nimble fingers to make it work..

Have you looked into the price of Ghost? According to our records we purchased Ghost Solution Suite 2 via Phoenix Software for £5.16 per PC with a £1.19 support license per PC and a media cost of £16.07 (all pre-vat).... So if thats the case your outlay could be less than a £1000.

Thanks for the responses so far, I've been looking at some remote control software for other things, but I'll look at the functionality of those you've mentioned. I'm kinda liking Mr_T's approach though... Anyone would think I'm Scottish!! *no offense meant to any Scots on this board... *blows kisses*

Hi, First post so be gentle with me... We have 44 PC's in a library that at present are open for all students to wander in and use whenever they feel free. The librarians (bless them) have asked if they can move to some form of organised booking system. They wish the PC's by default to bar students from logging in, they would like the students to have to book a PC from their reception desk, the student will hand over their ID card and be told which PC to use. At this point they hit a button/flick a switch and the PC goes from Deny to Allow. Now with Group Policy I can specify that the Student Active Directory Group is blocked from logging onto the PC, but finding a way to do the changing of the Deny/Allow is causing a minor headache with my script kiddie tech. Meanwhile my boss wants to throw money at the situation, he's got USB dongles in mind, personally I'd rather go down the "free" route. So does anyone have any ideas how to do this with VB scripts or any ideas of companies that provide such a service? Cheers Rob