Richie

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I've been having the same battle. Tried various powershell methods including Nickolaj Andersens Powershell script and various iterations of my own script at various different points in the task sequence but nothing seemed to make a difference. However, I found a setting that works in the unattended answer file: false Seems to have done the trick up to now but still testing other aspects of my task sequence

Actually yes in the code I posted. 'Trusted_Connection=True' should be removed and 'Uid=;Pwd=;'added to the SQL connection string. A simple SQL login can be created on your solus3_deployment_database, you can set it to have read permission on just the solus3.agent table. During testing, the script was working under a more privileged account so a trusted connection worked. This isn't finished yet, I still have more to try out. For a start, theres no error checking so if the script bombs (maybe a sql error) theres no clean exit. Secondly, theres a particular behaviour of the Solus Agent I need to investigate regarding pulling down a SIMS client on a newly imaged workstation that has no SIMS installation. Currently it doesn't but I think theres a way if triggering this. Thats for tomorrow. I'll post an update if theres any news

Hi everyone, I've been working with Solus 3 a bit recently for a few schools. I've just finished a script to help deploy the Agent to workstations. Its basically a replacement for the AgentInstaller.js script that capita provide but its vbscript instead (just my preference). I needed a rework of the original script as we deploy software using SCCM from a central point to several schools. There are 2 differences really, firstly, this script passes the KeyFileName parameter (missing from the capita script) and KeyFileNamePath point to a subfolder of the installation source to accommodate different schools key files in one package. The second change performs a lookup in the Solus 3 Database to see if the workstation has an agent id already registered which will be re-used if found. A new GUID is generated if not. This means no additional steps should be required in the Solus console for re-installations or re-imaged workstations. Place this script in a folder with the x86 and x64 msi files and the Solus3.Keys.DeploymentService.Public.xml key file generated by exporting the installer from the Solus Console. All the variables you need to set for your site are in the marked section near the top. And you should easily be able to deploy this using a GPO if you don't have SCCM. Dim wshShell, wshSysEnv Dim fso, AgentID Dim SolusServer, SolusDatabase, SolusDB, RS Dim logFileName, agentAddress, dsAddress Dim keyFileName, keyFileNamePath, agentGUID Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") Set wshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell") '--Site/School Specific Variables--' SolusServer = "SIMSSERVER\SIMS" SolusDatabase = "solus3_deployment_server" dsAddress = "net.tcp://misserver.local:52965" keyFileName = "Solus3.Keys.DeploymentService.Public.xml" '----------------------------------' keyFileNamePath = wshShell.CurrentDirectory logFileName = fso.BuildPath(wshShell.Environment("SYSTEM")("TEMP"), "Solus3_Agent_install.log") agentAddress = "net.tcp://localhost:52966" Set SolusDB = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection") SolusDB.CommandTimeout = 15 SolusDB.ConnectionString = "Driver={Sql Server};Server=" & SolusServer & ";Database=" & SolusDatabase & ";Trusted_Connection=True;" SolusDB.Open() Sql = "SELECT [agent_guid] FROM solus3.agent where name like '" & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%COMPUTERNAME%") & "%'" Set RS = CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset") RS.CursorLocation = 3 RS.Open Sql, SolusDB If RS.RecordCount = 0 then agentGUID = CreateGUID Else agentGUID = LCase(Replace(Replace(RS("agent_guid"), "{", ""), "}", "")) End If RS.Close SolusDB.Close Set SystemEnvVars = wshShell.Environment("System") if Instr(SystemEnvVars("PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE"), "64") then msi = "SOLUS3AgentInstaller_x64.msi" else msi = "SOLUS3AgentInstaller_x86.msi" end if cmdLine = "msiexec.exe /l*v """ & logFileName & """ /qn /i " & msi & " AGENTSERVICEADDRESS=" & agentAddress & _ " AGENTID=" & agentGUID & _ " DEPLOYMENTSERVERADDRESS=" & dsAddress & " RSAKEYPATH=" & keyFileNamePath & _ " RSAKEYFILENAME=" & keyFileName wshShell.Run(cmdLine) 'wscript.echo(cmdLine) Function CreateGUID Dim TypeLib Set TypeLib = CreateObject("Scriptlet.TypeLib") CreateGUID = Mid(TypeLib.Guid, 1, 38) End Function

Heres another way of fixing this issue: Find the following registry entry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Desktop\SafeMode\Components And change the DesktopHtmlVersion value to 0 Then just right click your desktop and click refresh. The registry value will be reset back to it's default setting of 272 (decimal) so if Active Desktop Recovery comes back up in the future you have to repeat the process. Alternatively, the registry value can be push out via Group Policy if this is something get often or on lots of computers. This will make the fix permanent saving you the trouble of having to sift through registries all the time.

It's worth setting up a test conatiner in your Active Directory and get your hands on a test PC (use a virtual PC if hardware is short). Pop this PC into the container. Create a folder on a server called 'Start Menus' share this as read only for all users. In that folder create another folder for each ict room (if this suits the way you have your ict rooms setup). Then in each create a folder called 'Programs'. This is the folder you then copy you start menu short cuts to (they can just be copied from a PC with the relevant software installed) Create a group policy for the AD container, look for the folder redirection policies. There is a specific policy for Start Menu redirection. Change the settings so all users use the same basic path and set the path to \\server\share\room-a. The nice thing about doing this as you pointed out is the ability to manage you start menus from the server. You can add and delete shortcuts even while users are using the computers in the room and they see the changes immediately. We have been using this for a while now and are aiming to implement a fuller 'standard' image across the site that has all (meaning most) of our software on all computers. Then we can easily 'move' software around site by changing the start menus. Don't forget that in your group policy, you might want to remove the 'All Users' section of the start menu. Can't remember off my head and can't check at moment cos I'm at home. Let me know if you need more info

Derbyshire contract has been awarded to Equitix - IT partner is Dell http://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/news_events/news/2008/december/news_items/bidder.asp

How many staff do you have? Do you have any ideas how many might not have changed their passwords? I you could put together a list of 'likely candidates' of staff who are probably still using blank passwords, why not login as them as set the password for them? They'll no doubt come and tell you 'the system won't let me in again' It could be possible to write a VB Script to login as each staff member and record which accounts succeed with a blank password.

Not sure if this is relevant but we had a similar problem with Director Player (something to do with shockwave animations on some science software). It had an issue detecting the page file size if it was too big, especially if the machine has 1Gb or more RAM. The solution was to set a custom page file size. Set the INITIAL size to a low value such as 384Mb (I think this can be anything below 1Gb to solve the problem) and set the upper limit to be high enogh for your needs. Director was happy with this, maybe Fireworks has a similar problem. Could be worth a try.

Funny thing that, we changed our policy on username config a while back on our domain (off topic, sorry) To minimize fuss, we decided to implement changes only for new accounts and leave the existing ones be so they would be phased over time. Student usernames were moved into groups called 'Students' and 'Old Students'. For staff, I had to use 'Teachers' and 'New Teachers'. Funny how some people react isn't it!!!

Having all your access point on the same frequency is generally not a good idea. We have wireless across all our site. All our access points use the same SSID and encryption settings. Any access point that is within range of another is on a different frequency. In fact, following advice from a D-Link engineer who site surveyed our school recommended using only every other available channel as the frequencies are so close that two nearby AP's on channels 1 and 2 for example could cause interference with each other. (Depends on the AP and surrounding environment) We do use the same channels on more than one access point but they are situated at opposite ends of the site and are nowhere near each other. It is worth checking if you can detect any 'other' channels in use from nearby houses or other buildings and then avoid those as well. We have a line of houses that runs along one side of our site. There are a few Ch6 and Ch11 devices (these must be common default channels) so we don't use those channels along this side of our school.

I don't think my better half would be too chuffed if I were still at work at this time on a friday night (although it has happened before now). You will notice the odd typing mistake in my post which simply reflects the half bottle of red wine I had drunk (whole bottle gone now ) Have a good weekend!

I read somewhere a few days ago that SP3 for XP can in certain circumstances break GPO mapped drives. Not sure how much truth there was in it and I can't recall where I read it. We had a new sony laptop last week that wouldn't get its mapped drives (all pushed through various GP's). Tried all manner of things, one drive did appear but with the wrong drive letter!?! Got it onto Windows Update, did everything (except SP3, we haven't yet rolled it out) and now it all works fine. As for the Start menu problem, I know your pain but I implemented it slightly differently that minimises the problem. Set up a server share on your DC just for start menus and re-jig your GP to reflect the new location. We have all start menus in folders of a share. Each room has particualr start menu so the structure is: \\server\sm$\Room1 \\server\sm$\Room2 etc The share is sm$ so it should be hiiden from a casual browse of the network. The worst a user can do if they traverse back up the tree is to see a list of rooms. They can go into those folders and see the shortcut in them but they will only work if the software is installed for that room. A quick note about wallpapers. Try using a GP to push the Wallpaper file onto the workstation and set the wallpaper property in the GP to use the local location at the workstation. If you try to reference a network location for the image, it doesn't always succeed.

We have been running SIMS for electronic registration since the beginning of this term. Most staff use a laptop through wireless. They have had their laptops a good while now and are in the habit of keeping them with them. A few staff do use classroom teacher pc's but they are the only teachers in the room and kids aren't allowed in without the teacher (usually computer suites) Main thing is to educate your teachers I did notice as I walked down the corridor yesterday that 3 teachers out of the 5 room s I passed were doing register while connected to their projectors. This should also be pointed out as a data protection issue since Lesson Monitor can display information about students listed on the register (ie. medical info or reasons that they might be absent)

Tag: ThumbnailRichie Gotta get more games, gotta get more time to play!!

We had the same problem with the spooler freezing. I found the problem to be the Laserjet 2600 driver we had installed. This was an XP driver effectively (the HP site listed the same download for XP, Vista and 2008). I fixed this through trial and error, the one thing that seemed to do the trick was to disable Bi-directional communication on the properties dialog. The printer has now been going OK for about 3 weeks.

Powdarrmonkey is right, there is no way of reading this information directly from the server. To provide a list of users similar to the on on the left of the edugeek front page is quite a simple process with IIS. If you are running ASP.NET, then you can create a Global.asax page at the root folder of your site. First, setup an Application variable in this file, this will be an array of usernames: Sub Application_Start(ByVal sender as Object, ByVal e as EventArgs) Application("UserList") = "" End Sub You then have 2 Sub routines, as below Sub Session_Start(ByVal sender as Object, ByVal e as EventArgs) Application("UserList") = Application("UserList") & & "," End Sub Sub Session_End(ByVal sender as Object, ByVal e as EventArgs) Application("UserList").Replace( & ",", "") End Sub These routines run whenever a session is started or closed on IIS. The first adds the current username to a comma separated string, the second removes it. The Application("Usernames") string is available to use in any of your webpages, again as a comma separated list. You could use the Split method to break this down to an array if you need to. Sorry this is a bit crude and there may be a more refined way of doing this but this is just off the top of my head.

Here at our school, all staff and students have access to the same mapped drives they get in school. Similar to Friez, I wrote an ASP.NET interface that runs off the back of our mail server. This is setup already with IIS and Outlook Web Access and is externally visible (obviously). The ASP stuff is deigned to run using impersonation so when a user logs in, the scripts can only access the files that the file server says that user should have access to so security is the same as if they were on site. The pages they see are similar to windows explorer but only allows users to upload and download files, they cannot delete anything nor create or move directories. This was decided on for security but can be pretty limiting. Most of the script that decides what drives people see is coded pretty specifically to our network but I am currently re-writing so mapped drives are determined by HomeDirectory property in AD as well as Group Policies (since this is how they are determined on site), this way any changes to GPOs or user properties are automatically pulled through. Anyone who wants the code for what we have in place is welcome to it, and the new interface when I have finished it. (Should be a couple of months away)

We did exactly what you are thinking of, we took email as a service from EMBC and replaced it with our own exchange server. You can access your mail from outside your LAN but you will need to get your internet provider to allocate an externally visible address to your mail server. Security is very important at this stage. We have 2 network cards in the mail server, each allocated a static IP address. We then requested an externally visible address for the second network card (this network card has strict firewall rules that only allow port 80 to be visible). The internet provider then gave us an IP address and a related dns name, connections to which are forwarded to your designated internal address. As for incoming mail, again ask your email provider to forward all mail for your domain to your exchange server address. The whole setup can take as little as a few days depending on your provider.

You could try importing the data into a new table (a temporary one created in your code). Watch for errors during import, if there are any you could show a message to the user informing them and drop the new table. If there are no errors, a second routine could then read the new table and copy the data to the main table. If the web app is available to more than one person at a time and it is possible to run two imports at once, make sure the temp tables are named using either session data or some random characters so each user gets their own temporary table. All this sounds like a lot of work but from what you said, you have most of what you need in place already.

Jose... eBay states in it's terms: Trying to avoid suspension or restriction by using another existing account or registering a new account, is not permitted. A suspension on eBay may be for a fixed length of time, indefinite or permanent and remains in effect until removed by eBay. So having more than one account is grounds for them all to suspended immediately anyway. Paypal has a similar clause in its terms. To be fair, as NickJones said, who would knowingly trade with someone whose philosophy is to 'abuse' a system and it's rules? Is it all really worth it?

Last lot we bought were around £130 but I'm pretty sure that will have come down some since we bought them (Which was just before christmas) The other make with hard fronts that Stone sell are Belina's but the stands are able to swivel 90 degs and dont seem as tough as the Neovo ones. Incidentally, Stone aren't the only people to sell these, don't want anyone to think I'm advertising for them or anything (sorry Stone)

We have a number of Neovo hard screen TFT's now. We had a few breakages with some regular TFT's a couple of years ago. The Neovo screens have the toughened glass front so are far less easily broken. We have been buying these through Stone. I believe they sell another make of hardened TFT screen as well. Useful if 'accidental' damage if common at your place. We did have a break in a short while ago and one of these monitors was grabbed through a window. The security cable stopped it being taken fortunately. After forensics had been at it, we cleaned it up and put back on the desk with hardly a mark on it and still working perfectly. (Quicker than the window took to replace)

We have been using Stone for a few years now and are very impressed. We only have a couple of their laptops but they are built very well and perform well too. The only comment from one member of staff was 'Its gets very hot though' but in my opinion, this is no worse than some of our newer HP laptops. We will be ordering another 17 within the next month. Incidentally, I did get to go to the VIP day last week and the facilities at stone are excellent and I would certainly recommend people to buy their kit. As well as a 5 year warranty on PC's, they will shortly be offering a 1 to 1 disposal service for IT when you place an order completely free of charge. It doesn't even have to be stone kit that you send back. So if you buy 10 PC's and 10 TFTs, they will take back 10 base units and 10 monitors (even CRT's) Service extras like this are definately worth it for us.