mrstrong

just fyi, our whatsapp now looking healthy again on guests network (no https inspection) All that was needed was a "Do Not Filter" action on the "WhatsApp Messenger" category (plus firewall allow XMPP etc) easy when you know how, thanks @timbo343 No need for a new category as e.g. https://57.144.223.33/ matches the built-in "WhatsApp Messenger" category via "URL patterns" So I think smoothwall must be mantaining this 🤞

interesting. is anyone using "Enhanced protection" for the Safe Browsing setting ?

similar here, old hardware, no money, not enough time in the day @mikes sounds like you are using the old autopilot v1 there is a new autopilot V2 but @DWilson1997 is not using autopilot at all, just using the "Microsoft Entra Joined Device Local Administrator" role to join them to intune, e.g. intune thinks they are "personal devices". I had to allow enroll personal for group with user with this role. Be interested to know if it's still working well for him / any downside to skipping autopilot. I guess if it's in autopilot and lost / stolen it's tied to your org, bit like ipads in apple school manager. The naming thing is not a biggie obvs. just curious, maybe if you use a home / pro sku it prompts for computer name and then steps up to Education / Enterprise when you join it ? This is more of a proof of concept thing for me to see how we could move away from very old on-prem server. Unfortunately I rarely have any spare time to really get stuck into it.

just had a thought, perhaps as there is another VLAN on Port 2 it won't let me change the "Block HTTPS traffic with no SNI header" on the interface to "Allow Transparent HTTPS incompatible sites and filter others using name from certificate". I'd have to delete both and re-create ? Or perhaps I could just create category with whatsapp IPs and "allow" them just for staff on this VLAN ?

yes i got those firewall rules set up but its the web filter / proxy dropping it I think e.g.: I think because interface has "Block HTTPS traffic with no SNI header" even though I deleted that interface and created a new policy (with "Allow Transparent HTTPS incompatible sites and filter others using name from certificate" But interface is still showing as "Block HTTPS traffic with no SNI header". Interface: Policy: This is also a BYOD network for guests so not doing HTTPS inspection

finally got round to trying this yesterday! Used a usb prepared with rufus Windows 11 Education 24H2 iso I had. went through the standard windows setup screens (guess i could skip some with a autounattend.xml ? ). I didn't get asked for machine name though during the OOBE, any ideas why?

bump. nobody allowing whatsapp through smoothwall ? just having another look and it seems to be just a few IPs getting denied e.g. 31.13.73.53 57.144.253.33 57.144.223.33 I deleted the interface and created a new policy as No Authentication (Staff for unauthenticated requests) with "Allow Transparent HTTPS incompatible sites and filter others using name from certificate" but interface is still showing as "Block HTTPS traffic with no SNI header" 😕

Thanks I might go back and re-try copilot then, esp. as like you say its "held within the 365 tenant enclosure". I have A3 license so hopefully that is enough to get started.

is that just using copilot in the Edge browser for your prompts, i.e. https://m365.cloud.microsoft/chat ? Then you paste the code into your editor (local VS code?) to test ? I tend to use gemini, I tried https://m365.cloud.microsoft/chat but confused me a bit, e.g. on the LHS mine has Agents like "Microsoft 365 Admin" I tried this for an MS 365 question I had, but it seemed to do worse than using just the standard "chat" so went back to gemini. I think claude costs and can't see school funding that.

interesting, tempted to have a "play". How did you "vibe code" it, e.g. just type prompt into copilot ? Did you have to test / tweak code in an editor ?

how do you have set this up? 3 cables output from PC e.g. HDMI to board, VGA and DP to monitors? I guess it depends on motherboard / graphics capability ?

well not having had time to evaluate/investigate it (pixlr) I assumed there could be potential risks, eg letting pupils use AI Image generation. Do you disagree ?

re newline C-series, £595 for a 65" seems pretty good, shame no freeze on remote, I've seen ones where blue button does freeze. Who is supplier offering them at £595 with 5 year warranty ? Maybe "grey market" ?

Mmm, I tried to change interface Behaviour from "Block HTTPS traffic with no SNI header" to "Allow Transparent HTTPS incompatible sites and filter others using name from certificate". but drop down arrow is disabled. Also the interface Method is set to Core Authentication and I can't change it. Not sure why it is "Core Authentication" as there is only one policy with No Authentication (Staff for unauthenticated requests). Google is suggesting I bypass the proxy via Services > Web Proxy > Authentication > Exceptions "This forces Smoothwall to step completely out of the handshake path when staff devices reach for any Meta infrastructure, removing the SNI validation check entirely" Does that sound correct ? Or is it worth just trying to delete this interface and re-create as No Authentication (Staff for unauthenticated requests) with "Allow Transparent HTTPS incompatible sites and filter others using name from certificate" ?

it's getting harder to "opt-out" of AI, e.g. I've been looking for a basic image editor for pupils to use on our chromebooks We used to use Pixlr online but that's now got a lot of AI features so I've had to block it. Same for BeFunky and Sumo Paint. Photopea probably best I've found so far but still has some AI and quite complicated for primary.

WhatsApp is being blocked, in web filter logs I see Group: Staff, HTML return code: 0 for URL: https://57.144.223.33 Categories: Social Networking, Facebook, Transparent HTTPS Incompatible Sites, WhatsApp Messenger On the Web Proxy under Transparent authentication policies this interface is set up to "Block HTTPS traffic with no SNI header" so maybe that is why it's returning 0 for the direct IP request? But the actual policy below for this interface (you can have several policies) has "Allow Transparent HTTPS incompatible sites and filter others using name from certificate" so it should work ? It's also set as No Authentication (Staff for unauthenticated requests) and WhatsApp Messenger Category is allowed for Staff (and we are not inspecting HTTPS).

Didn't know about this, I think this is the site https://www.apple.com/uk-edu/shop/buy-mac/mac-mini Edit: just selected specs and it says "Currently unavailable"

yes looks good, I'm after a "PC" for home, was also considering going to the dark side https://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-Mac-mini-Computer-M4/dp/B0DLBSGKWV but only 256GB SSD. If it drops back down to £500 I could be seriously tempted.

yes it reads wrong but the description kind of makes sense ?! : Always send WiFi access-points to server while resolving timezone—Uses location of the WiFi access-point that the device connects to to set the time zone (most accurate).

think we've managed to get rid of the "Control your Data" screen after trying various suggestions from google etc. Not 100% but think it was these settings that did it: Devices > Chrome > Settings > User and browser settings (apply to an OU with your users) Geolocation - Do not allow sites to detect users' geolocation Devices > Chrome > Settings > Device settings (apply to an OU with your Chromebook devices) Timezone - Europe/London - United Kingdom Time GMT+00:00 System time zone automatic detection - Always send Wi-Fi access points to the server while resolving the time zone

also if you have any ipads you could try some apps e.g. I think we've used these two: Arduino Science journal and NIOSH Sound Level Meter https://apps.apple.com/us/app/arduino-science-journal/id1518014927 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/niosh-sound-level-meter/id1096545820

yes not cheap, I think we paid £750 for the 5 pack with temp sensors and charging tray. looks like there's a new VU pro model 5 pack for £795 on the website. You will get years of use out of them though 🤞 5 seems to work well for a class here, e.g. one per table, we tend to use the EasyLog mode where Vu+ will capture data until stopped, e.g. leave it capturing overnight, and then you can see how cold / dark / quiet your room got. PS not looked at the new Pro model so not sure on spec / features.

Hi Jaan, sorry I can't help but wondering if you found a resolution ? I'm planning a migration to windows 11 (currently still on windows 10) and we still have a lot of old hardware, and a lot with Intel UHD 630. I was just about about to post asking what versions of windows 11 people would recommend as I was thinking 24H2 LTSC when I found your post.

also looked at canva but I'm now suggesting Microsoft Sway for newsletters etc, seems an easier learning curve compared to canva

We use these in primary: Data Harvest Vu+ https://store.data-harvest.co.uk/vu they're really good and also included in lesson plans from https://teachcomputing.org/ They work over usb and bluetooth. We used to use the Chrome app on chromebooks but as Chrome Apps are being phased out we now use the Progressive Web App (PWA) which also works well on windows https://easysense2.app/ Other platforms are supported see Software and Firmware Updates at the bottom of this page https://store.data-harvest.co.uk/easysense2