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Hi All, Quick question, I have a MS subscription through a reseller and it is renewal time on 1st year of 3 year subscription. Can I renew it through another reseller or as I took the original 3 year subscription out with said reseller do I have to stay with them? Thanks, Tom

Firstly as @snagrat said the servers IPv4 address should be set differently to any other device on the network. Secondly you need to setup DNS service with forwarders to lookup external addresses. To do this go to the DNS console and right click on the server in the tree, click properties then select the forwarders tab. Enter in your isp or preferred dns providers.

Check external dns for your domain is pointing to correct ip. I would assume if you have changed isp you may have new addresses. Also check port forwarding is correct on the firewall.

Just my two cents... Interactive projector for £1200 vs interactive TV at more then £2500.

Also see this for connectivity between two sites https://business.bt.com/products/networking/ethernet-point-to-point/

How are the 3 cabled rooms getting connectivity back? Surely you could do the same for the wifi network...

Here is some extracts of what is in our Staff IT Policy, hope you can use this. Here is what it states in our IT policy for staff: Physical security (section): The users of ICT equipment should always adhere to the following guidelines: -Any portable computer must be securely locked away when not in use. This includes keeping it out of sight. It should not be kept in plain view in a locked classroom. This is due to use of facilities for external bookings. The IT Team will make regular checks to remove any laptops for safekeeping where they have been left insecure. -Do not leave the portable computer unattended in a public place or within the school. -If the portable computer is to be left unattended for a short time, staff should lock their windows session so that access can only be gained via input of a password. -Do not leave the portable computer in your car, even if locked and out of sight -Staff supervising students using ICT equipment should ensure they take reasonable care of such equipment. Breaches of policy (section): Breach of This Policy Incidents which are determined to be in contravention of this policy will be assessed for their severity. Investigating such incidents may require the collection and evaluation of user related activity for evidence. It is not possible to provide an exhaustive list of potential ways in which a user may contravene this policy but in general such breaches will be categorised into one of three levels of severity and each level of breach will carry with it a possible range of sanctions, consequences and/or penalties. In the event a Portable Computer is damaged or lost as a result of non-compliance with this policy or as a result of other negligent action, then you may be required to make a full or partial contribution towards any reparation/replacement costs, at the discretion of the school. The lists below are examples and are not an exhaustive list of breaches for each category. Minor Breach This level of breach will attract a verbal warning which will be held recorded on their staff file. In general this category will relate to behaviour or misuse of computer facilities that can be characterised as disruptive or a nuisance. Examples of this level of non-compliance would include: Not all first offences will automatically be categorised at this level since some may be of a significance or impact that elevates them to one of the higher levels of severity. Examples of this level of non-compliance would include: -Leaving a laptop unattended. -Leaving a account logged in and unattended. Moderate Breach This level of breach will attract more substantial sanctions and/or penalties. Examples of this level of non-compliance would include: Repeated minor breaches within a 12 month period. -Assisting or encouraging unauthorised access. Severe Breach This level of breach will attract more stringent sanctions, penalties and consequences than those above, and access to computing facilities and services may be withdrawn (account suspension) until the disciplinary process and its outcomes have been concluded. Examples of this level of breach would include: -Repeated moderate breaches. -Theft, vandalism or wilful damage of/to ICT facilities, services and resources. -Attempting to jeopardise, damage, circumvent or destroy ICT systems security. -Attempting to defraud the school of a school owned laptop. Process An investigation will be carried out, in confidence, by school Leadership under the direction of the Head Teacher with the IT Network and Systems Manager. That investigative report will be passed to the staff member’s Line Manager to be considered within the academy’s disciplinary procedures. Each set of disciplinary procedures provide for an appeal stage.

I had a similar situation with staff laptops... I now have to leave a "courtesy card" saying the laptops have been secured by me so the staff member knows where it is. I did state that was counteracting my point as I was also timing how long it took them to report the missing laptop to me which I should be doing under my duty to test and report on DPA. The main win for me was I had written it into my staff IT policy which had been through SLT and governors and approved so I could not be in the wrong. However upon this incident they advised me to make and leave "courtesy cards". I have since refused to secure laptops left but instead email and record that laptops where left insecure, which is a minor breach of our IT policy and upon a member of staff reaching 3 of these minor warnings they then have a formal meeting under the staff misconduct policy. This again has been written into the IT policy signed off by governors. I would suggest you look at making sure this is in your IT policy same as mine. At the end of the year (each term when I started doing it) I sent a list of all the incidents to my line manager and head teacher with total potential cost to the school, and a reminder we could be fined under the DPA if a laptop is stolen which contains sensitive data. This helped gain support of SLT when they saw money figures!

I want to create a group for some of my staff to sign up to to get early access to our development program. We are yet to roll out Windows 10 and I thought this would be a perfect opportunity for it. The idea is staff sign up to this group and they get first access to test new software before we roll it out to the whole school staff, the first thing this group would have access to is Windows 10 and Office 2016. I want to call it something creative and cool (non of which I can think of) to make staff interested. So far I have thought of just boring "IT Early Access group". Any better ideas for a name? TIA, Tom

I would assume the 1910-24G as a like gs724t. We went for the 2530-24g when we switched.

Also we had net gear (still have in some places) but core and most major parts of our network now are HP, definitely seen an improvement it is worth the extra cost for us.

Try looking at these reviews: http://www.storagereview.com/netgear_prosafe_gs724t_switch_review and http://www.storagereview.com/hp_253024g_switch_review_j9773a Then just make it a bit easier for them to understand, so better latency, more switching capacity and better buffers. Future proofing, improving keeping up with technology and curriculum needs. Technology moves fast and replacing 5 year old switches with the same switch is like replacing your X reg fiesta with an X reg fiesta, instead of a eco boost fiesta, if you get what I mean?

Could you put a basic router between the BGFL network and the smoothwall to give a change of address space?

Annual entitlement is costly too!

Can you pm me details? Thanks for the responses.

Hi all, I am in need of getting a SCCM specialist in to do a full check, update and reconfigure of our SCCM installation. We are not using really any features of SCCM and I have absolutely no time at all to spend time on it. Does anyone know of/used a company for this before? Any ideas how much cost I would be looking at, it will probably be a 2-3 day job? Please can we refrain from suggesting doing it in house as I have no time, I usually would and would prefer to but it is not an option unfortunately. Thanks in advance, Tom

During a few scheduled drills and some real fires (small but real) we have had from the point of alarm to roll call completed in around 7 minutes. The longest being 10 minutes, these are recorded in the fire register. By the time the FRS arrive we have all the information ready for them. I think it is always best to know who is missing, as @MatthewL said FRS will do a sweep but only provisional. If there is people missing then it is escalated. No need to take extra risk if it is not needed, luckily we have not been in this situation. Again IMO paper registers, with just a absent student list. Which is identical to what we do for staff already.

During a major incident you need to know who is missing to inform parents. This is part of our critical incident policy which was advised to us by the LA. Might just be a local thing though.

We looked at electronic but it just didn't cover all the bases for our health and safety. What if the server room was on fire? What if it fails, update broke the app, battery dies, lost/stolen. We have the fire register printed on scrap usually, doesn't cost a lot realistically. You could downsize it to A5 instead of A4 as well. That would half your costs? Alternative is to have 1 printed and then only print out absent students each day, then in the event of a fire alarm, the blank register is taken and any missing students are reported to the attendance officer who has the list of absent students for the day (along with the sign in/out book). That would reduce costs significantly, however every time a student moves reg group or joins/leaves that register would need reprinting. Personally I think the last option is the best in terms of cost.

Thanks, yes I think that Maidenhead Hm is probably a good aim. As for the toe, a plaster to stop it catching I think is the solution! Thanks for the support, really motivates me

Glad everyone seems to be enjoying their running! I went out last night and did 10.5km after the first 5km last week, really starting to get into it and shaved 30s/Km from my time between those last week and last night. I might start training for a half marathon or something? Only issue is one of my toes is starting to bleed as (I think I broke it when I was young and it's at a slight angle so it catches) hopefully nothing else will go wrong!

So I have been doing couch to 5k and just started week 5, I use strava and planned a 5km route out. I really thought I could run it and tried but had to stop after 2.5km or so and walk a bit then start again and then walk etc. However the following run today (2 days after) I have just run the whole 5km at about a 5:55/km pace. Feeling really chuffed to have pushed myself to do it. I am going to run it again for another week then start building up to 10km as my next target.

Depends on what equipment is terminated in the current room to how much it will cost to move. For example fibre moving and determination will cost a couple hundred pounds just to move to the room next door but if it's a long distance you could be looking at a few thousand. An air con unit for this level of cooling, with 5-7 years warranty is around £1.5-4K depending on size of room, what is running heat, and redundancy. Running costs I don't know, but realistically it wouldn't dent your electric bill much for a school.

Check the wifi setup on the laptops isn't set to "me only".

Are the hdd on the servers the same, could be write speed of the drives?