Gaz

Hi Ric, yeah that sounds exactly like what I need. They are an external company that are providing a managed Wi-Fi solution for a shared network. The Microsoft article makes it sound way more complicated than it should be. I guess a service account is just an account with restricted permissions in group policy?

I need to make a service account for an external company but I've no idea how. I've looked at this guide on Microsofts website but I'm too stupid to follow it. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd548356(v=ws.10).aspx Does anyone have a better idiots guide in how to do this? These are the requirements they want me to provide them with.

That in my opinion is the best solution but I'm not sure how practical it will be! Probably wouldn't even need to take a photo of them, just log it out using their swipe card and have someone hand them a laptop.

I don't even know if we will have a library yet. The sector of education I work in is quite unique.

Yeah I know what you mean about the damage aspect. I won't be checking the kit when its returned and I would hope that they would come to me if they do damage something. Its not a school I work for but an apprentice training college. We could probably get them to sign something to say if they break something their employer is liable. The employers are quite supportive of us in such matters. If needs be we'll get their lecturers to sign them out and pay them a little extra but I would just like some sort of computer/automated system to do it.

Well unfortunately this is just how its going to be. I was against the whole idea personally but like most things it was out of my control. Now I just need to find a solution that is viable. They have swipe cards that they use to access the building but they are on a closed system which I won't have access to. A Swipe card locker system sounds good but expensive.

We are moving site (at some point) and we will have 70 laptops that will be issued out to whoever wants them during the day and are to be returned at the end of the day. This is something completely new for us as we are currently 99% desktop based. What I need is a way of issuing out the laptops in the morning or during the day that the students can just collect them and return them themselves but in a secure manner so we know whos signed out what laptop. Space is at a premium in the new building so there may have to be in multiple locations. It would be nice to have some sort of automated system so it didn't require a staff member to allocate the laptops to students, but we need to track whos got what laptop somehow. Cheers.

Yeah that looks like it would be more work than I'd like. xD

Yeah I don't really wanna have to buy loads of those devices. So basically the only way is via a HDD or ethernet? Thats good to know then. Thanks.

Up until now our networks have been 99% wired so imaging has never been an issue, just plug them all into the network and distribute the images via FOG. In our new build we are going to be 99% wireless, the devices I'm looking at will have ethernet so I can plug them into the network, but if for some chance they don't have ethernet then how would I go about imaging 70 devices that only have wireless network interfaces? Thanks in advance.

If it says CCA in the description run a mile. I wouldn't buy any category of ethernet from Amazon or Ebay, its cheap for a reason. Not in My Network! Copper Clad Aluminum is a Recipe for Failure

Probably best to keep that information private these days. Theres a lot of social engineering attacks at the moment where phone companies have been tricked into giving away sim cards, once that happens they then have access to reset any of your passwords circumventing 2FA because the fallback for 2FA is usually your phone number, which you now no longer own. I'll get my tinfoil hat back on now.

We are now actively looking for some new laptops for our new build as wired PC's will be limited to 3 dedicated CAD rooms. I need something that has excellent build quality, i5 or i7 processor 8GB ram, 256GB SSD, ethernet jack, a highly reliable wireless adapter (as these are going to be used wirelessly) ultrabook form factor would be nice but not important 15" screen, and finally good support from the manufacturer (I know that last one is probably asking too much these days ) Cheers.

Yeah that sounds like the same idea management have for the new building. They want it to be all and I quote "space age" At the moment the students are assigned a classroom and the teachers move about. Thats going to change in the new building and the teachers will be assigned a classroom and the students will move about. We wont have any dedicated IT rooms apart from 3 CAD rooms so the idea is that all the classrooms will effectively be computer rooms with it all running off wireless. So they wanted a portable device that small and light and has the ability to be a tablet but the last part isn't critical. I'm thinking of some sort of Ultrabook as an alternative. There was also talks of enforcing a policy that if a student breaks a laptop they pay for it. I'm not sure how enforceable that is.

We're not a school, but a college/training academy with students from 16 to adult, however their age doesn't mean they won't mis-treat the devices whether maliciously or not. I like the idea of everyone using the tablets, if a little small but I can't help but think that a laptop would be more robust if a little heavier. I think I'm just thinking out loud.