andrewsmart

We scan to a share on the server from the copier, but in our case it's easier as it's done by our resources technician, who then re-sends it the user requests.

Our grid block webmail as standard, and we're happy with that. Our AUP clearly says that the staff use the network for work-related purposes so they can't really claim that they need their webmail. If for any reason they do, then they have to come and see me, sit at my desk and I over-ride the filter so they access it in a supervised manner. We have no complaints at all over this system here

Thanks, just what I wanted. I've used psexec but hadn't thought of using it for this.

Hi As an administrator I can remote access the fixed drives in a machine using \\\$ and this of course very useful for copying stuff off the machine etc Is there any way to achieve the same thing with usb devices? A couple of times we've had kids with stuff on usb drives where the machine has locked up so things like VNC won't function, and it would be really useful to copy their work off their usb drive before I crash the machine!

We've got a few Mobile Ones, not the widescreen ones though. Build quality is good, very rugged. Seen [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNxjQ12kYXA]YouTube- Laptop survives being driven over by 3 cars![/ame]?

I'd go back one step and ask "how does your school define parental engagement" because it seems to me that this is a term which could be interpreted in a huge number of ways. Do you mean on-line access to reports and assessment, if so how current does that data have to be? Annual reports? Test results? Graphs of key stage levels? There might also be an interpretation in which you want the parents to be able to see the student's work, or the schemes of work, or the student's homework due, or done, or ANYTHING.... I don't think that it's possible to ask the questions you're asking (and they're good questions) until there is a very clear vision for parental engagement in the school, and a roadmap of how that might develop over the next few years. Otherwise I would worry that there is a risk of the technology cart driving the parental engagement horse. My personal view of course.

I get substantial input into ICT strategy here - but at my last school I, err, didn't.

I would be opposed to the staff downloading videos from Youtube - not only are there copyright issues but they'd then fill up the server with the downloads :-)

Good point, I'll check. PAL

We have an issue with one of our Epson EMP-S4 projectors. This takes input from either the computer or from a video recorder via a SCART/comp video adapter. On some tapes the picture does not display, and errors saying that the signal is no correct - on other tapes it plays fine. I've connected the video recorder directly to a telly with a SCART cable and the video plays with non problems, therefore there is not an issue playing the video on that machine. I've changed the cable to the projector and replaced the SCART/comp video adapter with a known good one from another room. Somehow the signal from certain video tapes is not recognized by that projector, though given that the signal is being produced by the VCR I can't work out how that could be tape-specific. Any ideas?

I've got quite a few too - great machines. I've been a stone customer at various places now and they've not let me down yet

We just upgraded our SIMS server - can't remember the spec as I'm at home right now, but it's a massive leap from the old one. I'm guessing that server power is not the issue. We have a whole raft of issues which might be affecting it, some people have sluggish older workstations (though all will meet the theoretical minimum requirements), some of the inter-building links are only on 100 rather than gig, some of the switches are not that modern; you know all the normal stuff which happens in schools IT! This came about as our assistant head did some training for some staff today in a room which is on the end of a 100mb link, on some older shuttle machines with 256ram, and where all four users were logged in with the same network account (not I hasten to add, the same SIMS account!). He was concerned it was slow when they tried to run reports or use assessment manager to access mark books and is very keen that this is not the performance they get when they come to use it for real. He's therefore looking for courses of action which will guarantee to improve the performance of SIMS as we put more emphasis on it. Clearly if we need to spend money, we need to spend it in the ways most certain to result in a significant improvement for all users. A complete replacement of workstations is not possible at this time, nor is a complete switch upgrade (though I'm working towards increasing links to gig from 100 and upgrading certain switches). An upgrade to the SQL database did occur to us as one thing which might produce the across-the-board improvements we want, but if the upgrade to express would do the job then the money could be better targeted elsewhere. As we are nearing the end of the school year, we are also going to have to make decisions quite fast so we can get work done over the summer if possible. Any advice or suggestions would be most welcome!

We currently run our SIMS system on the MSDE, and this is beginning to creak a bit (our database is getting a bit large, and our use of SIMS.net is increasing). The LEA say that the free upgrade to SQL Express is coming in the summer. At my last school where we took direct capita support they strongly advised us to migrate to full SQL server, express not being available then. Our assistant head with responsibility for this is worried that our user's SIMS experience will be too slow, and wants me to find out if the express upgrade is going to increase our performance enough or if we need to splash out on the full version of SQL. We will shortly be moving to lesson monitor, and all staff will also be encouraged to use SIMS.net - and we are also engaged in rolling out RM portal+ with the extensions for SIMS access via the portal. We have in the region of 100 staff who will be active SIMS users. Do people find that the SQL express version gives them enough speed, or would we be better advised to invest in the full version of SQL server?