pantscat

You might be able to spoof the MAC address in the advanced settings of the nic driver!

Just a few more suggestions while I'm thinking... Audi A4/A6 quattro estate? - BMW 525xi (the X denotes 4x4... they're like rocking horse sh*t though)? - there are also a plethora of odd korean things along the lines of Hyundia Santa Fe, Sssaanngggyyoong Musso, Kia UgleeStick etc.

How about these: Bipod Cars : SUBARU FORESTER 2.0 AWD SPORT 5DR Subaru : 2000 Subaru Forester S turbo - 13months mot! (I'm rather tempted by this one myself... especially worth a punt for the money!).

I'd definitely have a look at a Subaru then... a legacy estate has got loads of room in the back, I don't think you'd want to go too far off the beaten track in one as they've not got the ground clearance but they cope very well in the ice!

I'd avoid the 1.8 Freelander - lots of head gasket problems and generally a bit of a cack engine. I had a TD4 Freelander - it was ok... was actually very good off-road (well... in a muddy field anyway!). If I was looking to buy a 4x4 I'd probably look at a Honda CRV or a Toyota Rav4. (Although I think the Rav4 has overly light steering and a very uncomfy driving position having borrowed one once to trek around Wales). Also worth considering a Subaru Legacy... (or a Forrester perhaps!)

I've not really found anything lacking in my Ruckus system. I compared it with lots of others (Aruba, Meru, Motorola, Cisco, Xirrus... etc) and for what I required I couldn't see any features that were lacking. What do you want the system to do?

Can anyone tell me what the default settings should be for the Default Domain Policy? My (inherited) one is full of little tweaks and changes that seem completely unnecessary to me. I'm aware of the command line tool to reset it - but at the moment I'm in the middle of a transition to 2008R2 DCs and this would really cock things up. I've seen references to a "GPO Default.xls" file that should be available from Microsoft but I can't find it. Cheers, Hopeful of Surrey.

This is very true... or a VPN based site mirror for DR. (Maybe a bit pricey...) :-)

Ah - that makes quite a difference to strategy I think having multiple buildings.

@localzuk - Maybe I need to re-assess my stance on this one then! Just out of interest - what do you do for off-site backups?

I don't mean to patronise, but.... (here I go anyway!) it's your job to advise the management team what is required and what is best-practice. You shouldn't really be making a decision (unless your job description specfically says so) as to what is important data and what is not. Remember that it's much easier to point out that this is a requirement and that investment is needed now (preferably in writing!) rather than trying to explain at a later date why you didn't have "proper" backups and you're not able to restore data/services. HDDs in my opinion are not a suitable backup solution. They can be part of one - but I'd always recommend having a longer term archive using proper media that was made for the job (like say... tapes!). I don't mean to patronise in any way shape or form - I just would hate for this to bite you on the bum at a later date. In my experience it's always best to present all your recommendations to management with pros and cons and costings so that they can then turn around and say either "Yes, let's buy it!" or "No, we don't have the dosh and this is not something we want to do. Let's spend the money on some nice plastic bookshelves instead". At least then you've discharged your duties and your conscience will be clear.

Have a look at SSL Certificates SSL Wildcard SSL Free Certificates SSL Server Certificate 256 bits - they do free certs for education. I've used them twice now... does the job!

I can sympathise... but backups are a tiny bit more relevant and important to those people with the purse strings, especially if you point out in black and white why you need to backup using "proper" methods and what the impact will be if you don't and it all goes T.U.

I still can't get my head around Netgear making kit that works really well! That said... I use Netgear for my iSCSI storage network and it's been great.

Yeah - I didn't phrase that quite right. I meant in terms of performance.

@localzuk - I'd be interested to hear how that would work as backend storage for a virtualisation setup.

How busy is your SQL / Exchange box? How fast is your SAN? I've got my SQL and Exchange boxes running as normal vmdks... performance is just as good, if not better, than when they were physical boxes.

I looked at LOADS of vendors when I was buying my wireless system - I think the initial line up was HP, Motorola, Ruckus, Aruba, Meru, Xirrus and Cisco. Then through testing/product demos and discussions I narrowed it down to Motorola, Cisco, Aruba and Ruckus... then down to just Aruba and Ruckus. In the end the Ruckus system "won" due to it's simplicity and slightly better coverage on my site here*. Cost-wise the two solutions were pretty similar, Ruckus being only slightly cheaper in the end. * NB - Your mileage may vary... etc.

I'll let you know if it does become available.

Worth a shot!

Hey Linux_Nut... sorry I've not updated this thread - both lots are either gone or going.

Ok - fair enough - just thinking out loud as it were. (BTW - the attachment isn't a DcDiag output.)

James - did you upgrade the schema on the domain before you started?

@localzuk - just out of interest as I've been thinking about virtualising all my DCs, do you use an external time source?

@localzuk - Ah... ok. Assumed the DC was physical.