pantscat

@localzuk (sorry to OP for hijack!) - what do you use for benchmarking? Those are some interesting stats.

5K?!! Seems a bit steep for a DC. But... if you're planning on turning it into a virtual host, then 5k could be very worthwhile. Ideally you'd have a SAN for failover and HA (e.g. if one virtual host fails, then the other could still "power" the machines that are on the shared storage) - but you'll struggle to get a SAN plus two hosts for 10k. So... 5k would get you a very nice HP ML350 G6 box with a couple of quad core processors, two dual-port NICs, 64GB RAM and a fair few disks for storage - 1TB SAS drives seem to be fairly reasonable at the moment. Perfect for running Hyper-V, or just plain old ESXi.

See original thread here: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/networks/72978-free-good-home.html

How up to date are your wireless drivers?

Weird! Well - next thing I'd try would be to create a duplicate GPO and try it in a different OU with inheritance blocked...

Hmm. That's very odd. There's no autorun.inf files or anything like that hidden in the start menu structure is there? (Just thinking out loud now, as it were...)

Ok... in that case... try logging on without the roaming profile.

Do you use mandatory roaming profiles? What changes have been made recently? Does it happen on every PC?

So - the start menu opens in an Explorer window when a user logs on? All users? or just pupils?

It's quite simple... no support for 3rd party devices.

MORE FREE STUFF* Having a bit more of a tidy up and we've got approximately 100 "SparkLan" (No, I've never heard of them either) wireless access points available for grabs. They'll do 802.11g... and allegedly do WPA encryption (but in practice once they've got two devices connected they'll crash, so it's best to stick with WEP). Any takers? I could probably throw in a shed load of PoE injectors too... (assuming that I can find them!). *Free but a bit crap.

I find it depends on the industry - if you're in IT and a permanently employed I really wouldn't bother unless you've got something really worth advertising like a CCIE. If you're self employed it's a bit different and relevant industry qualifications could be useful - especially if you're a project manager it's worth putting any Prince2 or Agile stuff.

Veamm will work with NFS storage... I've tested it out with my NetApp box. Just need to find some cash for it!

Pop in for a cuppa... You work for JP at the Harris Foundation don't you?

Whitgift... (shh, I'm trying to keep a low profile though).

Okey-dokey. This is basically what you want to do: 1. Get the Intel Proset utility and install it. 2. Setup NIC teaming - e.g. two ports will be seen as one. 3. On your 3Com switch set the two ports as a "link aggregated group" (I think that's the 3Com terminology... and without LACP). 4. Connect it all up. 5. That's it. Edited to say... do this at your own risk, your server/coffee supply may be at risk if you do not keep up repayments etc.

NIC teaming is what you want (plus link aggregation or etherchannel as Cisco like to call it... or confusingly HP Procurve call it trunking...). What make is the server/NIC?

No. But I do have a moon on a stick that I just found in the server room. :-)

I'm not that cheap... Quite cheap though. It's got two 48 port ethernet modules in it... I think it's also got two PSUs... I could double-check, but that would involve turning it around to look!

@nephilim - not sure I can stretch to delivery! Even with the offer of Michelin starred food...

Oh yes, it's managed all right. Have a look here: 3Com® Switch 7754 4-Slot Chassis Kit (3C16894) - Features & Benefits

Aww gee shucks. <\blushes> Hmm... I wonder if I could get my mileage paid for and go on a "fact finding" mission to Wales...

Following my network upgrade last summer I've got a 3Com 7754 core switch that's just sitting in the corner of my office. It's free to a good home if anyone would like to collect it? It's VERY heavy though... I'm in Croydon btw.

Damn my 3yr contract... and do rude things to it with an angle-poised lamp! I could get 1gb for the same dosh... meh.

Is it an XP SP3 disc? I doubt it's a RAID Driver - much more likely to be SATA compatibility. Look in the BIOS for anything labelled "SATA mode", "IDE Compatibiltiy", "Disk Controller mode" - basically you want to change it from native (SATA...) to compatible (emulating IDE...).