FN-GM

Good news! It's generally a good idea to keep your BIOS up to date like you would OS and software patches / upgrades.

It doesn't do servers does it?

This is the way. BPDU guard is key. On a properly configured switch it’s not easy to create a broadcast storm. But reading the post I am not sure that this is a broadcast storm. I won’t repeat other suggestions, but one consideration. On the op you mentioned this issue happens when you connect one cable. Is there a chance that there is something on the network with a duplicate IP of your default gateway, layer 3 switch or router? It could be that plugging in that cable connects that device causing the issues.

Is the BIOS up to date?

Yea this is possible, I have done it before and I am doing this again myself on Monday morning. I will send the info that worked well for me.

Are you aware that these are a consumer grade computer?

Check MK is another suggestion. Also free and open source.

Just because the device and the location is the same, who’s to say it’s the actual person sat at the computer? It could have been stolen, it could be another person. Maybe someone else in the office with bad intentions or maybe using someone else’s logins and device to poke into areas they shouldn’t. Maybe a family member at home on a work laptop.

An example is the Frontier software data breach. 80,000 South Australian government workers had their data stolen. Plus many other organisations.

Personally I disagree with this.

I have seen keys be added to an asset register. It will do everything you noted above.

Probably a broken meter. My mate had this with his gas meter. He had a nightmare with the gas company as they provided an estimated reading that was way out. I would get it replaced ASAP.

You’re making some assumption there. Moving to the cloud means the risk is moved, not removed.

It’s a scary time to be in IT! https://www.herefordtimes.com/news/education/23109969.hackers-post-hereford-schoolchildrens-data-records-dark-web/

Bump [emoji846]

So this is a storage switch? In theory they wouldn’t need to connect to the main network?

I am also looking for an SMTP relay (for other reasons - we can’t expose our servers directly to the internet) So far the windows options haven’t been great. I was considering something on Linux but going to look at the other suggestions here. Don’t waste your time with 2022 SMTP features. It doesn’t work. You won’t be able to edit the config. You will get an error. It works fine in Server 2019 - we used it in the last company. For our purpose the built in option doesn’t have enough features. I need to direct to different upstream servers depending on the message type.

Good to see some progress! I look forward to seeing it live. It looks like this - https://invisioncommunity.com/

Yes. Website isn’t an IT task - in the real world this is covered by marketing. Unless you’re the Marketing person in the school your only involvement should be updating DNS records.

I have no technical advise on the issue - it’s hard to say without something more specific. But I would seriously consider getting a move on with upgrading at least some of that kit. It’s ancient now and if it isn’t upgraded in stages you’re going to end up with loads to replace at once. Judging by your comments on budget - they won’t be able to do it all at one time. It also sounds there is a security risk by running hardware without security updates.

I was wondering if you could share the script please?

Exact story in my school around 10 years ago. I would kit the room out as a normal classroom and get laptops. Much easier in the long run.

The registry key opens up the vulnerability so I would be cautious. I believe if you pre deploy the drivers to the machine using SCCM or something and map the printer it should be fine.

This is tunnelled and is essentially a VPN. My old job we have over 20 sites on an MPLS network like this. Worked well.

I had a similar issue but a different fix. I thought I would share incase someone arrives here with a similar issue. Windows communicates via HTTPS but the updates are downloaded via HTTP. I needed to allow port 8530 (TCP) in the firewall and it works flawlessly now.