Kitkatninja

I wonder what the exam for this OS will be like...

Check the wireless cards, we had a batch of either toshiba's or Acer that use a Realtek wireless card that has issues. We changed the wireless cards to other Realtek ones and intel ones and the laptops connected to the wireless straight away. To be honest, I can't remember the model number of the affected Realtek wireless cards, as it was a while ago (and at work) I can't say if it's the same resolution for you. -Ken

Could be power supply or even the RAM. -Ken

Government told to scrap school IT lessons IT lessons should be dropped from the national curriculum, IT industry trade association Intellect has advised the government. Read it here. -Ken

Congrats on the passes and new cred -Ken

The OU is not the only University to do this, for example MIT shares alot of it's courseware for free. The down side is that if you want the qualification, you have to pay for it -Ken

Congrats on the pass -Ken

1. Do you have to pay your RBC for connectivity this year? No (well, funds were pre-allocated for the connectivity and not given to us, so Yes in a way) 2. What RBC are you with? EMBC 3. How much are they asking? If we had to pay for it, it would have been approx £18k (down from the initial price of £20k-odd, I believe) 4. What speed will you get for that? 40mb 5. Are you considering leaving or staying with your RBC in the future because of its pricing? Unsure, there's a lot to consider. 6. Have you already left your RBC and for what reasons? N/A -Ken

We have moved from Panda, which was the cheapest AV (even cheaper than Sophos) to Forefront Endpoint Protection from MS. Due to the infrastructure that we have in place already, it only costed us 0.90p per client per year (and with EES, it's bound to be cheaper this year). So for our AV, it cost us £606.60 per year for 674 clients. However, it did take a lot to get SCCM working properly for the AV, plus the time it is taking to replace the AV (there is no automatic removal of Panda via the MS product, so it's taking us twice as long). Last thing, planning is essential when moving from one system to another. -Ken

At my last place we used HDGuard on our PC's along with AV. While programs like this are great at what they do, they aren't a AV replacement. Any changes to the machine (including infections) are only removed at reboot, that means that virus infections will still propagate through the network, via any USB drives/SD or MMC cards, etc... Besides if Deep Freeze was suppose to do that, the company wouldn't have released their own AV that integrates with it -Ken

Good luck with your studies Also since you're in education, take a look at doing the FITS: Practitioner course and exam. -ken

Cool, good to hear that FITS is taking the (education) world by storm -Ken

Yes there are, but it all boils down to what you would consider as easy (what is easy for one, doesn't mean easy for another). You can get CBT's from CBTNuggets, get the Mike Meyers AiO book, get practice exams & audio training (from Preplogic for example), use sites like Professor Messor, etc... Then when you're ready get yourself the exam vouchers and take your exam. -Ken

Added to that, they are level 4 (Practitioner) and level 5 (Manager) qualifications -Ken

The CCNA - there is only one level (you also have the CCENT which is half of a CCNA), however it's how it's packaged up with FE/HE qualifications that gives it the levels that everyone here is talking about. If you're looking at just the CCNA, Comms Support has a good reputation on Certforums, but you do not get the BTEC qualification (with the level 3 one) or the OU credit (for the OU module one). Saying that if you have the kit, you can purchase the study guides and work your way thru them without the need for a course - that reduces the costs alot (provided you have access to the kit), but self-study is not for everyone. One thing that you also have to take into consideration is that fact that the Cisco certs need to be renewed every 3 years. -Ken

Contact your local colleges/Uni's, the college that we use for our apprentice is Cambridge Regional College. -Ken

We use this too at our place, however over the summer we'll be looking at implementing NAP. -Ken

Try to get on a NVQ scheme (eg NVQ 3 in IT & Telcoms), you'll gain a recognised vocational qualification (level 3 is at A Level's level, level 4 is comparable to a degree), plus some offer Microsoft, Comptia and/or Cisco qualifications built in. -Ken

I haven't used it before, but does the program need to be installed? Or can it run from a network share (via a short-cut)? If the answer is no, it can't. And if the machines are all XP, have you tried packaging up the program with Wininstall LE, then deploy it via a GPO in AD? To be honest, I don't know if WinInstall LE works on Windows Vista/7 (so can't advise you if you use them). Sorry couldn't be more help. -Ken

Thanks mate, will do -Ken

That's good news, is there more info available on becoming a FITS Accredited Service Provider? -Ken

Hi All, As the title says: VDI solutions. Microsoft, VMWare View, Citrix XenDesktop, etc? About 6 years ago we had Citrix and to be honest, while it meet basic needs - anything above Office was shocking. Now a days, TS (and the newer VDI) has moved on quite a bit and (I believe) can meet our needs. Added to this I have to reduce our overall operating costs (this includes power, rolling replacements, vandalism, etc) as well as re-organise workloads (from fixing vandalised equipment and reimaging PC's to more proactive tasks). Price wise the order for us would be: Microsoft, VMWare then Citrix. However while price does play a big factor into things, that's not the only thing we have to consider. So my question for you guys/gals who have already gone thru this process are... 1. What did you end up going for? 2. How was it/how is it going? 3. How easy/hard was it to set up? 4. Any other info regarding this can you give? Thanks -Ken

Do you work in a school? As they have changed the licensing model for schools.

We've taken on Primary schools in order to gain another technician. Do we get paid for this extra work? No. But it does contribute to, and in some cases cover, our CPD costs, our business credentials and the 4th member of our team. Will it help with your appraisal/job review for a higher salary? Most likely (however a review for a higher salary doesn't mean you'll get one). Do you have a choice in the matter? Yes, you can stay and see how it goes (work wise, salary wise, etc), you can leave or if it really annoys you see what your union rep says (if you're a member). I'm not trying to be negative here, but most likely if you read your contract it will state "...and any other reasonable request..." which is basically a catch-all. -Ken

I did the Green Belt in Six Sigma about 3 years ago (this was without the Lean part integrated). Here are my thoughts: 1. Unlike other certifications... It is not centrally managed, eg there is no centralised certificate issuing body - plus there are different variations out there (Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, etc). 2. There are some useful information gained from Six Sigma (Quality & Process management), however it is not IT specific. IMO ITIL, FITS and/or MOF covers IT alot better/more. 3. This would have benefited me (more) if I was in, say, the manufacturing industry instead of IT. Saying that, it's another cert for my CV/CPD (even though I've forgotton most of it now). Is it worth it? I guess it depends what you want out of it. For me, doing this for my CPD/career development was worth it (after weighting up the costs vs use) as this led me to ITIL which in turn lead me to FITS -Ken