stevef1

Hi everyone, We got a load of iPads and our Ruckus wireless kit from Joe at CPLtd, great prices, great guy to chat with, excellent support and very fast delivery Will be getting more ICT equipment in April. totally recommend them, give them a call on 0845 249 1779 stevef1

Who is changing broadband next year? nunthorpe school (looking in to the details) Who you changing to? Virgin Media or BT hopefully Who is your supplier now? LEA Reason for change? Speed/Cost/Control of line Cost now (total)? around 11,900 a year Cost next year (if you have it)? £12,000 for 100 Meg from Virgin or £14,00 20 Meg on 100 Meg line from BT Your filter system now? smoothwall Your filter system next year? smoothwall stevef1

Hi everyone just want to ask the following (sort of mini poll on broadband i guess) if you get chance can as many of you fill it in Who is changing broadband next year? Who you changing to? Who is your supplier now? Reason for change? Cost now (total)? Cost next year (if you have it)? Your filter system now? Your filter system next year? thanks stevef1

Bit more clarity, it would be the same server not the same SIMs database, the server has 12 Gig ram, intel xeon cpu, raid drives, so its a pretty big spec. i just want 1 server with SQL on it and as we have it on the SIMs server thought that would do so all i need to do is re run the install, create my databse and that it? thanks

Hi, anyone using the SIMs SQL 2008 server for other applications at the same time as SIMs? i was thinking that just using for SIMs and not other applications is a waste of SQL 2008. any ideas or thoughts? stevef1

@Disease, yup he knows that but they still think the standards are important, i need to be able to say something like, most schools are using 1xfirewall 1xfilter system 1xvpn ...... what extras are you getting? filter system etc

Hi everyone, I’m looking in to this but my boss wants clarification in terms of security and BECTA standards, a question to the people who are independent of the local authority what firewall and filtering solutions do you have? I’m looking at a managed 100 Meg connection via virgin for around £13,000, we have Smoothwall network guardian what else, in your valued opinions, is required? What are you telling or have told senior management/governors about the change over, mine are worried about data security when/if we get our own broadband connection. My local authority is going on about 2 stage security (crypto key’s etc) what are you doing about this? thanks stevef1

Hi, I’m looking into something along these lines, we have our 10Mbit connection via the LA it cost us around 11.5K per year about 6K goes to NGFL. We get cache pilot thrown in,wow, the connection is not the best and the service is pretty abysmal, we don’t have control and as a paying customer i feel let down. I’ve looked at BT for a 10Mbit line on a 100Mbit bearer is around 12K 20Mbit 14,5K per year not a great deal more that were paying, sounds tempting i must admit, we don’t use cache pilot i replaced it with smoothwall, much better product in all areas. The only concern for moving away from the LA as a provider is what is the legal standing in terms of protection, obviously we would provide firewall/filtering on the line, is this enough? our LA bang on about government connect and security etc what have other people experienced when, if, they have moved away or are thinking of moving? thanks stevef1

Wow thanks for the answers so far, if anyone wants to PM me please feel free to do so. From what i understand some schools in the Bristol area have had a negative BSF experience anyone care to elaborate on this, first hand info is, of course, much better. From my point of view i work at a school that’s about 40 years old its dilapidated and is a pretty bad state, the network has been “bolted” on, as a lot are i guess, as and when we have required new computer room etc so if a managed service provider came in as part of the BSF project and rewired the school etc the that does not seem to bad, from talking to several people the managed service provider will take the newer computers at the existing school and add to these to make the total computers for the school is this correct? I cant see this happening at our site to be honest. What does the managed service provide can anyone tell me what they ended up with and how it works for them (PM me if you don’t want to post) Who creates the new domain structure, does it become part of a large domain of all the schools in the project or is it managed on site by what’s left of the ICT Support team or will this depend on who gets the contract? stevef1

Hi everyone, i know lots have been said about BSF in its various forms, i work as network manager at a school that is going through the BSF process and has to make some decisions in the very near future regarding ICT managed service. What i would like is some personal feedback both positive (if it exists) and negative (i know this exists) about your schools progress in through BSF, for example. What’s your job title before and after BSF? Who employs you before and after BSF? What role did you play, if any? Did the managed service work as expected? Who is your service provider? What issues did you as an ICT support team face before and after BSF? What impact has BSF had on your job role/description? Have you lost members of your team because of BSF? Have you lost pay due to BSF? Who is your managed service provider? Can i or a member of our team visit you for a personal conversation about BSF? Anything else you can tell me about your BSF experience? thanks, look forward to your info (if any stevef1

Hi SJ glad you found edugeek loads of tech people on the site, should be fun stevef

I have Windows 2008, NPS working with HP ap420 access points, if i can be of any help. Our users log on using domain username/password. stevef1

Musician, back to playing guitar zero stress, plenty of larger, staying out all night, kebabs and loads a girls...... almost jacked in this week or a tree stevef1

Or a sterile bubble for all users with thought control for the computers, or we could close all schools and public places impose a curfew and a state of emergency get the army on every street corner and have a shoot to kill policy........ But what if the army get it?

Why not just issue every child and staff member with a personal slave that walks 2 steps behind cleaning everything that the person touches, handrails, doors, phones hey we could even wipe there arses for them............Doh! i forgot we do that anyway he he he

Have you tried Thinstall? Thinstall Application Virtualization2 it captures an install (just about any app) to an .exe so you can have a pre configured app that you deploy in whatever way you want (i.e USB, CD Rom, shared folder, web link etc) Some demos: Thinstall Product Demos i have used the demo software and it works great price is around £2000 (downside to everything) but if you think about the IT support hours spent deploying, fixing, configuring software it starts to sound like a saving. Just my 10pence worth thanks stevef1

Printers are set in a log on script, LPR in windows? how if you dont mind, never used it before always used TCP/IP

Thanks for all the posts: Printers are static IP address No firewall (or its off) Nothing blocking port 9100 Printers have paper (yeah aint teachers daft Spooler has been restarted (several times) No print management software (on a new server) I can ping and connect to the web interface Permissions are ok Using MS TCP/IP printer port Tried this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934885 Now in contact with HP and they say that its not 100% compatible with windows 2003 and that its not a good network printer (a host printer) need to install the firmware for Windows XP to resolve the issue, hey guess what it didn’t work......

Ports are OK, using MS TCP/IP and i can access the web interface ok grrrrrrrrr i hate printers

Hi all, we have several HP2600n printers installed on a windows 2003 R2 print server with SP2, for some strange reason some printers seem to stop working, the job is sent (from windows xp pro client) to the server and just site in the print que, it says its printing but it never does.....any ideas? I tried upgrading the firmware on the hp2600n's and have the latest driver from HP.. Thanks

Birchfield software 21 Centuary Science

New(ish) to this site so don’t know if this has been suggested (or done before) so if it then just ignore this post. How about a list of naff, bad or just plain annoying software that is a pain to install on networks (or standalone) stevef1

Thanks for that, so the general opinion is to give them admin/power user access to the local computer, I guess some education needs to be done as most of the teaching staff are shocking when it comes to IT (a reluctance to learn in a learning environment) but giving them the rite to install drivers for home printers, USB devices etc seems to be the way to go. again thanks for all the great input stevef1

Hi all, new to the site and was curious as to what permissions you give to students and staff users, mine are just domain users at the moment but i was thinking about making the staff users that have laptops (most of them) members of the local computer power user group on the laptop the have, anyone else do this/thinking of doing this? thanks stevef1

depends i guess, the cost per unit was about £118 each, very small foot print, i know i could get a mini itx setup but that involves more work depending on what you get and i'm also looking at other solutions these units just fitted the bill nicely and were easy to get also looking at http://www.chippc.co.uk/ but i don’t know the price of these yet.