secman

I have been using Dell kit since they first started selling in this country around 1987!!! (Jus shows you how old I am! ) At the school we have 8 Dell Servers, 2xPE2950, 2xPE1950, 1xPE2850, 1xPE2550 plus a couple of old beasties, a PE3300(?) and a PE2200(?). All running well. We also have some Dell Switches, a 6024F (upto 24 Gb Fibre or Copper ports and 8 copper UTP ports) 2x5324 (24 10/100/1000 ports plus up to 4 Gb fibre ports) a 3324 (24 10/100 ports and up to 4 Gb fibre ports) and a number of 2224s (24 10/100 ports) the rest is ATI and Netgear which I exprect will be replaced with Dell as required. We also have over 400 Dell desktop PCs all of which have been very good considering the treatment they get!! .... so it's fair to say we like Dell! Having said that we do look at the alternatives but usually find that Dell offer the best price performace for us. But everyone will have their own favourites. Alan

..... I have just been checking the papercut site and they have a FREE printer logger that produces html or excel files. Web Page Name Might be just what you need..... Alan

We use a package called PaperCut Quota from an Australian Company. http://papercut.biz Not free but can control printing by allocating an amount of cash for each user and provildes reports on who has printed what when. We have just upgraded to the "NG" version that has a full web based front end so that it can be managed from your desktop. It can also control internet access if you add the extra module. Alan

mmmmm. Thanks again for all the advice. As I have said we are Linux newbies so can someone let me have a bit more detail about qmail, IMP & horde etc. Thanks Alan

Thanks for the responses guys. It looks like Zimbra is worth a serious look. Can one of you give me an idea of what spec of PC you are running this beastie on, particularly Mr Cybernerd as it is being used by 1650+ users like we would want. Also what version of linux are you using? we have a CD for UMBUNTU to try if thats OK. Thanks again Alan

I hope I haven't submitted this already, got interupted..... We are having serious performance problems with our LGfL (London Grid for Learning) setup and this is preventing staff teaching e-mail. We have been asked to look into the possibility of setting up a webmail based e-mail service internally on our IIS server (IIS 5.0) Is anyone aware of a free server that we can download and install. We would favour IIS but could go to a *nix based product on Apache if that's all there is. Thanks Alan

It was part of a large order including 4 servers and some other switches via a supplier and not direct from Dell. I'm sure our supplier would be happy to speak to you if you are interested. We have decided to standardise on Dell switches. They do a reasonable range and seem to work very well. From basic 10/100 switches up to the full blown 6024F. We also use 5324s with Gb Fibre adaptors as distribution switches around the school. They are able to have multiple uplinks giving an agregate 2Gb if required. ) Hope this helps Alan

We have just purchased a Dell 6024F Gigabit Switch. It has 24 ports that take SFP Modules either fibre or copper plus 8 1Gb UTP ports. Very nice box for about £2900 including 12 SFP Adaptors (which are £120 each.)

Unfortunately it's a W2K server!! Anyone know of a free utility that might do the job? Not a script as we haven't got round to sorting out how to use them yet. Ta Alan

We have just tried to run Metro Electro on a W2K3 R2 based server under IIS and have been told by Harcourt (Hienneman) that it will not run under W2K3. It does not run with the HMC like the other MFL packages (Listos, Echo and Expo) so I don;t think it will be supported Alan

We have just tried to run Metro Electro on a W2K3 R2 based server under IIS and have been told by Harcourt (Hienneman) that it will not run under W2K3. It does not run with the HMC like the other MFL packages (Listos, Echo and Expo) so I don;t think it will be supported Alan

We have a number of Dell servers that we are very pleased with. However, we have also just invested in a network storage device for some extra space. It is a Lacie 2TB 1U box and cost us 1/3rd of the price of a Dell NAS. It will only allow 25 simultaneous connections but it may solve the space problems some of us have. We are thinking about getting another to act as a store for digital video files. Alan

Think I've found the problem. Cos we are using the home drive to store the profile, the system is copying the home drive contents to the "Docs and Settings" area. As we also redirect "MY Documents" to the Home drive, when you delete a file on the home drive (My Documents) then log off, the system copies back the contents of "Docs and Settings" and recovers the deleted files. MAgic eh! Now I have to reconfigure 400+ uses to point their profiles at a separate folder on the server. (Should have done this in the firstplace I suppose) Thanks for the suggestions anyway Alan

Winsuite is basically a desktop management system. It uses policies to control what users can access/run. There is no server backend as such but it is installed on the server. The desktops without winsuite have been around some while and have not exhibited the problem until we implemented roaming profiles. Alan

.... But it also happens on a few PCs in the staff room that don't have Winsuite installed!! Alan;?

The PCs have Winsuite Enterprise Edition installed although staff users (who have reported the problem) are not subject to the restrictions it imposes (at the moment) Alan

Chaps, Here's the scenario.... User logs onto an XP PC, (W2K Server, roaming profiles, re-directed "My Documents") and accesses files in My Documents. The user then deletes a file. The file has gone when you look at the user's folder on the server however, when they log off, the file magically re-appears. I know this is great for stopping some one accidentally deleting files but there are times when a file just needs to be deleted!!!. All the permissions look OK, user has full control of their home drive down the tree etc. Any Ideas??? Alan :?

We have been using it for over a year now. We have found some issues with earlier versions of the server software being a bit iffy but that seems sorted with the latest version. We have also been a bit miffed with the fact that we have over the past year had to uninstall and reinstall the clients. This too is fixed in the latest version with an autoupdate function (I think) There is an issue with monitoring the violations. We are looking at setting up a user for staff to do the monitoring. There used to be a supervisor type login that allowed viewing but not deleting or access to the admin bits. I couldn't find that profile when I looked yesterday, and need to speak to their support. Otherwise a good product that has proved it's worth a number of times stopping some e-mail bullying and proving that some herberts were trying to access naughty websites. It is expensive but what price do you put on protecting the kids??? Alan

Problem Solved I created a new W2K server and added it as a Domain Controller. Once this had settled down, I was able to create users on both the new and the original DC. I then demoted the new DC and tried again. I could still create users and the DCDIAG tool reported that my DNS problem has gone aswell. Sorted. Thanks again for your help. Alan

AJB, Yes there was an old server which is now demoted to a member and recently shut down. I have already tried seizing the RID Master role and it told me that the server already held that role. I am now building a temp DC as it has been suggested that there could be corruption in the AD Database. Any further suggestions greatly appreciated. Alan

This is a bit of a problem. We took over the IT support in our Junior School a couple of years ago and so far all has been OK. Recently I have been adding a number of student accounts using Winsuites Account Express and found that only about 66 of the 171 were created. When I check I found messages saying that the server had exhausted it's pool of Releative Identifiers and couldn't get any more. I have spent 2 days now trying to sort this out. I have been on the MS website and done everything and checked everything they suggest. Still the server tells me there is no more RIDs Has anyone any ideas I also have a wierd error on DNS. DCDIAGS tells me there is more than one Domain Controller although we only have the one. There was an old server but that has been demoted to a member and sometimes falls over anyway. (Its not being used) There is a "CACHE" server listed in Sites and Services but we have always assumed that to be the "Cache Pilot" box installed for Espresso. The DCDIAGS also complains that an alias cannot be resoved. Again I have checked and found no problem, the record has an entry for the domain controller (name) and looks the same as the setup on our (separate) admin domain. :( Any help would be greatly appreciated. Alan

Chaps, I am confident that this has already been asked but I am just back off holiday and have come back to a number of problems that need to be solved with little time to do it. We have just upgraded all our existing servers to W2K3 R2 and added a couple of new boxes also at W2K3 R2. We need to move the shared area and user home folders to a new server and maintain permissions. I used to use RCOPY but this don't seem to be around on the new server. Can someone point me to the correct (free) utility asap. We also need to point all the users home folders to the new server. Any ideas for bulk changes to user profiles. (We are no good with scripts, never used them.) TIME IS SHORT..... Thanks Alan

Chaps, Good News!! The mighty Dell have agreed to replace all the Motherboards in the affected SX270 PCs. We are hoping to get an engineer in over the holidays to save disruption to classes. So.... If you have any Dell SX270 Small Form Factor PCs purchased in 2003 speak to Dell NOW. (Your 3 year maintenance is running out!!). Don't know if this problem affects any other models so you should check a sample from this timeframe. Alan

Thanks for the information guys, the article from SYSMAN was particularly helpful. I will keep you up to date with progress when we approach the "Mighty Dell" Alan

I am moving house, could be the end of the universe as we know it....... Anyway, I have the complete collection of Autosport Mags dating back to 1992. Anyone want them or can anyone suggest someone who might? All you have to do is collect them. I also have a large number of "STAR TREK FILES" including the folders. Most are split and filed but some are still magazines. I think they go up to number 387 or so. Agina if anoyone is interested or knows someone who might be then let me know and they are yours to collect. Thanks Alan