Gongalong

If we have a dramatic change in hardware then we have to get a new PC ahead of the main order, build it and test it (takes 3-4 weeks), image it, and then use that for the rest of the PCs. The worry is that our current image won't work at some point, which was today's scare. But if Config Manager can't handle the bulk of this software then it won't be a great deal of use either.

All sorts of things. Office, CS6, Chrome, but also lots of educational programmes (lots on CDs, some on our network). Would Config Manager handle those sorts of things?

I ought to sort out Config Manager, but is it going to cope with our huge mish mash of applications we need to install?...

x22: It was set on IDE, but I switched off a whole bunch of things in the BIOS, and set it to AHCI, and it's booting. WOOOOOOOOOOOOO! That's saved us a world of problems, so thanks lots for the nudge in the right direction.

I've disabled automatic restart and get a STOP BSOD.

Nothing at all. These are a very basic (new) desktop, basically a motherboard, SSD, card reader, and that's it.

Hi folks, I've just used Ghost to try and restore a Windows 7 image to our latest batch of PCs, and the PCs are restarting on boot up. Startup Repair doesn't work. Safe Mode reboots after loading the CLASSPNP.SYS file. Are there any other options to try and recover these PCs? The build takes about 3 weeks to create because these are for the student PCs and include a LOT of software. This image has worked for a couple of years. (This will teach me not to sort out Config Manager) TIA

These are the instructions I'm giving to the teacher, to in turn give to the students to update the APK: 1. Pick Connect > Emulator, to launch the emulator. 2. Once the emulator has started it will offer the chance to update, and they need to pick OK. (3. Sometimes at this point the update APK file does not download. If it doesn’t they need to close the Emulator and go back to Step 1. It may take 3 or 4 tries.) 4. If they then proceed with installing the update – click the Install button. 5. Once it has installed click the “Done” button, and close the emulator completely (the app will refused to launch properly until the emulator is restarted). 6. Restart the emulator as per Step 1.

Is that specifically the Emulator APK update? The APK file it tries to download is at the following address http://dl.qyv.me/MITAI2Companion.apk What confused me is that somewhat frequently it just doesn't download, and I thought this was a privilege issue. Turns out you just need to close the emulator and try again (often 3 or 4 times).

Having just checked you can click "Not Now" and it seems to load the app, so not sure how vital the update is. It prompts every time you run it. Also turns out that student accounts *can* update the app. It's a bit buggy, as when it updates it complains about no wi-fi. All you have to do is close the emulator and restart it. Also rarely it seems to have a problem downloading the APK file. I managed to spot the link through our Smoothwall. When you download it manually in Chrome it then seems to pick up on it in the Emulator and update.

Hi All, Anyone using MIT App Inventor? In the last couple of weeks they've updated the Android app that runs in the emulator, and the only way to update it is to login as an admin, login to App Inventor, run the emulator, and then update the app. The original installer hasn't been changed, so that can't be used to update the app. Anyone found a quicker way? I have 90 machines to update (!). TIA

In short, no. Our thirdline support company got it to work without having to change anything, and then we got a different remote access solution, which negated the need to resolve it.

We'd just need a 128GB SSD, as we wouldn't be putting much on it. It's just something that's fast when you need it, which seems to be most of the time when we're called out. Under £1k it seems for something pretty powerful. Even so, I'm still wary!

I think I prefer the Lenovo over the Macbook, because the Intel Iris chipset isn't that great. Although is it possible to get an education discount with Apple? (Maybe Very will throw a laptop in with our Summer desktop order? ;-)

I like Very lots, we buy all our desktops from them, but I bought two types of rebadged Novatech laptops and they were the worst we've got. Almost all are faulty after 2 years.

We might use it for quite a bit of typing, so the keyboard might be a dealbreaker on a Surface Pro 2 - I have used one, but I suspect if you're in a rush it could get annoying. Uses the Intel 4400 HD chipset apparently. I'm assuming the Intel Iris is better than this (in the MacBook Pro). So definitely interesting, but perhaps just a bit too odd.

After having gone through this in a lot of detail the Lenovo ThinkPad T440s and the MacBook Pro are the only two I can find that pretty much fit all the criteria, which I revised slightly: i5/i7 SSD 12" screen (approx.) Full HD display 8GB RAM Decent graphics chipset Known brand Win 7 or 8 VGA socket Under 2kg Both around £1,250.

Does it do full site download checks?

Bandwidth usage we get through Smoothwall. What I need is something that tangibly monitors how web sites are behaving. What we get is a call from staff saying the web's slow, or sites aren't loading. If I can setup a tool which monitors 10 varied sites (including core sites we use), then reports when those sites don't load, that's absolutely ideal for me. Ultimately that's what staff (and students) are using so gives a real feel for it. PRTG does that, allegedly. I'm just having a bit of a job getting it to work, and then to work consistently.

The Smoothwall does both transparent and non-transparent. I'm using non-transparent, so maybe that's my problem. I'll try switching. The Smoothwall does show the traffic from PRTG hitting the server, but everything has 407 (authentication) errors. No response from Paessler on this issue so far, so I've logged it with Sales as a pre-sales enquiry that I need to get resolved ASAP.

We have a Smoothwall, so I can see utilisation at our gateway. We also have PCM so I can see switch utilisation throughout the LAN. Neither of these every really show a problem when the web slows down. The crux of it though is that web browsing is where it hits the teachers, that is time to load a site. The LA provided connection can look fine in terms of ping and traceroute, but web browsing can still be slow, when we have an issue. So I need a tool that checks 10 or so varied websites, along with the time it takes to load them. That tool has to log these times, and alert when it goes over a threshold. PRTG does exactly that, and the freeware version will monitor 10 sites. But it can't seem to handle proxy authentication on our Smoothwall, even when configured with the right data.

We have a Smoothwall, so have a good idea of utilisation. It can max out at times, and of course Internet usage is only increasing. I've asked SchoolsBroadband for a quote. I've also asked VM and BT. SchoolsBroadband replied immediately. Needless to say I've been waiting 5 days for VM and BT and still nothing. Sigh...

And I do need something that works out of the box with minimal config. I don't know Linux at all, and we're so incredibly busy that I don't have time to spend on lots of config.

The problem is that ping and similar tools don't really give a great indication of how web traffic is performing. PRTG is great, in that it actually checks the time taken for one or more websites to load. It then logs that, and can alert if it goes over a certain value. The problem we're having though is that (a) it doesn't seem to want to use our proxy (with WPAD or manually configured) which is obviously fundamental to working properly and (b) it's a bit of a sledgehammer to crack a nut. I just want websites to be monitored, and it's a head-scratcher trying to figure out how to remove everything else. Anyway, until I can resolve this proxy issue PRTG is no good. It's a shame there isn't a simple tool out there where you can just add 10 or so mixed websites, and then just do the above. Not an enormously complex task.

PRTG looks like it could be ideal PRTG Network Monitor - intuitive network monitoring software