Gongalong

Hi folks, I'm having issues with a 2008 R2 print server and/or HP printer drivers. The issue seems to be with a range of new HP printers (M451nw, M451dn, and M475dn). These are all set to use the latest HP Universal Printing PCL 6 driver (61.150.2.15717). Both 32 and 64 bit versions have been loaded in Print Management. When I try and print certain "normal" Word and Excel documents via a Windows 7 client they just don't print and I get an error (just a general error and failure to print) from the printer in Windows. When I print these same documents on a 32 bit 2008 (R1) server, with the same driver version, I have no error at all and the job prints. I'm stuck as to where to troubleshoot this. Any ideas/thoughts? TIA

Solved it. Was caused by Ranger not copying security group information as expected. The profile had no legal drives.

Hi folks, I'm getting an error when I try to login one of our freshly created Year 7's: The default open/save path is set to C:\ but the drive is defined as illegal. Ranger cannot log you on until this inconsistency is resolved. Use Ranger Administrator to correct this inconsistency. If this problem persists, please contact your software supplier. As far as I can see both GP settings and Ranger Admin settings are duplicated across the board for this year group. I can't spot a specific default open/save path in Ranger Admin. Anyone got any ideas? TIA

Luke, I did ask for the quote to be refined a couple of times, and it still didn't have the right information on it. I chased it, and got no reply. We are really busy here so I can only ask for clarifications and chase so many times. I also need fairly quick turnaround on quotes. I'm sure you can appreciate that. We weren't very impressed with the quality of the install over half term. I appreciated that the guys did get it finished, but it felt rushed, and we had to stay late while they finished. Less than ideal also. This time around I've gone with a more local supplier, so will see how they do. Re. the hardware quotes, I believe we asked you for a comparative quote on Lenovo laptops (not HP) and you were unable to either get the model or match on price.

PyROm: Our Accounts have used the LA SAP (not Derbyshire, we're in Hants) route, and it has been problematic - our Bursar insists on going a bureaucratic route where *they* place the actual orders. We have also gone through our Misco Account Manager though via the last 3 orders, and it is amazingly difficult to just get an order placed and have it turned up within a day or two. Anecdotally: The first of the three failed Misco orders "vanished" in their email system (right). 3 weeks later I chased it, and they invoiced us for the items at a higher price than on the original PO. They were trying to make us pay the not inconsiderable price difference, although seem to have finally accepted months later that they were at fault. The second order was for two colour printers. They were apparently out of stock, which we discovered 2 weeks later when we chased the order - one of the printers was for the headteacher. We were offered an alternative, but it was monochrome so clearly unsuitable. We ended up ordering two (substantially more expensive) replacements, and were told we could claim most of the difference back on an HP cashback offer. The next morning the two expensive replacements arrived. In the afternoon two monochrome printers arrived! The next day the two printers we'd originally ordered, and were told were out of stock, arrived. It took weeks to get Misco to take back the printers we hadn't ordered. The cherry on the cake was that we could only claim cashback on one of the printers due to the rules of the offer, so we ended up out of pocket. The third and final order/straw was an order placed 3-4 weeks ago for a mix of laptops, printers, and other hardware. I stupidly believed they couldn't cock up anything else. This time the items simply haven't arrived. I've chased the order twice and have been getting flannel about delivery failures - the site has been open 8am-6pm every weekday. I still can't get a straight answer on when these items will be delivered. Awful.

Hi Luke. We have asked before and you were more expensive I think, plus your quote responses are often slow or non-existent

Suggestions appreciated, but we're so busy I don't have the time to do anything complex. I need an off-the-shelf solution ideally.

Hi folks, I've been using Misco for a number of years for mixed hardware orders e.g. laptops, printers, cables, but of late they have become awful (they've cocked up the last three orders quite stupendously). Can anyone else recommend a supplier that has a good inventory and can actually supply things without issue? (It seems surprisingly difficult!) TIA

Fantastic! I copied the CONNECT.INI from another PC, put it in C:\Program Files (x86)\SIMS\SIMS .net, and now SIMS works. Phew, that saves me downgrading to Win 7 (not that I'm enamoured with either Win 8 or Office 2013). Thanks Rawns :-)

How would I do that? Does it use the CONNECT.INI from the server to then create something locally? I doubt we'll get SOLUS 3. If the LA haven't put it on it sounds like they don't use it yet. We could always leave the LA and go direct to Capita, but no doubt there are pros and cons to both.

Further stupid question, what *is* SOLUS 3? SOLUS 2 seems to be an updater, so is it just an improved version?

Ah yes, I tried as both the user and local admin. No dice with either :-( I've asked the LA, so let's see what they say... (We have an icon called "Update and Run SOLUS" on both the server and clients, but the version that runs is SOLUS 2. I don't know whether LA's customise their SIMS deployments?)

Is it possible for us to upgrade to Solus 3 if we just have LA support? The thing with Windows 8 is that SIMS does install, but it doesn't seem to go any further once it prompts for the CONNECT.INI. No error, nothing.

Silly question, what's S3? Sorry, all I know about SIMS I was in turn taught by a consultant who didn't know much. Basically all I do is patch the server and install the client on the instructions I was given. We're only supported by the LA, nothing direct with Capita sadly.

To update: I converted a 1.2TB dynamic VHD to a similar sized fixed VHDX and it took around 12 hours. This was on a USB2 drive attached to the node. Similar really to the copy speed to the drive, around 20-30MB/s. Currently I'm converting a 2TB dynamic VHD, again to a fixed VHDX. It seems to be taking a similar time, but I'm having to convert from the SAN to the USB2 drive (not enough space to convert it on the drive).

Hi folks, I'm after a temp and humidity sensor recommendation, with Server 2012 compatible software. It also needs to have email alerting, specifically that it sends an alert when it loses connectivity to the sensor - currently we have an Xsensior sensor which (a) seems to have died and (b) doesn't do this particular alert via its software. TIA

How do I update it?

Rawns: SIMSINST.EXE from the Setups folder. FN-GM: I haven't updated to the Summer Release yet, so Spring 2013.

Hi folks, Has anyone got SIMS and Windows 8 64 bit working? I've seen mention of it working with Windows 8, but I (stupidly) ploughed ahead and put 64 bit on it. We do run SIMS on a 64 bit session host 2008 R2 server, and that works fine. As background: SIMS installs and inevitably complains about the 64 bit. When I start SIMS it complains about not finding the CONNECT.INI file so I point it to that and.... the window closes and nothing further happens. Any ideas before I go back to Win 8 32 bit? TIA

Hi folks, We've just migrated a 2008R2 2 node cluster to 2012. We have two Internet connections - one provided by the LA and another slower "standard" BT connection. The former is used for the bulk of the Internet traffic, but the latter gives us simple unfiltered access. Two Win 7 VMs use the BT connection to gain access to sites the LA block. Since migrating the network access on these two VMs is odd. Initially it manifested as web pages taking ages to load, partly loading, or just failing to load full stop. Pinging the router that connects to BT gives lost packets, yet other resources on the LAN have no problem when pinged. If I switch a physical machine over to the BT connection it has no problem at all, so it seems to be an issue specifically with VMs. I'm stumped as to why these VMs would only have a connection problem with this particular router, when a physical machine has no issue at all, and said VMs worked without issue before the migration. Any ideas? TIA

Thanks for the replies. Not sure about the status... It seems that the data must be there for some students/parents because Schoolcomms has it, but it's not in the obvious place. Odd. Ironically I did use a Schoolcomms report to get to the data. I spoke to Schoolcomms support a few days ago to see if they knew where the data was stored in SIMS, and they mentioned the Management reports. I used a different report, but it did work. Very useful!

Hi folks, I'm trying to design a report that will give me the parental email addresses for pre-admission students - there should be some because Schoolcomms has imported them. If I create a report for current Year 7 students it shows me the parental email address under the "email" and "primary email" field. If I create a report for pre-admission students those fields are blank. Any ideas? (I rarely use SIMS in anger, but am trying to help out the Business Manager) TIA

Netgear WNDAP350 proving to be awful. I've had two identical (hardware and driver versions) laptops sat side-by-side. One laptop will connect, the other won't. Netgear support were very pleasant, but seemed as confused as I was. I can't afford to waste any more time on it so will get the @Michael recommended HP V-M200 and go from there.

Hum. Could it be because the site has not been published? (I've just spotted the Publish button)

I spoke too soon. That's broken the ability to login to the admin page (:17351/wp-admin). It's doing some odd redirect, and trying to go to localhost:17351/wp-login.php?redirect_to=http%3A%2F%2F10.121.245.115%3A17351%2Fwp-admin%2F&reauth=1