Gongalong

Hi folks, We have a piecemeal setup here of standalone Netgear WAPs. About 75% are WG302's, but as a handful have failed in the last year or so we've replaced with WNDAP350's. The latter have been configured with the same (WEP) key, but it has become apparent that most if not all laptops are just not connecting to them. I've talked to Netgear support briefly and their suggestions so far are to ensure the latest firmware is on, reset to defaults, and reconfigure. They also suggested testing with no security and WPA2. I've carried out the firmware upgrades and resets, and tried running with no security, the WAPs then seem stable, but obviously it's not a solution. Going forward I can try WPA2, and if it works then configure the WNDAP350's with a different SSID. Obviously it's a pain to run a two tier network, but I don't see what else I can do. Anyone have any ideas or come across this problem with Netgear WAPs? (Long term we're going to replace with managed wireless, but budget-wise that's 2-3 years away.) TIA

(X-posted in Coding also, but it doesn't appear to be a very busy forum) Hi folks, As is no doubt the case with other schools, our ICT teaching department are looking at what development tools to use for the new "Computing" subject. We already use a number of development tools, despite what Gove thinks, such as Game Maker, Visual C++, Scratch, YouSrc and Visual Basic. These have all more or less played nicely with our RM Ranger restricted system with the exception of YouSrc, where we've had various unsolved issues with Java. ICT are now looking at other tools such as MIT App Inventor, Build Your Own Blocks, and Python. I have tried App Inventor but hit an issue with the Block Editor which seems to be blocked by our firewall (being researched), and with Python I am struggling to find a straightforward Windows install with a UI (I've had a mix of suggestions from friends). If anyone has any suggestions about App Inventor and Python they'd be gratefully received! Anyway, I though it best to turn the question on its head and find out what other schools are using in the typically restricted environments that aren't very amenable to running programming software? I understand the new Computing subjects requires both object and scripted programming, for lack of a better description. In short, what are you using, or planning to use? TIA

Hi folks, As is no doubt the case with other schools, our ICT teaching department are looking at what development tools to use for the new "Computing" subject. We already use a number of development tools, despite what Gove thinks, such as Game Maker, Visual C++, Scratch, YouSrc and Visual Basic. These have all more or less played nicely with our RM Ranger restricted system with the exception of YouSrc, where we've had various unsolved issues with Java. ICT are now looking at other tools such as MIT App Inventor, Build Your Own Blocks, and Python. I have tried App Inventor but hit an issue with the Block Editor which seems to be blocked by our firewall (being researched), and with Python I am struggling to find a straightforward Windows install with a UI (I've had a mix of suggestions from friends). If anyone has any suggestions about App Inventor and Python they'd be gratefully received! Anyway, I though it best to turn the question on its head and find out what other schools are using in the typically restricted environments that aren't very amenable to running programming software? I understand the new Computing subjects requires both object and scripted programming, for lack of a better description. In short, what are you using, or planning to use? TIA

Hi folks, I like TCPView, but I need something where I can filter by process and create an ongoing log of what that particular process is trying to connect to - all as part of researching a connection issue with Java. Any recommendations? TIA

Hi folks, After not having a great deal of luck with YouSrc our ICT department are looking at using MIT's App Inventor. It isn't starting well, because App Inventor launches a Java application for editing code blocks. This works fine on a PC with directly connected Internet (no complex firewalls etc.), but does not work on our domain PCs. I have tried configuring Java via control panel to look at the proxy server, but no change in behaviour. Has anyone come across App Inventor and used it successfully on a school network, and did you have to do anything to configure it? TIA

Looks like a DIR /X has helped. That gave me the 8.3 name, which was a control code, and I could rename from there. Huzzah!

Hi folks, One of our ex-students was obviously a clever little blighter and has given a folder a blank name. I cannot delete anything within it or rename it, and have tried Unlocker also without success. Any ideas on how I can rename it to something sensible to work with it? (The folder resides on a 2008 R2 server, so this seemed as good a sub-forum as any to ask) TIA

Windows Media Player Classic is another thought.

jamesfed: work laptop so no dice I suspect, but I did suggest an SSD (makes such a difference!). Curiously Chrome seems to open MP3s at least natively, and quickly if the browser is open.

This would be on his work laptop I suspect, so not sure what's going on. Would definitely be local.

FN-GM: takes 7s apparently. He *is* fussy...

Hi folks, Any very minimal and quick-to-load Windows audio player? Needs to handle MP3s, WAVs, and the basic range of formats. VLC still too slow to load. Asking on behalf of fussy friend :-) TIA

Unistrut sounds like the thing. I'll get a picture if it still proves to be complex! Thanks all for the suggestions.

john: it looks like a reinforced concrete ceiling with the metal formwork still in place below. Difficult to drill into I suspect, and may even require a diamond drill if it's very tough cement. plexer: D&T room. Apparently they used this beam and another further down the room to suspend a plane wing while they were working on it (!). The teacher discovered them, hung off them, and decided they were strong enough

chazzy2501: We can't hang it directly from the beam because the grid structure is directly below annoyingly. I'm not sure if there's a right angle mount? We've not had any luck finding one so far, but the beam is a bit small so won't take a large connector.

John: oddly this beam is totally separate from the grid. Hard to know what the history here as it isn't currently used to suspend anything from (it's been used as a lifting beam, of sorts, in the past).

Hi folks, I've been using Putty for a while, but it doesn't want to save sessions (gives a registry key error, even when configured to run as administrator). Is there an alternative there an alternative I can use for SSH that allows me to save session data? i.e. IP and port. TIA

It gets even more complex, as the beam we want to suspend off is directly in line with the ceiling grid, so we'll have to come off at angle. Our usual AV installer suggested a piece of wood behind a ceiling tile, and then bolt into that, but it didn't sound very safe to me You could push the ceiling tile out, and the whole lot would drop on top of you, or onto the floor (cables permitting).

Hi folks, Can anyone recommend a supplier that has a variety of projector ceiling mounts and brackets? I'm struggling to find someone via Google. Do ceiling mounts only bolt back, or are there any types with clamps? We're trying to connect a pole to a fairly narrow steel beam. TIA

It looks very much like it will have to be a USB HDD attached to the Hypervisor, as it will need to be something that Hyper-V can see.

mcdlv.net is another one.

Hi folks, I'm getting a variety of spam that's one email address sent on behalf of another. The first email address seems to be one of a small group of domains e.g. mcsv.net, which I'm guessing is some message sending service. I've added these as blocked domains in junk email, yet I still get emails. I'm guessing that Outlook's junk mail filter may be ignoring the first email, but just curious if anyone knows for sure why this is happening. TIA

I tested the conversion of a 25GB Windows 2008 R2 server to a fixed (40GB) VHD, and it took 10 minutes. The Hypervisor it was being converted on has 16 core opterons with 72GB of RAM (also 2008 R2). The SAN is an HP MSA2312i. If I do more conversions I'll try to remember to put the benchmarks here. 1TB will be interesting...

To confirm it is definitely the case with Hyper-V at least. I powered down a non-essential VM and tried to convert the disk... it's creating a whole new VHD. The difficulty now is converting two VHDs which are both over 1TB. We don't have space on the SAN, so presumably we'll need to attach a USB HDD to the Hypervisors.

This is a Hyper-V VHD, in case it makes any difference. I was going to use Hyper-V (there's a guide here How to convert Hyper-V dynamic disk to fixed disk ) but our thirdline consultant has said that Hyper-V creates a new file rather than updating the original file (!). Is that definitely the case? The problem is that we don't have a lot of space on our SAN, and that's RAID6 as well (based on your mention of speed issues with SANs above). If the worst comes to the worst we can stream it off onto an external hard disk and convert there, if necessary. Although I don't know how I'm going to access that with Hyper-V...