Jamman960

Is the server connected directly to a new netgear? if they're managed switches take a look at the logs on the one connected to the server, it may be that a certain event is causing it to disable the port, if it happens again try moving the server to a different port before restarting. Our cisco small business switches came setup with all ports defaulted to a desktop profile, if it detected a switch or VM host was connected to a port it'd disable it - basically if any more than 1 mac address was detected it'd throw a wobbly and decide we'd connected a switch when we shouldn't If the switches hadn't been changed I'd be looking at NIC drivers on the server but if its been working for a while before now there shouldn't be an issue.

I would look towards Nagios/TheDude/Cacti for general monitoring, syslog will only allow you to receive error messages from devices rather than usage/performance stats I'm pretty sure there is a guide on here for Nagios I keep meaning to setup a monitoring VM but never seem to get round to it

I can see it initially being difficult for pupils to understand someone with an entirely different accent but after a week or two they'd probably understand them just as well as any other, the only real difficulty would come if they were using more localised words and phrases. At the same time the teachers accent would gradually change to suit the area. Sounds like the school are lashing out after being put into special measures, I'd hope they'd be able to identify her accent as an issue before the inspection if it really was one then again they are in special measures so things obviously aren't all right anyway.

Its cached logins you want to disable as per - Interactive logon: Number of previous logons to cache (in case domain controller is not available) Hope this helps James

Had this on our network a few weeks ago, I temporarily blocked the ip mentioned to get us delisted and monitored connections via our Isa server. Turned out to be a single workstation. Not sure why vipre let it through though:(

We're currently using a Draytek 2820, not had any problems so far

What a moron :/ Funny how he still managed to stop at the red light unlike the other cyclist...

What size are they and how old roughly? I'd be weary of using older 2.5" drives for anything, they've never seemed as reliable as 3.5"'s

What size network is this for? Hadn't heard of them before now but the price on those looks far too low, I'm sure they'd do the job but at the same time I'd be waiting for it to fail. If its is for a couple of workstations in some random room right on the edge of the network then I wouldn't worry but if you're wanting it to serve anywhere near 24 devices I'd be very cautious. Stick with 10/100 plus gig uplinks if possible, second hand or refurbished hp/cisco would be more reliable and not too badly priced(still not quite that cheap though), the lifetime warrantee's don't carry between owners - they're only valid for the initial purchasing organisation.

When I was younger I had a few old desktops running various server os's at home but since getting married etc I'm lucky to have a 1tb buffalo network drive and a laptop. I'm hoping to retire one or two servers here in the next few months as well as moving to VMWare so may keep one knocking around as a testbed, not sure taking it home(dual quad xeon) to eat our electric is a good idea can't believe I had trouble finding a usb keyboard at home when repairing a friends pc, I used to have spares of anything and everything at home!

When I first started here about 3 of the SLT had administrative access or local admin passwords purely because they were in senior positions, one of them would buy and install printers for staff and install random toolbars(sparklebox!) or software upon request despite me asking him not to... now I'm the only one with admin access - as with most others a password list is in the safe along with full documentation.

I'm not sure camera's could be used safely, automatic breaking certainly couldn't - what happens when someone decides to change a national sign on a motorway to 30? and where do they stop? they'll either end up using satillite controlled limiting or as someone mentioned they'd need tags in or around signs although these could still be open to abuse. If they go down the limiting route its only a matter of time before they have the ability to target individual vehicles, do we really want to live in a society where our car gets slowed down to 10mph or less because we have outstanding parking fines or because someone else has used your plates to steal petrol? I don't normally go for the tin foil stuff but once these things come into force they never go away, they only ever get "improved" upon

Got a few old bits kicking around, I recently retired a Laserjet 6L manufactured in 1998(just takes too much paper and hasn't got a usb port) and I'm about to retire a HP VP6325 from 2004 - its not *that* old but pretty good for a projector considering it out lived our projectors from 2007 & 8. Until about a month ago the image was pretty good. Other than that we've still got a Dell Optiplex G1 running some ancient library software that only works with win 2000 and below at our pre prep site

One of my friends son's goes to a school that requires kids have iPad's, they've currently got iPad 2's but they're moving to iPad mini's and still wanting the same £16/mo! He still treats it as a toy and spends most of his time at home playing on it... I can't imagine its much different at school as he spends time on facebook during lessons. He's also ended up buying dozens of paid apps because "the free ones are rubbish" - giving 13 year olds their own ipad's is crazy. Part of me thinks that if they were given laptops or netbooks they'd be used more for work had have far less of the fun/shiny shiny factor

Very odd, have you been able to pin it down to an event? ie does it stay on until you attempt to play sound through it or just go off randomly? if its just random I wonder if it'd do the same with the laptop disconnected - assuming all power to the board isn't cut once you disconnect it, it might also be worth trying a phone or mp3 player via the 3.5mm input to see if that produces the same issue.

Pre-terminated fiber often comes with a sock/tube & eye attached for pulling through ducts/walls etc so that the connectors and cores are protected during installation and to make it easier to pull in, had to pull ours through several exterior walls last summer - couldn't have done it without the tube on the end pictured here - http://www.excel-networking.com/catalogue/fibre/cable/pre-terminated-cable/pre-terminated-fibre-cable-%28muticore%29---multimode-and-singlemode/

The biggest issue would be bandwidth and avoiding a bottleneck - if you can put in a 10gbit link or two between the two you'd be ok otherwise I'd probably look at a minimum of 5-10 1gbit links. I'd probably go with trunking the cables across, adding in an extra switch would just be adding another point of failure as well as another hop in the network.

Most normal IT suppliers should be able to source them via their distributors if you know what you want

I'd be very careful, If the parents running it happen to have a falling out with the school for whatever reason and stop cooperating with you they've got themselves a rather large audience which will more than likely be visible to prospective parents which is the last thing you want as a fee charging school. There was an alumni group on facebook for the school I work at at one point(also an independent prep school), the original admins stopped monitoring it and some of our less mature ex pupils started posting negative comments about the school which we had trouble getting rid of. I can't think of any decent free hosted forums, phpbb and a small amount of web space would do the job once setup but its probably still not quite easy enough for non-technical parents.

To be honest I expect the answer is no, the majority of the information we exchange is of no interest to the security services - The resources required to capture, process & store such information far outweighs any benefit they could get from it. I'm sure they have the ability to do so but would be selective about when/where they do it. If I had anything to hide I'd be using VPN's/SSH Tunnels etc, I'm happy that https is enough to protect me from data interception by most when doing internet banking/emails etc but don't feel the need to break out the tinfoil just yet

I'm not too sure - Virtual Bitcoin Mining Is a Real-World Environmental Disaster - Bloomberg is an interesting article I came accross on slashdot a while ago I guess the biggest problem is that even if it is worth it right now that doesn't mean it still will be in a few months time due to exchange rate fluctuations. I exchanged £12 for 1btc a few months back, if I hadn't already spent it would it would now be worth £75ish If the govenors/lea/whoever decide to take a look into it all when the benefits outweigh the gain they're going to want to know why you're wasting so much energy while everyone else is trying to save it thinking down the line you'd probably need to include additional costs due shorter equipment lifetimes James

Ouch, what a mess Could you remove the AV software for a short period of time (1-3hrs?) to see how responsive the system is without it then re-install - the re-install may help either way and get you back to a good setup. What services is the server currently providing? I've given RM a wide berth where I can but surely some things like the printers or AV distribution could easily be installed onto a vanilla server? having 2 servers would at least provide a little extra redundancy. At least you're covered, its their own fault they've not extended the hardware warrantee - I'd consider that much more important than the software warrantee when you've got(by the sounds of it) alternative IT support provision James

was going say its far from being a new server, I'd be looking at getting another server in to spread the load a little then leave this one to carry on doing the less critial tasks, I'd compare the size of the network when it was initially installed as well as the general usage and how both have probably increased then put togeather a case for a replacement. As you say its probably slower than the workstations if they've brought any new in the last few years.

I really like OTRS, mainly for the automated SLA's although I still haven't got around to fully implementing it as yet James

In my previous job I'd end up staying in hotels regularly, I used to hate the motorway service stations ones as the food was often awful and there was no alcohol to be had anywhere(not that I drink a huge amount anyway), from that point of view its great. Other than that I guess we can only hope people use it sensibly, they're going to be powerless to stop people abusing it, they're unlikely to have the time to ensure everyone planning to drive is sober