Jamman960

Take a look at Simsperm.bat and replicate its effects via group policy, it saves having to run scripts on every pc. I'll dig out the settings later if anyones interested - they may have already been posted on here somewhere though. Edit: heres a quick guide - This needs to be done on the workstations policy Within Comp Config\Security settings\Registry give the target groups full access to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Interface HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\TypeLib Within Comp Config\Security Settings\File System give the target groups full access to the following dirs: %AllUsersProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\SIMS Applications %ProgramFiles%\SIMS Once this is done anyone within the selected groups will be able to update sims and you won't need to run scripts on each pc. These settings have exactly the same effects as running simsperm... just don't choose the "everyone" group as capita suggested to us lol James

If its already installed and its a fairly old program it may be as easy as copying the folder & shortcuts over to a new machine. If that brings up errors it should just be a case of copying over any dll's etc it references from the original machine.

If its a choice between ActivExpression and ActiVote I'd go for the Expression devices - they allow much more flexibility where as with the ActiVote your pretty much stuck with multiple choice or true/false answers. I had wondered whether the ActivExpression wouild suit younger pupils due to the mobile style text input but there is so much more on offer than text input with these things such as sliding scales, fully labeled answers on screen etc - with ActiVote they just choose their answers and get no feedback or prompting from the device. ActivInspire also integrates very well with ActivExpression, the whole voting setup had been a bit clunky with previous software versions. We brought Activote devices and no one really bothers to use them, I think that'd be different with Expression though.

Look into Meru networks also - their kit is pretty impressive

We generally pay by any means availible but prefer bank transfers once an invoice has been recieved. I can borrow a credit card from the bursar for small/one off orders but I generally refuse to deal with suppliers unless they're willing to give us a credit account - the credit card rarely has enough left on it for anything bigger than a few hundred. I sometimes buy things on my card and get a cheque from the bursar on the same day.

I'm not sure if theres an option to disable the firewall functionality but you could just create rules to allow all traffic between all networks, that should have the same effect. Edit: you could use the single network card template in the networks(Configuration>Networks) section, it'll then act as a proxy/webcache

I think when downgrades first became an issue the advice was to use a VLK but now you can generally request xp keys from suppliers or microsoft themselves. I still just use a VLK if I've got too many to downgrade.

If you can I'd go for hosting the whole lot internally, All you'd need to do is expose port 25 for mail and ports 80, 443 for OWA to the outside world and change the MX entry on your domain to point towards your server. As OWA looks very much like Outlook it should be easy for them to go between the two as and when needed. You would however incur additional costs such as Spam Filtering and an SMTP Relay to recieve the mail when your server isnt availible. Another option is to use Google Apps, you'd then get mail and calendaring without the additional complications.

Thanks guys, already in talks with Joe @ CP Ltd its more a case of proving to my line manager that we need to spend the extra £'s

I've been asked to source 3 TFT's for our Nursery classes. Having spoken to some of the staff down there one of them mentioned the need for tougher screens due to frequent cleaning and prodding fingers so I've started looking into getting glass fronted TFT's but they are getting to be very rare(or at least the sub £110 ones are) and according to one of my suppliers pretty much every manufacturer is discontinuing their hard glass ranges. My line manager has said lets just get the normal screens - has anyone else had any good/bad experiences with normal TFT's in nursery classes? James

You can have as many domains as you like on the same ip range/subnet. Depending on the number of workstations in each site/building it may still be worth subnetting the networks anyway to keep the broadcast domain size down. James

just found this: Print Distributor 3 Server 3.1 Free Download - Print Distributor 3 Server Download you could setup a PDF printer on the server then setup the above program to send to the real printer and the PDF one. Its shareware but might be worth a look. I've never used it but it looks like it'd do the job - let me know if you do try it out, it could be pretty handy

Taken from the SQL2008 migration doc on support net: I'd stick with a well spec'd workstation, possibly even one brought as part of a batch destined for classrooms etc - at least then you could easily swap the drive(s) straight into a workstation taken from elsewhere as an emergency fix.

For that many users I'd stick with what you've got unless its failing or you plan to expand sims into the classroom for registration etc. You could run sims on pretty much any new desktop hardware. I've seen many small primaries have the sims server setup on the secretarys machine(setup by their LEA). It really isnt THAT power hungry until you have many more users using it.

How many sims users do you have? are they finding it slow?

What about disconnecting the servers for the day and having all powerpoints etc run locally or turning off all switches except those in secure areas(presuming the secure areas aren't fed from switches in other areas)

The owner will have a licence for whatever the sticker on the laptop says, any additional rights gained via a volume licence/schools agreement etc are void. having a volume license version of XP pro installed and an XP pro sticker should be fine though technically.

I always found my ip with NTL/Virgin to be fairly static unless I disconnected for more than a day or so. Logmein is probably the best way to go

We still use word/mailmerge for our reports, infact I've just had to set it all up again I'd previously setup seperate templates for each subject but this time round I've exported class assignments from sims and created a template to pull everything(subject, name, reg, set etc) from the spreadsheet - all I need to do is paste the teachers summary and then use mailmerge to select the class.

This sounds like my previous job... just MUCH better pay. I don't know if RM are any better than my previous employer(they probably do have a few more engineers) but whoever gets the job probably will end up covering all of those areas on a weekly basis which is the main reason I left. Working in Liverpool on Wednesday, Bradford Thursday and south east London on Friday really isnt my cup of tea anymore It really is an ideal job if your young free and single though, the amount of experiance I gained was amazing - I ended up working in all sorts of schools all over the place setting up and supporting networks.

I've had the same problem with Symantec internet security on vista on one of the teachers laptops here - in my case it worked before installing SP1 then could only ping when SP1 was installed. Removing the offending symantec product sorted it out(you'll probably need to find the removal tool, their uninstall's are useless and leave far too much behind, in my case it also left the above problem behind argh!)

around 5 years in education here... coming up to 18 months at this school, 18 months with one of the bigger IT companies providing IT support/installations to schools all over the place and 2 years with a much smaller one which unfourtunatly went under

If you do decide to do it without taking the server offline and are sure your backplane is hotswappable you just need to remove the failed drive, wait 30 secs or so(let the server recognise the disk has gone) and then put the new drive in, doing it too quickly can cause problems. If possible I'd shut it down and repair the drive with the OS offline, its faster and safer (I've never been brave enough to try hot-swapping a disk as yet)

I'm assuming the drive is within its 5 year warranty(the board you mentioned isnt that old) your best bet would be to request(or demand) an advance replacement with western digital, it shouldnt take more than a day or two to arrive. Failing that one of these should do: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-236-WD&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=167

Make sure you have a good look at reviews before buying a purpose built NAS box, some suffer from low transfer rates. I'd also be weary of what file system is being used, ideally you'd want to be able to pull the drives and stick them in virtually any pc/server etc to recover the data from them should the box itself die. For now I've stuck with FreeNas