foofighterjim

Thanks for that, I will have another search for the script. We are fully covered on the AUP front but I just suspect that some still think that there is no way we can actually trace it. I think the archive of messages sent may be too much but it is an option if they can't behave. I have already spoken to the head of ICT teaching and the esafety officer and I believe they are going to bring it up during assemblies too. We are lucky here with the general standard of our student behaviour.

Seriously, nobody?

http://www.soundspheremag.com/wp-content/migration/images/stories/Amplifier_-_The_Octopus.jpeg

As the subject says Apple have retired the iPad 2: Apple finally retires iPad 2, replaces with Retina display model | The Verge Particularly relevant for those schools who had brought the 2nd generation iPad because it was cheaper. Presumably this means no iOS 8 but no details on if future updates to iOS 7 will be available beyond what is already announced.

I will make it easy, I will be wearing my Amplifier tie. Just look for the short person with this logo.[ATTACH=CONFIG]23416[/ATTACH]

So it has finally happened. One of our students has (apparently) sent a nasty email to another student. I have found the message log in Exchange> Mail Flow> Message Trace and can see the subject and delivery status. Is there a way of viewing the contents of the message without logging into the mailbox directly? I have a feeling that this could be a reoccurring theme for a couple of weeks until the message gets through to the students that we can actually trace what they do.

I don't want to see any pictures you take with your phone in that case.

Yup I'll be there, they better hope I get out of the right side of the bed tomorrow.

So I had forgotten about the wonders of USB tethering! I disconnected the network connection from the workstation and got it tethered to my phone. I made sure to disable the proxy in IE and as we suspected FCS was unable to communicate with the server. @Synkrox you must have something special configured somewhere for this to work.

We only have FCS and HR Portal and I actually need to get hold of a wireless card to test. We do still have them for our MIS support so I am going to need some form of VPN for our data uploads to still work.

I may have to get a wireless card into the finance computer and try FCS tethered.

That's an interesting one and far from what Link2ICT would have me believe!

What was the solution for FCS? VPN to the bursars desktop?

just re-re-re-re going over the price list and the only major issue I can see is that the costs of HR portal and FCS are folded into the internet costs i.e. there are not individual prices for these services. I do have a document that states "You will need to make alternative arrangements with the LA to provide access to the HR portal, Birmingham Inline and any other closed services that the school currently uses." Reading between the lines it is possible to use these services without the BGFL connection and I would include FCS in that statement. Added to this, I believe last year if you had any service from them you had to pay the service desk and support subscription. If you are looking to get away from this significant cost you would have to ditch all services from Link2ICT however I do not know if this includes HR Portal and FCS.

We use Claro Read: Claro Software: ClaroRead | Lightning | ClaroIdeas | Scan2Text All software comes in MSI and is a piece of cake to install on a network.

FCS Login downloads payroll information from the council. The only way this could work outside of the BGFL system is to get the LEA to agree to using a VPN to get this information. I haven't asked anyone at the council about it yet though.

I don't have any credentials for it. (I'm not one of the select few!) I will bring this up again though as it would save some time not needing to change this and just focusing on payroll.

Really? I was informed otherwise by the person who uses it and tried at home. Probably my fault for just taking their word for it.

Possibly but I would get on your phone with your account manager now to make sure. Let me know if you can as this is something that I may look into.

I have found this year that the connectivity costs are better than previous years but the MIS support is now astronomical. We are looking at using Sandwell of MIS support.

HR portal and FCS Login are the only things that stopped me from moving this year. Rather than worrying about making them work with the new connection (VPN most likely) we are just looking at replacing them (they are both poor pieces of software anyway). We are looking at replacing FCS with Sage (and therefore taking over our own payroll) and are currently reviewing our options for HR portal.

Imagine the outcry if this was Microsoft taking this approach.

foofighterjim => foofighterjim

And what a program it is! If you school relies on it you may want to seriously consider a support contract if it keeps giving trouble.

Purely from a topology point of view it makes more sense for it to be local. Intensive bandwidth consumption during the school day not putting load on your internet connection. When people use it at home on an evening there will be nobody onsite utilising your internet connection so it is free to facilitate the demands. However if I was in your shoes I would probably go with the hosted solution too, you have no idea to what extent this will take off and exactly how much storage you will require. This has implications on your storage and backup solutions. The hosted solution eliminates these arguments and as SSO is not required I would go for hosted but with intensive monitoring of the internet connection.