Pompey81

Hi, It has been a while since I was on here and probably one of the last questions I asked was about internet connections. We were in the past looking to move away from the council to our own connection but there were a number of factors stopping us from doing so. We now do not have these issues and once again need to ask, who do you all use, are they value for money and what is the support like (if you have used them). I have contacted 1 or 2 who either have not given me any info or not even got back to me. Thanks in advance.

We use Sims for the database but use Pars and Insight by Tasc software for all behaviour/timetables/attendance and parent portal.

Our LEA use Redstone. Well it was Redstone they have changed name recently. the pipe for the LEA is only 200mb and that is serving most of the schools in the area. It is now at times used so much we get internet dropouts at parts of the day.

I have just rung Zen for some details. Anyone ever used the Janet network. I have found out that they also now allow secondary and academies to have a connection and not just Universities.

Hi, We are turning into an academy over the next year and are looking at a new internet provider although to be honest even if we were not we would be looking (connection is utter tosh atm). Anyone have any good suggestions. We have had a brief chat with BT about BTnet who are looking good so far but we would like to see what else is out there at the moment. Thanks in advance.

Hi, The powers above have handed me a leaflet asking if Airwatch was any good. We are looking at students using their own devices like phones and tablet devices. I am worried that we already have the local authority and smoothwall for internet security. We also have Impero (v4 being installed today) for classroom management. We dont currently have any tablet devices of our own and the only advantage I can see at the moment is that it would still keep policies for internet use even if they try and use the 3g(although it may be difficult to get kids into the network if they know that they will be restricted in use). Also if there is anyone in the Hampshire area that currently has policy's for own device schemes running and working that we may be able to come and look at. The powers above are keep to get some sort of policy as there is no money for us to supply laptops in classrooms anymore (plus they get damaged easily!). Thank you in advance

Hi, We are currently backing up over 2TB of data onto tape using Backup exec 2012. However it seems that our tape drive is failing and we may need to replace it. I was just wondering how you all backup. I have had a brief look at online backup but that solution still looks a bit pricey although I am aware (if I can find some money) that a new hardware solution will also be pricey initially. Thanks Lewis

We also had some problems initially with IE9 and had to untick automatically detect settings in every one of the group policy objects that we had (seemed to be set by default). This cause all sorts of problems for us as it would check for settings even though we had told IE to use our proxy server.

Thanks for your replies so far. It seems that the wireless adaptor is the RTL8187B chip (I didnt believe windows so I opened up the laptop). I have adjusted power settings and downloaded the latest Realtek drivers off the website although the wireless program doesnt see the adaptor as a Realtek Adaptor!! I think that I may have to call meru and find out. The problem being that I dont have support with them. Will also have to look at updating the firmware for the Meru controller. I wouldnt mind but these laptops worked fine in XP!

Hi, We have recently upgraded our school to Windows 7. Everything appeared brilliant until we got to our Toshiba laptops. When we try to attach to our main wireless or guest wireless we are greeted with "Windows was unable to connect to" without a reason as to why. We have tried downloading the wireless drivers from Toshiba, Installing 32 + 64bit versions of windows and I even took a laptop home and attached to my Virgin Superhub (which worked fine!!). Had no problems With XP before the switch either. Am a bit lost now as there are teachers who need their laptops back. The laptops are either Satellite Pro L300 or Satellite Pro L500 All our Hp laptops are fine and even some newer model Toshiba's are working without issue. Thanks in advance

Hi, Do any other schools in Portsmouth use Insight to give parents reports online. If so where is your Webserver held and do you have any extra security? We currently have our Insight webserver in a DMZ in our school with smoothwall acting as a barrier between it and our network. PCC say we do not need to do this as their firewall will protect us but it was put in as an extra layer of security. I like that we have extra control of the internet for students with smoothwall but with our license running out this year I need to see how others are handling the issue to see if I could use the money in other areas. Also alot of people were unhappy with the performance of our smoothwall for a while although it has been running well for a while now. Thanks in advance for any feedback.