bossman

@Disease: I personally would go with the dual core as long as there is 4Gb DDR3 Ram and the motherboard supports 1333Mhz bus speed you don't require anymore than this as we run 3D graphics and the like which are rather intensive and our dual cores handle this very nicely. Save your money and spend it somewhere else in the school.

Done that one already but thanks for the heads up anyway

Standalone PC with 4Gb Ram and decent sized sata HDD for storage with wireless presentation remote (approx £30 for a decent one) which will allow them to load up files from usb pendrive or whatever media they have and then to be able to use the wireless presenter for actually running whatever files they wish and from anywhere within the hall. This is what we do as one never knows what virus's other outside users and staff will bring in on USB pens etc, hence the PC being standalone with its own AV. Works a treat for us and can be locked away in a media cupboard which has been built (wooden structure) inside our HALL in the far corner with a window facing the screen.

A custom built intranet page with everything that the staff and students need:

@mattjporter: Did you take a backup before you upgraded the PHP version? If so you could uninstall the latest PHP and re-install the last version then import your backup to overwrite the moodle files. It is PHP related but not worked on windows version. Good luck

@irsprint84: As @Hightower has mentioned (not too many times in this thread) value for money with going vanilla is to use a product called Impero which I have had the opportunity to see in action. It covers a lot of the management tasks which you have in RMMC but without the cost. @Hightower When something works well you have to sing its praises and for us RM management software has for the past 9 years and the experience we have had of CC4 so far means we should be able to enjoy running a successful network for the next 9 years. I do hope your shift to a Vanilla system goes well and that it works for your school as well as RM has for ours (sincerely)

@SYNACK: I do feel we could be on the same lines here but at cross purposes as we may have perceived things a little different to what we actually mean. I was in no way insinuating anything about your school in particular and it was by no means meant to inflame as I stated in my post, the credit card analogy was a little diverse but I understood what you were trying to say. I have no axe to grind with teachers or their methods of teaching but was merely trying draw attention to the fact that it is not always about the teachers or the teaching but the learning process and how it can be used effectively within a good network and communications infrastructure. I was in no way being grandiose and would like to state that for the record, I have always tried to be of help in any way to others on this forum and yes sometimes things that I say are sometimes taken the wrong way or perceived differently by other people and then turned against me. I may not know all the answers but respect everyone on this forum for their point of view and always try to see things from this angle. Its always hard to put over the context of what one is trying to portray especially on such a forum whereupon other members have such a high degree of knowledge. On this note it is always a pleasure to debate sensibly and adultly things which are in the forefront of our lives. all the best

@glennda: Colour or mono?

@Hightower: For that kind of money you wont get anything decent except perhaps for this:

If you see the words teaching then this is what is meant by the post but without a solid communications system to allow not only the teaching staff but all members of staff to "communicate" this has helped the staff whole school to plan better lessons and teach better lessons therefore empowering the students to learn more and achieve better results and the proof of the concept is in just that "Results". I do not believe in any way shape or form that it is the network which has performed the teaching miracles but has had a really positive effect on the teaching and learning environment at our school to which the SLT would add their seal of approval. As for your analogy using a credit card non payment my be how you operate in your school but believe me without the smooth operations of a communications system which allows full and integrated services for everyone to use 24/7/365 then the teaching and learning in today's schools would be archaic to say the least. A poorly prepared teacher cannot and will not survive in today's schools and the biggest let down to our students are teachers who do not plan and use the communications systems to teach the students. The students learn through being taught but it is the tools with which they are taught with which gives them the confidence and skills to move into a bigger world away from school. What you are saying in your way is that students would learn from teachers if there were no communication systems via chalkboards and the like or would you have the students using a wax tablet or slate? Networks are as important to schools as they are to business and this has been proven many times over. How many of us use the internet (Youtube) to learn from, the same goes for students, they don't need teachers in a lot of cases only for the fundamentals like reading and writing with possibly maths as the third option but for creative learning there is nothing like the internet and a communications device of sort i.e. computer, mobile phone etc. Example: my son had never shown any leaning towards a musical instrument of any kind but 4 months ago he decided he would like to play the guitar, using his laptop and youtube he has taught himself to play and not only that he is now in 2 bands, one a rock band and another which is an Indie band. he plays Bass guitar in the rock band and lead or rythmn in the other. Both groups now play around the clubs and pubs and are doing very well for new groups but I digress so back to the point of teachers teaching students and networks they all go hand in hand I feel. This reply is not to inflame anyone but to put across what has happened at our school and why our SLT revere us as a much needed team and this is why the post took on that form.

I may have misinterpreted this sentence as it is a little hard to read grammatically (Not implying anything) so as you can see it maybe that I have seen the "must not have the skills" I perceived this to be what you actually meant. My reply was not meant to antagonise but to give people another viewpoint.

@irsprint84: Again it is the same old "people who use RM don't have the skills" well you couldn't be further from the truth young man, I have been an MCSE for 6 years now with a Degree in Computer science also with other professional qualifications to boot but chose the RM management system way back in 2002 when I took the decision to provide the best service for the school that I could. As I was on my own I needed something which would allow me to quickly get clients and users up and running quickly so I could then concentrate on providing other services which schools at the time didn't have VLE, single integrated network, Remote Sims etc etc and this has gone from strength to strength. I have no qualms about going Vanilla 2008R2 but find it not necessary at the moment unless as I have stated RM go bust or when their management software goes down the wrong route for the school. All a Vanilla system would offer us at this moment is a lot more work. We have very quick log on times for the end users, they have remote desktops which works very quickly as staff are only too happy to tell me about and we have a multitude of open source services which integrate with our RMCC4 network. It works for us and it has cost us very little by way of upgrade licenses and for the tools which we have at our disposal are well worth the money. As for ongoing costs with RM we don't have any as we have no contracts with them we do all the work ourselves which is what we do with a Vanilla system. It doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg to use RMs management software.

@gerardsweeney: Do be aware that although it will be an exact clone of your NT server it will not have the same Mac address and you will have to get in contact with your reseller for them to reset the code on your license server. How do I know you ask? Well we have done the same here with our Solidworks (virtualised our License server) and this is the only problem we had to solve.

There was me thinking I might be a prime candidate but scored 102 One in the eye for all the young people on here hehe! Go! wrinkly Go!

BT are now doing a 3 and 5 year contract which includes free installation costs, they have a variety of pipe sizes based on 100Mb bearer and I have heard that they will take that bearer up to 1Gb if required and then whatever bandwidth you require i.e. 10Mb, 20Mb, 30Mb etc and you can increase within the contract at a very small cost. We are just looking at this at the moment. Also very reasonable costs PM me if you want as I don't want to put them up for all and sundry so to speak.

@chris_uk: SNAP!! I too am looking for roughly a 40" or 42" either LCD, Plasma or LED which has wireless connectivity and freeview built in, usb, hdmi connections also a must and if no wireless available an RJ45 socket for network connectivity. It must have a decent fast play engine and good black colours along with a decent sound output. There! that's not much to ask for is it? Anyone got any advice as to which models to look at before making a choice?

Wow! seems like an RM bashing in full swing hehe! I must have been mad for even contemplating CC4! Migrated to windows 7 platform over 9 straight days from CC3 to brand new servers which we spec'd and built using an Hitachi SMS user storage backend attached to 4 servers using iscsi then using 3 other servers we built and attached to a Sun 7110 for VM storage. We now have 16 servers over 3 Xenserver hosts with HA and a fully functional CC4 network which is very fast and very very stable so I wonder what has happened to all your CC4 networks for them to work so badly? We have deployed various large (3Gb+) packages without a problem using WDS and updating all the workstations using WSUS very effectively, PXE building workstations very quickly which gives us a good turn around of builds if required (not needed yet as windows 7 very stable) injection of drivers into build so easy just like in CC3. RMtutor 5 is being used by all the teachers to which they all sing its praises (The kids hate it because the teachers now have full control over them) I will be building a new Windows 2008R2 network (Virtually of course) which will allow us to test and take exams to further our learning of the other side of the coin but as we have a fully functioning network which suits our needs we will not be changing unless RM go out of business. It did not cost an arm or a leg as we specified and purchased the servers we wanted so only had to upgrade the RM licenses which was a pittance for the tools that went with it. We have run with an RM network for the past 9 years and our school has benefit tremendously and allowed our teaching and learning to progress successfully from a 29% pass rate to 97% 5 a* to Cs last year and this is due to the teachers having a network they can rely upon 24/7/365. I know schools which have moved to Vanilla systems who have regretted moving but would cost a fortune now to go back as the licenses they had would be invalid, just across the road from us is a school which has had 4 networks in the 9 years we have had one RM CC3 which has been very good value for money. Good luck to those moving and I wish you well and I wish you every success but for now I will be staying with RM.

@kabuki: Are first time posters always so "Paranoid" as this was in no way meant to be as you call it "Patronising" if you read the post, I cannot help how you have perceived it! As you can see from my other posts on here that I have always tried to be as helpful as ever and my reputation goes before me on this forum so you can make of that what you like. Do me a favour and take your forefinger of your right hand and curl it on the tip of your right thumb, now place it on your left shoulder and flick! That should do the trick (Now this is Sarcasm cos you have inflamed my good nature) ;D

@kabuki: I would expect even someone who is a data manager to understand the basic principals of "More is better" based on the facts that Capita have given the workstation specifications as you have reported. No wonder your NM had a sharp intake of breath, I would be looking at getting a new workstation with 4Gb Ram and a dedicated Graphics card as you will find that the more you use Discover the more you will want from it therefore increasing the workload of the workstation. Common sense really ;D

Have you tried right clicking the backup task and running manually to see what happens?

@LeMarchand: Actually you can be fined for going too slow and holding up the traffic if the conditions of the road and weather are consistent with the speed limit of the road in question. Its all about the flow of the traffic and it is up to the individual officer to determine at that time whether or not a road traffic offence has been committed taking all the different variables into account. What might be conceived as a bad manoeuvre by one officer may not be by another.

Here! Here! hehe! ;D

@UncleScar: Is the printer local or networked? I have found that a local printer is much better than a networked printer for printing Sims reports or basically anything from Sims. I think this is the way Sims interacts with the network print spooler indirectly and the office packages rather than directly having the print spooler on the workstation where Sims and the office packages are installed together. I could be totally off the mark here and no doubt someone on here will have gone into greater depth but this is what I found out over the years.

You should have made a short film about this and then sold it to Warner Brothers.........................Excellent had me on the edge of my seat, haven't had this much fun reading a thread in ages. Well done that man! Take my hat off to you

I would make a lot of people very happy......................................................................financially ;D Well what do you think I meant!!! ;D