drutt

I think we had the VPN portal enabled via WAN when we first setup the firewall, but then during a firmware update they added recommended setting warnings to some parts of the GUI and one of those was to disable the VPN portal via WAN. We have basically nobody use our VPN any more since migrating our MIS/FMS to Bromcom and pushing staff to store documents in OneDrive, eventually I want to disable it completely.

We've been using ViewSonic IFP7550s since 2019, we trickled a few in between 2018/19 then did a big £80k upgrade to all classrooms in summer 2020 after happy with testing. Our staff typically connect via VCast which works really well, we've started removing cables from the screens so VCast is the only way to connect to simplify the transition and reduce confusion. Before VCast we would use a StarTech dock to connect all the cables to so that the staff member only needed 1 USB cable for everything. We've had about 5 screens (out of 40~) fail since then with the same fault, 3 were in warranty so got straight swaps and 2 more were callout repairs that cost no more than £200.

I don't think we've claimed on warranty for a student or staff laptop in the last 10 years, we stopped bothering with extended warranties because students vandalise the laptops and void them almost immediately anyway. The only hardware failures we've been unable to fix ourselves are busted USB-C ports used for charging that are soldered to the motherboard, we just don't have the tools or time to learn; screens, keyboards, chassis, storage, memory, wifi and other chipset boards are all easy enough. Motherboard too but typically at that point we EOL the device and cannabalise it for parts. We've started getting refurb Elitebooks instead of brand new recently as well, very good condition, typically been used in some corporate environment for 3-5 years and for 1/3 the cost of new we can push them to last 3 years easily. Only stickler is that we can get parts for them, specifically keyboards.

I accept my fate

Keep in mind these are student laptop specs; we've not seen any issues with 8GB performance and 128GB is sufficient for our needs, we only have office, use mandatory profiles for students and limit their user areas to 1GB, pushing them to use OneDrive and Teams. Eventually we'll remove the network user area and map directly to their OneDrive using CloudDriveMapper. For staff we do typically get i5/16/256 but even then the majority of their work is done using Office, everything else is cloud based now.

Mostly it was an ultimatum on long term costs, we have enormous amounts of vandalism on laptop keyboards that mean you could have a fully repaired trolley of 30 rendered useless within the first week of a term. Desktops are a lot faster (and cheaper) to repair keyboard/mice damage but our focus on suites was so a dedicated IT teacher can properly supervise them and report issues in a timely manner. Also travel time when getting laptops from the trolley to class just wastes the first 10-15 minutes of a lesson for no good reason, while increasing the risk that Timmy will drop one of the 8 laptops he's been asked to carry by his class teacher. It was either suites or 1-2-1 where students can be held appropriately accountable for any damage done to their device, if we went that route we would have probably given the incentive to let them keep it after they leave.

We use a framework for our MFD contract, it's through our LEA and they provide us with 3 choices of manufacturer based on our requirements and we work from there. We've always picked the same manufacturer because typically the costs are the same between them all, - either a slightly cheaper lease with more expensive per copy cost or vice versa - whereas we know what to expect with the engineers when we have issues, typically they're out that same day if you put the request in before noon. Otherwise for normal procurement; Misc bits and pieces I'll just use Amazon For laptops we'll have a base spec in mind; i5 or equivalent, 8gb ram, 128 or 256 SSD, can't only charge via USB-C, must have parts availability (keyboards/screens/touchpads/chassis/batteries). This typically limits us to HP, Dell and Fujitsu a lot of the time as most other manufacturers don't have long term parts availability or sell laptops with only USB-C charging now. I'll take this to our long term reseller and get a quote then ask two other resellers for quotes of either the same model or equivalent from other manufacturers. Lately we've been buying refurb laptops instead of new, finding the HP Elitebooks that have cycled out of corporate to be a pretty decent compromise in quality/price. We don't currently have any desktops but we're hoping to change that and get in place 3 computer suites over the next few years, in hopes of properly centralising a space for IT lessons and to reduce vandalism. Big projects like infrastructure such as wireless or servers we'll work out a spec with our long term supplier and based on their recommendations get comparative quotes from other resellers/systems installers.

Pretty sure this has been the norm for the past 10 years, almost every large hardware order I do has had bid pricing locks for the first seller to approach a manufacturer. This tends to work in our favour as if we have a supplier with a long working relationship who has proven themselves it makes it easier to argue we're getting the best price we can. Sometimes we know exactly what we want and the rigmarole of getting 2 extra suppliers to just give me a quote while avoiding the whole salesman spiel of becoming best friends is exhausting.

Could be worth adding the Securly certificate to the certificate authorities on the XGS and see if that helps? The error seems to suggest the firewall can't validate it, and it might not recognise the CA: https://docs.sophos.com/nsg/sophos-firewall/21.5/Help/en-us/webhelp/onlinehelp/AdministratorHelp/Certificates/CertificateAuthorities/index.html

It's also a great way to refresh kit on a consistent schedule

PC GamePass is a bargain even at £13.49 per month so I'll be keeping that. I fully expect MS to go all in with a pre-built PC as their next-gen "console", something cheaper than a typical pre-built PC but more expensive than a console.

128 - 256 depending. We rarely have to do anything with profiles, we use Cloud Drive Mapper for linking to OneDrive. Staff have only ever had 5GB disk quota and students 1GB. If someone fills up their storage we push them to use the cloud.

I remember reading that after the SIMS exodus of 2024 ESS implemented some sort of backdoor / self destruct function into their system that would delete their software/your data after the end of contract date. Glad we moved before that, although we've only had cause to access old data a handful of times since.

Whenever our music department ask about providing music I send them this: https://web.ilikemusic.com/services/music-for-schools/ So far they've not bought in but I refuse to support ripping mp3s or allowing access to mp3 download sites, it's too risky.

We've used 1 cable port replicators since 2010, originally it was HP docks and now its these: https://www.startech.com/en-gb/universal-laptop-docking-stations/usb3dockhdpc We're at a point now where we've rolled out casting to our ViewSonics and even had some of our newer classrooms be casting only and it's bliss.

When in a hall or space without a class screen they would use one of these, not the exact model but we last bought ours probably 8 years ago: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gelielim-Portable-Boombox-Bluetooth-Headphone-Black/dp/B0CHJ8N8MF In a normal classroom we'd just plug a USB with the audio files into the Viewsonic, give the Exams Officer a quick demo on how to use it and she deals with the rest.

I'll play pretty much anything that isn't a racing or sports game. Recently I've been replaying Tyranny on an anarchist run but tonight I'll be getting stuck in to Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, which will probably consume my whole weekend. After that will probably be Dying Light: The Beast. Looking forward to: Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 Kingmakers Blue Protocol: Star Resonance Battlefield 6 Honeycomb: The World Beyond Trails from Beyond the Horizon This on top of playing Final Fantasy XIV (gotta earn those relic weapons, the aetherwell grind is more relaxing and consistent than the demiatma grind) all the while trying to resist the urge to resub and level a mage in WoW.

We've used Sign in App since around 2018 and have no intention of changing, we have 5 iPads; 1 in Reception for visitors, 1 in our staff entry-way for Staff, 1 in the entrance to our Sixth Form block, 1 for fire evacuation and another used by attendance for marking in late students at the front gate. They all work great. I've personally been using the auto-sign in and out feature for a couple of years now, works great with the geo-fence setup and I generally don't have to pay attention to signing in or out each day. Staff/Sixth Form have their cards registered upon creation but can also choose to sign in via the mobile app with a QR code Visitors quickly fill in what they need at the Reception iPad (including fire evac notice and questions on whether they have any accessibility requirements), and a paper badge gets printed and handed to them with the important details.

Hard to check right now as we archive our class teams each year, from a quick check in MCAS it looks like Teachers just make the homework task direct in Bromcom

We use Locker (https://locker.co.uk/) to sync our Teams/classes and groups to 365 from Bromcom, it does more but we've not had time to go further into those features yet.

We have Bromcom and use both time based and location based access control for supply logins: Everyone else has more open access times/locations but is forced to use MFA through 365

When ESS started cancelling LEA contracts it prompted ours to investigate Arbor and Bromcom and help schools decide what they wanted to do. It was a slow process, mostly because ESS dragged their feet at every opportunity to present why schools should stick with them, but it gave us a lot of answers and ideas. We eventually went with Bromcom for both Finance and MIS. There was concern for us regarding the finance side initially, but our LEA finance team started working with Bromcom and other third-parties early on to put in place systems that do the things we all need without adding unnecessary administration. I don't hear any complaints from Finance and I think the MIS overall is much better than what we had before.

Didn't Microsoft push a lot of the Stream recording into peoples OneDrives after they saw a huge influx of people using Stream during Covid?