dgsmith

None, because it's completely unreliable! We use it for network management purposes, and except for the odd occasion when it crashes, it's superb! For staff though, it just hasn't been tailored properly and these "addons" are very hit and miss! We have contemplated a move to vanilla a few times, but don't feel our experience is sufficient enough to both manage and support a vanilla network, and the support from RM, however much frustrating at times it can be, is something we'd not want to do without. I don't want to sound pro-RM, as there are plenty of times we have felt very cheesed off, but considering it on the whole, I don't think we'd benefit enough to warrant a move.

Interesting comments, and certainly something for us to consider. It actually makes sense that kids would be more "angered" by imposing restrictions when there are other rooms/areas which lack such a restriction. I suppose there isn't really an even ground - each solution has its own problems, but it's nice to see what the majority use none the less. We have got those in some classrooms (RM One), however for the machines moving in to these new rooms, half of them are just a standard chassis, and only 2 years old. Besides, we'd want to have the ability to use either kind of workstation chassis

We're having an area of the school redeveloped into IT starting next month, and debating whether to request locked doors be put on the desks where the chassis goes. Of course, we know there are disadvantages, such as less heat can get out, difficult/impossible to use cd/usb and having to remember to bring a key! One IT room we had done in 2005 was a basic desk design with just a holder underneath the desk for the chassis (the chassis is not fixed, just loose), but we find so much rubbish (food etc) getting stuffed in there and left for months sometimes! Not only that, but the machines get kicked, causing (minor) damage and cables coming loose, so the usual expected disadvantages of having them open. Just wondering what others recommend, what others have or indeed, if others are in a similar position, what their plans are? Naturally, it will be cheaper to have them open, but with our current room, we are endlessly going in there to put cables back in and remove rubbish which noone else will! Is it worth pursuing getting them enclosed?

Well noone wants them, do they? I was actually quite interested in deploying SP3 on my home machine, but given the varying responses to it here, I may hold off until it's pushed through Automatic Updates.

I'd much rather spend the same amount of money (once the delivery goes back to £50) for a ~£150 inc VAT server that is a better spec, comes with warranty lasting 3x longer and be futureproofed for the next couple of years at least. A Pentium Dual-Core is a budget workstation processor - seems mad that it can be passed off as a server one! Even a ProLiant server at an extra £70 or so such as this seems more financial sense to me! To me, you can build a machine from parts the same as the Dell spec without costing you any more - I just don't see why there is all the hype!

Free shipping states until April 25th.. so after that it will be back to £50 again (it's a ploy to reel you in!)

A Pentium Dual-Core CPU is hardly a server processor (I wouldn't even spec that low for a standard workstation!) I suppose when the delivery cost is factored in (which obviously isn't as much as they claim), it doesn't really work out to be much of a bargain :/ PDC 1.8Ghz, 512MB, 160GB HDD and 1yr warranty for £99 + £50 (delivery probably only costs £10), is around £140, which is the same price for a workstation of that spec - shout me down I am seeing this wrongly!

We are going CC4 in the summer, and I doubt we'll move any machines over to Vista immediately (more to do with software compatability than anything else); so CC4 is XP upwards i'd say Although the jist of what you're saying is that CC3 will be around for a while to come, which I agree with, so a course on it isn't totally useless, only to the extent that you can self-learn pretty much all of it with relative ease and speed.

When I first starting using CC3, I picked it up in a week or 2. In fact, I passed their certification (the one they run at the seminars) within just 6 weeks of working with a CC3 network. To be honest, CC3 is so easy to use and manage (as i'm sure many a folk will say), that it'd probably take just a few weeks with careful experimenting/guidance. As you can tell, I didn't go on the course in question (I haven't actually been on any CC3-specific courses ran by RM), as it all seemed just too easy. I may be interested in a CC4 one, mind, as the console seems to have alot in there that would take some time getting your head around.

Just hijacking this thread here.. We too have separate curr/admin networks with an exchange 2k3 server, which for the past year or so (since we had it installed), has run solely on our curriculum network, with users using Outlook 2003. Our admin users have used OWA as we were told allowing them to use Outlook 2k3 was not possible nor was it supported. However, we have been told that it should be possible, and quite ignorantly thought we could just link the 2nd exchange NIC up to our admin network and set the IP config accordingly. This has been to no avail (yes, server pings, but can't seem to set up the exchange server in outlook 2003 settings). We have then been told a trust would be needed (even though every single mailbox, for users on both networks, all reside on the curriculum network). Are we being ignorant in thinking it is this easy? Is it actually this easy to just hook up the 2nd nic and voila? It seems to be very similar to what the OP was requesting, with the only difference being we already have all user mailboxes on 1 server.

I don't think 1Gb is at all possible with splitters as it uses all 4 pairs? I have made splitters myself with some spare cat5 cable and rj45 endings.. much cheaper than buying them in! We did have some problems though when using them for printers and workstations on the same one (the data seemed to spill over from the workstation onto the printer connection, so the printer printed endless sheets of garbage untl there was no paper left). As mentioned before, to make full use of this method, you will need one at each end, so each of the pairs (orange/green and blue/brown) are plugged into their own port in the switch end, hence 2 separate connections. Bear in mind 100mb uses lines 1,2,3 and 6, so providing you have these same ones covered by the brown and blue pairs, it should "work".

Even if just 1 extra hard drive is added and a pci card? I wouldn't be removing/replacing any existing components..

I'm aware of sub-contracting, however it was the same team of installers who came back the second time round (one would naturally assume it is the same company or team at least). The quality of the installation wasn't particularly our concern (the 2nd time round it was satisfactory, but our observations was that is was rushed somewhat, and noticeable). Our main complaint was simply that we weren't informed at all about the unacceptable delay (this went on for 3-4 weeks), and our attempts at communication, as I explained before, where in vain. I dislike posting negative comments about companies, and we have bought several items from SCC before and since this occurance without a problem, but this was our only experience with their customer service, and it simply wasn't good enough. This was 2 years ago mind, so things may well have changed (whether that be customer service or the contractors)!

We bought a load of smartboards from them around 2 years ago and organised for SCC to fit them. The installation of those completed on time where reasonable and they cleaned up after themselves (which we expect, but rarely get). However, when there were around 2 or 3 left to do (another 1 day work at most), they just wouldn't show, regardless of how many phone calls etc. Now, I seldom say anything negative about any company (no matter what bad experiences we've dealt with), but the customer service was appauling and they didn't really seem to care. They kept lying to us, promising someone would be there the next day or in a few days, which of course never happened. Eventually though (I don't know how - it wasn't down to me), they came back to finish the job, albeit to a lesser quality than the other installations and during term time (after the holiday period when they were meant to be installed). Needless to say, we haven't put this kind of business their way again, with the exception of some printers at good prices which arrived the next day, thankfully.

What about the warranty? Will it be affected by installation of 3rd party components?

Virgin Media and BPI deny 'deal' :: HEXUS.channel - The online home of the UK technology channel Like I said, it's been claimed to be incorrect.. [edit] The digitalspy link: Cable - News - Virgin denies 'three strikes' agreement - Digital Spy

There was a digitalspy article yesterday about this, saying this is in fact wrong, and at the moment they don't have any immediate plans to spy on their users; i'd get the link but i'm having some troubles with loading pages..

Over the past week or so I have been pricing up how much it'd cost us to build a reasonable machine for video storage from a cctv system. The price (although generous on the motherboard) came to around £350 (with just the standard RTB warranty on the components). I've noticed the HP Proliant ML110 G5 comes with an xeon processor and a reasonable hard drive for just £180! For anyone that may have had experience with these, i'd like to know whether adding any additional components (HDD for example), would void or compromise the warrnty in any way? Most places I have seen this server at quote it comes with HP's 3year on site warranty (which seems too good to be true for the price), but Misco quote 1yr? Which one is more likely to be correct? I've also noticed these servers don't come with any audio capability, so an audio card would be a must. Some reviews on cards state difficulty in physically getting the card in - is this the case, and is there any particular model or shape of card which should be avoided? Lastly, are these servers reliable and do they have decent parts in (for the cheap price at least)!? Cheers!

It was only a matter of time

Well, I have had input on the 2600n before, so it wont harm mentioning it again. Of our ~10 2600n printers (which is the most of the same model of printer we have), we generally find their operation is ok. We haven't had any grief from them and they work fine, but I certainly WOULDN'T recommend them, mainly due to the consumable cost - it's just too high to run them. The 2550n printers on the otherhand, although alot cheaper, are so, so slow and take ages to print even just 1 darn page of paper, no matter how many prior ones have been sent not long before. The kids have a tendency to push the green button (thinking it means "GET ON WITH IT", when in fact this just makes it chuck out a load of test pages, wasting time, toner and paper! Our next try will probably still be on the HPs, likely the 3600n (network is desirable), which probably will work our cheaper in the long run, but time will tell. Failing that, a model in the 3xxx series without network, with an internal ethernet print server bought from ebay (which we did on some of old our inkjets).

Nick, we have this problem on our laptops (which then causes problems because letters/numers are on the same keys). If it's a CC3 problem, in "Global Workstation Settings" under "Logon Screen" there is an option to disable this at the logon screen (so it "should" fix any logon problems), though I don't know if this would help once logged in.

That's great if you have the knowledge, ability and time to write your own software; it doesn't help those who's programing ability doesn't stretch to that though We wouldn't want to use extreme compression to the point where faces and actions are uncomprehendible, although with these things, it takes time to find the right balance.

For our switch replacement in the summer, we're very likely going to go with a HP solution (2810-24 and 2810-48, as our budget is tight too). We bought a few D-Link 2100/7100 WAPs a few months ago, but are unimpressed by their tendancy to lockup and generally stop responding. We've also just bought 2 HP 10ag WAPs about a week ago, so can't really comment just yet, but purely through recommendations on here. The D-Links on one hand can automatically set their own channel according to what is around them, whereas the HPs ones can't (from what we can see). Regardless, as long as they are stable and reliable, that'll do us!

We are currently going through trials and testing to implement an internal cctv system (for the corridors). We have had a single Axis 210 camera for just over 2 years now which has proved invaluble as it points in a "hot spot" area of our school ground where kids go during the weekend. We're now looking at getting around 12 cameras to cover our corridors, and have bought 1 Axis 212PTZ camera to see how that works. As for recording, we are thinking of building our own rig rather than buying Axis's ~£2000 recording hardware; does C2D E4500, 2GB DDR2, 2x500GB, GB LAN sound reasonable enough to cope? I noticed someone said about cameras being quite processor intensive, so hopefully with a dual core that should suffice? Still on the fence about the software. Axis's own software doesn't seem to get that many recommendations (even speaking to a company who installs these cameras), and Milestone's X-Protect software as mentioned here has been recommended to us.

For some reason, it wont print if being fed through the network port (whether that be network compatibility issues, or the spool being remote I have no idea). Locally meaning through the USB interface. The guy from county who set up our server up last month struggled to figure out why this was, and only managed to get it working locally. Now, I am not saying this is the ONLY way to get it working - maybe if some research took place and trial and error it would have done, but that we couldn't get it working when using the network interface.