dgsmith

That's the exact same problem we had. We got a new admin server and assigned all the printers through network on the server rather than locally, and found our 1 2600n used by the admin network just wouldn't print from SIMS unless it was locally attached. I still wouldn't recommend the 2600n for large usage though - spend the extra on a better printer and get consumables which last longer, as it'll save money in the long term.

Well, not everyone has been told about what is happening Grommit; given we probably wont be affected until some years yet, I suppose noone thought we needed to know, and it isn't exactly broadcast everywhere.

Just tested that on my home computer (compiled to exe and ran as a standard exe file, to test it's workability), and hey presto.. it detected the disconect in less than a second, and the cpu usage it needs doesn't even top 1% (I didn't notice an increase on cpu demand). Certainly something to work from! Cheers!

Well, with regards to pulling the plug upon login, we countered this by a combination of upgrades to the logon procedure (hotfixes by RM, as it's a CC3 network), and also a startup script locally installed at each machine, which would ping the central server when login completes as well as checking for the existance of network shares. Using both was necessary, as if kids unplugged at the right time to bypass user settings, but plugged in at the right time as to get the ip back, it would get the ping response fine and give the all ok if just relying upon the ping; the network share is assigned during the settings being applied, thus to get this "local admin rights" amongst their other benefits would mean to forefit the network shares. When either or both of the criterion fails, the script informs the user of the logout action and logs them out immediately. I can't say how truely effective this has been in terms of whether it works every time, as we don't log such events and kids obviously don't come running to us because they can't "get passed security" as it where, but through my own testing this worked to an extent that was sufficiently reasonable to counter the majority of attempts. We hear little (in fact make that none in quite some time) of kids having admin rights to the machines compared to late last year, as staff are encouraged to go around briefly and just check maybe once or twice a lesson. Certainly at least, a combination of these methods is worthwhile, and the fact reports of such event occurance has gone down to practically nil suggests to us that this has been made much harder, though by no means impossible, but certainly border-lining it. Of course, this wasn't related to my query originally, and given this is a problem we no longer experience like we used to, I am still inclined to rectify the same "unplugging" problem just with these different effects. Supervising ICT access is something we constantly try to maintain, but it's simply impossible to do all the time, especially during lunch and after school. The knock-on effects for us aren't only just during lesson time (unable to monitor machines), but also the after effects of having to correct the problem when staff can't comprehend what to do themselves over the phone (which for some is understandable and we will happily sort it for them). My hope was that if there was a deterrent to such action, which meant the students would see no benefit in unplugging the cable (whilst logged on at least), then it would at least reduce the workload of rectifying it ourselves or explaining to staff. As expected, you might get the odd "driveby unplugging" to explain it simply, though if there is a solution to minimise the disruption where possible, then i'll gladly consider its trialing. Slightly longer than I had intended - I have a habbit of rambling a bit excessively

I did a few searches on relevant critera before making the post but couldn't find anything useful. Could you point me in the right direction or maybe recall what the key terms where for me to get the right search criteria? if a VBS script exists, then it may be useful to see how it goes about performing the reboot/detecting network loss etc.

We have been there and done that with regards to wireless switches, only they were disabling it upon the logon scripts running (when applying settings), and timing it in such a way that it failed to apply the type settings and gave them local admin rights (this was the same for wired machines, only harder to do without being caught). Unfortunately, some kids here go into the rooms unsupervised, or likely go in there and pull a few without logging on, so tracing can be difficult. I was looking for a way to deal with it if it happened, as preventing is isn't all too easy.

Surely futureproofing is heading towards wireless connectivity? If the Government want every student to have a laptop in however many years, then i'd imagine priority is to have a stable wireless network; a network point to every desk to me seems overkill, but that's just my opinion. Any new standard classroooms or refurbs we get (no time soon), I would propose several around the outside of the room fixed to the wall (if a normal classroom), maybe 15 or so, so capacity for half a suite is there if need be. I suppose it all depends on what long term plans you have for the room and/or ICT in your school. If you still want a run to each desk, depending on what the room is like, it may involve chasing the floor, which could be costly and time consuming. We were initially planning to do this for our new ICT suite, but eventually decided upon an alternate layout which meant all computer desks attached to the wall. Are they your average classroom tables that can be moved, or fixed to the floor?

We've had a bit of a frenzy recently where kids are pulling the cat5 cables out of the sockets, and we are constantly running around to fix the problem where the kids can't access their My Docs. Some are now finding a good game site and then pulling the cable so we can't trace them (unless we go there in person, which we are getting a bit fed up of doing). I would imagine other schools have had this problem, and I hope some have adopted some system to manage it. My thought, although merely a passing one, would be to get a backround script or program running which would detect loss of connectivity, and maybe freeze or lock the mouse/keyboard (or to a similar effect) until connectivity is restored. Now, this wouldn't be ideal on our wireless machines as they are obviously not as stable, but at least if it was possible in the "hot spots" then I could see if it worked. It was simply a passing thought, and i'd guess it'd involve a combination of backround programs and scripts to perform the task. If there are better solutions or alternatives then i'd appreciate hearing them.

We don't hae any Oki printers to comment on, and my experiences are mainly from Brother and HP units. For us, it really does depend on consumable price rather than quality (quality in nearly all cases equally the same). We have had varying remanufactured cartridges from different companies, most notably and frequently from Lasertech, although their offering is struggling to compete with other suppliers - in some cases, some of our other suppliers can supply originals for a few pound cheaper than LT can on their remanufactured brand. Of course, it makes financial sense on most of our drums to go reman, as that is where the savings for us usually lie, and we also have a guarantee of the consumable and the printer if the reman toners go wrong. If you have had problems with reman toners on some models (by problems I mean expensive or endless issues), then by all means swear by originals, but in an educational environment where funding is barely above bread line, sometimes we need to compromise on what we order for our printers, and certainly for us we haven't had any real need to question the equal quality of the reman toners we have used. Except for the odd toner leak here and there (and that is a rarity), the long term savings by using reman toners/drums where the price difference is noticeable is enough for us to be pursuaded, compared to cost in labour time in rectifying printers when they go wrong, as usually we have a guarantee on our printers when using the toners. Only when (or if) the price difference across the whole range is negligable, or when we experience an unacceptable number of failures which cost us money and/or time, will be the time when we go 100% original; for the time being, whichever is cheaper (and known to us as stable), is what we go for.

I've been aware for some time that BSF exists, but thought it was mainly related to the contruction, upgrading and extending of schools around the country. Now, through some reading on these forums over the past week, it seems to be alot more than what I had previously thought. Many of you seem to be much more aware of the situation for IT technicians and professionals, about a managed company taking control of ICT within schools and everything that is associated with this - we had no idea. We're based in West lancs and many of you who are also from Lancashire I have read comments from stating your future involvement with the whole situation. It seems I have been ignorant of what may happen, and I can't believe I have neither read about it nor been told by anyone in school about the situation as it stands. Is this affecting new schools only, or all schools across the country (per county), whether they are being rebuilt or not? How could something as big as this be something which all of you here are aware of, and we haven't been? Those of you in Lancashire in particular (as it's closer to home and would be under the same "company"), are your schools which are being "managed" at some point in the future being rebuilt, or simply just an ordinary secondary school like ourself? If someone wants to also point me in the direction of some useful and official publications on the matter, it'd be appreciated.

Although we bought a surge of 2600n printers last year, we are edging away from them now as the running costs make it the most expensive printer in the school. Like many, we were taken in by the brand name, cheap buying price and quality, yet failed to calculate that the costs of the consumables and their capacity cannot compete with a model maybe that costs £100 extra. If it's heavy usage, go for maybe one in the 3000 series, but always check running costs first. If it's for light usage, I guess it might not be too bad, but that all depends on overall printer usage.

http://www.medion.de/md8833/uk/flash.html It does come with WinVista, and I agree also for that price that is very impressive.

A core setup; looking at a 2810-24 for the actual core switch, then within the same cabinet, 3x 48port (2810-48 for example), so those 48porters could copper link into the core, possibly in aggregrated links. Given the distance between the new core switch and these 48port stacked switches will be a few inches, for us, going fibre to each switch here would be rather pointless - though if the money is there and the capacity, sure, go for fibre to the edge switches, but our funding can't stretch to that We have fibre to each cabinet around the school, which will just be that 1 fibre link connecting into the core (there will be 4 fibre links in total). My main initial bandwidth concern was related to the switches in the stack which may not have been connected by copper to the core (dependant upon capacity), and literally getting bandwidth from switches higher up the stack. I guess, if we go for 2 aggregated links to each stacked switch to the core (so 6 core ports taken), then bandwidth should not be an issue; though, I am still liking the stack route for managemant/config reasons. 10Gb maybe in many years to come, but we couldn't possible explain why we need that just now!

What we're looking at is a core switch (either GSM7212 if we go netgear, or HP 2810-24G if we go HP), with 3x 48port switches below this in the same cabinet, serving the new ICT rooms we are getting (within close proximity). I like the idea of stacking for configuration and ease of management purposes (especially when multiple switches are involved, with the future likelyhood of expansion), though my uncertainty before lied with the issue of bandwidth on and among the stack. I suppose it might be sufficient enough to have maybe 2 copper links from each stacked switch back up the core, thus providing each 48port stacked switch with 2Gbps bandwidth from the core? (fibre to EACH switch I don't see a need for, given all are in the same cabinet to the core). On the other hand, if these were stacked, would it mean only 1 switch would need to have this link from the core (to save on ports for use with clients), or would bandwidth be noticeably affected? As we have never really had or dealt with any decent switches (and only a few smart managed have been fitted recently), stacked switches in particular is an area I know barely much about, so knowing what the benefits are may help in decision making!

When we redesign our infastructure during the summer, one of the things I am inclined to include is a stack of "stackable" switches (3x 48port), as opposed to the current setup of a single copper link between them. Does having stackable features differ significantly, and are they worth the extra money? I know they are easily managed by single IP in the management interface, but what else is desirable? For instance, the Netgear stackable (using GS748TS as an example) has HDMI connections at the rear which I believe can provide around 20gbps throughput between switches, which of course is significantly more than single copper links. On the other hand, I have been looking into some HP switches to do the same job (on a budget), so noticed the Procurve 2810 series include "virtual" stack ability within them. How does a physical stack with the NG compare with the "virtual" stack as described in the HPs? Can the high throughput between switches be achieved on the HP as well as the NG? If anyone has this model of HP switch or knows of them, how does the stack work (ie: just copper links or is there special connectivity). Cheers, Dave

You're probably talking about the RM Minisafe pro format utility which allows you to choose which kind of device it is recognised as. Try searching for "DWN255770" on the RM website, which should bring up the relevant tec article with download link.

We bought in to the premium papercut NG in 2006, and don't regret it at all. No problems whatsoever, everything is compatible, everything is detected and most importantly, everything works!

Carn's "ReportWriter" and hate it with a passion. I don't know about anyone else, but particularly since v3 was released at the end of last year, we have probably applied (no joke) in excess of 25 updates to the software, sometimes 3 or 4 (no exaggeration) on some days, every time we have found a bug or an error, which usually renders a part of the software (or all of it sometimes) unusable until fixed. Totally ridiculous, and support "at times" can be terrible (if someone is around to sort out the problem), and the messing around with using a remote version is hastle not needed. We are moving on to SIMS's AssMan for our next interims, but reluctantly staying with Carn for main reports until we figure the best route to take. The interface, when it works, is ok and one which is easy for staff to navigate and find information on what they need, but stability counts for everything, and we haven't got that. Maybe we have been terribly unlucky, but surely any version we get is the same anyone else gets right? The previous versions haven't been "that bad", at least better than the newest v3 in terms of stability, but still nothing we could recommend in any fashion. This isn't personal against the software or the company, but the amount of trouble we have had, we do feel quite cheesed off about it.

This sounds like it could be useful. We have just done a web search and found a walkthrough for doing this (link), however it seems the properies in our mailbox store is disabled, hence we can't enter info. Is this how you did it or is there an alternate way of enabling this?

For me, that's more irritating than humourous!

Our kids where on this all day yesterday (well, those in maths lessons). Worked fine for everyone that I was aware of. Just checked now and seems ok to me.

Just checked that through, and it seems to be the same as disabling email via the CC3 RMMC (for those of us that run an RM network). Is it possible to restrict students emailing only other students or to outside addresses (still allowing emails to/from staff), rather than a blanket-ban?

When we got our exchange server at the very start of 2007, we put everyone on it immediately and that is how it has been since (more or less). Although, it hasn't been without problems. Your concerns about students using it as a "messenger" service between lessons is the primary concern that we constantly have, and no matter what we do it cannot eradicate this (taking all students off email altogether defeats the object of having them on). There are plenty of benefits to allowing students email (particularly for communication to and from teaching staff), and we feel the benefits in our case outweigh the cons (afterall, any really, really bad student can just not have it from day 1 - you have the power to choose who can and cannot access it). Monitoring is an issue we tried to get some control over from the start; we can login to a designated administrative account and access the email account of any student (of course this is only necessary from SMT instruction or when highly suspicious of misuse). Students are made aware that this is possible before being permitted to use the system (via an AUP acceptance), so they agree that their inbox could be subject to monitoring under certain conditions set out by the school. Spam is an everyday occurance and you just have to live with it, whether you get it on a school account, gmail account or through your letterbox I'd much rather prefer that students can only send to staff, receive from staff, and send to themselves (work from home), but as of yet we haven't figured out how to do that, if it's even possible on exchange2k3.

Nearly 35p for a colour copy? What sized paper.. A1?! Most of our mono printers cost 0.5p in the toner, so we calculate it to the nearest whole number up including paper/running, which is usually 2 or 3p. We use papercut which generally speaking is effective, although some tweaking on client reliablity is ongoing. The logging features are truely excellent and we can click on any monitored printer and get lists of recent documents immediately, or long term printing in forms of pdf and the like. There is also a free version of the software, albeit not as compact but inclusive of the more popular features, as detailed on their website (papercut.com). Our costs are more truely reflective of actual costs, with an added pence or 2 for running costs and paper (so, the most expensive A4 colour printoff is 6p). That may be a reflection of the fact we give all students an allowance of "£10" to last the entire academic year, which given our trials last year, is more than sufficient for 95% of them. Although there has been a noticeable decrease in printing (obviously not as much as if the charges where higher), the money regained when they must finance their own printing (if/when their allowance expires), should cover any excess costs; needless to say, most students are ensuring it doesn't come to that, thus are more concious of what they're printing and the quantity.

I could easily have used the restore disk, but then lose the installed apps and copied files individual to the machine Just on a hunch, I selected the option to choose manually from a list, and it shows the appropriate driver(s) in there, then installs fine! How bizarre! It obviously has the drivers and works fine if manually searched, yet it can't find them automatically, no matter how long I give it. Although an inconvenience slightly for any future devices, at least I found a workaround to it. The fact I couldn't get it working at all before was getting rather frustrating. Some things I wont attempt to understand