TechMonkey

Yeah, thinking of the old cases that was my first thought. Any screws around the edge, possibly a single large thumb screw at the top edge, then push hard with your palms in either direction. Normally towards the rear, but I have been surprised before that the case slides off to the front.

We have 4 EdgeMAX edge router firewalls. I hate them with a passion, and I general try not to use the word hate casually. Now I will caveat them with I haven't had any training on them and we don't have any support as they were here when I joined and the company that installed them was long gone. UI is horrible, reporting is barely there and it just seems overly complicated. Saying that, it does seem to stop any scans and we don't have to touch it much. Looking to replace with Fortinet if I get the funding, or removing them and relying on the Smoothwall firewall.

Has anyone tried exam.net as an alternative?

Had a few staff use it and not have problems. Even had one member of management say we should buy devices from there, while I wouldn't go that far it does seem a good service.

£3-4 a card is extortionate, depending on what you are getting. We pay less than 50p generally, for MiFare 1k cards, which are then generally compatible with other systems. Paxton is OK, makes sense. Generally the issues I've had are VLANs or the hardware just having a bit of a fit. The issue I've found is that the system just hasn't moved on in 10 years and their new Paxton10 apparently is still getting needed features added. The interface is a bit clunky, but you can get it to do what you want and do some smart things. EDIT: Also be sure that any installer is following the latest standards. I can't remember what it is that was updated, but throwing a mag lock and a break glass on a door isn't compliant anymore especially if the door is an escape route. Net-Ctrl did a good video with Abloy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gpLiplEz1M or if you really like the details there is a longer one that goes into everything - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE3iOsNKnXo

Yeah, I was going to say without any knowledge of Bromcom, that is totally a Bromcom thing. Wonde just takes the data and passes it on. ClassCharts just displays the data. It looks like a way the Bromcom programmers have used to get round clashing of lessons and have programmed into their UI and systems to add the minute back in, but the underlying data is what you are seeing. The underlying data makes more sense, you can't have a lesson ending at 10:00 and starting at 10:00 as that is an overlap, but isn't as pretty.

As mikes says, it will be an install detection issue. Odd that it is every single package every single time. Best bet is to hit the logs and see if there is an error after install. Also check out what the rule is to validate the install and manually follow that rule.

We had one die recently and it was the network module. No way to repair. Tried various things, contacted support and no possible course of action except buy a new one. If you take it off the wall you can disassemble it very easily to try troubleshooting but there really isn;t anything in them to poke at, just makes it easier to try a different port and cable.

Only issue I had was that the service closes after hours for some reason. Though they may have stopped that by now. Otherwise it was always flawless. One of the government online services that worked well and did what it needed to do without extra fluff.

Works for us. Biggest issues we have is staff not using it correctly and pupils not clicking hand in if they have to hand in hard copy. This leaves the assignment open forever and parents then get fed up that there is lots open. No way to bulk close. We got My School Portal that had a Teams Assignments widget that our Parents love. The only issue seems to be it only deals with class teams, not some other teams that have been set up manually.

I think it will depend on what licensing they are giving you. If the basic level, then it will do what is necessary, but you won't get a lot of reporting. If you have the higher level you will get more insight. The biggest question is what information do you actually want or need? To me, the updates available isn't helpful, I want to know what device is not on the latest definition and what errors or warnings are being generated. Intune does that. To be honest, I just let it do its thing, it is set up and any notifications we deal with.

We add the IPs to an Address Object that is then used as an exception (somewhere, can't remember where but it adds it to HTTPS Bypass I'm sure) and also add it to Guardian > Web Filter > Exceptions > Manage destination exceptions.

Yes, I'm pretty sure we had similar to this over a year ago. We would get undeliverable emails and that would cause a reply that would be undeliverable. The sender would get inundated with replies. It was any comms to certain parents. Took 3 months to sort. The only way we found to stop it was disabling the 2-way communication for a bit and then starting it again. The fix was the dev team talking to SendGrid, where the fault seemed to lie. Ticket id was #664716, but there isn't a lot of tech info on there, but hopefully they have some dev notes or they can track down the people that are needed to talk to.

We use the higher level of Exchange protection, can never remember the name. It works, not going to say it catches 100%, but to me seems effective. In the past I have used Vipre, which was FuseMail and that was good and gave a lot of features but once you started adding in sandboxing and more advanced features it was less cost effective than the exchange protection.

Same here. SLT member is the only person pushing for it. This year he can't even argue for it.

Our renewal this year was a £1k more. This came as a slight shock and is nowhere near value for money when all that is used is seating plans and a quick way to log commendations, especially as it is a fairly closed system and they refuse to write back to MIS or link to other systems.

Was this an expectation or actually specified in the spec/order? Completely different routings normally costs a fair amount and even then has limitations. If the spec was different routes, then either you haven't been supplied with what you are paying, or they need to explain the difficulties.

That seems to be it. Three don't have a portal, though apparently one is in the works, though that may be on hold now till they merge with Vodafone. You have to email their customer support team, which is lovely, but I tend to want to do something when it happens, not update someone else to wait for it to happen. I have used Vodafone's and, yes, clunky covers it perfectly. You could do a lot with it, but it was definitely born out of the early 00s.

Change the group based assignment? Or if you haven;t used that so far, set it up and remove the direct allocation.

Do you publicly report on the findings from the survey? I've learnt from my current Ops Director that it is important to release the results AND trumpet what was the action from the survey AND that the action was carried out. Most staff are apathetic and will not fill out surveys as it "never changes anything" but if you can challenge this and prove that it does you get a better up take. Plus, you need to badger and cajole and point out that if they don't pipe up then nothing can change. As for negative feedback, you just have to have thick skin, it isn't (hopefully) personal. If it is justified, then you have something to deal with and why were you asking if you didn't want the feedback. If it isn't justified then this is a chance to open communication with those people, or the staff in general, over those issues. There may be some underlying issue or something they are finding hard to communicate that you don't know about. As for issues beyond your control, publish them too. If you can't get site to fix air con let staff know that. You now have evidence that the air con is affecting teaching and learning so take it to the powers that be. Let staff know that you have pushed this and it is at a higher level. You will get the recognition for trying to get something done, even if it comes to naught. Other ways to get feedback: - Sit in the staff room and have a brew, preferably at the same time as teacher's break or lunch. Someone will ask you a question while they have you. - Ask for a small slot at a HoDs meeting. Be prepared to be ripped apart for every little thing but you just have to stand your ground and be clear with boundaries. You will find all the little niggles. - Go around HoDs one to one. Get some time with them to find out the issues their department are having or what they want to move forward with IT. - If your Helpdesk has CSATs turn them on as staff are much more likely to fill in a quick happy or not survey and you can follow those up. - Helpdesk stats, like number of reopened tickets (shows dissatisfaction with solution), number of response to completion, number of tickets per department. All of these are going to feel like a slog and probably be a bit overwhelming and feel negative, but opening the flood gates will get a whole back log of feeling coming through first, but after a while, if you stick at it and can show progress it will get easier and the department will get a good reputation for sorting issues. This is coming from a place where no one would even talk to the IT Department when I took over as "nothing gets sorted". I'm in no way saying we are the perfect model department now, we still have a lot of work to do, but staff have noticed the difference and it is commented on. In whole school surveys the IT satisfaction levels have risen year on year. It is just about plugging away and not getting disheartened and accepting the status quo. But do accept Status Quo.

Not sure I would agree with that. Are you saying that if your screen can be overseen by someone you are untrusted and disrespected? Using that as a measure doesn't leave a lot of options for room layout. If that worry came up in an interview, I would be concerned that it was an overly defensive response and potentially have safeguarding concerns. The office isn't being setup to spy on the tech, it is being set up to work for the department. As a manager it would be up to that person to allay those concerns but ultimately if that is what works, to receive pupils and ensure data protection of sensitive work, then so be it. I guess it depends on the team dynamic and the leadership style. If a manager was constantly commenting on what was up on a Tech's screen either the manager is micromanaging and needs to calm and get on with their own work, or the tech is regularly going off task and not getting the work done. Both of those are a people/HR issue, not an office organisation issue

What, as a technician, are you doing that your manager shouldn't see? & how much time do you think your manager has to sit staring at your screen to catch you out? I agree about the contents of screens being visible to windows, but some blinds or reflective film would sort that. @Rob_D's second plan looks nice. Only change I would suggest is to get rid of the cupboards and have desking/worksurface under the window and along the awkward wall. Space to spread out or lay things out is a god send. Storage or organisation can then be put under them.

I can highly recommend both Salamander & Locker, and they will have the added benefit of not only creating your users but keeping them up to date as well. They will also do a lot more and free you up to do other tasks. Around the £1100-£1200 quid mark. Though will probably be a bit late to get an install at this point in the summer. If you need free, then there are plenty of PowerShell scripts that will take a CSV and create users for you. I'm sure there have been some on here that can be adapted.

Not sure if it fits your use case but we got a Trend Networks Navitek NT Pro. Does what we need, from cable tests to full testing. Around £1200, but worth its weight in gold to check if you have the right port and that it is on the right VLAN.

What is the issue with having BYOD in scope? You would have to put in place measures to limit BYOD access or improve BYOD security. Why would this be a bad thing? So, you need to make the choice; either you do not want to entertain BYOD as you do not want to deal with the headache, so you act accordingly OR you do want to allow BYOD and you act accordingly to ensure you are secure. Seems the opposite of the Cyber essentials ethos, to want to do something but get round having to introduce security for it. EDIT: For example JISC has a blog post about this very thing that can be setup using Intune.