pete

Manual install still works if you don't want to faff with Docker for one unique snowflake of an application.

In fairness to eSafe they have started to proactively ring around customers who're running older versions of the client to let them know updates are available and (if you twist their arm) they'll even send you the release notes (not terribly in depth, but contains the major bugs they've fixed). The support rep I spoke to acknowledged that this is a recent thing (I expressed surprise) and that they could have done better in the past (I paraphrase).

Our finance team are going through the SWC currently and have discovered two personnel records (one a teacher, the other non-teaching staff) that need amending. However, when they go to alter the record (even doing something as simple as adding a test middle name), they get an error of: "role must be at least 0" in the bottom left corner. ....but just for those two records. Other personnel records are unaffected. Checking the records, the associated contracts have correctly assigned roles and finance have attempted to redo the contracts to ensure they're correct. This is apparently affecting other schools and waiting on a SQL script from SIMS and has problem ID: PRB19016

Assuming staff users, I'd make 2FA a requirement with re-auth needed every X hours (and turn off any option to "remember this PC", to prevent saved credentials on shared home devices). We use Duo (and yes, we are grandfathered into a rather good price) and have no complaints. If someone doesn't want to use 2FA, they don't get remote access.

What's the purpose of the disclaimer above and beyond the AUP they've already signed? Setting expectations for RDS availability/capability?

So, we have a manky whitebox "appliance" server that can't be virtualised. It's flaky and will freeze every few weeks and become unresponsive and doesn't create helpful logs in the process. One thing I've noticed is that if it's given a dirty (wall) power feed in the workshop it boots consistently and cleanly. If I plug it into the Symmettra in the server room, it only gets past booting ~50% of the time. The rack and UPS is properly grounded. The same Symmettra powers all the other (HP/Dell/EMC) kit without any problems and has more than enough capacity to accomodate the server. Swapping the server to a seperate output feed doesn't make a difference. I'm leaning towards replacing the PSU or failing that grabbing a branded refurb that'll take 3.5" drives, but has anyone else had anything similar?

I have these https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0749GJWQK/ for the office and they're fairly bombproof with ~8hrs of use per charge. Downside is they (in my ears at least - YEMV) really cut out external noise to the point where colleagues can unintentionally creep up on your and make you jump.

When we bought our last Loxit trolley we specced yellow feet becuase it would be going in an area with especially clumsy people. Ask site staff if they have any enamel paint? IIRC we sourced it via @ICTDirect_Dave

Hold on, I've run out of popcorn...

Backup content, convert to an iSCSI volume mounted on another server, recreate share, restore files? I also concur with the "kill it with fire/replace it" comments.

Yup, it's called "a whiteboard in the kitchen".

In addition to the "more sockets and ports". If teachers are of the "I'd like my desk at the front of the class" (as opposed to tucked into a corner) variety. Underfloor channelling to run AV/ethernet/power. Oh, and make sure they leave extra pull cords in.

We're using a KM Bizhub C654e as the main reprographics copier and don't have any complaints.

Does it work with anything other than Kyocera copiers if you decided you wanted to swap copiers?

I assume you've stuck the service tag into here: https://www.dell.com/support/home/uk/en/ukbsdt1 to find out what RAID card it's using? Have you tried booting with the Dell install DVDs (which'll preload the necessary drivers) to begin the install?

Is that £18.42 for (3x £6.14) for the three years? Still seems high. You (will) have PM.

I'm currently trying to get the new (version 7) appliance VM playing nicely with Smoothwall. The base OS (Centos 7) can use SW for updates and everything, but the ESET console appears to use the proxy settings in the Web UI for how it should reach the Internet and how clients should pull updates. Ideally I want the clients to pull updates using the caching proxy built into the appliance which should chain to the SW, but so far it's not playing nicely. Assuming ESET Standard (not advanced), that's higher than RRP (£5.80). Aim for a bit over £4/machine.

Are you using dedupe on the fileserver? Are the students copying the document to their home directories so they have a copy to work on?

Yes, with the ones we have - uLog USB Sensors. I haven't tried the Voyager models, so it's worth giving them a call to check it's the same. With ours: If you plug two devices in (say a PH probe and a temperature sensor) it'll treat them as separate inputs. If you plug two temperature sensors into the same computer it'll see them as distinct devices, but you'll have to warm one up in order to tell which is which. Similar to having two keyboards plugged in - the computer can handle it, but I've never tested if there's an upper limit at N+1 keyboards.

I'm also pondering ESET (resellers, I already have quotes inbound) and have a trial running. @Katy - I assume you mean it won't automatically push an engine upgrade out? But you can still schedule one using the management console, right?

Hi Nick, It's the same people (unless Mark Donkersley has started yet another company beginning with "eSafe".). They use a product called Guardware to perform the service. cheers Pete

Yup (standard "think of the children" approach that pastoral staff are susceptible to) Yup Bear in mind I'm approaching this with an IT/Data Protection hat. From a technical perspective? It has problems. The client is flaky - I can open up event logs on any PC running the client and discover Guardware services have fallen over multiple times per day. If a staff member comes to me with "Internet problems", most of the time it's because Guardware has fallen over (it does a local proxy of web requests and a MITM for HTTPS sites). If your proxy, antivirus and Guardware are doing MITM for HTTPS, you're going to have a bad day. Disable at least one MITM option or the Internet will grind. It misses things that should be picked up easily (we find out because Smoothwall catches them). I can accept a bit of misses on both sides, but some of the things it's missed have been things it really should have caught. They justify not making uninstall easy via SCCM or whatever as necessary for safeguarding, ignoring the fact that simply deleting the associated services disables their software. They don't inform customers about new versions that fix problems. We have to chase them. A visiting sales rep admitted to our DSL last week that he actively avoided IT staff because we tend to ask difficult questions like "why did you sit on the latest release of your product when you know it fixes high cpu usage in Chrome?" Safeguarding? Mixed Compared to Smoothwall, it lacks context and so (when alerts are passed to us) it generates more work than it should. Events are a snapshot in time, they aren't compared to what else was going on with that session. Alerts are always assumed to be the worst possible scenario rather than assessing "OK, what else was that student doing within a ~10 minute window?". For a service that uses humans to review alerts, it's....lacking For the purposes of industrial tribunals, police or courts, the evidence is inadmissable. A school hoping to use information sourced from eSafe to justify a decision about a person will be disappointed. Our DSL loves it, but she's aware I think the implementation is pants. Data Protection Also mixed eSafe captures everything, including things you may not want it to (Payroll, Personnel data, SIMS information). You can choose to exclude certain apps (we chose SIMS, for example, given the sensitive nature of the information). By default, they will want to store the data long past the school's retention period to make their software more effective. State your retention times up-front. I want to say £2K/yr for us (~800). Now, we also trialled Securus and found it more annoying than eSafe. Currently I'm interested in Visigo from Smoothwall to see how well it does in comparison. My ideal system is something that can pull in Smoothwall safeguarding alerts and compare them to eSafe/whatever alerts to give more context surrounding an event. Think something like a Kibana dashboard for safeguarding.

^ Yeah, as of 5.8.30 (at least), they've updated the console/firmware so that upgrades work correctly via a proxy (provided you've got the proxy configured to allow the traffic).

Most software providers make no guarantee that their software will do anything. So you'll get nowhere with that. A better angle would be whether Capita informed affected schools of the problem (including implications) in a timely manner.

Probably is, but I'm on an 13" Early 2011 MBP that doesn't support Mojave. Mostly 'cos it's working fine and (when testing in-store) I haven't found anything that fits my needs better.