raufdean

A primary school that I look after is looking to move away from their current ISP, so in order to give them more options and potentially save money I was considering doing the web filtering on site. I've just set up a Ubuntu server running squid/DansGuardian as a test, and had a look at URLBlacklist.com, which seems to offer a very cheap way of keeping your blacklist up to date. So far, the set up is worrking fine, so I was wondering what advantages there would be in using a commercial product? Obviously support would be one feature, but as I'm happy to do this myself, I'm not sure what advantage there would be in paying £1000s per annum apart from having someone else to blame if something bad gets through! Any thoughts gratefully received...

Hmmm... Thanks for the reply... Both servers are running brand new 0.29 installs, so I suppose I could migrate both the database and the image..

Hi all, Just wondering if it's relatively straightforward to export an image from one fog server and import onto another... The servers are in different locations so I'll ftp the image file across overnight.. Many thanks, Rauf

Hi all, I'm investigating buying a batch of laptops. After the last set ended up with several laptops with keys missing, I'm interested in laptops with good solid keyboards and screens around 13". I've had a look at the Thinkpad Edge 13 which, although having scrabble style keys, does not look hugely rugged, and the keys actually pop off very easily.. Any other suggestions would be much appreciated. Many thanks, Rauf

Haven't used NewSID before - looks handy. I have SYSPREPd oem machines before - ended up having to reactivate each version over the phone.. I presume NewSID won't give me this issue ? Many thanks, Rauf

That's really useful - Looks like I'm in the clear as I've bought plenty of XP licences from Ramesys in the past. Many thanks, Rauf

Hi all, Just trying to get a definitive answer for this. We've just bought 17 PCs that have come with XP Pro installed and have an appropriate licence sticker on the side of the machine. What I want to do is set one PC up and image it, then dump the image to all the other PCs. I have a volume licencing edition of XP with a single key - It would be easier to replace the OS on one PC with this edition and image it as then I could use the volume licensing product key in sysprep, so would not have to enter it for each PC, or worry about product activation. My question is: Do I have to buy another licence for each machine, as I am replacing the manufacturer installed version with a volume licensing version ? So far I have had 2 different answers from 2 reputable sources! Many thanks, Rauf

Out of curiosity how are you maxing a 10Mb line ?

SSLExplorer. Fine bit of software, works over secure sockets... There are 2 versions - enterprise that you pay for, and an open source version that's free. The free version is fine, secure and extremely useful. I have several teachers accessing there home folders using it. It also supports rdp over ssl, vnc and other protocols over ssl, so really good for managing the network from home. SSL-Explorer SSL VPN - Secure Remote Access for SMBs and Enterprise Rauf

Also worth considering Qmail with MailScanner, Spamassassin, ClamAV etc.. Chack out A qmail installation guide so advanced it takes 2 years to update - It's gotta be Qmailrocks.org for more info

I've been writing c++ for about 12 years... I'd help you but I'm not sure what the question is ?

Don;t know how much you want to spend, but have a look at a Netscreen 5GT.:- http://www.pcwb.com/catalogue/item/NETSCR31 I've used various netscreens over the years. Pretty easy to configure, but very versatile if you need them to be. Rauf

Hi Ash, Thanks for that - we're using the latest drivers... the wi spy thing sounds interesting though... Rauf

I had a very similar experience with a network cctv camera and windows 2003 sp1. Have you tried creating a reservation with the same IP address, but a test machine's mac? At least that should tell you whether the IP is in use..

Absoulutley. 2 second job. Just have to add my incredulity at the fact that you're paying for private IP space.. Rauf

Nice idea, but I'm stuck with 25 intel 2200bg wireless laptops for the time being

Thanks for all the replies. From an ethernet point of view ~1Mb / user should not be that bad. After all I can VPN into the school's network over my home contended ADSL connection and achieve perfectly acceptable results. Sidewinder - your experiences sound very familiar! FragglePete - Thanks for the link. I'll take a look. Rauf

We're using Cisco aironet 1100 wireless access points. These have proved to be very reliable. The problem we're having is supporting 20+ users on a single access point. After about 15 have logged on, the other 5-10 cannot gain access to the network. The client laptops are using Intel pro/wireless 2200BG wireless modules. I've tried putting 2 access points on either side of the same room, and setting the channels on each to be very different, but no luck. I think the issue is an RF one - I'm pretty sure there's no maximum client restrictions in the Cisco operating system. The Intel wireless modules are also (relatively) pretty old now.. Just curious if anyone else has achieved 20+ concurrent connections in a classroom with any other access point ? Rauf

Hi Stewart, Web page Embedded Applications such as realplayer use cunning tricks to get around firewalls such as tunnelling through an http (80) port. Rauf

That's exactly what I would have thought, but no luck.. I know that even if I have a proxy set up in the browser for all protocols, the flash video player in iplayer stills tries to make a direct connection to the BBC servers on port 80.. Rauf

Thanks for the reply, but I think that information refers to the network download application, not the Flash player streaming... Yes, I was sort of hoping to find out which the relevant servers are... Rauf

Hi, I'm trying to set up a firewall rule to allow users access to the streaming version of the iplayer (ie not allow the Kontiki P2P). Currently I restrict all outgoing http traffic to an external url filtering proxy, and with this setup, the Iplayer does not work. If I place no restrictions on out going http traffic, then the Iplayer works fine, however I obviously would like to avoid this if possible.. Anyone else having the same problem ? Rauf

Out of curiosity why /22 ? Rauf