AyatollahPies

Er, ain't that why we're here? Didn't know there was a credit crunch thread. Here I come.........................

Why spoil our dreams so quickly?

I'm afraid the September release is required for Census. Edit: Well that's what we were told and thus spent all of last week upgrading over 100 schools to it! Edit2: Beginning to think we were lied to.

Yes, get work to pay for a new one. I end up using my own equipment for work and it annoys the hell out of me. Decent laptops are cheap as chips so go have a word with the Business Manager.

You also need to make sure you aren't expected to deal with Wireless connection issues the kids may have at home. You WILL get them!

You were given the go ahead at circa 12:18am this morning? I've heard of staff working from home, but surely that takes the biscuit? Not a bad salary at all for a technician. Some network manager jobs of late have offered a lot less than that.

As a general rule, we disable on-access scanning on SIMS servers as it uses too much juice. Thorough scans each night. We also put an exception on workstation scans to ignore the sims\setups folder.

Hey at least you don't pay your taxes to a council that waits until the last minute to put up non-suggestive "Festive" lights so as not to offend minority communities. (Whom if the council had bothered consulting with, would find are not offended by them)

Are you talking about Windows updates? If so, why not just plug it directly into the switch that sits behind your gateway?

Having to re-configure one myself at the moment. I wasn't able to connect for some time until I checked online and it tells you that you need to configure your local machine to an IP of 192.168.0.210 with subnet of 255.255.255.0 Shame it doesn't tell you that on the sticker at the bottom!

Do you have a bootable PE disc such as UBCD4win or Bart's PE? (Google them for more info) They have anti-virus software on that should be able to help you. You boot to the disc rather than windows, so cleaning your system is far easier.

I promised myself some time ago that if I was ever asked such daft questions and riddles at an interview, I would walk out there and then. I hope I keep that promise.

This has to be the winner!

May I direct your attention to a tool called ABR which can be found by following this link. Backup and restore Vista activation and product key | Web Talk It backups the Serial and some sort of certificate on your new factory configured Vista machines. Literally takes 5 seconds to run. Once you have these 2 files safely backed up, you can format the workstation and re-install Vista without all that extra rubbish they force on us these days. You simply need to re-run ABR after Vista has re-installed and it re-applies the serial and certificate. By doing so, the machine is activated. No need for servers, calling Microsoft etc. This is not some dodgy workaround, as all you are doing is applying the same licensing information that the machine came with. You could create a folder and use the workstations serial number as its name. You could then easily archive these folders should you choose to install XP instead, with the intention of of putting Vista back on in the future. Note, this only works if you put the same version of Vista back on that it came with. Not tried it in a networked environment, but it worked a treat on my new Laptop. *(This only works on machinesthat came with Vista pre-installed)

Someone should have told Microsoft that we don't all have T1 internet connections for automated offsite backups.

You haven't told us what you require from your broadband connection. If you won't be using P2P or torrentz, but will still need to be able to download large files, such as Service Packs, Linux distros etc then i recommend Plusnet. In the 2.5 years I have been with them, I can't remember losing connectivity once. Granted, i generally just use it for browsing and downloading the odd update on filehippo.

You can download an executable for UltraVNC viewer that is simple to include in Portable Apps.

I too keep having this problem on my new Lenovo laptop. Even using the Lenovo connection manager doesn't resolve it. Always got to click on unidentified network, enter the SSID and passphrase. I have it setup to use WPA. Thought it might have been linked to the known Wifi and DHCP issue that Vista has, but even after hacking the reg, I am still having this issue.

Why not start saving now, just in case?

Have you given 'Super' a try? SUPER © . It's pretty versatile. If you want to download it directly, click on the link below, as it's quite a ball ache finding the download on the site. Download Super

Do folk still use Spybot? It used to be part of my arsenal but I stopped using it about 18 months ago. Is it still worthwhile? As for Windows Defender; I used to question it's effectiveness until I went on a server 2008 demo. There was a chap that there worked alongside, but not for Microsoft. He pointed out that because so many users have an MS operating sytem, Microsoft receive more reports of malware etc than all the other companys combined. Add to this the fact that they poached most of the top folk from McAfee (if I recall correctly), and it suggests that Windows Defender is a worthwhile tool to have. That and the fact that it's free. Apparently the removal tools that you may have noticed in windows update each month, quietly scan your system in the background and reports infections back to Big Bad Balmer and his gang. Saying that, I've never actually found any infections after running Windows defender, so I'd never rely solely on it.

I'd tell them not to bother with the SQL agent. scheduled batch files to stop and restart the sql service has proved very reliable in my LEA.

Went to a Server 2008 workshop late last year. The chap hosting it is an MVP and runs his own consultancy company. Upon raising this issue with him, he simply said it's tough. Businesses should get with the times and use modern backup methods. So basically, MS don't care if you are a small business that doesn't have a lot of money, i.e. a primary school. I'm no fan of tape backups, but this is narrow-minded thinking from the Redmond Beast.