RoyG

I'd be totally devastated if our SMT made a similar decision! Fortunately I don't think they are going to!! I'm heading for retirement next July. We've appointed a replacement who's going to work alongside me from January to make the transition as seamless as possible. He's got experience of Netware & is happy to leave the present system pretty much as it is. I suppose medium term he'll have to consider upgrading to OES when Novell end support for Netware 6.5 - 2012 I believe. Meanwhile - Netware rocks!! RoyG

The highlight of yesterday was removing all traces of this ghastly stuff from our servers. The Email had reminded me that it was still installed - but not any more! The quality of IT provision in our school is excellent, with no need at all for this over-blown, clunky, boring, irritating box-ticking exercise. RIP!!! RoyG

Sorry - couldn't resist this! Shouldn't it be "It's not too bad"? RoyG

I had a long discussion with one of our DHs last week about Facebook & also YouTube - neither of which were blocked. My point of view was that it was not worth filtering either. Both have real positive aspects and the negative ones won't actually go away if the sites are filtered in school, as the kids will still use both of them out of school anyway. He agreed - so the sites remain unfiltered. As ever, we encourage vigilance in our computer rooms, which so far hasn't rung any alarm bells. RoyG

Ours is a Moodle site, running for several years & widely used throughout the school. Most areas are accessible with guest access. KEGS VLE RoyG

Initially our teachers' laptops are set up for use within school - static IP though our proxy server. If they want Internet access at home I change their settings to DHCP & no proxy and let them set up their home connection. Once that is done they return the machine to me, I install a bit of software called Multi Network Manager with 20 day free trial. This lets me save their home settings on a "Home" profile, then I save their school settings as a "School" profile. When this is done they have to cough up online for the Multi Network Manager licence - $18. From then on their home connection is down to them - they cock it up, they fix it! Seems to work pretty well RoyG

Personal view - go for laser every time. Inkjets can be a pain, depending on level and regularity of use. Use it too little & the jets clog; use it too much & you're always changing expensive cartridges. RoyG

I can thoroughly recommend the HP Laserjet5550N - it really does the lot & is pretty bullet-proof. Plus HP's support is pretty good too. I got a good deal from Misco - click here RoyG

Only real problems due to County migrating our broadband link to new ISP last Friday. I got the Email informing me of the move this Tuesday, when our Admin Office finally forwarded it! Loads of our port settings not migrated - "the list we got might be out of date"!! Emails & Oliver (library admin.) the main victims. Emails finally sorted today, Oliver still not well. Otherwise a remarkably smooth start to the term. RoyG

Eventually got a quote for Syncsort Backuo Express - over £5k! Sadly the budget won't stretch to that! RoyG

Update - Loaded Novell Client Beta 3 on a Vista machine last week - so far seems to works fine. RoyG

Snap! We only have one patch box in the school that I didn't wire myself. This was in a new class-room block, where it was decided (with no consultation!) that there should be 10 network points in each class-room - including the room that eventually became a computer room! This meant loads of unused sockets, all shouting, "please shove something in me!" You can guess the consequences. Eventually decided to take the patch leads out for the unused sockets. Nightmare!! 150 odd leads, all 2m, none labelled, with connections done entirely randomly. Aarrgghh!! Another example of, "it's only a school, it'll do!"?? RoyG P.S. Agree 100% with Geoff's checklist.

Is anyone out there running Integris G2 as their school's MIS? We are running Integris Classic at present & the powers that be are looking at a G2 upgrade. I'd be grateful to hear anyone's thoughts on this. RoyG

Yep - "Tree not found" - gave up!!! Not too distraught, as the probability of using Vista in the foreseeable future is pretty slim!! RoyG

We found out that the latest version uses .NET2 when the kids logged on to start their exam yesterday!! We'd run the Mock successfully in all 3 computer rooms, but the actual exam crashed out on all the computers in one room. Phoned Edexcel - no solution offered, so we rescheduled the exam into 3 sessions instead of 2. No further problems running the tests in those rooms. It was only by pure luck that the exam ran in any of our rooms, as we had no idea until lunchtime yesterday that there might be a .NET security issue. FFS - why change the software between running the mock & actual exams??!! Uploading the results was another drama, getting the message "Edexcel-online is experiencing technical problems - please try later. Unfortunately, "later" the Essex Broadband system fell over (for the fourth consecutive day!!) so I had to take the responses home & upload from there. Altogether, not an unqualified success!!! RoyG

ddds - Sounds interesting! We have 4 Netware 6.5, 2 Linux & 1 W2003 servers - a reliable integrated backup system would be great. Can you give me some idea of costs? RoyG

Acer & Asus are very different outfits. We've bought over 200 Asus desktops & laptops over the last 4 years. Only 2 issues during that time. ASUS - recommended, ACER not! Roy G

Still waiting for a laptop returned on 19th March - this is the on e which has been back 4 times!! AAARRRGGGHHH!!! RoyG

We've got ParentMail coming in for a demo the week after next. All we've heard about it so far has been very positive. Anyone else had any experience of it? RoyG

We've bought 15 Acer desktops & 6 Acer laptops in the last year. Two desktops have had to be returned for repair & 4 laptops - one 4 times!! Their call centre is DIRE!!! Generally around 20-30 minutes wait!! Shan't buy any more - EVER! RoyG

The vast majority of ours have come from Ergo. They got the contract to supply the Laptops for Teachers for Essex for the last few years and have impressed us with their warranty and service performance - 3 year warranty and excellent Tech. Support - no bloody call centre!! The kit has been generally good, though one particular model was flawed, resulting in almost all of the 30 machines of that type we bought having to be repaired - faulty k/b & graphics controllers. We did buy a few Acer tablets about a year ago and almost all of them have been returned under warranty, after seriously slow and frustrating phone calls to their call centre - typically half an hour to talk to a knowledgeable human. We're sticking with Ergo. RoyG

60 sounds good to me. Mortgage paid off ages ago, work because you want to rather than have to, bus pass, rail card, discount on pub meals & QuikFit jobs, £200 a year for heating bills, don't have to impress anyone, behave pretty much how you want - the list goes on & on. Guess I'm happy as I am! Anyway, growing old is compulsory, but growing up is optional! RoyG

'Fraid not - I've hit the big 6 0!! But welcome to the "older" group. RoyG

HA, not quite - feel like it sometimes... This thread reminds me of the Harry Anfield two old women sketches... ' YOUNG MAN !! At our age.... YOUNG MAN !!! ' Reminds me of the two outrageous Old Gits - my role models! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_qXhCFMMzk RoyG P.S. Yep - I'm the 1 in the "older" category!

Check out the new avatar! Baaahhh!!!