Norphy

That was the first joke in this thread that actually made me laugh out loud. Most of the others just elicited a groan

GiffGaff sell refurbed phones, as do Tesco Mobile. Carphone Warehouse do too I think.

I object to being pushed to use an app which replicates functionality already in the phone. Your clubcard can be added to your Apple wallet (I'm sure Android phones have similar functionality) so it's just an extra two seconds to scan your clubcard on your phone.

And unless they've changed it recently, Tescos as well. And by what I'm sure is a complete coincidence, Tesco have their own phone paying app which doesn't have that limit and that they're completely not trying to get you to sign up to their crappy app. WRT using Satnav on the phone, I generally use it for most journeys, even when I know the route, just so it can route around traffic.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/11/marmite-supplies-hit-by-covid-19-beer-brewing-slowdown-yeast Right, that's it. I've had enough. Bad enough we've been locked inside for the last three months. Bad enough that we've had to juggle childcare with working at home. Bad enough we've not seen family or friends for the three months. Bad enough that we're had to take our life into our hands each time we went shopping and even then, couldn't get bog rolls or pasta for six weeks and are still having trouble getting flour. Now Marmite supplies are in jeopardy? Grrrrr Please note, post is not entirely serious

Apparently, in 5g of sugar, there is 4.7g of sugar

Failing that, does it have to be a Smart specific thing or will any USB to RS232 adaptor work? If so, I recommend getting one with an FTDI chipset as these generally work whereas ones based on the Prolific PL2303 are more problematic. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Converter-Connecting-Switches-Celestron-Telescope/dp/B00QUZY4L0/ref=sr_1_7?dchild=1&keywords=ftdi&qid=1591785152&sr=8-7

Raise the issue with your SLT. This isn't an IT decision, it's a Safeguarding one. Elevate it to them and have them take responsibility.

Am I the only one who finds this billboard vaguely disturbing?

The reason I use RRAS instead of the Smoothwall VPN solution is twofold: 1) This is what Always On VPN uses in the background 2) Even if that wasn’t true, the appropriate client is built into Windows so no further software installations are required

I've been with the site for 14.5 of those years. I have got three jobs because of it. I've learned a lot, received a lot of help and have done my best to help others where I can too. Here's to another 15 years!

My MAT has both; we have an Aruba Mobility hierarchy with a Mobility Master and four Mobility Controllers underneath the Master. We also have Instant clusters in two of our primary schools where their WAN connections are relatively poor. Officially, you can have up to 127 APs in an Instant cluster but depending the APs in the cluster and how powerful they are, you may get more. The amount of APs you can have on a controller depends on the controller but even the basic one in the 7200 range can handle up to 230-ish while the most powerful can handle thousands. There are advantages to either approach but either way, with around 100 APs, you’re fine. The major disadvantage to the Instant clusters (and any other controllerless solution for that matter) is that a lot of configuration is being pushed out to your edge switches as that is where the APs are breaking out onto the network. With a Mobility controller, your APs are tunnelling to the controller and breaking out onto your core switch. If you’ve got L3 routing on your edge switches, going controllerless means that roaming is that bit harder as you’re more likely to be changing IP address as you move from switch to switch, unless you set the AP to tunnel back to a VPN, by which time you may as well get a controller. Going for an Aruba Mobility hierarchy gets you other features like: Dynamic Segmentation which is basically 802.1x terminated on the controller Remote APs, where they tunnel back to your controller over the internet and anything that connects to them are connected to your network without any configuration on the client Airmatch, where the Master scans the airspace around your entire network and determines which RF channel each of your APs should be on for optimal performance. However, if you have a single site, all of your VLANs are terminated on the core rather than the edge and you don’t care much about the features a controller gets you, the Instants will work perfectly. I know you said that you’re already in contact with vendors but if I were you, I’d be talking to someone like European Electronique or SwitchShop, both of whom are HPE partners and will give you good advice about what the options are and what will work best for you.

The general rule of thumb is supposed to be 1-2gb of RAM per user and something like 10 users per CPU core. So in theory, with that much RAM somewhere between 96 and 192 users. In practice, you’ll have to put it in and closely monitor it, looking at disk queue lengths, CPU and RAM usage and network bandwidth consumption.

If you're not going VDI, I wouldn't bother putting an extra virtualisation layer on it, I'd just install the RDS Session Host directly onto the hardware. I'd agree with putting the hard disks directly into the server, rather than using a SAN. Its worth mentioning that RDS hosts are very dependent on the speed of their local storage so put it into RAID 10 if you're using spinning rust. It wouldn't hurt to wangle some SSDs to put in there if you can get the budget. Finally, you might want to look into User Profile Disks to store user profiles on, otherwise you may find that your server gets filled up with profiles very quickly indeed.

If you've got the CB of SCCM, you can create an Office 2019 installer by going to the Software Library workspace, Office 365 Client Management then clicking on the (+) Office 365 Installer button. Put in a path where you want to store the installer files, click next. Click on the "Go to Office Customization Tool Button" button and choose Office 2019 in the Office Suites dropdown. It will go away and download the Office 2019 installer and create an application for you. You'll then be able to deploy it like you would any other application.

The sixth form college where I used to work uses it and uses something derived from it for their public website. I've not seen it for four years but @Roberto might have something more useful to say. I say "Might" because he's not been working for them for the past ~18 months either

I want to be riding my bike but at the moment I can't because: 1) Until recently, it's been sitting in my Mum's garage 60 miles North 2) When I did get it back, it hadn't been touched for four years and it desperately needed servicing by someone who knew what they were doing 3) The three bike shops closest to me all had queues which all roughly were two weeks long Hopefully I'll get it back soon!

There are posts about password security, yes. The most recent ones say that enforcing password expiration actually reduces the effectiveness of your security, not increases it. As Microsoft themselves say here: A more detailed best practices document is here

Is it that different to the likes of Securus or even NetSupport DNA? That said, not happy

Bitlocker is enabled and enforced as part of our build process if the device has a TPM.

I’ve not got a quote for a internet circuit from them in a while but the last time I asked for a 1gbit p2p circuit, they quoted ~£2k for installation and about £250/m for rental.

Even £8k/pa seems a tad expensive tbh. We use Charterhouse to provide our WAN and internet connectivity, https://www.cvdgroup.com/. They can use OpenReach or Virgin to provide connectivity.

?

In all fairness, the next LTS Version of Windows Server will be Server 2022. Versions 1903, 1909 and 2004 are all in the CB which are only supported for 18 months and don't have a GUI. I don't mind the latter but I don't want to be upgrading or replacing the OS on my servers every 6-18 months and I suspect most people think the same.

Lichen