truebluesteve

A library PC that runs some software but that will go soon, plus another in the IT office that runs a bespoke piece of software that we use to take photos and import them into SIMS and print ID cards. Mind you that software has just stopped working for some reason :-/

Have only just seen this topic, but we have this problem whenever we upgrade SIMs. When SIMS is launched from a shortcut on the task bar or on the desktop, you get an "incompatible database" error. Running SIMS from the SIMS Applications folder in All Programs runs the update fine.

I'm not a big fan of Moodle and there are better alternatives but unfortunately they aren't free. WebAnywhere did our Moodle upgrade and for the money we paid and what we got, we could have had one of those nicer VLE's. Unfortunately I wasn't really involved in the selection process. As for the aforementioned company and their performance on the project - that is another story :-/

We use RM Ones and even though they aren't the cheapest they are the most student proof PC I've ever seen. They have also been extremely reliable. If cost is an issue then we have just start bought a number of Lenovo C345 all-in-ones for our 6th form study area. They are really well built pieces of kit and performance suits the needs of the students that use them.

It does leave a bad taste but its typical of the litigious society we live in today. Lets hope it gets booted out of court as she should have had a torch.

I sense that you are not a big lover of the Tech from Cupertino!

We've always used Extreme, Netgear and HP Gbics on our Extreme Black Diamond and they've worked perfectly. I would probably steer clear of cheap ones though.

Well you don't have to if you're using them internally, it really only applies to companies that need to prove their kit is accurate for certification purposes. For internal work you can stick a label on it that says "For indication only". Getting flukes calibrated can be very expensive so I'd only do it every 3 years for my own kit.

Well I don't think I'm the exception but I would suggest that the installations that you have encountered maybe indicative of all the work that those companies do - not just cat5 and also of them not being managed properly. They should all produce test records if they are terminating and not just running cable and be able to produce calibration certs for his test equipment Anyway this could run and run so I'm gonna retire from this now :-) Just don't be too hard on your sparky - he might know more than you think!

Go into town at about 11:30pm and watch all the drunk people - it's hilarious. My favourite is the drunk mobile phone user - 1 Search for phone in handbag 2 Find phone 3 Drop phone 4 Pick phone up 5 Hold phone at arms length 6 Search for number on phone 7 Dial wrong number 8 Apologise to the person you have just woken up 9 Drop phone And repeat from number 4

I don't think you need qualifications as such, just have been shown how to do it by someone who knows. It's all fairly common sense stuff - keep it away from power cables, don't stretch it like a guitar string and so on. If you've had no problems then you're probably doing it right!

We have around 90 PCs with Air Server on it for the staff with iPads and they love it! It's pretty easy to install and costs an awful lot less than Apple TV.

Is this a fact or an assertion? I agree totally that untrained people shouldn't install structured cabling however many electrical contractors do have sparks that are trained to install and it forms part of their apprenticeships these days. If a contractor installs it and they are NICEIC registered then the installing has to conform to the same standards as other cabling and can be inspected. This doesn't apply to specialist data installation companies who have no such regulation and who can set themselves up overnight. We have an electrical contractor who is installing cat5 as the school is being refurbished and they have sparks who punches down the cable at both ends and his work is excellent. As I said data cabling isn't rocket science and bad practice occurs in every industry, but that doesn't mean everyone is the same.

Hi all All several trials, very useful feedback from the folks on here and a very good deal from Aggy @ net-ctrl, I have decided to replace our existing Trapeze wireless network with a shiny new Ruckus one! With the above in mind I'm going to have a load of Trapeze kit that I am going to need to get of Let me know if you're interested. I'm not sure when it will be available yet. Thanks for all the folks on here that have taken the time to give there views - recommendation is very important! Cheers Steve

Well I don't know about a maximum but I was told the minimum bend radius is 4 x the diameter of the cable, so that would be around an inch. I just sent a text to a sparks mate of mine and asked him the same question and I got the same answer! As for pulling strain -it depends on the manufacturer as I've seen some say 25lbs and others 15lbs but I usually check the leaflets that come with the boxes. My point was that you shouldn't assume that a sparks wouldn't know this stuff. The installation requirements for cat5 are far less stringent than SWA, MICC (pyro), Firetuff and Fibre cable. I should say I learnt my Cat5 stuff only a few years ago as I did my apprentice back in erm...1982 and there wasn't much in the way of it then :-)

What's wrong with sparks running structured cabling - it's not rocket science and provided proper containment is in place there shouldn't be any issues. I'm a sparks by trade and have run plenty of cabling, although not any more as I'm too busy. Most proper sparks do a 3 year apprenticeship and running cables properly is part of that. A lot of the specialist data cabling companies use ex sparkies too! The only thing that I would want them to do is actually make off the cable ends *edit - sparkies not sparkles!

We have a RML 380Z although it has been stored carefully somewhere :-/

Companies spend a great deal of money developing and more importantly testing drugs (an ex of my was in the industry) and they usually have quite short patents. This means they don't have much time to recoup their money - hence the cost of the drugs. Once the patent expires then other companies are free to copy them.

We only sell stuff that has been depreciated - i.e. written off and the cost is set by our finance director so VAT issues or benefits in kind don't apply here. Where it does become an issue is where schools buys equipment on behalf of the staff (I was told of a school near me that does this with laptops) I would be surprised if people were selling off equipment that was less than 3 years old - unless they have very generous budgets.

You could ask for a donation rather than sell them if you're concerned about the vat implications. Having said that we sold a load of old laptops a couple of years ago and they had long been depreciated in terms of assets. We made sure staff were aware that we wouldn't support them and we never had any problems.

Sending something to print and wandering off to the printer before waiting for the Equitrac charging dialog box to appear. Keep pressing ctrl-alt-del when logging into a VM even though I know it's wrong before I do it!

Thanks folks - I will give them a try. I have had a count up and I have at least 13 old Netgear switches that could do with replacing :-/

Hi folks I'm looking to buy a few more HP Procurve 2510-48G switches and I wondered if anyone here has a good cheap source they could recommend. A quick look on Google gives prices of around £800 Cheers

We've had issues before where some of our older Netgear switches won't auto negotiate with our Extreme core switch. The only option was to force the Netgear to connect at 1Gb I have also had the issue with some Gbics not working on our new Procurves

I think the cost and maintenance overheads far outweighs the benefits of putting a UPS on an edge device like a switch. The main purpose of UPS to my mind is to be able to safely shut down the device rather than trying to keep it going until power is restored. How do you assess what size UPS you need for a switch? How long do you want it to run for? I have over 40 cabs and they are all connected to rings that supply PCs in rooms and offices so if the power goes down then so do the PCs!