Driftingashore

For what it’s worth we went with shared iPad and having people manually sign in to the browser - never managed to get SSO working with Shared iPad / Smoothwall browser. Very very far from perfect, but I don’t think people would remember to sign out, and then there’s signing in to other apps to consider. At least with Shared iPad they only have to sign in to everything once and then it’s just a passcode. The big negative being the first sign in is a royal PITA.

@robintech FYI their support have just sent me a link to download a hotfix (version number: 26.1.2). I'll DM you the link, but you could chase their support if I don't look very trustworthy. Obviously I take no responsibility for the hotfix!

@robintechWas that a suggested resolution from support or just an answer you've found? It's probably better than having the students rotate the page, so I suppose I'll get ready to deploy a new config file, but I'd much prefer them actually fix it.. Getting pretty disillusioned with EWP the moment after trying to recover a file the other day, and the config editor says that PreviousVersionsRecoveryMinutesDisplay is between 1 and 1440 (1 minute and 24 hours), but the GUI doesn't let me select anything over 200, and the new config files are encrypted so you can't change the value manually. Just about to report that too..

Yes, and we've only just noticed this is happening.. doh. If we rotate the page to landscape and rotate it back the numbers return. Also returns if I cange the page size away from A4, and then back to A4, but rotating the page is faster. Did you get anywhere with resolving this?

I just do it (1) to ensure standardised behaviour and ease of testing, (2) it's easy to justify the approach that a laptop for meaningful exams shouldn't have anything more than what is needed to complete the exam installed on it, and (3) the install / OS / device wasn't available to students to tamper beforehand. I suppose there's also a fourth reason: our exam cohort get new laptops purchased to complete the exams on. Once the exams are over, those laptops will get redistributed as part of the device refresh strategy (again, this offers standardisation and gives each student the same tools and avoids questions about unfairness, and eases the setup i.e. all using the same chargers, ensures the battery will outlast any power cut etc). If I'm going to image new laptops anyway to remove any OEM junk, I may as well. Again, we're SEN so the numbers just happen to work in this regard. At the end of the day I want to give the student the best chance of success, and I'd rather play it on the safe side, though I'm aware that I may be overthinking things, and am probably on the extreme end of the spectrum.. but eh.. I'd much rather defend the position that I'm going overboard than otherwise.

We go about this in a different fairly complex way - just posting a vague outline for info / any critique. We're high functioning SEN, so distractions (ability to poke around, open anything other than ExamWritePad) need to be minimal. This is admin-heavy but it's all to keep things on the safe side. Our exam laptops are created from a stripped down Windows 11 image, domain joined, and placed into an Exam OU. Exam Users are bulk created by a script, then a second script bulk resets their passwords to six digits and creates a .csv . The CSV is printed, and the username / password stuck to the palm rest of the laptop. A note is made of which laptop is given which user, and then post-exam, which user used which account/laptop, for which exam ('covering an inevitable x forgot to print!' a day later but not knowing what laptop they used). After usage, the exam document is copied from the user's local profile to the user's mapped network drive, and that Exam User is disabled in AD. There aren't many policies applied to Exam PCs: Login group restrictions to prevent anyone other than IT/senior staff and Exam Users logging into them. AppLocker rules to deny Exam Users the ability to run Edge / Chrome / Teams / Office (most shouldn't be on there, but Teams finds a way and I'd like to cover my ass if someone demands a laptop with near zero notice) Policies that kill Windows Search Apply the desired printers Random Intune policy to disable Bluetooth (seems to be the only reliable way to do it and isn't available in a GPO) Policies applied to Exam Users: Fake proxy settings to kill the internet Lock down the settings app / control panel Pin ExamWritePad to the Start Menu (also a shortcut added to the user's desktop during creation as a backup) TLDR; What we've ended up with is a PC that can access the internet, but only when logged off, or logged in as IT or senior staff, meaning updates are easy and we can manage it via Intune, but the Exam user can't see or open anything but ExamWritePad and a locked down Settings app.. they couldn't access the internet via any network, or open any installed browser if they tried, and it's not like students have time on their side. Again the above is a vague description; the admin / logging is irritating, but can't trust teachers not to ask for a copy of a student's mock paper four months later, or for a student to log out then need to know the login details again etc.

I'm dragging this thread from the dead, but did you ever get to the bottom of what was causing this @StephenPink? We have federated Apple IDs and I'm just testing setting up some Shared iPads, and in testing users can log in fine once, but the second time they log in or return to a paused session.. there's a "verification failed" popup. It's very rare that I can even manage to prompt a login screen from that point - it's mostly a warning in settings and a button that flashes up an overlay that immediately vanishes again. Our one-to-one iPads don't seem to have any issues at all. Obviously a lot has changed in five years, but something's clearly amis and much like you, I can't seem to see a lot of info out there go give me a something to go on, so I'm hoping you're still around and can remember something to point me in the right direction!

Thanks for this - we were getting the "invalid config" error with Smoothwall Browser for shared iPads deploying via Intune, but switching to {{devicename}} rather than {{userprinciaplname}} as UserID fixed it. Smoothwall's support article shows the value to be {{userprinciaplname}} for Intune, but that seems to be the cause 🤷‍♂️ For whatever it's worth, we don't have either SmoothwallOrgID with SmoohwallLegacyOrdID configured and we have Smoothwall Monitor.

Anyone know where I can obtain the most recent free version prior to the buyout? We purchased this year, but if the shakedown will continue next year I’d like something to fail back to..

New to this and a bit curious about the setup you have (assuming you're talking about classroom displays that are used for teaching). Do you have something like a Pi connected to each screen? Is there automatic source switching, or do displays start on the Trilby source, then teachers have to change it to teach?

Just wanted to ask a quick question on how everyone else is filtering / restricting / securing their interactive boards. We haven’t got many so usually don’t connect them to the internet and just use HDMI from a laptop/desktop, but we’re looking to tear out all our projectors over summer, so I’m wondering how everyone else is managing and filtering the built in browser / features. It seems that identifying users for role / identity based filtering would be difficult(?) but limiting the boards to student level access would block things like Youtube that teachers often use.. How are you doing it? Thanks!

Did you get anywhere with this? Noticed it was gone today whilst playing with a new interactive board, so it’s now an unexpected addition on my todo list for next week!

I don’t know if this will be helpful or just lead people down the wrong path, but I initiated a dns transfer on Cloudflare without actually going ahead and changing my name servers (so the domain shows as pending), but the option for DMARC is now available.. haven’t tested it yet, and not totally sure my the transfer won’t time out, but I may give it a shot..

Also interested in alternatives as we don't have our DNS in Cloudflare.. I can see the option for a domain I do have there, so know it's not an option for us unless we move dns over. Question: does anybody have a school.county.sch.uk domain in cloudflare? I remember it being a total pain to find anyone that would host ours when the LA cut us loose (but that was quite a while ago). The cheapest two I've seen so far are: https://dmarceye.com/#pricing https://www.uriports.com/pricing ..but no idea how good they are

The .pb file definitely seems wrong to be in a path like c:\Chrome\Default\profile.pb .. it should be saved to the path set in your roaming profile directory GPO setting (assuming it was modified recently and isn't some leftover from a test). Worth looking in http://chrome://policy to see what policies are actually being applied.. maybe you have a rogue GPO?

Well that’s ominous haha. How have you been updating - just letting the creative cloud app do it? Manually redeploying new versions? The whole reason I’ve started looking into this is that I found the CC app didn’t seem to be updating the apps unless users signed in and either manually updated or manually chose to automatically update (which seemed crazy to me, but it’s the behavior we see..)

I'm just starting to look into this myself, and am currently setting up an AUSST server but looks like that will require redeploying everything. On my hunt around before settling on setting up AUSST I did see this post about deploying a file to users that sets creative cloud to auto update but didn't try it as it's a few years old, presumably unsupported, and less controllable in terms of bandwidth. Let me know if you've found anything good!

I stuck with cheap and cheerful 365 licensing for years, then after a series of leadership changes at the school I watched consecutive heads burn money on projects that were immediately scrapped by the next head, and wondered why I was bothering when any fallout from my choices were going to land solely on me. I'd rather be moaned at for trying to spend too much money than have leadership blame me when something goes wrong because I tried to save money. Now all staff and governors have either A5 or A3+A5 Sec. The increase in licensing costs were significant, but I don't really care.. given the state of affairs here, nobody even noticed the increase.

Just as my final (somewhat bitter) update, the DSL caved and told me to immediately block Youtube 10 minutes before the students got in, giving students/staff no warning.. being a SEN school this caused absolute chaos, and I ended up taking a punch to the face for doing it with about 8 other staff also assaulted through the day. Good times.

To be honest I think it's going that way regardless of the filtering situation. I've happily worked here for nearly 20 years, though the school is currently lurching from total crisis to total crisis and it's hard to see a long term future here anymore (but hey, the IT is working). I'm feeling that it's time to retrain / polish up the CV and get out of education.

Yeah, that's the position I've stated to our DSL who would probably rather not have to take a side between me and the new leadership who just want it blocked without an explanation beyond "it's what other schools do".. but I suspect she'll side with the greater powers on this one.

Google (applied via our web filter (Smoothwall), and also the Google Chrome ADMX group policy because I'm paranoid). Us too. If this goes ahead I'm expecting a lot of laptops needing repair, along with urgent calls to unblock Youtube for a student because they're dysregulated. That said, I agree with others that have mentioned that Youtube's restrictions suck, but with monitoring, staff reporting, and a limited number of students, personally I think it's easier to manage on a "you've been bad on Youtube, no Youtube for you for 24 hours" basis.

New leadership has told me that other schools completely block Youtube for students, and wants it blocked for all students; at the moment we use Restricted:strict for up to year 9, and Moderate for 10-11. We also have safeguarding monitoring software installed to catch anything the filter misses. Admittedly we're SEN, but with the amount of educational resources on Youtube I find it a dubious claim, so thought I'd ask to see if I'm out of touch: Do you completely block Youtube for students? Appreciate any thoughts on the matter.

Is there any chance of SEND pricing, or is the price the price no matter what? We’re a small school with 10-20 students taking exams per year, so the exams officer balked at £250 and said we could keep using the free version.. I want to argue we should be paying and not having students use unsupported software but hoping some pricing flexibility would help.. tbh when I told everyone I thought they’d bite your hand off and expected them to just agree to pay, but I guess it’s a big psychological break from being free

One of our English teachers wants to use EWP for written coursework that will be created over a series of lessons rather than in a one-off exam. Does EWP remember save / remember the config that a file was created with when that file is reopened? e.g. if we used a shortcut to load the config file with /CONFIG:"etc." but in a later lesson the student opened the saved file directly rather than using the shortcut -> Open File, would the original config still apply?