monty

Email is now working for us and collecting from our POP box so perhaps it'll be working for you too apinnard. Just got to check now if we can access the servers from outside and then we'll be back and working again.

Synetrix have told me that there is a problem in northants for email receiving and sending and that it will be sorted by lunchtime and only to call back after then if we still have a problem. I'm not sure if we are just being fobbed off. and I cannot get into the portal site still, I've been told that webview usernames i.e. those starting with NHS are not the correct usernames. They will create me a portal username but only after april 1st. I did think that the protal only gave me access to documents but if it's filtering and that too then I really think I need it before April 1st as it may be filtering thats stopping us receiving email.

Looks like you have exactly the same problem as me. Kmount tried it for me and he could connect via telnet to it. I can't connect via telnet so we'll have to get back onto synetrix, maybe the 2 of us together can get them to sort it.

I can't get into any of the portal pages because the webview password we did have is not working and if I request a new password they want to email it which is why I need the password in the first place, because we cannot email.

my old webview password will not work with the new portal so I can't logon to check protocol level filtering, and synetrix can't give us a password. Phoned .ICT and they say that most schools in northants have no email. I don't know how true that is because some of yous seem to be getting on.

Why have they done this, I was quite happy with it as it was, mainly because it was working:D. I've changed the port to 995 and same problem. The mail server I'm trying to connect to is not embc's pop server but an outside one. Cannot telnet on either port. Any other ideas, perhaps it's been filtered?

Plain old port 110 for gathering the POP account, no internal firewall blocking that either. Should they be able to give me the email username over the phone? The woman I spoke to this morning didn't seem to have a clue and would only pass my information on.

I've not had a problem with the pop collector before, I use EFS to collect then pass onto the exchange server. I can only assume it has something to do with the change, but I have no idea what I can do to check this. I can locate the pop server through dns, just get the timeout when trying to pick up the pop box. The relaying thing probably is the username as we have never used one so it's not on the exchange server, I don't even remember seeing anything that said I had to put in a username and I've no idea what it could be. I've placed a call with synetrix and asked for password details for the portal, because I can't get on to see the documents without logging into the portal (webview was a saved password and I lost the written one in the move), according to synetrix I don't have a password and have never had one and they will try and call me back later.

I've got some problems with email this morning too. Can't send any email, they get returned saying client not authorised if I use the old SMTP relay host, and if I use the new one I get Relaying not permitted. Also we collect our school email from a pop box (legacy thing but it works fine normally), however our email server cannot now pick up form the pop box we just get a connection timeout. Oh yea and loads of complaints that staff couldn't access the servers over the weekend. Any one got an idea on the email bit though?

I've got an interview tomorrow

yea, Sylvan prometric, not got as many locations as well. I read that Pearson were not happy about it and had no indication that the exams were to be taken from them. I had a technician due to take an exam with Pearson, luckily they honoured all previously booked exams.

You can do the course yourself from books, you just have to make sure that you're disciplined enough to do it. Plus, I'm not sure if Microsoft have sorted it yet, but it is a different team who write the MCSE books from those that write the exams so sometimes you may come up against something in the exam that you haven't studied in the books. It's well worth getting a few old machines together and setting up your own little network that you don't mind breaking often. And if you do go for the exams remember that Microsoft will be looking for the 'Microsoft answer', not necessarily the easiest or quickest one.

Yep, group policy will do it for you. You can also use group policy to add in particular permissions. i.e. some programs need to allow students to write to the c: you can set permission to apply just to that folder in Computer Config>Windows settings>Security settings>file system

I always do my upgrades on the server and the only time it fails is when a user logs in during the upgrade. I now make a big issue of getting everyone out of sims, email to all staff, get office staff to ring all relevant people. Then check on SQL manager to see who is still in and VNC or use shutdown command to switch their computer off, they soon realise what is going on.

We use offline files for all our staff and apart from the occasional hiccup we don't experience many problems at all. It can be difficult to explain to the teaching staff that if they try to synchronise a large folder that it will take time. I've never had a user be able to access others offline files, the permissions stay the same as if they were still on the domain as the computer should cache the user credentials. Perhaps if it happened a year ago, the permissions were different at that time? you should still be able to check the permissions applied to the files in the offline folder. You can use group policy to control the local settings so that if the domain is not available or the computer is now standalone that there are still restrictions in force. Mine are set so that no one except admin can logon if the domain is not available. Check the settings in - computer conf>windows>security>local policies>

We went for a company called trapeze, excellent system. You can put in the plans of your building and it works out the placement of the AP's plus how much power each device needs. And it meant we could use vocera. This is the reseller we used http://www.wwsolutions.co.uk

The win2k8 exams are not out yet, and won't be till closer to the release date, any that are running now are preview courses, there are no win2k8 exams yet. 2003 would be a safe bet for now and they will likely allow an upgrade exam to 2008 when it is released the same way they did from 2000 to 2003. You are allowed winxp or Vista as the workstation part of the qualification, it's up to you to decide which is the most beneficial, as not many places use vista yet, but it may take off after SP1, mind you there's still places using 2000 or earlier. And Microsoft tend to allow the certification to run for a long time e.g. The NT4 MCSE, was going to be retired and decertify those that had it but has been reinstated. I've already done the MCSE on 2000, but I've just qualified as an MCT and to teach the 2003 courses I have to take everyone of the exams again so can't just do the upgrade. By the way I've found that some people think the Microsoft courses are easy until they do one themselves, you do have to work for them.

Quite correct, so just to back you up there are definitely new keys required for R2. You could download the R2 disk from microsoft a while back, don't know if you still can. Our keys were upgraded on the microsoft volume licence site when R2 was released.

Hopefully this means it will then be faster. I noticed they are just using sharepoint services, have they any plans to use the full sharepoint portal server? There were some things in portal server that looked quite good.

Thanks Grumbledook for trying to answer my questions and arguments. I'm sure you are looking for the best for all schools and perhaps we will have a clearer picture of the benefits once it is in use. Monty

Just to point out that most schools already have sharepoint licences, certainly all that were at the meeting yesterday did have, or they can be added to a school agreement, last quote was £210 for the server. CAL's are included in backoffice CAL and any additional for external access can be purchased at about £1.20 depending on reseller. Most schools already have on site support and any ISP will give an SLA on a managed/hosted server. If there is an SLA in place why has the speed issue not already been addressed? I think the proof that it can be done is shown by the fact that many schools already have a functioning sharepoint or VLE. Were there many technicians who have direct experience of sharepoint consulted on this, or was it all done at a management level? Sorry it sounds like I'm having a go, I'm really trying hard not to.

I thought it might, I'll have to find it, left the card at home today. By the way is that picture of you? monty

Before you read this, please note I am not against VLE's at all, but I do want my school to get the best it can for all areas of the school. So I'm not getting at anyone, I'm just puzzled really at the decisions made and the costs involved. I still can't see many instances where you would want someone from another site to access yours and the fact that it is external and does not use the students own document area or internal email stops collaboration within the school which is eminently more important. We also lose the ability for admin staff to collaborate effectively because this solution only encompasses teaching staff and students, the school is bigger than that and needs something that ties us all together rather than puts in more separation. No problems at all with free tools, I was talking about having to pay for something that we can get for free and being told that we are getting something special which this is not. And digital workshop, who produce Opus, will do a deal if a few schools get together, we did one with them a few years ago. I don't profess to know anything about NCC funding, but a managed server at an ISP does not cost too much even with sharepoint already installed and it's likely that this is what NCC's solution is doing. We did have a look at creating a school sharepoint, encompassing a VLE last year and were quoted £8000-£9000 for a professional solution, once created can be used with any number of schools. Even a couple of techs to support are not expensive. Comparing those prices to the 300+ schools that would be paying for NCC's current solution is so much more cost effective for NCC to create their own. If we work it out at secondary school prices of £7-£9 per person, we could be looking at between £9000 and £23000, band 3 or 4 schools together and you have full time technicians looking after a managed solution that fits the schools, is cheaper, and can provide more storage space. Can NCC not see that they are not buying any product, they are buying a layout, which anyone can create, and server hosting an a high price. I could understand it if was 1 schools managed VLE, but a whole county choosing it is just not sensible. Thats the problem with a solution you do not manage yourself, and how long are they going to take to fix it? Most schools will already have scorm compliant resources which could be shared. I know there are difficulties getting teachers to share, I don't understand it myself techs share resources and information all the time and it makes life much easier. Yea we could add these resources to our own VLE. My biggest concern is financial, and what we actually get for the money. Why do we still not have a definite pricing structure when we are expected to start using it in a few weeks? My school has been seduced by the free years usage, I do not want us to get stung with a big bill because we have started using this VLE, even the free years usage just seems like a bit of a snare. It feels like SLT's have been targeted and techs pushed to the side because it's known that we would have arguments that need solid answers. I don't really know what your position is GrumbleDook and how much input you have had to this. I'm willing to be convinced, but I need, and speaking to other schools, we all need a lot more information about this. Teaching staff are more easily swayed by a demonstration because they haven't seen anything like it before and dare I say a little ignorant of what is available. I know what a sharepoint front end looks like so I need to know different things about this VLE. Specifically cost,space,training and support and to be honest I don't think we are asking too much to be told, any company that we get in would be asked the same questions. Have a nice day anyway and I'm a nice guy really. Monty

Have a look at digital workshop they have a product called opus pro which is very powerful and very easy to use and is SCORM compliant.

I saw the NCC solution today and I'm not very happy about it. It is just sharepoint, nothing else, even the creation tools were the free ones supplied by microsoft. I can only see that we are expected to pay for external hosting. But with only 2Gb provided we will inevitable need more storage space and no one is telling us how much that will cost. So from next march we'll have a minimum of £6000 plus storage fees on top, which could be anything. Collaboration is hardly worth mentioning, each school has their own site with their own resources, it would only benefit students who have to move between schools, but they still have to log on to the portal. Hosting sharepoint internally they can go straight on. Speed was also an issue which we witnessed during the demo and from comments from other schools, if it's slow now, what will it be like when the whole county is on? NCC should have produced their own, cheaper more manageable and faster. Or even better I think the schools should get together and create their own, several schools banding together, sharing resources would be far better financially and benefit the students and teachers too, then schools wouldn't be creating the same resources which are available in another school already. Some people in schools tend to forget that sometimes the most expensive option is not the best and just because everyone else is doing it doesn't mean its right. It is worth considering all the options however I cannot recommend NCC's solution to my school.