FragglePete

I could tell ya, but I'll have to kill you! Sorry, no seriously security was taken extremely seriously. Except those idiots who loose laptops, which I'm a bit perplexed by as we had clear direction that all mobile devices had to have some sort of encryption product installed. Our site used Flagstone which was a hardware encryption product which rendered the hard drive data useless if password was entered incorrectly more than three times. As for networks, well, all MoD networks are seperated depending on classification, but generally the 'less secure' were all hooked to the Internet centrally by an Internet Gateway Service run by various agencies. If it was internet connected in anyway, it had to go through this service, no ifs, no buts. Part of the reason for me leaving is I had no freedom to do what I wanted to do. We couldn't just add a 'server' for a particular task without months of waiting and costing and then just being told 'No!' by EDS. Stuff that! ;-) It wasn't a 'flash' demo, but an actual live demo running from Capta's website which was essentially just a Sharepoint Server connected to a demo SIMS database. I find the Capita website slow anyway, but generally the guts of what we needed seem to run ok. I'm still investigating. Yeah, I laughed when they mentioned July. Pete

Thanks for the info. All useful stuff atm. Just been told that they want this up and running by July now for 'staff training'!!! Teach me to show my Line Manger that demo; she went off and showed it to other SMT members and now they're getting all excited!!! Pete

Well, this is turning into an interesting discussion. I've come from a MoD background were they still keep in place seperate networks depending on the security level. Here, the networks aren't really seperate, just two seperate Domains existing on the same infrastructure. Either way does not bother me at present. Other Schools in this area are moving over to Single network structures, whereas I hear that some schools are wanting to get back to two networks. Anyway, the original topic of discussion was Electronic Registration, and with some more investigating I'm impressed with the SIMS Online Learning Gateway demonstration which really does what we need; Access to Electronic Registration via a web interface (ie. Sharepoint). We've still got to look at a mobile/off-line solution but this is looking promising. Let the debate continue..... ;-) Pete

Seeing as everybody seems a friendly lot here, need a few opinions on a setup I've inherited. New in the post so bear with me. One network infrastructure, two seperate Domains one for Admin and one for Curric. No trusts between the two. Simple so far. Curric. network has DHCP server dishing out IP addresses which is being picked up by all machines, except Admin PC's have DNS Server IP address set manually to the DNS server of the Admin Domain. Seems a bit messy to me, as the Domain suffix is incorrect for these machines that it's getting the curric. network. Still, things seem to work, however..... DNS servers in each domain have a secondary zone set for each other DNS zone. I always under the impression that you do this for contiguous domains, not completely seperate domains. Am I missing something here? Can't see why if having two seperate domains why any sort of zone transfer would need to be happening. Any ideas why its like this? Just seems to go against what I learnt a long time ago. Playing on my mind that I've missed something as to why the previous guy would do this (although he was dismissed from the post). I'm want to keep them as two seperate domains, remove all this extra DNS stuff which is not helping anything at the mo and just put the Admin PC's on fixed IP addresses. Pete

I can seen I've re-ignited a debate here. I can see the benefits of a single domain, but also like having the two which has just been highlighted in a recent 'security' incident here. A number of files and folders were renamed by someone with the Staff area of the Curriculum network. Obviously a pupil having access to a staff login. Not a major issue, but if it was access to the SIMS area....... I've run a script to expire all staff passwords on the curriculum network to ensure that all staff reset their passwords and will send out a gentle reminder that pupils are not to use their logins and must protect their passwords. As always, the weakest element here is the human element. Pete

We had an issue with Flow Control knocking out our Internet Connection. Our router to the outside world is a Cisco 2950 managed by our provider. One of the switches had Flow Control switched on a number of ports and this was causing the Cisco Port to 'trip out'. Had me banging my head against the wall for a while, but when I switched flow control off all the problems went away. Pete

Thanks for your replies. Glad I stumbled across this little forum! Some of the ideas suggested have mirrored what I've considered already. I've had experience in setting up a Windows TS Solution many moons ago and am favouring this idea; getting a new server on Admin network with lots of RAM and getting them to use that to log into the admin network from the curriculum network. The single domain solution is also something I'm liking; simple and cheap to do but there is still a faction of people who prefer to keep the two seperate 'networks', and I've heard about some Schools wanting to get back to the two networks from one. I've been seeing things about 'Web Parts' for SIMS; don't know if I'm barking up the wrong tree, but a web based solution that connects into SIMS where the teachers can access securely through a web browser would be ideal. Am I correct or incorrect in my assumption? I'll look at PARS, something else to have a read up on. Cheers all ;-) Pete

Hi All, I'm new in post at a Secondary School, taken charge of a Network that is in a real mess but its going to be fun to sort out. This is a new sector for me working in Education, so be gentle, but I have an issue that is playing on my mind..... I've been instructed that we must have Electronic Registration that is to be done twice a day in place by Sept '08. We're using SIMS.net here on the Admin network, (I should really say Domain because it's not two physical networks but just two seperate Domain's one for Admin and one for Curriculum). Teachers need to do Registration around the school electronically, but of course this is all on the Admin network. Teachers laptops and classroom PC's are on the Curriculum network. One infrastructure, but the device is either configured for Admin or Curriculum if that makes sense. So, we're trying to get a Capita rep in to talk to us about solutions, but I've got a few ideas bouncing around my head to solve this issue . I'd appreciate any input or suggestions from you guys and gals that could point me in the right direction. Many thanks Pete