FragglePete

Sorry to drag up an old-ish thread, but felt it best not to create a new one... We're just putting the final touches to our Bodet install we're doing this summer. Just wanted to know what 'sounds' other tannoy schools are using to alert start of school, end of break, lesson change, etc. The Bodet system has obviously come with some all pre-installed, but I'm not convinced any of them 'fit' our school. Has anybody got any suggests or be willing to share their 'sounds'? TIA Pete

Appreciate the responses. Thought as much. The only small fly in the ointment is our IPCS App for telephones as some staff have the App on the phone so they can access their desktop on their mobile. Do have external (and internal) DNS setup for those, but firewall is blocked for the Port(s) going out - so might be easier to make a firewall change than mess about. Calls will go out and then back in, but is that so much an issue? Again, appreciate the feedback. Pete

Same here, web and desktop access appears borked! Just as we've finally got this place to migrate to Teams! Doh! Pete

Hi all, Just re-thinking my ACL list on our Core Switch while upgrading our Wi-Fi network to Cambium. I have two SSID's setup for BYOD (Staff and Students), one SSID for Guest and then another for School Owned devices. School Owned is Pre-Shared Key, whereas the BYOD are utilisiing 802.1x with RADIUS - this is working well. Currently for all these 'untrusted' devices the DHCP server is giving out the DNS address of our ISP - not our internal ones. The ACLs currently block access to all other VLANs so relatively simple as they don't really need to touch anything on the main network. Best approach? Or should I tweak the ACLs to allow DNS lookups from our local DNS Server(s) which makes the ACLs a bit more complicated. Pete

Done it this way for now. Ideally, their app needs to be submitted to Sophos (and other well know AV Vendors) to get it's unique signature so AV Apps know about it. Ideally that should be done by any self respecting software developer. Oh.... wait.... Pete

Just had this as well - kicked out a couple of students after they had entered answers to two questions. Moved them on to new computers and logged back in and thankfully those two questions had their answers saved. Have added a Global Exception in Sophos Cloud - thankfully only happened on a couple of computers, but it could have been a disaster. Pete

Just been informed we're using this again next week for an exam - so looking at the latest version, getting it updated if need be, etc. The new download has changed Publisher details - which made Applocker block the application. They changed the 'CITY' part of their publisher details to RIGBY from BRADFORD - Applocker said... "NO!" Fixed that, but now on the first run it pulls down an update and insists on being restarted - even though this is meant to be the latest and greatest version.... This. Software.!!!! Pete

If I could make Unifi Network work through RM/SWGfL then I would. All the change requests, e-mails back and forth with RM could never get the Unifi stuff to work. Their stuff doesn't like Double NAT-ing which is essentially how RM/SWGfL works. If someone has got it working, then let me know! Pete

Sure, his details as follows: Frank Quattromini Avanti Power Repairs Ltd +44 (0) 1189-820 911 www.avantipowerrepairs.co.uk Give him a call, he'll talk for hours though and certainly knows his stuff. Turned round our repair in about three days. Pete

I'm upgrading my current fleet of HP Procurve switches to Unifi - supply of the devices is a lot better now, but only PoE versions. Gen2 stuff is better than the previous especially PSU issues - but, I've managed to find a guy that repairs the PSU of these devices - just had a couple of US-8-150W repaired and returned - cost £95 per device. Always had Aruba or HP Procurve, but recent supply issues (40+ week lead time for a new CX6100) has forced me to look elsewhere. Management is a breeze once you have your network and profiles setup - I'm running it on a Gen2 Cloud Key. Would still keep my core as a HP/Aruba device though - our 5406zl just plods along quite happily. Pete

I do a yearly disaster recovery exercise. Rebuild the Domain Controllers on a set of old servers we have, completely disconnected from the main network and once I've verified a working domain restore the SIMS server next. Using Veeam here also and have the steps documented within our disaster recovery plan. Pete

I have a couple of CX6100 switches, and yeah, it took a bit to get used to the different OS on these switches compared to the 25xx/26xx/etc series that I was used too. Found I had to use a mixture of both the CLI and Web Interface to get what I wanted to do, but I on a few occasions wiped out a VLAN config too easily for my liking on the web interface. But, I've given up on them. The ones I have will still stay in use and seem to be doing a good job, but their constant price increases and lead times just got ridiculous so I've moved away to Ubiquiti and these seem to be doing well. My core is an aging 5406zl and I'll still want to keep the core on Aruba when I come to replace it just because the Layer 3 for us works. Pete

Not yet using it to do folder redirection, relying of GPOs to do that still at the moment for staff. Also with students, using the %OneDrive% variable method in the GPO for redirection of folders. But, still experimenting with the v5 script which can do redirection if need be. We're seeing these 'mappers' as a transition really - people are used to using a local map drive and this gives then something they are used too, but as we're migrating their faculties to Teams people are getting used to working there instead - it's the old 'your files used to be here, but they are now over there'. I find working directly on larger files directly on a mapped drive a bit laggy when saving as opposed to a link placed in your OneDrive folder. But, it's really just this place as they don't like too much change at once so we're just doing a slow transition - I know some NM would just do a cut over migration. Pete

Yes - very similar to IAM Cloud - but without the need to poke around with registry entries and keys. All done 'in the cloud' based on Azure Groups. It manages OneDrive Client updating, monitors (and clears) disk space if needed, will look after Folder Redirection. You can assign drive letters to map directly to individual sharepoint libraries or aggregate them all together into one drive - which is what we're doing - one drive letter and each faculty team appears within that drive letter as a subfolder. It'll only let you access that faculty's team sharepoint if your a member of the Team. We only use it for Staff - which keeps the price low. Students we just use the Liebensraum script and like you, introduced this for new Intakes only, our current Year 7 & 8 have this whereas the other years just have the standard OneDrive Client along with OnPrem home drives but we set the OneDrive as the 'default' location for storing stuff. We may look to just migrate these year groups over this Summer regardless but we're finding most are using OneDrive anyway. We're trialed IAM Cloud and was impressed how quickly it would map a drive letter to the drive, the Liebensraum script is also pretty quick too - beating the official client - BCX Cloud Connect is not too far behind, but what it can do with the Sharepoint Libraries and being able to configure it on the web we found really useful so opted for that. I think a newer version of IAM Cloud is going to offer something similar they were testing when we spoke to them but that was a fair few months ago now. Pete

For the past two year intakes have used the OneDrive mapper script with redirected docs, pics, etc. It works well and had no complaints. Just that first login takes slightly longer to get it mapped. The new v5 version I've been testing seems pretty good also and is beating the OneDrive client in getting their O: drive mapped. We also use BCX Cloud Connect, but have restricted this to staff only so we map a drive letter to SharePoint libraries/teams. It's ok, just wish it would work quicker. Staff seem happy, but this approach does show its weakness on PCs that don't have a local profile for them as it takes a bit of time, but PCs that they use on a regular basis it's not so much a problem. Pete

I use a guy called Nick Selmes. He run his own company but used to contract for Protel who we used to use but go to Nick direct now. He's based in Swindon but works all over, PM if you want his contact details. Pete

I'm upgrading my aging HP ProCurve edge switches at the moment from 1Gb Uplinks and 100Mb to the Desktop, to 10Gb Uplinks and 1Gb to the Desktops. Have noticed an improvement on a few things, but definitely noticeable during MDT. However, did want to keep to Aruba switches but prices of these just started to rocket over the last couple of years and lead times have been horrendous (40 weeks+). Bitten the bullet and now using Ubiquiti Gen2 Pro switches as their stuff availability is much better, but only their PoE stuff - non PoE stuff seems non-existent still. And their 48 Port PoE switches are so deep which is causing a few issues on some of my cabinets around the school. Generally though, they're working well. We have an aging 5406zl as the core, which I'm upgrading the modules with 2nd hand kit to get the 8 x 10Gb modules - this still soldiers on and the modules can be used in the newer refreshed 5406 switch for when I update the core in the future. Still want to keep the core with Aruba. Biggest difference we've notice is specifying a minimum of i5 (or Ryzen 5) instead of i3 that we used to do - initial logons and mapping of drives to OneDrive, Sharepoint, etc just so much quicker. Our internet connection is 1Gbp/1Gbps and some of our servers do go back to the core with 10Gb links. Pete

This is a major problem for Amazon in general at the moment - it's why I now no longer purchase anything of high value from Amazon. Reported on various news outlets: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-65310418 Pete

Something thats caught me out in the past, if using Hyper-V ensure the Time Synchronization services are turned off for the VM. This sort of forces the VM to use the host on board clock, and if this is out then you'll get issues. I had this several years ago when the clocks changed with clients winding their clocks back. Switched this off, set the PDC Emulator to get an external time source, the other DCs then look at the PDC for clock syncs and then all your clients sync themselves from any of the DCs at boot time, etc. Pete

osTicket. Been using it for a couple of years. Had to update it recently because of the email authentication changes Microsoft implement - bit fiddling getting oAuth2 working but got there in the end. We have a front end where users can use the AD Login to raise and see their tickets, or send an e-mail to a specific address. Have it running on a Windows Server with IIS. Pete

I can echo the comments regarding the Bett Connect tables. Me and my assistant were talking to a vendor and got told off for having more than two of us at a table. However, go watch the BETT Highlight videos of YouTube and they show quite clearly multiple people huddled around a table! For me it was useful, primarily because I have a lot of projects on the go which required talking to a lot of vendors. Free lunch on behalf of Arbor at the Tappa Tappa restaurant was most welcomed and again, really helpful and useful. Impero should hang their head in shame, as while we were looking at another stand and looking at some literature they forced a leaflet in front on us and said we should check this out. While on somebody else's stand. Poor show. Not the first time they've been aggressive at BETT. Each year, we try to work out the overall theme, be it VLE's, MIS's, etc. This year, obviously a lot of e-Sports with some very flash PCs and Chairs, which obviously very expensive, but, still trying to work out how that would be relevant for Education overall. Pete

We managed to see the Arbor demo of their 'Ask Arbor' system yesterday - and although made clear it's a very early it did look quite impressive with what they showed. Essentially within a Student Profile page click the Ask Arbor button - then proceeded to type just a couple of sentences along the lines of ...'Doing very well but can sometimes be chatty in classroom' - it then proceeded to produce 4 paragraphs of detailed information from the data of each subject for that student based on the initial 'seed' which was well written and could pass as a perfectly good 'report' or individual progress update of the student. A question was asked if there was an additional cost for this and they did believe they're would be which would allow a certain number of 'credits' - as each individual question does involve a small cost with OpenAI. Again, early days and very open to the fact it's still all in development, nothing decided yet, etc, etc. Pete

Earliest memories were of the 'rich' kids who had the original Atari VCS at home. Space Invaders, etc. But for me, getting hold of a ZX81 is where it all started. 3D Monster Maze - even now it's a wonder how they crammed that into 16K who knows! Pete

Just had the e-mail from the 'adjudicator' after applying for the break clause. It's been rejected. I'm going to try and remain professional here, but, F*** you ESS, F*** you ParentPay Group and F*** you Montague Private Equity Group - while I remain working in Education I'm going to ensure we remove anything to do with these companies and ensure we never use anything to do with them in the future. ....and breathe...... this is a safe space right? Pete

We used to use this many moons ago... https://www.zu3d.com/education/zu3d-in-education/ But, obviously PC only. Pete Edit: Just noticed, same company now as the Cloud Stop Motion.