catch21

Well this is all about being prepared and managing people and their expectations as well as the cisco switches etc. I don't limit myself to conversations nowadays, everything significant gets written down, usually in an email and a copy filed in my SYA file and everybody should have a "save-your-a**" file. But if I did have a conversation it would be well-prepared and go something like: 1) We have no server redundancy. 2) If the server goes down the consequences are.... 3) The cost for providing a redundant solution is.... 4) What do you want to do?

I act as the Network Manager at a medium size Primary School (400+ children). We haven't bothered with redundant servers. We are running the latest version of 2008 having upgraded from 2003. The old 2003 server was powered up and connected for a while but only offered load-sharing - which proved unnecessary from a performance perspective - and not true standby capability so I turned it off and have successfully been crossing my fingers ever since. Since we are not running air traffic control at Heathrow or the signalling at Clapham Junction and we are seriously strapped for cash, redundancy in the server side of the network is a luxury we are doing without.

There's good manufacturers and vendors all over the net. Which to choose? Ring 'em up and talk to them, see if you're dealt with like a human. I had a very specific need for a specific size and the only one I could find was from Prism. They were great to deal with, but like all vendors only any good to you if they have exactly what you want, if not, move on.

Its not the connection to a UPS is it?

I did ours. Piece of cake. Really, it really was a piece of cake. Get it planned first, your IP addresses etc. Walk in the park. Can't think of any others.

Rather than make a big expensive mistake, our IT tech bought one of each to try (small expensive mistake!). Trial ongoing, results awaited, I don't know what she ended up buying in the end.

I use Mint 14 on an old Dell DS server and it rocks.

I've a little Cisco router that isnt designed to be rack mounted but in the rack is the best place for it. Is there a universal mount kit anyone can recommend please? I've gone to a lot of trouble (and expense) to tidy the cabinet up and make it look a bit more professional so I don't want to leave it lying in the bottom of the cabinet or sitting on a shelf in there.

I'm not sure I understand any of this. Why hard wire classrooms these days? We are now fully wireless (with the exception of servers and controllers) with one AP between two classes. How come your wireless doesn't support laptops or vice versa? Anything that old needs putting in the skip, no?

Mine have fixed IPs out of the DHCP pool range, work fine.

Have you looked into BT Infinity? Filtering. This is the big one. You'll need a box (pick one) and presumably a licence to keep it upgraded. Don't pay £6500 a year if you don't have to (I'm looking at the same thing).

Eh? 14 netgear access points and 2 switches £4k? Someone's next Mercedes Benz payment is due, hope you don't mind paying it? This isn't a technical issue, it's all in the mind at this point. For you, this is going to depend how much bottle you've got, and how far out of your comfort zone you're therefore prepared to go.

Up to now I wouldn't have heard a word said against Ruckus but with a recent unresolved problem the jury is still out. I feel that consumers' expectations could be managed a little more realistically in the pre-sales phase. I've bought from a variety of vendors and suppose I should have learnt to take the promises with a pinch of salt by now.

I inherited a DS solution running VGA about 20m over cat5e. Rubbish solution for today but it works.

Yes, my Ruckus 7363 APs too. They only pull 4W in normal mode but are spec'd I think at 15.9W. You do have to take into account start up load which is often considerably more, so I suppose there is headroom. Anyway, I'm glad I selected the 300-10MP and not the 10P. I run 2 x 300-10MP with 6 number APs on each.

You have to get a grip on your network. You need to know which cable goes where. I'd suspect its a cabling fault or not-up-to-spec cable. I've got 12xRuckus APs powered off 2xSG300-10MP. Incidentally, is the SG300-10P handling all of the APs? I didn't think it was spec'd to do that? Try changing a couple of connections on the switch, see if the power-down fault follows the change or sticks with the port.

The router itself has two IP addresses, one on the WAN port which is correct for the ethernet it connects to, the one on the LAN ports in the same scheme as the DHCP address range it is giving out, so yes I believe these are OK. I've two patch cables to the router, one for the LAN from one port on VLAN A, and one for the WAN from a switch port on VLAN B. The problem seems to be solved when the two connections go to a physically different switch. I've turned off spanning tree and GVRP.

Small update: As a flat out-of-the-box switch it does indeed work (must have been late last night). It is when I try to split the ports between two vlans that something must have been mis-configured, although I can't see what it might be. Is there any reason the 300 series switch (in layer 2 mode) might not like to talk to the router?

...but I can from a hub? I've a Cisco RV042G with an IP address of .20 on its LAN interfaces. I've two desktops running Linux with static IP addresses of .80 and .81 I've a Cisco 300 switch, out-of-the-box flat plug-and-play configuration. When the two desktops are plugged directly into the router LAN ports they can ping the router and each other. When the two desktops are connected into a hub which then has one connection to a router LAN port they can still ping each other and the router. The odd thing is, when the hub is replaced by the switch the desktops can ping each other but not the router. Hub works, switch doesn't. With the hub I get ongoing routing to the WAN and therefore internet, with the switch I don't. Can anyone shed any light on what might be the configuration problem please?

Red, anything important, Ruckus ZD, firewall Orange, ISL Yellow, WAP host PoE switches to core Green, PoE to WAPs Blue, digital signage Grey, usually single host connections, PCs etc Black, servers directly connected not patched i.e. cache server, windows server

...and whilst I acknowledge this is quoted out of context, contains the message precisely.

I guess a sensible and constructive way to move forward is to understand how much your wifi equipment is likely to cost and work out what the consultancy charge is on top of that as a percentage. I agree, 10% is not unreasonable for busy management. 25% is probably not unreasonable for nervous management.

I'd say a consultant, as well as understanding Meru vs Ruckus, HP vs Cisco, small business vs enterprise, etc etc etc, should also understand their clients' needs and budget. If you're going into the financial sector, fill your boots. If you're going into government defence procurement, pharmaceutical, multi-national electronics giants, fill your boots. If you're planning a wifi to carry the signalling at Clapham or air-traffic control at Heathrow then fill your boots and stack up on professional indemnity insurance at the same time. But we are talking schools. Institutions with next to no money believe it or not. Anyone in this sector disagree!? Are the classrooms covered? Is the staffroom covered? Library? Common areas? Offices? I think anyone wanting to charge a school £750 a day for consultancy is like a window cleaner charging a pensioner £50 for their one-bedroom ground-floor flat. £750 a day? Understand your clients' needs and budget. I know dinner ladies who could do the job.

Yes it is, its utterly ridiculous for deciding where to put a few access points.

Nothing surprises me with LAs any more. I know people within school management who would rather spend £5000 on an energy survey than energy-saving measures, and then have no budget left for energy-saving measures. You know one amazing thing we were told? "You can put up a wind turbine." Yeah, I know we could. We honestly didn't need to spend £5000 to figure that one out. If the LA "take control", if you can call it that, just don't get too stressed about it. You never know, you might end up with a decent wifi system.