Gibbo

We often hear about techies roles in UK schools, I'd be interested to hear from our US colleagues a bit about their schools, the age range taught, what kind of equipment you use, what kind of problems you encounter and so on.

Cheers guys, some good feedback there which has narrowed down my search immensely.

Hmm, didn't want to be paying £90+ though. What about the 9600GSO? 768Mb of RAM and a bit cheaper.

Could someone recommend a graphics card? I've just got a new PC with onboard graphics, so I'll obviously be wanting to disable that memory stealer. I'm not a big gamer, just the occasional bit of FS and GTA, so I thought a 512Mb PCI-E card would be sufficient. But which one? I'm looking to spend about £40. The PC's mobo has nForce on it so would it be better going with Nvidia? I've used them for the past several years and always been happy with the output. I'll also probably be buying from Scan as it's just down the road from me. Thanks All.

Is anyone having problems syncing Smart Notebook files (both .NOTEBOOK and .XBK) files with Microsoft Synctoy? We have a local user account set up on our staff laptops. If they create a Notebook file at home and then try and sync it when logged on at school, it fails with an ACCESS DENIED error. It doesn't seem to be a Synctoy issue because other files and folders sync perfectly.

And you thought it was just the Daily Mail with the shock headlines! Pakistan Daily May be NSFW, depending on your feelings for the four letter C word.

Useful if you're experiencing problems with a page: Down for everyone or just me?

Thanks for the advice chaps. I've been removing it manually from the laptops but was concerned something in GP was re-creating it when the laptop is connected. The irritating thing is my techie doesn't know what he did to cause this issue.

I'm finding mobsync.exe /logon appearing on quite a few staff laptops under HKLM - Software - Microsoft - Windows - Current Version - Run ..ever since I found my techie messing with offline files on a teachers laptop without my knowledge. I've got all offline files disabled in group policy but it seems that this one is getting through. Can this be disabled in group policy, and if so, where? TIA

Reported on BBC this morning: BBC NEWS | Technology | Serious security flaw found in IE Users of the world's most common web browser have been advised to switch to a rival until a serious security flaw has been fixed. The flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer could allow criminals to take control of people's computers and steal their passwords, internet experts say.

Update: Didn't work. Event error 1054 appeared at 01:38, 08:39 and 10:02 - so not as frequent but still occurring.

RESOLVED (hopefully). I implemented KB948496 patch and also made the following changes in the server's GP: Group policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Net Logon > DC Locator DNS Records - ENABLED Group policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Group Policy > Group Policy Slow Link Detection - ENABLED and set to 0 I've had no errors in the logs since I made the changes at noon yesterday. For the record this is a Proliant ML115 running Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition.

This server isn't running DNS, but the server which does is fine. All forward and reverse records to this server are fine. The problem is that this event error is so vague. I've spent the morning Googling results and there are issues relating to Gigabit NICs, DC locator DNS records, slow link detection, the AMD dual core drivers and several other things.

An update on this: It's been logging the error in the Application Event log every five minutes. But earlier this morning it still reported "Security policy in the Group policy objects has been applied successfully." (event 1704). I'm not sure where to go from here. It's not a driver issue as the problem has disappeared on the other server. But it doesn't seem to be a DC issue as it's performing it's role perfectly in logging on computers (as far as I can tell). The other DC isn't reporting a problem and the SYSVOL folder is replicating between the two perfectly.

I've noticed this event log error coming up on two Proliant ML-115s running the 64 bit version of Windows Server 2003: Event: 1054 Windows cannot obtain the domain controller name for your computer network. (An unexpected network error occurred. ). Group Policy processing aborted. I noticed it this morning about 9am and rebooted. At 14:57 event 1704 was logged: Security policy in the Group policy objects has been applied successfully. and then immediately afterwards event 1054. I mention this is happening on two servers. I did a bit of research and found this on another forum: Install the AMD Dual Core drivers. AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core Processor Driver for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 Version http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/utilities/amdcupsetup.exe I did this and updated the HP NIC drivers and the problem has disappeared on the other server. The problem server is also a DC, do you think this has anything to do with it? I should point out that it's otherwise performing fine as a DC and logging users on without a problem. The SYSVOL replication is fine and there are no errors that I can see relating to any DC issues. It's just that this error is filling up the event log.

To be fair to them why should they accept MS Word documents? An RTF will open up in just about anything. A PDF is a universal format too and suitable for the job. I hate it when people send me .DOC or .DOCX attachments when it's not a file I will be editing. If its the same course my school does the exam board provides an excellent guide to building a "Moderator's Workstation" - a computer with the same software set up that they will have at the examination board. Our pupils can use the machine and test out their work on that. If the school aren't following the guidelines it's nobody's fault but their own.

Staff at a Lincolnshire school have apologised after a whole class failed a computer and technology course. An exam board rejected work by 29 pupils of Cotelands School, Ruskington, as it was sent in the wrong format. BBC NEWS | England | Lincolnshire | School error means 29 fail course

Thanks for all your help guys. I've manually removed the faulty DC from the domain with KB216498, and removed all entries in DNS and DHCP relating to it. I've shut down and restarted a number of random client PCs around school and so far they've logged on ok - no delays and picking up the two "good" DCs. The real test will be Monday morning when everyone logs on!

No, I'm following this guide on the faulty server. How to remove data in Active Directory after an unsuccessful domain controller demotion Should I follow these steps on a good DC to remove all entries to the failed DC? When the faulty DC is removed from the network it's taking the clients ages to log on but only partially runs the GP - they get some settings but are getting access to the C drive.

Grr, manual removal isn't working either "Error: The connected server will not remove its own metadata" It's not a problem to keep the machine off the network for good. Can anyone suggest any good instructions for removing the entries for this server from the good remaining DCs?

Well, the machine is not connected to the network, but when I try and demote it I get the error "The operation failed because a domain controller could not be contacted or the domain that contained an account for this computer." It suggests I make the machine a member of a workgroup then rejoin it to the domain before retrying. Step 7 of this article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc755937.aspx

The only thing which concerns me is removing the DC role while the machine is not on the network. I would have thought having it connected to the network would notify the other DCs that the server is being demoted? Edit: Once again, I find out information after I post. From: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc755937.aspx

Right, I'm fairly confident I can remove it. Just to confirm, I do NOT tick the box "This server is the last domain controller in the domain"?

The faulty server is only running IIS and as a DC. Once I demote it I'll have two other domain controllers remaining.

Just found a bit more info. By going to AD on a good domain controller, right clicking the domain name and then clicking "Operations Masters", all the entries point to a "good" working server.