XiJ

Absolutely minimum would be In or r3, 8gb ram and ssd.

We use Mikrotik as a router and ubiquiti for network / wireless. This is a winning combination for schools. Low cost, high reliability, easy management.

I’ve had this in the past. Luckily the week after I spent half a day re patching a cab - so it was easier to find from that end. Our unifi switches manage this protection brilliantly tho. Not had an issue for years.

I use cloud flare dns. 1.1.1.3 their own wireless network. 1.1.1.2 on the main network. Obviously we use parent controls everywhere. But the number one we use is trust. We talk to our kids, let them know there’s bad things and encourage them to be careful not always come to us if there’s anything they feel upset / confused / unsure about. I appreciate this doesn’t always catch everything. Oh and I recently learned my y5 daughter can pick locks. Asked her where she learnt that. “YouTube”

Take a look at screen time. I don’t know what’s possible via local restrictions. I think you’ll struggle with remote lock without an mdm or being aggressive with the iCloud lost feature.

I am an Mac person but went from a 2012 intel MacBook Pro 15” (which was still fine for me - if a bit heavy and needed a new battery) to a dell XPS 13” for work. I love the xps on the road and regularly use it with 2 monitors at home. I decided to buy a M1 MacBook Air for ‘personal use’ (ie sat in the sofa with it). It’s light, great battery life and silent. I use it a lot more than I thought and always take it with me if I’m visiting family / holiday. - just so light to travel with.

Daft thing: if your power supply sufficient? You might get more info on the SM Bus through the device ID? I think these are normally driven by the chipset drivers.

I assume you’ve checked the laptop have a gigabit port (although I’d still expect more than 25Mbps!). Even now I’m still occasionally surprise by a 10/100 port on a modern laptop

Unifi here. We have dozens of schools using help, dozens more at consumer level and dozens more at SMB level. They are solid. The only time I had an issue with an i grade was two school with the dhcp issue a while ago. Since solved and updated several times again without issue. Compare to Ms updates id say unifi are rock solid too lol The only issue now is supply (which now seems to be switches rather than APs). All though the PoE models seem to be coming back.

I have some local logins that are scripted to joint a local share (no AD server). They desperately need mdm tbh. I would look at mdm - and how you can link that to any azureAD/on-prem/google for your auth.

I’ve used a script to deploy the Google drive exe. It works well with switches to allow certain options (drive letter etc iirc)

HP Laptop and desktop however seem to relatively plentiful. Just need some on-prem servers for a short while.

I’m after HP servers and sff hard drivers. No chance. Current estimates of of august. I’m doubtful it’ll be that soon

Our single test roll out so far has been a success. Once we got the correct smartPAC in (both support and us missed a crucial mis-type) its been great. Of course the proof will be when we roll out to all our schools. The multi school portal needs work - lots of info we can’t see in there and things.

I’d be considering selling those. And/or put in an ssd. Could even just run windows if you wanted. (I hate to say that tho!)

The whole crate thing seemed a bit ‘cruel’ to me but wife is an ex vet nurse. She assures me it gives them comfort and a safe place - which I could see actually. It made a huge difference. Although they were threatened to go back in it during the chewing table leg stage 🤣

From experience with ours it is just like having a new born hooman and they do get better. But similar you have to be strong and not let the puppy rule you. With our Collies we had a good play with them at bed time to try and tire them out. and then Into their cage overnight.

I have a Dell ultrasharp 27” with usb-c PD, Ethernet etc. it’s brilliant but not cheap. I have second older dell 1080p 23” as an additional screen if I need it. Powered from a dell XP 13”. Love it. Would love a 2nd ultra sharp for it! You do get some decent offered on Dells page though. Worth checking out.

Yep and we’ve already seen some iPads move to USB-C. But they are larger and you don’t tend to take them swimming [emoji3]. I think a wireless charging only iPhone is a way off yet tho.

I wonder if apple will drop a physical port altogether before the deadline.

My 8gb is just gone for what I do. I’ve never needed more. It seems MacOS / apple silicon requires less memory at first glance. (I haven’t done any serious research in that) The MacBook Air 2020 I have is just brilliant for my needs. Portable and light with plenty of battery life and power. I also don’t feel a need to upgrade. But yeah you’d think that multi monitor support would be a basic requirement really. Maybe it’s for the ‘pro’ level macs. I also have a work supplied 13 dell xps which is lovely. The MBA is quieter and just as powerful though. And it integrates with my iPhone etc so well

For personal use I have Bitwarden. And recommend it to my family. It’s easy to use, the browser plug is excellent and pretty much all of my passwords are now just a long string of generated characters. At work we’ve been through a few and used lastpass for a long time. Now we’ve moved systems and it’s integrated to IT Glue and a host of others.

Defo watching goodfellas tonight. So sad - and only 67

+1 for wooden spaces. Defo don’t plaster / fill to the floor though. I hate messing with skirting board tho [emoji3]

If you’re in the north of England I always recommend elementary Uk. All our schools have been happy with them. I used to source some sound stuff myself - but hated it and was by no means an expert.