Homeland

Thank Guys, I will connect to the ZD later and change the channel then tomorrow when I get in see what the laptops do, any increase can only be a positive.

OK am I missing something guys, I have checked the laptops with the new cards in that say they do a\b\g\n so a is 5ghz but I am only getting speeds of 130Mbps not 300Mbps. Is there a way of forcing it to use n I have checked the properties of the adaptor but there is nothing there to force it to use N ???

Latitude d531's running windows 7

were using WPA 2 at the moment and they seem to be working fine, it was the original cards that were pathetic.

Just had a check and this is the wireless card I recently purchased for the laptops; Atheros 5418 AR5008 AR5BXB72 Wifi Mini-PCI 802.11ABGN 300M As in the description it clearly states A,B,G and N and as A is only 5Ghz it must support that range so here’s hoping when the equipment arrives on Monday.

It may sound high but the current 2.4ghz hybrid solution handles it fine and costs less than £1500 for 25 AP's, my thought was by putting in Ruckus it would be even better but the initial test from Net Ctrl did not provide what was expected and I was extremely disappointed. As for spreading the laptops over both ranges I do understand what your saying and will have to have a look to see if they are capable of running at 5ghz but im sure they only run at 2.4ghz, and as they have only just been bought I don't think they would approve asking for them to be replaced again.

We did try the laptops on there own and there was no improvement, we have plenty of addresses and the ZD was running WPA2 with AES the same as our hybrid system at the moment.

About a month or so ago we evaluated a Ruckus wireless solution from Net-Ctrl, they kindly sent us a 1000 series ZD, 2 7363 AP’s and a 7982 AP. The configuration of the ZD seemed extremely straight forward and easy to do only taking around 10 mins at the most. I gave the ZD a static IP address then checked the ZD and AP’s were all on the latest firmware, after reading so much about Ruckus on here and it was within the budget I had left over I was very keen to try it and for it to work. Early indications were good with over 100 ipods and ipads connecting with ease over 2 AP’s in 2 classrooms next to each other, all looked good until one of the teacher got the laptop trolley out which consists of 30 Dell Latitudes running 54Mbps wireless G. They failed miserably taking around 20 mins to log on and then still not all of them connected, it was a major disappointment as with our bodged up hybrid solution the laptops never had a problem logging on which was proved when it was re-installed after the evaluation was sent back. The AP’s were powered by the mains thus eliminating POE problems and connected through to a3-Com GB switch, the school is an old building with walls made of concrete and steel as it was designed to be bomb proof, I realise people will mention interference but why does it not effect the hybrid solution we currently have ?? I still want Ruckus to succeed so I upgraded all the laptop wireless cards to 802.11N 2.4Ghz and have arranged another evaluation with CPLTD who are sending me a ZD and 7982 AP’s arriving on Monday. Does anybody have any configuration suggestions that might help i.e. should I disable the 5Ghz channel as I have no devices that run on this, can the controller issue its own DHCP if so should this be preferred to hopefully aid connection. We only run one SSID for the whole school and do not currently VLAN anything, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as if this fails again I won’t be investing in Ruckus at all.

Were looking at the hybrid laptop solution running Windows 7 pro so as long as they can see the wireless no need for the expense of emerge.

Were moving to smooth wall very soon and got a cracking deal for 3 years.

I know it may be a silly question but have you contacted backupassist about this you have paid for there software so i'm sure they will help.

No your not kidding, I will have a look at RM books thanks just been looking here as well; Micro Librarian Systems : Junior Librarian How does RM Books work then and does it work out expensive ???

I wonder if anybody can help, I sat down today reviewing the options we have for spending the budget we have been allocated and one item that was brought up was having a virtual library (VL). A couple of years ago due to increasing pupil numbers the school decided to get rid of the library to make way for a classroom and this was never replaced, now some of the staff are asking what are the possibilities of a VL. Has anybody gone down this route and created one or can pass on a little info as to how to proceed, it needs to be a VL that is available to Windows, Android and Apple devices so preferably something web based might be best, or is there any other options i.e. a supplier that can provide the service and has apps for the various devices.

I realise it might be a stupid comment but you said that you lost power to the server room at one time, have you tried deleting the user account and recreating it in case its beome corrupted for some reason ???

What format does everybody use for pupil logons ??? We are a primary school and over the years the LEA implemented a login system that comprises of alpha \ numeric code with the same for the password, as you can appreciate when your’ talking of 5 year old children just logging on can take the whole lesson. This logon the follows them all the way through to leaving primary school, I am planning on changing the structure of the logons in the summer to the following; Nursery – n (with no password) Foundation - r (with no password) Year 1 – y1 (with no password) Year 2 – Chrstian Initial followed by surname e.g. asmith (with no password) Year 3 upwards will have the same as year 2 pupils but with a password which will the follow them through to year 6. I did hear somewhere though that you were not allowed to use a pupils name as a logon has anybody else heard of this before I implement it ???

My only thought would be to look at an i5 or higher not an i3 we don't give the kids an i3.

I recently sent out a proforma for our teachers to help decide how to best allocate the funds that had been given to me for ICT, the results were collated in 3 categories, Essential for teaching Would like to assist teaching If money was no object When the results came in the one item everybody asked for was an ipad or 30, due to the cost and the quantity were talking about I am considering android possible the Nexus 10 ? Upon asking the staff why they needed an ipad the general answer was that they were not aware of other options, has anybody else used android in education ?? does it have similar apps to the ipad and what is your opinion of android should I look at something other than the Nexus.

That's what I would prefer to be honest, its amazing how much hand holding you have to do with teachers, will have to look into how this is done when it arrives unless someone has info on it already.

Just access them the school doesn't host anything like that, Is that what the certificate is for then to access hosted sites ?? I suppose I would need one for when I have Smoothwall installed so teachers can access via the VPN, but I am led to believe that Smoothwall will create its own cert for the VPN.

I understand that but we have never had any issue with https and as far as I am aware we have never purchased an SSL cert either.

Please excuse my ignorance but what is the SSL cert used for ???

The easiest way is to set it to 5Ghz and see what doesn’t connect then you will have your answer. You can easily move it back to 2.4Ghz later.

Where not actually buying it through Smoothwall as its cheaper through a third party and I think its one of those pay for the install when you order or that's it cenarios.

The £600 is the installation only the training is an additional £500.

We currently don't have anything special setup with the firewall etc but we have a situation within our LEA where they have washed there hands of us and we have to fend for ourselves, I am hoping that I can learn from the install and do other schools at a lesser rate hence bringing in finance for our school.