cheredenine

I've got a user here who gets an odd looking message pop up when she is trying to cut and paste text within Word. I've so far been unable to get a screen grab of it (which is a concern to start with!), though i've not had chance to fiddle with it properly yet. Anyway - the error message is a fairly wide line and a bit of asian characters, with one clickable option button. The text on the button reads 'Okay', but it looks a little odd compared to normal windows text, a little too bold. Couldn't see anything untoward running in taskmanager, but have left it running an anti-virus sweep anyway. Anyone seen this before and know what it is/how to stop it?

I'm a bit annoyed by this - i was sure i'd been told i needed only enough CALs for Facility Admin users and one for the ePortal server, but reading this thread had me doubting myself. Just done a search and revealed a conversation i had over email with a Serco representative that specifically stated just this. Consequently I order all of 7 or 8 CALs, when i needed huge numbers more or, as suggested, a CPU license. So now I have to use my time to double check it again and potentially spend a huge chunk of my budget on more licenses? Grrrr...

I need to do some more homework on this, so i'm kinda just thinking aloud here, not asking for answers... But if i'm reverse proxy-ing anyway, i guess i could keep the ports as default (ie 80 or 443 accordingly) but point the server to itself. Save our staff having to remember URLs with port numbers in. Or maybe, if possible, use Apache to redirect to itself on a different port. Sad, i know, but i can't wait to get started playing with this sort of thing. Just need the hardware to do it!

One further question - are there any issues with Zimbra co-existing with other applications? I have a server in mind to act as a link between outside world and our MIS server, with Apache doing reverse proxy duty - would this cause problems for Zimbra or vice versa?

We're a small school - so no more than 700 users, the majority of which are pupils and may well be happy with our up-coming VLE's email provision. Its really the staff who have the major issues with Easymail, so i'm guessing quite a modest server would do the trick. Cheers, everyone!

Thanks for all the advice so far - looks like it should be pretty useful! A couple more queries - has anyone got a handy screen shot of the web interface, and how is performance on middling server hardware?

We're currently languishing in the 19th century as far as email is concerned - RM Easymail as provided by the CC isn't the best way to do it in my opinion. I had originally planned to go down the Exchange route, but it seems like the costs will be too great, so I'm interested in an open source alternative. I gather several people on here have had success with Zimbra, so i have some questions: Is the free version sufficiently full-featured to use longterm? To put in perspective, our users currently log in to a webmail client everytime they want to access email, so Outlook integration isn't necessarily an expectation. Is it possible, with the free version, to use IMAP for those users who might still want Outlook (or any other compatible email software). I've an idea that POP3 is possible, but i don't want email stores spread over every PC on site and not backed up.. Is AD integration possible for automatic account set up? Any other advice? Alternative suggests? Shortcuts to make things easier? I've had some exposure to Ubuntu in the past, but don't want to make things more difficult for myself by using a GUI-less server edition of the OS - I'm presuming Zimbra will work alright on the normal desktop version? Cheers!

Its an idea i suppose, but i don't really like the things, to be honest. Too much temptation to spend what can't be afforded, you see! Back when i lived in Gloucestershire the fiance and I bought a few whitegoods from Apollo2000 - a chain store that seems limited to the south west. They were great - carried most things in stock, had their own van for deliveries and would discount products with the minimum of arguements. Had a dishwasher from them on IFC and it was a breeze.. Pity they don't have a branch where i live now! So, anyone used Currys recently?

I'm in the market for a new TV soon and Currys have some good prices, it seems. I want to spread the payments a bit with a buy now/pay later or 6-9 month interest free credit option, and Currys Flexible Finace thingy fits the bill. Thing is, the repayment options seem weighted towards you having a big chunk to pay back at the end of the interest free period, making it more likely you'd run over and start paying interest - Currys' site suggests the deposit amount and initial monthly payment amount are fixed at a low rate. So... Has anyone used this finance option recently? If so, were you able to pay a higher deposit and/or a higher monthly repayment?

I was given to understand that a CAL was required for any user that used Facility Admin, but only one CAL was required for ePortal as it was the webserver querying the database, and not the ePorter users. This made sense to me as the CAL should cover a 'user' (a person or software agent) accessing the data, what then happens to the data is outside the remit of the CAL...

I know, i know - this is in the wrong section, but i need to make a last ditch attempt to get feedback, particularly from fellow Norfolk school employees. I'm not sure the VLE section gets regular visits, you see. I've attempted contacting some local schools direct and heard nothing back - presumably because they're too busy or have nothing to say. Nevertheless, if anyone has an opinion about Fronter, especially in you're in Norfolk and even more especially if you have Serco Facility as an MIS, nows the time to cough it up! Also - thanks to those who've already voiced an opinion. Cheers!

Ahhh... Okay - explains why they were cheaper than, i guess! Thanks for the feedback - very useful.

I've had a quote back from a supplier with an Acer Veriton L410 PC, all-in-one stand and 17" monitor suggested as a cheaper alternative to a Dell USFF PC. Does anyone have any comments on this model or ones like it? Build quality, reliability, etc? Cheers!

Are CPLTD still about? I tried to send Simon Collins an email about getting a quote done recently, but haven't had a reply - wonder if I've got an old address or something!

Hehe.. Nice one I used to live in Cheltenham - it was quite amazing on Gold Cup week, after the racing had finished for the day and everyone was walking back into the town centre, quite how many dozy, pi$$ed and oblivious idiots would be happily wandering out into traffic whilst crossing the 2 and 3 lane one-way system. Regardless of whether there was a pedestrian crossing or not... The disgusted looks on their faces as you parp your horn and shout 'GET OUT OF THE ROAD, YOU FOOL' was most comical!

Grim. Very grim. Almost put me off my lunch!

We migrated over the summer, with Serco doing the data transfer for us - it went pretty well, to be honest. The only niggles i've heard in relation to the accuracy of the transfer relate to medical notes that have been truncated in the process. I'm quite liking Facility - its extremely configurable and barring some quirks, we're having a decent time of getting it to do what we want. The major barrier is having the time to experiment with it; there are training manuals and courses to go on, but many features, especially Reporting ones, are undocumented...

Any feedback? We're going to be making a decision before xmas; the chances are we'll go for Fronter given the cost (nowt) and the MIS integration, etc - not to mention having all the support done offsite by someone else... The problem that irks me is trying to get feedback from those that have used it in the classroom. I've tried contacting one of two schools direct to no avail and going through county isn't much better, though they are offering to come visit us to do a run through... So, any major issues? Is it usable? How are teaching staff taking to it?

Mainly because they're probably creaking audibly now and upsetting SLT on a thursday afternoon! Rolling out to classrooms, perhaps? Or is that all sorted now, matey?

I'd be interested as well... Having recently started at my current school (6 months ish) i was a little unnerved to hear SLT were talking to reps from county about BSF in the last couple of weeks. Our site is getting increasingly crowded and the possibility of a new build is very attractive to the powers that be. Don't blame them at all, but i've heard the stories of how ICT staff are treated under BSF...

Cheers guys - very helpful! Adamf - Pm heading your way...

This might be a long shot, but does anyone out there have both Fronter as a VLE and Serco Facility as their MIS? More to the point does anyone have the two communicating? We have Facility and its looking likely we'll end up taking Norfolk CC's offer of Fronter, but I'm trying to do some homework first - I'd like to know how the link works and what data is/can be transferred between the two?

Our D&T head of department has been offered 30 licenses for Solidworks. The problem is the PCs in his class room are a little old and will need replacing; I'm trying to weigh up whether this is worth it considering we as a school haven't used Solidworks and don't know if its suitable. Do any of you have Solidworks in your schools? If not, what do you use instead? Any opinions on quality or usability? Also, for those who do have it, have you tried it on PCs of a lower specification than that recommended? The Solidworks website suggests all manner of high-end nVidia and ATi graphics cards as being suitable, but including this would drive the replacement cost of the aforementioned D&T PCs up markedly... Cheers!

I use WDS as well - works very nicely once you've got your head round it. I have it working in combination with a sysprep script that joins the imaged PC to the network. It is a bit more work to take and deploy an image as you've got to supply domain/user details and answer some set up questions, but i've not had a PC fail to image correctly yet. It was a real pain to get working initially, however, until I'd got hold of a workable boot.wim file. You need to be careful what source you use as Vista media supplied with, for example Dell, laptops or computers have subtly crippled boot.wim's... I took a fellow Edugeeker's advice and downloaded the trial of Server 2008, used the file i needed and ignored the rest (therefore no license issues..)

I've made the same mistake - no mention of Txx codes on my letter and it seems i clicked at random! After consideration, T18 looks most likely though our business manager is sorting it out for me..