BFCIT

Hi, We have a number of issues sharing a non-networked printer between 2 pc's. I was wondering if anyone has had any success with a hub that can share a usb printer between two pcs with an auto switching facility so that the user doesn't have to press a button on the hub. If so any recommendations would be greatly received. Thanks,

We are in a similar position here David. Did the Cisco Net Academy at university but never got my CCNA - a lot of the networking information (subnetting etc) has been quite useful but in terms of switch configuration that is specific to Cisco's IOS I haven't used much of it. Perhaps worth looking at your current switch vendor to see if they provide any certification paths?

I am not sure what you are trying to achieve...are you trying to adjust the home page that users see when they first load up their browser in your domain? Or are you attempting to redirect a website that you host?

It sounds as though you could be overkilling the wireless - perhaps worth testing the wireless on these computers when the wireless network is in low use to see if you get the same issue? The alternatives are paying for a wireless assessment (not cheap) but this would provide capacity information that is very helpful. You can do it yourself but I think it is very expensive to buy the gear required.

Hi, We use the Dell Optiplex 3020 Small form factor, can get them in i3, i5 or i7 with 4GB-8GB RAM. Typically we go for the i5 with 4GB and they have been great for us so far. Approx £350. Misco sell them = Dell Optiplex 3020 Small Form Factor Intel Core i5-4590/4GB/500GB/Interl HD 4600 /DVDRW/ Windows 7 Professional 64/ W8.1 Pro DVD/ 1 year Basic Warranty (3020-8866) - www.misco.co.uk

Thank you for all of your responses. They are fantastic and provide a good starting point for me to advance further. I am based in greater manchester. Will defo be looking more into ITIL - I have looked at some of the material - it is a little dry but I can understand why it is so important for any environment using ICT.

Hi all, Not sure if I am posting this in the correct place. I currently work as an ICT Systems Manager equivalent to (senior ICT technician) at a secondary school. I see my next role as the IT Network Manager of a school. I am educated to degree level in Computer Network Technology and have several years experience in my current role. I am interested to learn what certifications current ICT Network Managers posses and what they think qualify as key certs to their roles. I understand that training should be performed in line with the schools requirements and any advancements that the school might make in the short and long term. The problem I currently have is that there appears to be so many different paths to choose from. At the moment the school ICT budget is small, we are not virtualised and I don't think we will be for some time. Therefore VMware/Citrix is not a priority of mine or the schools. I am open to technical and non-technical courses that may advance my current skill set. I have a fond interest of wired/wireless networks, security and project management. As I am sure you understand, schools training budgets are not flush - therefore effective training at low cost would be most suited. I look forward to any suggestions/advice. Thank you.

Another pro-smoothwaller here, great product, diligent and helpful support team. Does exactly what we need and enables us filtered https Google use in school through the use of a man in the middle cert - not sure many other filter companies are offering this!

Hi All, Last summer we updated to a Windows Server 2012 CC4.5 RM network. Ever since the update we have been unable to build RM notebook 210 laptops. The screen just goes blank after selecting the WDS image. Has anybody had any success with getting an RM notebook 210 built onto an RM CC4.5 network? I currently have a ticket open with RM regarding this but we haven't got any further with it yet. Thank you.

We are looking at getting a handful of Raspberry Pi's but are a little concerned. Before we give the go ahead - has anyone come across any situation where students have managed to gain access to internal systems using these devices? My knowledge of Raspberry Pi's is limited but I believe there is a linux shell on the Raspberry Pi 2 O/S which could provide elevated permissions, access to files/folders on a windows server network that we wouldn't want to share with students and just in general cause us server issues and headaches? If so I am wondering what ways you would take to minimise said risk. The reason we need them to be connected to the network is because they require internet access. I am aware things like VLANS could be used and/or port-security, but thought i'd ask first. Thank you.

Hi, We are looking at purchasing Tasc Insight Parent Portal Software. Before making any commitments, we felt it wise to assess the security of the product. It is our understanding that the software is installed on a Windows Server running IIS. Firewall rules would then be altered to allow external access to the IIS site for parents. We are a little concerned that by providing this inbound access, we may become vulnerable to additional exploits. Has anybody got any advice relative to security and this product? We are thinking of installing it on a Windows Server 2012 R2 which is also our Forest Root Server. Thank you,

Thanks David, I will be sure to take a look :-)

thanks for your replies, the user isn't too keen on the idea of two monitors, so was looking for a standalone large monitor really.

Hi guys, Hoping that some of you are able to help me here. I am looking for a computer monitor for data analysis, SIMS assessment work, excel worksheets etc I am hoping to purchase a screen that is 28 inch or larger. Thank you.

Hi All, We are running Windows Server 2012 and have been using task scheduler to remotely backup data to another one of our servers every night which is then backed up to tape. Server 2012 ---> Remote data backup over network to alternative server ---> server backed up daily to tape. The above method is ok - but we currently only have 2/3 successful backups per week using this method, with other issues seemingly causing the remote backups to fail. We have been big users of backup exec for our previous servers and after doing some 'fishing' around there seems to be nothing but bad reviews and incompetency stories regarding Symantec and Server 2012. I was hoping that you may be able to point me in the right direction for backup software that is compatible with Windows Server 2012 and is capable of backing up to tape drives. I am aware that tapes are considered old technology in terms of backup solutions, but as I am sure you appreciate in a school environment they are relatively cheap and very convenient and unfortunately we are not in a position to pay more for a dedicated solution. I am also very skeptical about the cloud backup options and I think trying to convince senior colleagues to store sensitive information on the cloud would be a nightmare. I am looking forward to your feedback, Thank you. BFCIT

Hi all, I was wondering if anybody has implemented an open source, remote access utility for staff to be able to remotely access the schools network from home and use 'sims', access 'files' and other 'applications'; basically map an external connection to an active Microsoft desktop session as if the end user was logging in on to the local area network. I have heard of Xenapp and have a little bit of an understanding, but I believe most people use Xenapp in a dedicated device such as a Citrix access gateway. I am interested to learn about success stories without the need for a dedicated device and advice regarding the approaches currently taken by other educational institutions, I would also be interested to learn about what would need to be considering in relation to licensing. Many thanks,

thank you very much for taking the time to respond and providing me with greater insight into zoostorm and ssd's. We are still looking int hardware acquisition for the next financial year and I will be taking all your comments on board. Thanks once again. :-)

Hi All, Just wanting a bit of advice on the following... We are looking to purchase new computers this year for one of our ICT suites. I have found Zoostorm to be recommended and they appear to be reviewed well on some retail outlet stores. In comparison there products are considerably cheaper than alternative computing retailers. I have looked at the following model: Zoostorm SFF desktop, i5-3340 3.1GHz, 4GB DDR3 RAM, 320GB Hard disk drive, no operating system, 1 year return to base warranty. There is the potential to upgrade the 320GB sata hard disk drive to an 128gb solid state drive for £37.60 per pc. I have very little experience with SSD and as such I am wondering whether the performance increase we would see is worth spending the extra money? We are an RM network, where most users save work to their network share and not the physical drive in the machine itself, meaning that the actual physical hard drive is only used to store the operating system and additional applications. Thanks in advance, :-)

thanks for the replies guys, I thought as much. My line manager deals with the assessment work and prefers that aspect ratio, think he's just more used to that as we still use some 4:3 monitors in school. Thanks a bunch anyway. :-)

Hi, I am trying to obtain a monitor that uses the 4:3 aspect ratio and is not a widescreen lcd. We currently have a 19" lcd but we require larger for assessment work. Have any of you had any luck with a 24inch or above 4:3 ratio monitor? Must have a VGA connector. Thanks,

Hi All, Just wondering if mybigcampus relies on the use of lightspeed filtering in anyway? We are looking into getting smoothwall in school and wondered whether this would impact or hinder the operation of mybigcampus? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

It is the E5320 David, I think it does have native support for virtualisation. I would like to thank you all for your input on here, some interesting ideas. Definitely worth giving something a go when I get a bit of free time. It sounds worthwhile playing around with a Linux distribution on here in order to provide users with a bit more shared space in the form of a samba server? For now back to HP support for wireless issues. Thanks once again!

We also have this issue and are running an RM CC4 network in school. We use the same fix as HarryMonkey describes, install Fox-it on the local machine (had no complaints since) and it is free software for PDF viewing. Just be cautious when installing this as I recall it being coupled with other software that you have to tick 'no' to during the install process.

Thank you to you both for your replies. I agree, it would be wise to eliminate server 2003 due to ageing issues and lack of MS support. We do use server 2012 on our new SIMS server however I do not think we will want to be paying for additional licenses. If we were to go down the Linux route, is there a particular distribution you think would be best matched to a server with: 500GB Hard disk Intel Xeon E520 1.86Hz 4GB RAM I am also intrigued about the live file server whereby versioned backups can be stored and retrieved. I know very little about this, are you able to point me to an article detailing this process? - Would this still be possible using a Linux O/S? Thanks in advance.

Hi, We have a win server 2003 that was once used for hosting sims for the schools LAN. We upgraded to a new server over the summer and I have been considering the best use of the old server. I am interested to learn how several of you have made use of old servers, monitoring, backups , virtualisation? cool creative alternatives? Or any ways which would provide extra functionality or increased efficiency in a school network setup? Thanks!