Tallwood_6

The netgear GSM7352S is the closest comparable to the HP 2900 series. Just take a look on the netgear and HP websites under layer 3 managed and see what would best suit your needs, depending on the number of fibre connections you might have or require in the future you might want to go with something which can take more Mini-GBIC modules the netgear GSM7312 looks pretty flexible but i have little experience with netgear switches.

Avoid the daisy chain where possible. procurve 1800 isnt really ideal for core as its a relatively basic Layer 2 switch, the 2900 series upwards would be a better bet but is understandably much more expensive.

No exchange integration yet but thats only for 2003 anyway. No version reporting tool that i know of. No ACL Detective No Network Recycle Bin No Automated RM Updates No Renaming of workstations No RM Auditor, Logon & Web Monitor (not that you would want it) I do sound somewhat negative about CC4, its not all bad and for smaller secondarys and primarys i can definatly see a benefit.

Well know 64bit yes, all they can do is server 2003 enterprise which will address more than 4gig using PAE. Beefy for an RM CC4 FR would be 2x2.5ghz Quad Xeon with 8gb RAM if you have a site with more than 400 stations, our 2x3ghz Daul Core Xeon job with 4gb of RAM is struggles especially if you are rebuilding stations or assigning packages while god forbid people are actually using the network. Same server on CC3 never even broke a sweat.

CC4's BIT's package alloaction doesnt work nearly as well as RM make out nor does the package assigment overview. SR1 has been a success thus far but they have had limited exposure to larger sites which is why they are taking an image of our servers this week to test out SR1 before upgrade before hand which is very handy for us but does raise some concerns. CC4's current implimentation isn't well load ballanced unlike a vanilla setup and relies heavily on the Forest Root, with no replication of the Postgres Database for which all the CC4 bits are held. CC4 WSUS also can only be installed on the FR, its all stuff to think about, you will definatly need a beefy server for that role especially on a larger network.

Couldnt agree more, CC4 has some fundamental issues and the general feeling i get is RM are now scampering trying to make the best of a bad product. Comparing a Vanilla setup to CC3 is a completly different kettle of fish, that is a mature product that works for the majority of sites small and large quite well.

CC4 in its current form is pretty flaky still, CC4 with SR1 looks better but still suffers from many problems, Long Logons/Startup times to name but a few. Min station spec as commented is quite high 512mb is not really enough, your machines will need 1gb as a minimum and a decent processor. Builds are still not great in comparison to CC3 and much of the functionality and development work promised is still not there, i.e still know XP SP3 Vista SP1 to come with SR1 but things are slow comming.

Just taken a punt and ordered 68 of the M58 SFF, never considered Levono desktops before but seeing how the HP's seem to be going up in price and i can get exctually the same spec as a DC7900 HP in what looks like a better case with a 3 year warrenty for less money its a no brainer. Science are looking at the M58 USFF with the bracket to mount it to the screen, supposed to be sent a sample this week, so will let you know what its like.

Why arn't current ICT support and service providers included in the initial planning, surely it would be in the best interest for all those involved? Or is it assumed that all existing ICT support staff are incompetent and all existing ICT infrastructure is defunct and outdated?

146GB 3.5inch but its used for our MIS so storage requirements are low, infact i only really needed 72Gb. They do 300gb and 450gb 3.5 inch SAS as well, raid 5 would be the most practical raid level with a hot-spare if you can afford it.

I'd second that RAM is cheap may as well stick 4gb in, also worth paying a little more to get an onsite warranty as well with a good response time. If budget will allow i will always look at SAS instead of SATA, i have a ML350 running four 15000rpm SAS drives in a raid 5 which runs very nicely indeed but i'm aware of the price hike.

ML 350 would be a good bet i would thought, HP seem to be bouncing around some deals on the G6 at the moment so if you ask about you might get some good prices.

Yea speak to Mark at net-ctrl, currently have a Ruckus trial kit here and it really is well worth the investment i think.

Small bits of SR1? SR1 is a roll out of all most of the currently released CC4 software and driver updates but also includes newer versions of componets not released as individually, as well as a number of policy changes etc which is what the majority of people are waiting for. Unless you a field trial site you should not have access to SR1, support may give people access to indivual updates included in SR1 to solve emitidate problems if appropriate but the timetable is: - Early May onwards - New CC4 installations carried out by RM will install CC4 SR1 - CC3 to CC4 installations carried out by RM will install CC4 SR1 - 18 May onwards - CC4 SR1 will be available to Approved Support Partners to install CC4 SR1 for both new and CC3 to CC4 upgrades - End of May - SR1 sent to early adopter group of existing CC4 customers - June onwards - Controlled release to remaining existing CC4 customers

2003 R2, you will want enterprise though just for the extra memory support as CC4 certainly shews through more than CC3 especially on the FR.

Never of herd of them, but looking on the website the range looks quite comprehensive, how do the specs, warranty and prices stack up against the HP's?

It leaks memory amoung other things, especially if it is monitoring users with there home directories hosted on the d drive, as opposed to the h.

Some sucess with small primary, fresh install's, larger cc3 upgrade sites such as ourselves still have issues. We are mostly sorted now, but still have a few customer complaints open relating to poor station performance and startup times which isn't going to be fixed with SR1 and program sets failing to deliver on stations which again is awaiting a fix probably post SR1. Network recycle bin still isnt fixed after undergoing redevelopment as far as i'm aware. SR1 shoud bring some stability improvements i think but i think it will take another 6 months before they finally reach a point where RM are no longer firefighting and instead delivering some of the functionality promised at release.

I found just packaging up a .bat with the following: c: cd C:\program files\ptc\prodesktop 8.0\program prod /regserver sorted out our problems after initial install, just add the pro desktop 8 package in as a dependancy in the .ini

Using the oki c810 and c830 here, work brilliantly you have a little more to maintain over the HP's but running costs are down on the HP's. HP's toner prices recently have priced them out of consideration.

Well i cant speak for Xirrus but we are currently trialling ruckus and so far i'm very impressed, setup the controller and clients in a matter of minutes, coverage is speed seems very good as well. We had some aruba kit in for trial as well over the last couple of weeks, a very powerful solution in terms of what it could do but requires more time in initial setup, coverage and speed was better than are existing HP fat AP'S but is not looking as good as Ruckus. Pricing for the Ruckus also looks far more competative than anything else i've looked at thus far.

Its produced by RM so they probably dont even know server 2008 exists.

The teamed nic's and trunk completely happy, i've had some issues with teaming and older drivers and switch firmware etc before which can cause issues.

Used sophos for a while but found it slow, clunky and unnecessary, now removed and i go without, but if your after something free ClamXav is a good bet.

A convertible or hard top hood possibly?