LCPSWolf

I love that analogy! Going back to the not blocking by IP, I just changed by DNS settings on my laptop to OpenDNS servers (208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220) and attempted to browse to 208.69.32.130. (I'm running IE7, for what that's worth). It was blocked as a site not allowed on our network (gambling). I had not visited this site previously. Am I missing something or is this working better than expected? I just saw that OpenDNS uses St. Bernard's iGuard data for its category filtering.

Good point. We typically are blocking total domains, but there may be cases we want to only block a portion....hmm. Have to wonder if that's worth it. Thanks.

Michael, What a great point (and a polite explanation of DNS . I'll research a way to block this - it now makes sense some of the help documentation I've seen on our Fortigate box that has a wildcard mask for blocking IP addresses of this type. Awesome. I'll let you know what I come up with.

Galway: My boss will be excited that it will track the IP address used to log sites. We pay extra for a tracking software that we may also not need with that. ...now if it would just map with AD (not likely as it's outside our network, technically Michael: Just so I'm following you, OpenDNS will allow IP addresses into the address bar, but does it still block those IP's of sites that are in its blacklist or "bad" category lists? Or is entering IP address of sites a workaround to its filtering? (Seems like a large hole, but something good to know). I'll also change over my DNS settings here on my laptop and test it as well..but just curious if you've already done the same.

Hey all, I'm trying to get opinions on using OpenDNS (OpenDNS | Providing A Safer And Faster Internet) to filter web content for K-12 schools. I've tested it in a small sample and it seems decent, so long as we can prevent users from changing DNS settings. Pros: Saves our district ~ $7,000 USD a year for filtering license Uses a category database that another pay-for product uses (I want to say it's the iGuard database that the iPrism uses, but I've looked at some many recently I could be wrong). Allows for black/white list URL's similar to our currently filtering (Fortinet) Cons: Generally untested Doesn't provide deep packet inspection and dynamic proxy blocking like other pay-for sources (DeepNines as an example) If anyone's using this, I'd love their take on it. We're converting from a Novell network to Microsoft and expect to use group policy to prevent changes to DNS - if anyone knows why that won't work, please give me a shout, too. (I'm new to GP but am learning quickly). Hope everyone's doing well. Thanks as always. Damian Bailey Lead Tech Louisa County Schools, VA, USA

Hey, I'm trying to write a script that will disable IE7's popup blocker completely. My PC is running XP SP3 and IE7. The technet article How to configure the Pop-up Blocker on a computer that is running Windows XP Service Pack 2 that gives reg keys to disable popup blocker in sp2 does not appear to work; changing the setting in the regedit does not change the setting in the application (unless I have to restart my PC - haven't tried that. I have however, restarted IE) I've also tried to change the specific popup blocker settings in the various zones as is listed in the above link - also no help. Ideas? I can't use GPO as I'm not running a Windows network (yet). We're all Novell until summer. Can't wait. Thanks for reading. Damian Bailey Lead Tech Louisa County Public Schools, VA, USA

Hey all, I have a feeling this is a common issue in education, but I can't find a (cheap) solution. Basically, my goal is to have a database that will accept input from barcode scanners and allow me to truly run an inventory and return results similar to: 12 items missing 382 items out of place 1002 items scanned, etc You know, normal stats you'd find when running inventory. To go a step futher, being able to enter new assets into inventory via scanner would be nice. We have a library automation product in place that would give us this, but would cost just about $3000 USD / site, or about $18,000 USD. Seems there should be an open source solution for this problem. Ideas? As an aside, I just installed Spiceworks. My god what a great program, if you can get WIM working on your PC's. Why pay for anything else? Looking forward to the suggestions. Thanks, as always.

I believe I found the site when I was searching for Novell help - one of the forums came up..loved the responses and haven't gone anywhere else since. I'm hoping for more of a US presence on the boards..let me know how I can best help spread the word!

Sure do: The main page is: KACE | The Leading Systems Management Appliances For more direct info on the OS / App / Patch management: Systems Deployment and Software Deployment Solutions | KACE This can be hardware or a virtual solution, apparently. Let me know what you think =) I only just started talking to sales today - I'm curious to see how cheap they come in compared to competitors, especially Microsoft. Of course, as a school, we have ~2500 computers and at least as many users - hence we need something that's not "cost per seat" if at all possible. Thanks for the Wininstall suggestion - I'll add it to my research list! Damian

Ben, Awesome to hear we're not the only ones. I have to ask (and I know this would probably be a more Novell-forum question) ...if you use Zenworks, what are you replacing its funcationality with? We're looking at SCCM, SMS, or KBOX. I'm only a day into the research here, but Kbox looks pretty decent at the outset. Mainly we're looking for software management, but if we get inventory, licensing, and OS loads as well - bonus! =)

Hey! My name's Damian - I'm a lead tech in a smaller Virginia county school system. We're currently running a Novell network, but planning a change over to Windows this summer. So long Zenworks! But otherwise, I'm really glad to be on here - the help I've gotten in the past has been solid, and everyone is friendly. Great site.

Ric, Thanks for your idea - it gave me enough to go off of to get something that works! (If you're interested, I used the if exist clause to check for a certain zenworks file - if it is present, remove the annoying icon) So thanks! Always appreciated.. Damian

Hey all, I'm trying to use Zenworks 7.5 with my school district, but have run into a decent snag. Here's the scenario: We have a student information program called ClassXP - most clients currently have an icon on the desktop to this network program. I have reimaged most of the PC's in the school, and have zenworks installed - it is pushing out a shortcut to Class XP as well. Now teachers have *2* icons, and they are confused. I need to remove this icon, but only on PC's that have zenworks installed; not all do. Those that do not have zenworks installed must keep their current icon. So - unless I can tell from a login script if a PC has zenworks installed, I can't just use a script to blast the old icon (though I'd like to). I've been trying to use the Distribution Options in ConsoleOne / Zenworks to remove the icon or to run a batch file on distribution to remove the old shortcut, but nothing works. It doesn't help that the distribution tab says the scripts or commands that run will not display error messages - makes the problem almost impossible to troubleshoot. I have a good bit more detail on this, including drive mappings, scripts and whatnot that I've tried if it would help. For instance, in this distribution script / Run Before Distribution option, I have tried: #\\lcps_server4\lchs\Software\Login\removeSasi.bat and #M:\login\removeSasi.bat M: is the lchs\software drive as it maps to all LCHS faculty that log in. Both the above lines will work if used as a *login* script, but do not appear to work in the Run Before Distribution section. As you can see, I'm trying but I'm missing something. Any help would be greatly appreciated. You guys are so awesome! Damian Bailey

Perfect product for what I'm looking for - thanks so much! Damian

I'm wondering if there is a way to give a teacher in our building the ability to "turn off" is disable printing to a network printer in his room via NDPS. We're running a Novell network and therefore can't use any of the fun Windows networking tools like group policies, etc. I've poked around in nwadmin and have seen how I can give him operator or management control of the printer, but was hoping this teacher could control the printer without having to load nwadmin to get to the printer item. The tabs in the printer don't seem to provide any additional controls. More info: the printer is a networked, color HP laserjet. The teacher wants to prevent his students from printing to the printer unless allowed. Simply unplugging the printer from the network will force the jobs (if sent) to queue in the NDPS printer server, to be printed once the printer is plugged back in. Any ideas? I hope this is clear. We're sooo lacking a Novell whiz here! Thanks as always. You guys rock!

Hey all, My IT director just charged me with finding out what kinds of video distribution we have at each of our 5 schools. No problem there. Here's where things get more interesting. He wants a recommendation on where we should go from here, when retrofitting these schools for digital signals. ...the typical setup at our high school is a cable TV type input, running from a main box via coax all to each classroom in the building; all classrooms have a mounted TV. Our middle school and elementary schools use a similar input signal via coax, but most classrooms do not already have TV's installed - instead they are checked out when teachers request them. Example suggestions: -Buy digital tuners for each of our classroom TV's to pick up the digital signal being broadcast in 2009 -As possible, replace older TV's with digital tuner-equipped TV's -Buy monitors with converters for use with video over IP, using our network wiring Concerns: -Will our current coax wiring handle a digital signal -Cost (!!) Has anyone ever tackled this sort of issue before? I'm pretty weak in the video signal department and will be doing a good bit of research on this next week. My initial thoughts are basically: For the fewer TV's in the MS and elementary schools, price digital converter boxes, as the # of TV's is small. For the HS, compare the price of going to video over IP versus other options (both seem expensive when talking the # of TV's). I'd love any ideas you all have. Thanks! ..In editing this post and thinking further about the issue, I think I need more information from my director. I'm not getting a clear impression of the problem. ...more to come next week, for sure.

Wow, great job you guys! I knew there had to be a way to do it. Thanks so much!

As the title says, I'm trying to hide the Application Launcher icon on the desktop, while still having the functionality. I can't find this as an option in any of the Novell support pages. Anyone else run into this? Thanks!

We use SchoolDude's ITDirect web-based system and really like it. We've been using it for 3 years, roughly, with no uptime issues or problems with their company. Their training and phone / chat support has been the best. SchoolDude - Public Schools Hope it helps. Damian

Steve, Thanks - this was exactly the sort of response I was looking for. I tend to agree that the considerable issues outweigh the supposed benefits of static IP. I'm also pretty new to NetWare, but will check into it. Your point about it either way makes sense. Thanks again. Damian

Hi, I'm questioning one of our basic policies here at our school division: static IP. (I looked at this post http://www.edugeek.net/forums/networks/5118-dhcp-static-ips.html but didn't really get the answer I was looking for) We have 4 separate sites and over 2000 PC's, many AP's, switches, networked printers, etc, all manually assigned IP's by the tech staff. I feel DHCP would be a better choice for time management, if nothing else, but I face arguments for static: 1. Security - to prevent "anyone" from bringing in a PC and plugging it in, we have static IP's. (Nothing saying you can't just unplug a PC from the network and use its IP, but hey) 2. We need to know, if a student violates policy on the network, the location (name, IP) of the PC so that we can have documentation of the incident, and are worried DHCP will not give solid enough answers. I'm looking for others' arguments to refute those above. =) Any thoughts would be appreciated. I do realize that one way or another, printers, network hardware, etc, would need static in some form or another, whether it would be manually entered or set in DHCP (if I'm understanding that correctly, DHCP can assign by MAC address) As an aside, we have mainly winXP clients and run a Novell network. Thanks as always.

rrichmond, Thanks - I thought that Zenworks may be the answer. I'll look for more information on the web and see what I can find. Thanks again!

Hello, I'm looking for some advice with scripts when running Novell / Netware and DeepFreeze (by Faronics). DeepFreeze, for those that aren't familiar, is a program that resets the PC back to a default state whenever the PC is restarted. I'm attempting to script some updates and make changes to PC's in mass in our school district, but am running into some issues. The main one is how to, in mass, log several systems at once into our Novell Network (via a script or some other method). Most likely there is a way to do this with Novell management tools, but we lack any strong internal Novell support in our system. If I can do that, everything else should be simple. The full idea is: - log systems into Novell - have a script thaw the PC's (turn off DeepFreeze to allow changes) - restart the computers - log back into Novell, do any updates / changes - freeze the PC's (turn DeepFreeze back on) As you can see, the logging into Novell part is the problem, as our XP machines come up with the Novell login screen before actually booting into Windows. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks! Damian Bailey Technician Louisa County Public Schools, VA, USA