woody

Any way to turn off the firewall remotely?

Thanks, started the messenger service on the print server and a client and the pop up worked. Thanks too Geoff for the script. That will save us a lot of time!!!

Ah Ha I was getting mixed up. Will look at that

Hi, I'm still plodding on with Print Manager plus and I have the end user tool working. But I have not been able to get the low credit or restrictions pop-ups to work. I have been told by technical support that I need to get windows messenger to work on both the server and the client. Here is the web page tech support emailed to me: http://www.softwareshelf.co.uk/files/supportFAQView.asp?ID=2390 Can I get windows messenger to work in this capacity and at the same time restrict pupils from siging in and chating to each other? I know some of you use PMP and I would be interested to know how you got round this. Thank!

Thanks, I will try this later today!

Anyone know of simple script to delete all Network printers (not local ones) at logoff. We run a script to add a printer based on machine name but when we occasionally swap a printer in a room and update the script, the old printer driver is left over and these can build up over time. Thanks

Ok update time. The problem appears to have gone away. Thank for the tip ninjabeaver regarding the network loop trick, I will bear that in mind. All that I have done to the server is given it a bit of a clean up, removed old shared directories, deleted old files, removed a few unnecessary apps, etc. Whether all that has contributed to an improvement in CPU usage or not I cannot say. All I can say is that from yesterday afternoon, the CPUs have been running efficiently and the SYSTEM process has remained below 10% usage as I would expect it to be. Thanks for all who have contributed to try and help me and If the problem comes back I will report back to here.

Thanks Geoff. I know everyone is raring to help me. Actually, with a lot of help from my brother, I did get fedora up and running, and in the long run it wasn't too difficult. But the problem was, for all the simple things I'm used to doing in windows, I had to go round the houses to get working in Linux. Even to install simple drivers was a nightmare. Every procedure contained had a seperate problem lying just behind it. At the end of the day, it is all a matter of know how, and if you don't know how, then there is a lot of wasted time that goes with running linux. Not wasted in the fact that you are learning (tho be it the hard way) but wasted in the fact that as a busy technician at work, and a busy father at home, you know you should be doing other things when you find yourself tinkering away in that linux console.

I think I will stick to the territory I'm used to. I don't want to get into a windows or linux discussion and I think that if you have a head for all that stuff, then 'good on yer'. I for my part struggled to get a simple fedora installation to work properly as a web server with php and mysql. I dread to think where I would end up trying to run linux servers on the network using Novell NDS for group policy and changing all my desktops to thin client linux. I will admit, that is probably beyond me unless I was working alongside an expert and was shown the ropes rather than figure it all out my self. Phew. And all that just to change the dual processor settings!

Does linux have an alternative to group policy settings? We moved from linux to windows server so we could lock down the clients!

What system would you recommend? We currently have MS server 2003 enterprise

I've just realised (DOH, it was over two years ago that I bought it) that the server has two processors. Does anyone know where I can set priorities for these processors. I've found a simple setting under advanced in the SYSTEM control panel for performance but there must be something more detailed. Both processors are xeon 2.5gb

There's another thing. The cpu does seem to calm down inbetween lessons. But it picks up again as soon as everyone starts to log on. And while the CPU is working flat out, so is the GB network connection.

Thanks for all your comments guys. I have tried Process Explorer and it certainly tells me a lot more than Task Manager. I can see all of the DLLs that run under the system process, but how do I know which one if any are causing the problems? Plus you can look at the threads under system and these do tell you what amount of the cPU they are taking up. All the cpu usage is being taken up by srv.sys although Process Explorer splits it up into smaller parts. I'm not sure how to interprit this. I have attached a screenshot of what is happening. If anyone can interprit the handwriting on the wall, I will be very glad!

Ok, This is happening on my main server which mainly controls active directory and group policy. The 'SYSTEM' process in task manager is eating up all of the cpu usage and is regularly at 99%. I have tried using a tool from microsoft called qslice but when I double click on the SYSTEM process, there is no scroll bar to look through the threads and I can't fit them all in the window due to lack of screen size. AARRRHHH. As you can image, this is slowing down access to the server. It is not good. Any suggestions?

Could someone do me a BIG favour? I've been trying to wrap an msi around this silent install and just been getting nowhere. When I use Masai installer to repackage, the msi freezes mid-way through. I have tried to download and install Windows Installer Wrapper Wizard but that tells me there are files missing. Here is the executable: http://downloads.softwareshelf.com/products/23/pmp60/PMP_EUIT_Silent.EXE Could someone please wrap it for me? My email is [email protected] Cheers

SOLVED!!!! ajbritton had the answer! I check the application log and it had indeed reported a folder redirection error. It was struggling to copy the contents of the local document folder to the network one. It turned out to be a permissions thing, although I can't see why as I set up the year 7 share with Exactly the same share/ntfs permissions as previous year's folders. However, I did find a microsoft kb article that offered a different way of seting up a secure folder redirection environment. Previously, you had to add 'Authenticated users' to the folder security with special permissions. The current kb article changes 'Authenticated Users' to 'Everyone' instead with alternate special permissions. When I added these permissions, the problem went away and folder re-direction worked. I hope all that makes sense. I'm still puzzled as to why there was a problem in this one particular room. But I'm happy it's workng now. Thanks for all suggestions and help - what would I do without Edugeek?

Yes I am using the Group Policy Management Console. Just didn't realize that it could query a computer or user. Will give it a go and report back! Thanks

Andy: What do you mean when you say 'have I tried the GPMC'? Geoff: I'm not redirecting the Application Data. Just My Documents. Ajbritton: 1) I'm not using roaming profiles 2) Which event log are you reffering to again? 3) The exact path is: \\currserv3\year01\%USERNAME%\My Documents The thing that is puzzling me is that it works on other XP SP2 machines in school. Just not in this particular computer room which has 30 PCs, and the redirection works for other years in this room, just not the new year 7s.

I've heard from a reliable source that both WEP and WPA can be cracked with various tools readily available on t'internet. Dynamic WEP is probably best since it changes the key regularly enough to stop hackers getting the full key. However, I doubt your APs will support it. It's only the higher end of APs that do. We are currently looking at putting flood fill wireless in the whole school. As well as looking at doing the job ourselves, we are getting some quotes from a few suppliers. One has come up with a fairly pricey system called Madge. But you can see why. All the APs have two radios in them. The APs connect to a central rackmount server where you can configure groups of APs with ease. If you get a new AP, you just plug it in, the server picks it up, and you add the AP to a pre-defined group. It immediately inherits all settings and is ready to go. For security, you can use Mac-address filtering, dynamic WEP, and certificates. It will be lovely if the school can cough up the cash for all that!

Ok, this one has perplexed me beyond belief. Help! I have a GP for each year group souley for the purpose of re-directing the My Documents folder onto the server (WS2003). I have had few problems with this until now. I created the GP as usual for the new year 7s. It has been working fine and still is, apart from in one room. They never used this particular room until yesterday when they came in with a MFL teacher. They logged on, with no error messages, and started to work. When they came to save at the end of the lesson, they got the following message when they tried to access their Docs folder: "This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator" We all know that this is the typical message when restrictions are applied through a GP. But why does the Folder redirection not apply in this one room? The room is running XP SP2 clients. The room they normally use for IT is running 2000. But the problem is not an XP one. I have tried a year 7 account on two other XP machines in school and the GP worked, they could access My Docs which was re-directed to the server. So I logged on as a Y7 again and ran gpresult from the command Prompt. It reported that the GP had run successfully!!???? I checked the properties of the My Documents folder and it was still looking at a locally created folder!!???? Anyone any ideas pleeeaaaassseee?

What I mean though is that there is no official procedure coming down from government to deal with this problem. It is quite a serious one and could potentially have legal remifications. As far as I know, ofsted don't check whether a school has an AUP in place for the school network/internet (correct me if this has changed) and I just think there should be some clearer guidelines because it does seem that some schools treat this less harshly than others.

You'll never beleive this. I just went back to the offending PC and a pupil was logged on and the script had worked!!! Typical. I will keep my eye on it but it looks like I must put it down to those dastardly printer gremlins we all know so well!

Thanks, will try all suggestions and report back!

Hi, just wanted to know what procedures you have in place when a pupil deliberately finds porn on the net??? Is there a progressive sequence of action? Do you think your SMT take it seriousley enough? Or do you get the same as me "Oh well, boys will be boys" Let me know what you do at your school.