NB9457

Worst bit is we can get Core 2 Machines for around £10 each, but cannot afford them.

The fact they're P4 mainly and the majority are boards and PSU failures and as they don't take standard ATX PSUs, we can't get new ones (not that the budget would allow it anyway) and everything that has been scavenged for spares already has sadly, so we've hit a wall now, PCs are getting removed with nothing to go back

Hi all, I work at a High School in the NW and our budget this year was laughable, spent in a day with much more left to buy needed with no money. We are still running 60+ P4s withe the highest end PCs being Core2 and some are dropping off now and we have consumed all our spare and swap stock. I was hoping if anyone was replacing any suites around the NW if they'd be willing to donate the PCs, obviously we arrange collection and whatnot. Maybe even some advice? All input welcomed. Thanks

Can never beat a 1210!

Got an eBay one to plug an Xbone into a VGA projector, works spot on, just make sure it says it is active though!

We went for the 48 port PoE edgeswitch to replace 3 100Mb switches and a series of daisy chained PoE mini switches for WiFi. The performance is much better but as said, they can be really noisy, although on other sites we have the 24 port version and this is almost silent, just as shame they don't have the 10Gb connection

I've used the GPOs and MSI file included in the install file. Got to say it is very customisable vis GPO and so far seems to be working well.

How to Make IE a Default Browser By GPO | eHow https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/internet-explorer/ie11-deploy-guide/set-the-default-browser-using-group-policy Don't know if they're of any help

There's a lot of politics involved with things like this. We kind of gave up in the end, stating to SLT, whilst we will manage and repair them, it's down to staff to look after. Quite a few laptops and iPads 'went missing' but the staff were never disciplined for it, they simply got replaced. Annoyed the hell of out me the fact that an adult, never mind a student, can't look after a laptop or iPad. It really isn't hard.

May be worth checking if they have the same motherboards and if the drivers are present. I know when I was at an RM school, we had a few PCs that had slight board revisions or had been repaired with different parts and it caused this issue, so it may be that?

It will work and you can import the ADMX files from the client. You will have issues imaginably with start menu redirect, fellow edugeekers have found it easier to deploy Classic Shell and use that. The rest will be a bit of trial and error, build a machine up, see what works and doesn't and create and ammend GPOs for Win10 clients accordingly!

It could be possible that the AC2 profile could be conflicting with the Meraki one?

I know with Apple Configurator, if I combined some settings, the profiles would fail to load, so in the end, I made separate profiles for restrictions and WiFi, then this fixed my issues, sill the same settings but seperated. Maybe on Meraki try and create just a profile for WiFi?

Have you looked into why the iPads are dropping out as that seems like your biggest issue. What WiFi and switches are you using? I've recently just upgraded a school that was 10/100 and the WiFi would throw people off due to the amount of connections and so little bandwith. Either way, the QR code thing knowing Apple, probably isn't possible nor is it an actual fix really!

Just fitted the EdgeSwitch I ordered yesterday and I must say I am very very pleased with it!

If you want to engage pupils in IT, there are some very good hands on kind of things; -Mission maker: Make your own game levels -Minecraft for education: Can be used to push out subjects in different ways -Kodu: Create your own games for PC and Xbox -Scratch: Basic concept of coding There are more, but those are the ones that stand out the most and seem to really engage the kids.

Where is the switch going and what is it being used for? I've managed to talk one of the schools into buying one Ubiquiti 500W 48 Port PoE switch and that wasn't cheap, but it was based on the the fact it's full PoE, so never really have to worry again, the fact it is replacing two 24 Port 10/100 switches and it also give us 10Gb uplink ability should we need it in the future to add another switch or decided to go mad and get a crazy full SSD fibre server. That being said now, the 48P non PoE model is around £3/400 with 2x10Gb uplinks, whilst the outright cost is more, if it was for a main cab, it's gonna last a longer, you'll have more ports spare and again 10Gb capability!

I use AC2 to originally setup up the iPads and put on the restrictions, then use Meraki to monitor them and set out new Apps! I've used lightspeed too, but there interface although looking fancy, I just found clunky and unneccassary. Meraki is very bland, but so easy to use and navigate around, that's why I love it.

Just bought these for my car, should have it sitting nice and low and very grippy round corners

Running UniFi in a few schools now, not had an issue yet, plus their switches are great and the easy guest access is pretty cool. It was that cheap we stuck one in every room (and before everyone says it's overkill, it isn't, with the amount people have on sometimes, it allows faster access and eases load for us!)

Excel is fine for us, if you want it to alert you when they're due to expire, maybe make a formula to highlight the cells in traffic light stages or something similar, then when you view it, it'll catch your eye!

I definitely agree that teachers should be less dependant on computers and that we should still have whiteboards and things as well as an IWB. It just bugs me when teachers come in screaming they can't do their lesson because the computer is playing up 'again' (they always forgot to tell you the first time) and then rant and rave, even thought the issue is solved within often 30 minutes, apparently it took them 30 minutes at dinner to open that powerpoint because they forgot whey the saved it. /rant

How many 8 port switches are you after?

Are they PoE and Gigabit?

Honestly if you've ever done DIY before it's quite straight forward. Check the surfaces you're drilling into, will you need enforcements, what is the weight of the item you're fitting, what length bolts and what type plugs should you need. Then for projectors it's a case of read the instructions, calculate the distance for the throw to fill the screen, mark out, do! Then put the board up after the projector, then you can align it almost perfect!