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Hello to all, This might be of interest to some of you - ICT Systems Technician - Cranborne Middle School - Dorset Original link here https://jobs.dorsetforyou.gov.uk/school-support-staff-schools-ict-systemstechnician-cranborne-middle-school/25669.job

We had a complete new CC4 install by RM in September. 2 x servers and 60 desktop PC's. Here is how it works. You have a fault, you report it to RM, RM ask you to complete task XYZ, you look into task XYZ which means reading up on ABC and DEF. You finally complete all tasks to complete the original task of XYZ and the original fault is still present. You contact RM again about the original fault, they ask you to do 123, to do 123 you need to look into 456 and 789 and so the pattern goes on. Faults are coming in thick and fast, nearly all of my time now seems to be dealing with RM issues, I am half tempted to move over to their payroll as I may as well be working for them. I hate it, its one area that would actually make me consider changing jobs. Just my personal opinion.

I have used TomTom lots as I used to work as a travelling techie and well impressed with it. So far I have had TomTom on a PDA with a seperate GPS unit, worked fine with the additional extra the PDA was also a backup phone if needed.. Had a dedicated TomTom unit and was impressed with that but it annoyed me having a separate device. Now I have TomTom on my mobile phone, screen is a little small but its a good compromise.

I have used and dealt a lot with Colubris WAP's, personally I think they are awesome bits of kit. They can rated as to handle 100 users, have enough options to confuse even the most techie person but the best bit is they often appear on Ebay and because people dont know what they are they sell for peanuts. Also run on PoE as well but also have a power socket so you have the choice on how to power them.

All of our teachers have laptops. The odd teacher has a slightly older desktop in their classroom and they seem to make good use of them. Personally I would rather have a desktop in each classroom for the teachers as the laptops do suffer a lot of damage from cables being plugged and unplugged every day.

You put the car on Ebay, some one bid on it, they paid and collected, job done, no need for a refund either partial or full. You cant be responsible for other peoples stupidity when it comes to buying cars on Ebay. I do admire the goodwill behind the thinking though

I did start at the school wearing smart trousers and shirt, never wore a tie though. This then slowly evolved to trousers and a fleece, jumper and smart black t-shirt which has slowly moved towards black t-shirt and black combats but with smart shoes. On the whole I am a scruffy person anyway so it suits me better than a shirt and trousers, it also suits the work when scrabbling under desks, running cables etc.

Just watched both of the reports. Personally I think to be skating at that speed in such a close proximity to shoppers was a bit over the top. It wouldnt be accepted if it was members of the younger generation doing the same. If he was using the area later in the evening, or very early morning when the shops are closed and there was no one about it might just be acceptable.

Easymail has seemed very slow over the last 2 weeks, some times takes 3 times to login as well, not sure if any of the issue's are connected. I have not had any reports of failing to logon yet though. Not sure if this information helps. We use https://mail.yourschoolhere.dorset.sch.uk but it actually leads to webservice.app.easymail.th.ifl.net this might be thought of as a security issue by MS phishing filters. Just for comparison my non RM pc at school is running XP Pro, SP2, IE settings are Security Medium-High, Privacy Medium, with no Certificates, autoupdates are turned off as is Phishing Filters and Pop up Blocker. Not sure if the above is of any help at all.

I hope in 6 months time when I am more familiar with the setup, updates have been installed and generally the dust has settled it will actually make my job easier and leave me free to do the other onsite techie stuff. At the moment I am 50/50 if this is going to happen, in response too I so agree, the previous IT company were a 100 times worse than RM.

1 - Build images were failing, incorrect drivers on the supplied build image, tried downloading the correct drivers for the network cards and they still failed, after contacting RM I was then told I had to use a Vista driver (our machines are XP). 2 - Learning Resources Shortcut points to the incorrect server. 3 - Struggled to wade through RM's documentation for installing all of the RM updates (might of been me just being dim). 4 - Head of ICT had problems installing laptops and getting them to connect to the CC4 network. 5 - Problem with backups on the our second server. 6 - Keyboards started to fail. 7 - Teachers existing laptops could not be upgraded to CC4, ie fully working and operational laptops would have to be rebuilt as clean CC4 laptops and any local applications reinstalled along with installing drivers, backing up data etc. 8 - Keyboards, again, keys appear to be sticking and making a continual beeping when at the log in prompt. 9 - Teachers laptops running CC4 had problems with Internet Explorer, could not add Favorites, very long log on times. 10 - RM Engineer attempted to install updates, could not connect using LogMeIn, this was blamed on our ISP who is SWGfL. 11 - This is my favorite, Remote Access was not working on any of the CC4 PC's, RM's response word for word "Removing the Gina is a working solution until Update 9 is released." 12 - RM Management Console kept on crashing. 13 - Could not log into the server, had to power it down manually. 14 - Daft printer issue, not RM's fault. 15 - Engineer tried to install updates, again could not use LogMeIn to connect to the server, I provided them with a logmein session to my own private PC not running anything RM/CC4 and left them to it for the weekend. 16 - Updates all installed, Remote Access still not working. 17 - Backups failing on main server. 18 - Problems with teachers not being able to see all of thier class computers on the network. 19 - Learning resources still not working. Thats a fair chunk of the faults, as said there are still more that need to be reported such as the laptops possibly not synchronizing with the servers. The really annoying thing is when things go well on the CC4 setup it does actually really work very, very well, for the end users all is good as they like it, it runs and they expect no more. When it goes wrong from the techie side its just a right royal pain, things that should just work dont. Ah well I am going to go and hide in a dark corner for a while.

Since the installation of 2 x CC4 servers I have spent most of my time doing nothing more than dealing with issues on them. Everything seems to take 5 times longer than it should, installing programs other than RM's software can be a nightmare, the Management Console crashes quite often if you ask it to do more than 3 things at once, we have had the server crash totally once and another time it would refuse logins directly to the server at one stage meaning a total power down using the power button, Links to Learning Resources direct pupils and staff to the wrong server. Remote Access to PC's across the network doesnt work unless you remove/edit GINA, we have had various issues with the backups, some software related and then finally the tape drive died. Add lots of daft things like you cant rename PC's without rebuilding them (thats direct from RM) and for me I generally think its not that good. From a techie point of view not impressed, but from the end user point of view the pupils and staff seem to love it. Laptops are not synchronized to the server. There is lots more I could add but not all directly related to CC4, one example being all of the keyboards had to be replaced within the first month due to sticking keys causing continual beeping when left at the login prompt. Oh and all of the above since September. In some respects RM support has been awesome, and a few people have actually been very good but there are still a few problems that have now been on RM's list for quite a while. There is probably a few other things I have forgot as well.

If its friends and people I know on a personal level and its a personal computer than I charge around £10-15 an hour plus parts. If its some one I know who runs a business if it can be done as a favour for a favour I will do, recently I did some work and payment was a cambelt change and service on my van. This works as long as the boundarys are clear. If its some one I know as a friend and its business I will often do a reduced rate if people are struggling or setting up a business, kind of like an introduction offer. If its 100% on the business side then its £40 and hour. I must admit I would be unsure of how to charge the support side, I would be tempted to per call or visit. An other way of looking at it is how much business could be generated by this through extra contacts etc, etc. I have had the odd job I have done cheap just for the contacts for future work.

Needed a break from the web page design so wandered off and had a go at making some Cheese, Onion and Potato pasties and while I was in the kitchen put a home made Leek and Potato soup on the go as well. Pasties - 1st attempt and not bad, pastry was not as fluffy as I would like and the filling needed a bit more ommph flavour wise. Soup - Awesome as its a regular recipe I use, just what I need for when I am out playing in the surf tommorrow on my Waveski.

After posting on here a few weeks back for some advice I am now making use of the hints & tips provided to create my own website. Its slow going buts it going in the right direction at least.