Richie1972

Openfire and Pandion here (Pandion supports AD integration, so don't have to have separate login). Works great.

We have an MS Select agreement and have been running Office 2003 for a good few years now. Is it worth going to Office 2007 or straight to 2010? How much difference is there between 2007 and 2010? Which would freak teachers/pupils out the least (bearing in mind they'll freak out when we move most ICT suites over to Windows 7 from XP)? Or, with Office 2010 having only just come out, would I be better using Office 2007 for a couple of years first?

Don't bother with c# - it's got a higher learning curve than vb.net - download either vb express or vwd express for free from microsoft. Have a look at Home: The Official Microsoft ASP.NET Site, I have found lots of useful info on there for designing web pages and linking into acitve directory. Or you could design basic web pages and use vbscript - there are loads of vbscript examples for what you want to do

No, there isn't. Type set from a cmd prompt and it'll show you all the current environment variables. Your only option, really, is going to be to use a vbscript that queries active directory for the value

I'm running our Hyper-V servers on three 2008 R2 clustered servers and they are running fine. The only problems I'm finding with one of the virtual servers (64 bit 2008) running SIMS - it seems a bit slow for users logging on to sims (they seem to take about 30 secs!!!) I'm running a separate 10TB SAN for the hyper-v disks with 2x10GB iSCSI bonded. Hyper-V clients are a mixture of 2008 R2, 2008, 2003 (only needed for crap old apps like Successmaker) servers As clustering requires a domain, I ended up creating one domain purely for the hyper-v cluster network and a second domain for all the rest of the physical and virtual servers. As to people saying that they will only use VMWare - why???? Hyper-V is stable, an industry standard and a hell of a lot cheaper than VMWare - plus Hyper-V V2 live migration works great - only offline for two pings

During interim srvice it is response time not fix time. So, for example, should a PC go down and the fault is logged with the helpdesk, the "customer" has to be contacted/fault acknowledged within 20 minutes. Once full managed service is in place then it becomes 20 mins (or whatever, depending on the fault and SLA) to fix the problem and close the call It means that during the interim, the MSP doesn't end up with totally impossible to meet SLAs due to having to maintain old/non-standard equipment. It also means that as long as the fault is acknowledged, the MSP is meeting its SLA and won't be fined.

Ok, we've narrowed this down: 1. an iMac plugged into the switch netboots fine 2. a Mac Pro doesn't UNLESS it is plugged into the core switch (same switch as the Mac Server) I'm guessing Mac Pros do their "netbooting" differently and, as such, can't handle broadcasts between switches properly if they are not in the default VLAN Not sure what the solution is - can't imagine having to shift around 30 macs all the way across school to re-image them is going to be practical

Same here It's not being "pushed" though, so not many people using it. Not sure how to get staff more interested as it seems a very good resource

I "third" the use of GPP. I've now got only four group policies with users and computers put into a load of groups to make targetting easier: 1. Printers targetted to users/computers 2. Software targetted to computers 3. Registry settings and file copying targetted to users/computers 4. local admin rights for computers targetted to members of staff in appropriate depts The only reasons I've got more than one policy are that there is no way to target IE proxy settings or WSUS group settings (although I suppose this could be done via registry...) Richie

Are they on a DFS share? If so then is DFS replicating correctly? I have seen this happen when DFS is not replicating correctly and the DFS config is not set to give the same server out each time - creates lots of confusion when people log off then log straight back in to find their new documents have disappeared.

Not sure whether this should be in this forum or the Network forum (chose this one in the end as it sems specific to the Macs). Right, we are mainly a PC school with PXE/WDS deployment working fine across switches and VLANs. Before I go any further I need to say that I know nothing about Macs and the current config was setup by another member of staff who does know about Macs. For the Apple Macs we use Netboot, which works fine from the core switch (HP Procurve 5412zl) and also from a HP Procurve 2900 plugged into it (also across VLANs on these two switches). However, Macs plugged into a 3com 4250T, 3com 2824-sfp plus or 3com 4500 don't work. The PCs connected to these switches PXE boot fine. There are appropriate ip helper addresses added to the HP 5412zl (which is acting as the router for the network). Is there something I need to set on the 3coms or does anyone else have a solution? I know of the NBAS option, but this means changing a setting on each Mac's firmware, which I am reluctant to do - plus I'd rather get it working the "proper" way.

Actually ProEngineer doesn't need the MAC address of each machine if you install the licence server. Doing it this way means that you could, theoretically, install ProEngineer on ALL computers - the licence server limits you to the number of licences. Also ProEngineer is really really easy to install - once they tell you. 1. Install the licence server on one of your servers 2. Install ProEngineer (this applies to Pro Engineer 3 and 4) on a computer, pointing it to the licence server for the licence 3. Simply copy the ProEngineer folder to the other computers (or, as I've done, use AdvancedInstaller to build an MSI out of it) 4. Have a coffee

I had this occurring a lot one one file server (2008 Enterprise X64) that was a Hyper-V guest running Sophos as its AV. I upped the RAM and CPUs which reduced the frequency. In the end, due to other problems, I ended up re-installing the server, so never really solved it

Yeah, I had the same 1 to 1 meeting (actually would have been 3 to 1 if I'd not had the Deputy Head in with me). It did all sound very nice and went some way to allaying some of my fears, but the cynical side of me still wonders if I was just being told what I wanted to hear. From what I've gathered so far jobs are safe (although I'll be the only IT Techie in my school - 700 to 800 computers, over 1000 students and god knows how many staff). The fun is going to come when Northgate try to educate the staff on using the help desk and not flagging me down in the corridor (I've tried for 4 years to get them to use the one I designed). I have found that communication could be better - some things I found out from the meeting that the school hadn't been told about and some things the school told that I was not informed of. There are a few jobs on offer relating to BSF - if you want them. There is supposedly somewhere where new hardware and software can be tested. There are also likely to be opportunities for those who want to move to other areas. I think one of my few concerns now is the long term position for network managers (once helpdesk and remote access is in place along with the Northgate supplied IT infrastructure). Short term, though, I could be safe - especially as I'm the only one involved in designing and maintaining the school's network

Yes, I know this has been asked before, but what is the current ideal config: 1. On access turned on for workstations and off for servers (daily scans instead) 2. on access turned off for workstations (daily scans instead) and on for servers 3. on access on for all Some people have said don't use on access on servers Some have said use only scan on write on servers Some have just said exclude certain folders (eg SIMS folders or folding containing SQL server files) Is there something definitive? For us we need to consider the following: Mixture of servers: 2003 and 2008, 32-bit and 64-bit A couple of ISA servers Some physical and a large number of Hyper-V servers Sophos anti-virus on servers McAfee Total Protection on workstations (yes, I know McAfee is rubbish, but it is supplied by the LEA - to make matters worse we have NO access to the Admin Console for it either)

We had this problem with three of these (or possibly XE-32s) within a few months of each other. All were replaced under warranty

There seems to be no error in the eventviewer (Windows Logs > System or the Network Policy and Access Services filter) In the NPS log files I get things like this: "NPSSERVER","IAS",10/01/2009,17:39:10,3,,"DOMAIN\USER",,,,,,,,0,"10.108.4.22","WLANNODE1",,,,,,,5,,8,"311 1 ::1 09/29/2009 23:33:28 364",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Use Windows authentication for all users",1,,,, XP clients show all the settings I have set via GPO, plus the certificate. XP just reports unable to connect to the wireless network Richie

Ok, so we've rebuilt our network over the summer and now have shiny new 2008 Servers. Configuring Wireless access with IAS on Server 2003 with WPA2 Enterprise and pushing out a self signed certificate via GPO was pretty easy. However, with NPS it is far from easy. I can't figure out how to get it to connect (I get past the no certificate problem - so pushing out SSC is still ok). Are there any decent guides or has anyone else successfully managed to implement this?

Or a database and vbscripting in the startup script

The only part of the workstation components not supported is the BDE install, which is 16bit (and not needed now anyway, I believe)

After having loads of hassles with their unattended "trail" file install, I got in touch with PTC support and they said "don't use it". There's a much easier way. 1. Install the licence server on one of your servers (remembering to open port 7788 in the firewall). 2. Install Wildfire 4 on one of your PCs, pointing it to the server for the licence 3. Once complete simply copy the ProEngineer folder to the other client computers (or use something like Advanced Installer to build an MSI). The only problem with this is you get a 1-2GB install, which takes a while to install (especially if, like us, you also have ProEngineer 3 advanced edition to install) Richie

We're now running SIMS on Server 2008 Enterprise x64 4 CPUs, 6GB RAM Hyper-V SQL 2005 Workgroup Edition Seems to be running fine at the moment. Can be switched between our physical servers within a minute with quick migration (we couldn't wait for the release of Server 2008 R2 to get live migration) It was pretty much a standard install - no scripts to run - you just have to remember you are installing to Program Files (x86) for SIMS when you set config settings for SIMS Richie

I've been telling callers that for nearly a year lol. After January 2010 it'll be true though Any purchases etc won't be my responsibility then, so hopefully I'll just be left alone to keep the network ticking over until the refurb when all my hard work gets ripped out (possibly along with my job) Oh, well.... just waiting now to find out exactly what is going to happen - not jumping until the ship starts sinking (unless we get a decent captain - Northgate or RM, not sure which to hope wins it really) Either way I think both companies use the same kit so we'll be lumbered with an RM CC4 network. Richie

@tmcd35 lack of money - we're trying to get what we can while we can (once we're swallowed up by BSF we'll have no chance of buying anything we want - especially as we're looking at around 3-4 years before our school's re-furb is complete). I've already cut back on my plans more than I'd have liked

We're pretty much in the same position. We bought Win2k8 in June for our new servers - with the imminent release of Win2k8r2 we would have to buy all new licences to use it... There may be an upgrade option to it, but it is too much of a change of operating system for it to be like Win2k3r2 - ie just a second CD install