DavR

Well, quite. I also put out the feelers to buy a spare AP, but haven't had anything back yet.

Just had an email saying that my RMA for a faulty AP has been processed, and I should get the new one on Monday! I'll believe it when I see it, but if so, that's one less worry with this situation.

Boooooo! Thanks for the tip. I guess nothing good ever lasts.

We tend to use Kingsfield IT (now morphing into XMA) for our bits and bobs. I'll also use them to quote on bigger projects, sometimes they win, sometimes they don't, but their prices overall tend to be fairly keen. The key thing for us has been having a good relationship with the account manager, and generally getting a same day response when we ask for prices or recommendations. Efficiency counts for a lot when you're just trying to get a job done. That said, our account manager is changing so we'll see what the new guy is like.

Is anyone successfully using the inbuilt Microsoft Outlook email encryption with an Office 365 A1 subscription? I can see various guides on enabling Microsoft Purview Message Encryption, but these all seem to rely on Azure Rights Management. From what I can find, Office 361 A1 includes a basic edition of Purview Message Encryption, but not Azure Rights Management, which Purview Message Encryption needs to function?! This seems kinda contradictory. I'm pretty sure from the guides I've seen I could just enabled Azure Rights Management, but I'm just trying to stay within my current agreement. Microsoft licensing, once again, clear as mud 😂 Tbh it's a bit of an academic question, as we have Egress Switch for when we really want encryption. But someone said the other day that they were requested to use it by one of their contacts, so it would be good to give her a firm Yes or No.

We had Aerohive for 9 years, and in that time they switched from an expensive AP model, with cheap licensing, to a cheap AP model with expensive licensing, thereby fleecing us both coming and going. That betrayal stung on each renewal cycle tbh, as much as the hardware did it's job perfectly wellk. So then we scrapped that and got Cambium, with no ongoing license fees and lifetime warranty. Until last week, anyway. Please don't let ask me to choose another wireless supplier any time soon, I'm not sure I could bear being wrong a third time 😂

Our policy has the entry; In the Control Panel allow list, which allows us to manage mail profiles etc in classic Outlook (currently on LTSC 2024 here).

I've downloaded the server appliance, and latest AP firmwares, just in case, but I've not done anything with them. I'll wait and see what we hear. My main concern is that I've got an outstanding RMA for one AP, and neither Cambium nor the third party supplier who are processing it are giving me any information. Hypothetically planning where I can stand to lose an AP in the layout if I can't get this one replaced, which isn't ideal on a 12 month old system.

Yup, verified with our Server 2022 DCs, all seems OK at the moment. I wonder which protocol or whatever it breaks that's in Server 2019, but not 2025? I shut down some of the less secure ones on our Server 2022 DCs a while back.

There is a local appliance version of the controller, although I've not looked into it in any depth. One assumes you'd be able to re-enrol the APs onto that, assuming the enrolment process doesn't rely on any call-home features. I'm pretty sure the configuration sits on the APs themselves, so if the cloud controller disappeared tomorrow, it would keep working. However, you'd just be stuck with a system you couldn't make any changes to, and minus any web-based features you might be using.

Yikes. I bet Tariq is popular with the administrators for slipping that one out. Not a bad shout tbh. You'd hope that Cambium US would keep things ticking over, but I don't suppose they're under any obligation to.

That's interesting.... currently trying to get an RMA replacement for one AP put through, which is taking a while. Not heard anything else, though. Sources?

Has anyone managed to do this yet in their environment? The majority of our devices built in WDS / MDT with the expiring 2011 boot certs just fine, even though their firmware was updated to use the 2023 certs. One model of HP laptop, though, stubbornly refuses to. It started with error 272 on the initial boot. This was resolved by updating wdsmgfw.efi and bootmgfw.efi to 2023-certified versions, so now the device boots to WDS, and WDS itself is 2023 cert ready. However, the next step is it hits the boot image wim and fails to boot into it, with error 428 below (not my image, borrowed). OK, so this means its a signature fail between the device and the boot image. But I've tried everything I can, and cannot get a boot image that works! I've tried updating the wim from ADK 10.1.26100 Dec 2024 with updated bootmgfw.efi. I've tried the wim from the newest ADK 10.1.28000 nov 2025. I've tried this guide, this guide and this note, but none of them seem to do it. I could just turn off secure boot during build, I suppose. But given that the 2011 certs will get revoked one day, it seems like I should be getting my boot images Cert 2023 ready. Any ideas?

I've been giving out this online convertor - https://online2pdf.com/convert-publisher-to-pdf - with the proviso that it's not to be used for anything confidential / personal data. Shouldn't be an issue as most of the files are signs or labels and suchlike. Seems to be working OK.

Second email of the day. This one at least knew Publisher had gone and was looking for a file converter.....

So, how many people upgraded their MS Office over the holidays? And how many emails have you had so far asking where Publisher has gone, despite a two year information campaign about it's retirement? Just had the first this morning, Day 1, 8.30am 😂

If you don't fancy scripting it, there is probably an Add-on that will do it, it's just sharpening your Google search til you get the right one.

Update on this one, for anyone who took an interest. I'd given up on the idea for a bit, until I thought, instead of mending the existing plastic handle, why not replace it with a fabric one. A bit of choice eBaying, and came up with the below! A new handle out of plastic webbing, like you'd get on a bag strap but a bit thinner, held together with double ended rivets. I'm quite pleased with how the new handles came out, the question is how well they wear. They shouldn't fall off at least, unlike the original handles, but I do wonder if they'll fray when rubbing against the plastic edges.

Similar with this idea, really. Could work, but would need to be very wide ones and a very good fit. The ideal solution I guess is something that will fill the 20mm ish inside of the handle to hold tight, providing a 30mm plus lip to stop it popping out. All without going much more than 9mm deep (the depth of the handle). I'm sure there's an obscure plastic fitting somewhere out there that'll do the job, it's just a case of working out which one, out of millions!

Something like these, you mean? Potentially, but they'd need to be very fat plugs, something like 20mm with a 30mm lip. Worth thinking about though, ta.

Lol, no, that's per pack of six. I wouldn't start booking the retirement cruise just yet.

A few thoughts.... WiFi - have you tried these on a wired connection, to check whether the wireless connection may be at fault? I'm thinking dodgy WiFi drivers, possibly even firmwares. BIOS - are they on the latest Event logs - can you track down what's actually happening during the hang time in Event Viewer? Eliminate policies, one by one - could you put the laptop in a test OU and add each policy in turn, to see which one is causing the hang?

It's a good fix for replacing the internal racking, but we really want to hang on to the basket idea, as it works really well for us.

It is. I had considered the chicago screw and washers approach, but when I started to mock it up, the fixings add up to 4mm on each side of the fitting. Which isn't so bad on the outside, but then you have the risk of metal fixings scratching up the Chromebooks inside of the basket. The other option could have been to cut a plate out of plastic the size and shape the hole is supposed to be, and put that on as a patch. But that'd be far to crafty for the skills and tools I've got available tbh. It's not a simple circle, it's an oval with nubs in to allow fitting and locking in of the handle. It's these finer details that get worn off, allowing the handle to pop out.

There's an LGfL checklist which we based our checking regime on - https://viewonline.lgfl.net/hubfs/SafeguardED/Online Safety Audit And Filtering Checks Template/Filtering Checks Template-LGfL-September-2025.docx We do a list of tests, against six different varieties of access we offer, once a term. It does feel like a bit of a box ticking exercise, but it does also occasionally bring up config errors that we were unaware of and loopholes that need closing. This generates a spreadsheet for each academic year, in case anyone ever asks. Of course, the real answer is, we are always vigilant and constantly reviewing our filtering and monitoring systems, right guys? RIGHT!?!