eean

I was having a 'discussion' with the man from the LEA when he insisted that that my ICT budget (NGFL/Standards fund) was the same as last year (NB: I'm a primary). ME: But last year I had 15k and this year I have 3k. It's clearly not the same. LEA Man: But last year all of your 15k was ringfenced and schools said they didn't like that so this year only 3k is ringfenced. The remaining 12k is in your DFC grant, which can be spent on anything - that's great isn't it? ME: So our DFC grant has gone up by 12k has it? And we can spend that on ICT if we want. LEA Man: No. ME: [looks puzzled] LEA Man: It's gone down because they've removed a load of other budgets. ME: But my head hasn't got enough money to pay for teachers, never mind choosing to spend his DFC on ICT. LEA Man: [smiles knowingly] They have also 'helpfully' put 2k of my ELCs into our DFC - so my software money can now be spent on cleaners. So the bottom line is there is less money floating about and head teachers are under pressure to balance the books to keep on staff. I fear the glory days of big ICT spending may be over

I'm pretty sure the complex password policy is only enforced when you try and CHANGE a password. As you said, pupils don't have a password so will never need to change it. So why not switch off the complex password policy, create all your pupil users, switch it back on then do a 'force users to change password next logon' for your staff users. It might even be simpler than that: does windows apply the complex password policy when admins change passwords? If not, then you can leave the policy switched on all the time.

This means an attacker just has to get of staff crendentials from a careless member of staff then they could mount remote attacks on any laptop. I agree with ITWombat; also, am I right in thinking that a virus or malware that infects one staff laptop could use the logged-on teacher's credentials to infect all the others when networked? (I know we all have virus scanners, but they are only part of the solution) If staff must have admin rights, would it not be safer to just add the laptop owner's username to the local admin group?

Webman, that's interesting - I've never heard that before. I'm no expert but I can say from my own experience that 802.11a drops out significantly sooner than b/g. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/802.11 : These sources tell the same story: http://compnetworking.about.com/cs/wireless80211/a/aa80211standard.htm http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/1009431

The higher frequency means 802.11a signals have more difficulty penetrating walls and other obstructions so the range is less. There is potentially less interference. Because the frequency is different you can have a and g APs together and they wont interfere. The top end APs may load balance users between the two frequencies, allowing faster simultanious connections - I don't know.

Windows XP has quite a nice utility (in Control Pannel) that copies a program onto a memory stick/disk and it will automatically setup the WPA-PSK pass phrase on the computer. I have hacked this to make it completely automatic (let me know if you want it/to know how) and included it on our automatic build CD. Or you could put it on the network so it is installed first by plugging in (although you may want to keep control over it so you can varify users have virus scan and auto updates). Because it 100% automated I can have a random 64 character pass phrase, which minimises risk of brute-force/dictionary attacks.

Oh and... all of mine are on POE which are plugged into a multibar at the server end. So I have a timer switch on that multibar to switch them off at night. This was initially because we had some dodgy wiring which caused one of them to blow up, melting the whole POE adaptor! However, it has the added advantage that it reduces the risk of hacking and it gives all the adaptors a good clean restart every night.

We're a primary school with a wireless network. I currently install all software via group policy. I try to have everything running locally, so reduce the burdon on the wireless network. Staff laptops are not conneted to the wireless network, but I would like to, and have all the software available for them to use at home. However, imagine the scene: Teacher brings in their laptop after 6 months at home. Group policy spends 25 minutes on startup installing tons of software that has built up! Is there any way of allowing a 'Skip Instillation' button? Or an easy way for staff to install software on their own?

We have 8 d-link DWL-2100 aps now with the POE. They run Ok but I've switched Off any fancy settings like xtreem G (but have turbo on). We would reguarly have 15+ computers conneting to one point. Have you tried: --them in WPA-PSK? Mine seem to run reliably in that mode since a firmware update last year. Or even no encryption (for testing) --removing certain brands of client (esp those b devices - then you can have it on G only - any b devices connecting slows down the whole access point). We found Dlink wireless -> ethernet adaptor (G810) we bought for a printer crashed every AP nearby. -- Auto channel scan - the AP selects the least busy channel and it actually seems to work. (Newer Netgear APs will autonegotiate and turn down other netgear APs, apparently). OUr main problem were the d-link cards. They caused our RM (compal) laptops to run at 100% cpu. D-Link support were useless. (RM were surprisingly helpful - but still useless!). In the end I found a driver on tsd.dlink.com.tw fixed it but dlink europe denied it even existed. We still have a problem where the notebooks freeze for about 1 minute after 20 minutes' use. They recover and are fine - but not after a few 6 year olds have poked them. Doesn't happen on our desktops. Odd. So yes, D-Link are rubbish.

Thanks.... I think I've checked that out and I can't spot anything too odd. I will have to fiddle around with different policies - I have a niggling feeling that folder redirection is holding it all up. It feels the need to write an event log everytime it does it (correctly) so it must be feeling proud about itself for something!

1 - Windows 2000 Server. I think so All tests passed, including dns one. What can I test here? Yes. I remember having it wrong once and it took 3 minutes to logon. How do I test this? Thanks.

Sorry! It was a reply to "Cheers for the link [novel thing], but it says "Grant Users and Power Users the ability to install USB mass storage devices." will that really allow users to add devices too? Will test it shortly." But I missed the second page, so I'm a bit behind. I've always been a bit special needs.

We've only got one user-side policy and that's taking 30 secs to load.

Hmm... would doubt it. If you open the uncompiled Autoit script in notepad- AllowUSBJumpDrives.au3 - you can see it works by giving users ' Modify, Read and Execute, Read, Write' on C:\Windows\inf\usbstor.inf. So I assume it must be a permissions problem. Perhaps you could try changing the permissions on the specific .inf files or on c:\windows\inf\ - or would that be a bit of a security risk? Let us know how you get on - I've a simlar problem with digital cameras & mice etc... Seems to ask for a admin password randomly about 10% of the time. I guess you already know about autoit, if you don't its great and free! http://www.autoitscript.com/

Thanks. I think I will buy one to test and stick it to the side of an old monitor to see what damage I can do with a screwdriver!

We're a primary school and each year group has it's own logon name with a mandantory profile. Staff have their own roaming profiles. Different year groups need to have different profiles (they are differentiated - e.g. reception don't double click). Pupil logon is 45sec total: 15 sec loading profile (1mb) and 30 applying personal settings. This is the same on new and 5 yr old machines. (can be longer over wireless loading profile). The slow bit is applying personal settings. This seems to be caused by group policy. When I disable the policy it is really quick but I loose folder redirection and some restrictions. Is there anyway of making it save all the policy info in the user.man file? Then I could disable the policy. Thanks.

I know you can get whole projector enclosures but at 14 x £200 each = my entire budget + 1 kidney. We have got those little kensington locks but they ripped that off with their fingers. So I was thinking of those super-glue security plates but with a really thick cable (I think I could gnaw through the kensington ones). The cable would have to be quite long, so I could feed it though the 1-2metre boom and fix to the wall. Anyone had experience of security plates? Can they just be cracked off with a screwdriver? Anyone seen some for thick cable? All for about 15 quid each? BTW. The kensington lock did mean that our insurance paid out, so it was worth it; but with a £500 excess, ironically, you need to have a lot nicked to make it worth your while!

ZeroHour. Thanks for the MSI!

The Smartboard 9.5 is a MSI installer file, it has just been packed in an exe and, unlike with 9.1, Smart haven't bothered releasing a easier admin install. So: Download and run the smartboard install exe Wait for it to 'check package integrety' etc... until the first proper welcome dialogue comes up. Click cancel and exit the installer. Go to c:\WINDOWS\Downloaded Installations. In there you will find SMTBrdSoftware95, complete with MSI, which you can then make a custom mst for it (I use Wise Install Tailor - free - to make a with and without smart tools version for computers with or without smartboards attached) or deploy straight through AD. Anyone know how to make a mst that will disable auto update?

We have some Sahara and you can never seem to get the text crisp - always looks as if it is interpolated even though I've had it set to it's native resolution. I like the idea of the orange projector with the removable panel though - anyone else do this?