HodgeHi

I don't know anything about thin client networks or their configuring of them but i did come across a terminal services app out for OS X Server in this field. http://www.aquaconnect.net/ You can now download a trial version but since i haven't got that basics set up i won't have the time to check it out before the installation expires. If i remember correctly Ric_ has some macs at his place and with his thin client setup it would be interesting to see, if he has the hardware and the time to trial it to see how it fairs against more established hardware and software out there. Apparently the clients can be PCs as well as macs to connect to the server.

Is the green light on constantly? I assume you have also restarted the laptop.

Hello, I have a problem with a few pages on our schools website: - cronehills.sandwell.sch.uk This is one of them. Safari and IE7 render the pages as they should be with the content in the middle of the page where IE 6 renders it to the left under the links section. I have been trying to sort it now for a few days but can't seem to resolve it. Is there something i've missed that results IE6 in messing it up? I basically copied one existing page that worked and editied to use the new content. Thanks

So to buy an OEM license costs money and to use an OEM license costs money. If i buy an OEM license say for a mac mini when purchasing the hardware for parallels and therefore the hardware is emulated, if i wish to move the OEM to a seperate mac mini with the same emulated hardware is this illegal? Is the OEM still attached to the mac -minis MOBO?

So what happens if the mobo manf decides to completely rewrite the bios and send out a flash update? Does that mean you need a new license. A bit of exaggeration i know :-). When you bought new hardware a few years ago you had no choice but to have an OEM version of XP or whatever so surely you own a license regardless of the hardware you stick on it. You certainly paid for it.

I read recently that OEM version of XP is being removed at the end of this year. I didn't notice the date of post. Is this still true? If so then any new hardware would need a license for XP as well wouldn't it? I am still trying to get my head around all this licensing thing. I called MS to confirm a few things and even they needed to check their facts before telling me whats what. I was asking about OEM licenses under the VLK and if they can be transferred to different hardware when the origianl hardware becomes beyond help. She said yes. I then explained what i wanted to do was to replace hardware with Mac minis and a copy of Parallels and she said that the machine would need to have an OEM XP license already to use under the VL agreement. I also read that the OEMs for Vista are backwards compatible with XP but this somehow does not sound right. I'm interested to hear from someone else who has diferent information or can indeed confirm.

Don't know if you woul dbe interested in the GUI for Robocopy, but i will post it here anyway for those that fear the CMD prompt. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/code06.aspx It's called the Utility Spotlight.

So i guess you have four daily scheduled tasks (mon-fri) and then a monthly on each friday of the week to alternate between each folder or am i complicating things completely unnecessarily? Its just i don't think the schedules i have for backing up at the moment are optimised. Just as well i don't do the SIIMS at the moment.

Just downloaded a robocopy GUI interface. Might make my life a litle easier.

Sounds good to me. How does Robocopy specify additional copies instead of not overwrite? Does it use time stampiing of each copy so as not to overwrite? I've never really used robocopy so don't know its exact strengths and weaknesses. It does sound like the right tool though.

Do you back up to tape or use another alternative. Thanks for the info. It will come in handy when i need to do it, unitl then though i was initially looking at hardware methods i.e RAID with backup to tape for fault tolerance etc. Once again though thanks. See we only have one tape drive which is used to backup up data from (used to be three) two servers. Both use a scheduled NTBackup task to copy the data to a shared folder on the server with the tape drive and then a scheduled task is run after that to copy to tape. Not ideal but working at the moment (hopefully as i have no ideal way of testing).

I need to build a new server to move the sims.net server onto. However we don;t have a lot of money left this far into the financial year. We would like to use a rack-mount server but the chassis cost and if we need to back up to tape then we will need to purchase a chassis that is over £700. Is there another solution that would be just as cost-effective and easier to implement and manage i.e, no need to keep switching the tapes over. Although i am only suppose to manage the curriculum network i have a strange feeling this responsibility will fall to me. I was just wondering how you guys do your backing up and the cheapest way of doing it. TIA.

If it died does it not restore to default settings anyway? I think they used to. Haven't used one in a while.

I have resolved the javascript issue. Just removed the else statement as it was obviously just submitting when no errors were found instead of just halting if errors were found. I would prefer a server side version though if anyone is willing (i will have a go as well of course, although it may get finished when i'm 75 and retired

I have two pices of javascript that i am trying to get to work together nicely. the first is validation of the fields of the form: // Enter the words to be filtered in the line below: var swear_words_arr=new Array("bloody","war","terror"); var swear_alert_arr=new Array; var swear_alert_count=0; function reset_alert_count() { swear_alert_count=0; } function validate_message() { reset_alert_count(); var compare_text=document.enquiry.Comments.value; for(var i=0; i { for(var j=0; j<(compare_text.length); j++) { if(swear_words_arr==compare_text.substring(j,(j+swear_words_arr.length)).toLowerCase()) { swear_alert_arr[swear_alert_count]=compare_text.substring(j,(j+swear_words_arr.length)); swear_alert_count++; } } } var alert_text=""; for(var k=1; k<=swear_alert_count; k++) { alert_text+="\n" + "(" + k + ") " + swear_alert_arr[k-1]; } if(swear_alert_count>0) { alert("The form cannot be submitted.\n You have used innappropriate language."); document.enquiry.Comments.select(); event.returnValue=false; } else { document.enquiry.submit(); } } function select_area() { document.enquiry.Comments.select(); } window.onload=reset_alert_count; ------------------------------------------------------ Before the second script was added the form was validated OK, but after the second was added the Comments box was validated for bad language but if it was left empty was accepted. I think it has something to do with the swear validation saying no swearing found so accept the message and overiding the other validation rule. How can i resolve this problem.

They could state that in the message and leave a phone number to reply to. Since it would be a human on the other end it would be dealt with accordingly. Again that is the plan anyway.

Not everyone owns a computer and so if they use their local library to browse the site and come across the contact us page they would not have either an email address or an email client configured to use the mailto command. The page does send an email to an alias linked to the secretarys inbox, so she should collect them and then respond. Thats the plan anyway.

That would be great. I am looking through some javascript at the moment to try and do just that but am having a bit of trouble getting it to work with the other validation fields. I'm a bit naff at this coding thing and am surprised at how far i've got really. I don't get a lot of time to sit and learn the stuff properly. I can read scripts to a certain extent but cannot write one for the life of me. Any help would be great. Thanks for the offer.

Thanks for that one Gerry. I was going to look into ip logging and that just saved me looking around to find it. I have checked the access log on the webserver though and the ip address seems to resolve to an AOL proxy server. Can anyone confirm that this would be the case? I don't want to blacklist the IP and as a result block legitimate users. Is there anyway to log the actual users modem IP?

It is sent externally and we don't have a VLE (yet). The form uses php to send the email and javascript to validate. We host our website on Broadband Sandwells servers and send the form trough their localhost account so probably doesn't go through their spam filter either. Is there anything script-wise i can do to filter out email based on words before submitting, i.e. form fields have to go into variables to create theemail so could i not run it against a list of words and if it matches stop the mail being sent? I Don't know php much which is why i ask.

I have a problem with our email form used to contact us being abused. Pupils are sending abusive messages into the enquiries address which is then viewed by our secretary. There is validation of the form on the site but they just get around that by suppliying a fake but valid address. Is there any way i can filter the message contents and then dump any that don't adhere to good manners? I hope you can help as it has become very problematic but i don't want to take down the form as it is useful. Thanks in advance.

I think the driving down of costs in the overall market is having an effect on quality as well. To cut the cost of manufacturing means reducing the quality of some of the components inside. eg, cheapass motherboards inside budget machines, bad memory chips etc.

Well, i aint too keen on cats...Hmm, i only have enough in the budget for another 3000 macs...Kill away God!! :-)

One thing i will mention is check the prices on the pcwb site. If you have an account their prices can be competitive. A top end mac mini with a 17" screen a keyboard/mouse bundle £530 at one point. We picked up a few good deals considering apple prices tend to be pretty similar everywhere. At one point mac minis were (top end model) around £400 before the price cut. I had to double check if i recall correctly the spec to make sure it was right.

I think i need to say something as i feel my post may have aggravated a few people on this thread. I will be the first one to hold my hand up and say " i know nothing about music and the technology behind music". This was my point. I purchased macs not soley because they look great on the desk. I purchased them because reading this forum over the last few months more and more people are posting saying that their school is investing in macs. I think a majority of these posts have come from secondary schools. Therefore the decision was made to purchase macs to allow the pupils to get experience on both platforms to give them the skills needed when they get to secondary schools that have macs in them. Garageband and the rest of the iLife suite is a bonus. The downside to running macs is lack of an upgrade path, so its lucky the components in them are of a high quality, and the latency? Well i can hear but i don't do music. It sounded good enough for me (maybe "no" was the wrong word to use) and since we generally don't have any music qualified teachers in the school (the guy comes in) no one could really debate that. If you wish to grab a mac and test it against a better spec PC with a high quality sound card and USB midi keyboard then be my guest. Maybe it would be beneficial for all then we would have a better understanding of the differences of hardware. It would have to be done by a neutral person though ;-) To sum up i know jack about music and the technology requirements for it and i can only go on what other people say (the whole reason of loaning out the keyboard). I was just pointing out the fact that you can still get something reasonable out of them. But since they already have a Music suite kitted out i'm a little puzzled. PS i use iMac core 2 duos educational base models, and Macbooks educational base models, with a few Mac minis and and Xserve and XRAID 1TB.