kingswood

The "stuff" goes on the TALMOS system nicely. We just purchased the excellent Brittanica module and everyone is impressed. But the system isn't actually *working* yet, even after I sent the providers an email outlining our desire to push ahead. They are, in fact, slow. Our spearhead department will make it successful, and I suspect with SMT now pushing the uptake of TALMOS and other VLE-like things going on elsewhere on our system this will be the year the staff actually see something happening with it...of course if we do see it going all will be impressed. I had the good fortune of sitting down with one of the co-developers for over three hours one afternoon when it was installed, and he showed me some fantastic features. It's nothing you can't do with Moodle, and that would have been my personal choice, but I didn't get the say. The Head did. It's his call. In any case what TALMOS can do is pretty much unlimited. It's very modular and looks easy to update and use. What I *will* do if you like is keep you all updated when we run it "proper", and could include screen shots etc etc for those interested. Paul

Probably- HP switches use the standard 802.3ad link aggregation control protocol (LACP) and also HP Trunking- but what you can do depends on your model of switch and available ports etc. Check with the HP site and download the manuals for your switches, and then take it from there. I would suggest you take this slowly though- it isn't *that easy* and might disrupt your LAN if you get it wrong. Stick with one NIC while you learn what to do and then test it at a time when there isn't network usage taking place (half-term?). Document the steps you take too so that you can back out at any stage and revert to your original configuration. Good luck! Paul

Try this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323431 Should give you a head start on the TCP/IP configuration side of things. Paul

I think if there is a pointer in your DNS zone to your external (ISP) DNS server and also a host record in your forward lookup zone to your in-house DNS server that should do the trick. At least that's what I have done. If there is only one host record and it points to your internal DNS server and that has no exit DNS reference for zones it isn't authoritative for it won't let out the traffic. Resolution will hang, and there will be no internet access. I actually tried this just now on my VMs and it seems you do need some forwarding in there even though you have a local DNS server reference. This might help: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323380 Paul

You would normally use just one card, unless (if using Server 2003) you want to utilise NLB (Network Load Balancing) or use RRAS (Routing and Remote Access Service). You can also use multiple cards on a server for NIC Teaming under something like VMWare ESX Server. If you need multi NIC routing, then this setup is ideal. Otherwise you would probably get away with just the one card (so long as it is gigabit). Having said all of that, I could be wrong. It's not something I have played with that much.

http://stadium.weblogsinc.com/tuaw/files/stevesings.mp3 :-) But it hasn't got a stylus ;-)

Did you get that from an MS marketing statement? Consider: "Business" bought 1000 copies of X in the first month "Business" bought 27,123,456 copies of X in the second year "Business" bought 1625 copies of Y in the first month. An increase in a rate doesn't tell us anything much. Maybe, but I've yet to find an app I want to run (lots and lots of those) that doesn't work on my W2K laptop. Nope. NPD report. Sales are actually down over 3% against the XP launch, so it's not all good news. And remember that is without general release to the public. Take what you want from the figures or the NPD report, but it either says Vista is doing well or it's fudged to make it look like it's doing well. I don't care. I'm a Mac user

It sounds like the HND I am studying right now actually. Take separate modules in MS and Cisco technology and merge them with certification elements that help prepare you for the tests should you want to do them. I'm on course to take my MCP in Server 2003 this year and even have a peek at the CCNA I have wanted for some time. So course like that are actually pretty good at getting you ready for the test. On the other hand, without the experience you are pretty much sunk, because although you know the theory the practise is something else. Not sure about the course you mentioned because I haven't done it, but after looking at it I would say go for it and see what it can do for you. Couple it with some good experience and build up your confidence in the software and hardware and see what happens. Good luck!

Schools may be told to shun Vista outwith any educational application that needs its specific technologies (I would say video editing or music etc), but business have lapped it up at 62.5% higher rates within one month of launch compared to Windows 2000! The problem from one side is that Vista may not be compatible with some of your older educational software; but from the other end future software needs will no doubt require Vista in some way to get all the functionality from the applications. So whilst BECTA are just making a subjective assessment I'm not sure why. When MS release an OS it's take-up is inevitable. Rather like KS3 online tests or BSF ;-) Of course we could argue with BECTA that Vista contains some new improved security features that would actually benefit school networks- advances in group policy etc. And that's without mentioning deployment tools and options, and slick integration with Longhorn Server. In the end you have to make a whole school decision based on your current and projected needs. BECTA are right in that schools shouldn't just dive in- ever- to this sort of release. But it will come...

No real problems here with the update- several clients failed to auto-update and so were out of sync with the server, but running the install manually fixed them first time. Quite a good update for us for the second month in a row really.

Cool. Thanks for the link!

Yep.

What extra stuff? If you have been reading the news then you will know that the probability is that Apple will open up the innards for developers so that they can do some cool things with the widgets etc etc.. But whether you will be able to, say, load a light version of VLC on is another thing entirely. It might have an incarnation of OS X on it, but it isn't *OS X*.

Yeah. I read that too and balked. We had just spent nearly ten grand on flashy new servers from Dell and weren't about to get another real quick. I would *prefer* to run it this way, but just can't. So our APS is on a main server and seems to be OK. What we did do was update the infrastructure (switches and cabling) and memory of the systems running the DPS software. With the KS3 test you really have to look at the whole picture, not just the machine acting as APS. So your network might not have the capacity it needs during peak times to get the data across. Look at NIC speeds, cabling, switch capacity, whether your server is connected using gigabit or not, what time of day you are trying to run the test at and whether activity on the wider LAN is too much at that time etc etc. Blah blah. You get the idea. Or call RM and make them support their beast.

I have a Nokia E61 and it does everything I want it to. As much as I love Apple Inc., I probably won't get the iPhone (or the Apple TV device). As Stewart said, it doesn't have 3G whereas my E61 does; the battery life is pretty gloomy, and the version of OS X it runs is first party only it seems. So no installing applications from other developers at the moment. It's nice- the UI especially is really cool- but an iPhone? Where's OS 10.5, iWork, iLife '07 and the new Mac Pros etc etc. What about Adobe's soon-to-be-released Photoshop? With Vista out real soon I think Apple under-sold themselves yesterday.

We have PERC 4 RAID controllers in our PE servers and they are fantastic. Installing one yourself will be a great experience, but you are going to have to re-build the server as Geoff has mentioned. Once you have done that higher RAID levels give you more data redundancy but a slight speed hit. Major advantage is the rebuild time should a drive go south...we had a HDD go bad and it was replaced and RAID array rebuilt in less than an hour. Windows software-based RAID is *a solution* but it is in no way better than off-setting all that processing to a dedicated hardware card- especially since Windows' built-in RAID configuration is pretty much limited. The Dell cards come with excellent software for monitoring your array (and changing it if you want). If you can't rebuild the server then Windows mirroring is OK. But for a SIMS server I would want a RAID card and at least some redundancy and easy swap out of defective drives.

I will tell our SIMS bod about that one...and just before the Census return too!!

Hi. Check the printer driver versions on both server and client and make sure they match. See if that turns up anything useful. Paul

Absolutely! I use this now: http://www.panic.com/unison/ It's £7 a month, but I can get great download speeds and all the info I need.

I run Mandriva on a Dell Inspiron 510m with Intel GMA Graphics (64MB shared system RAM graphics memory usage). It runs XGL great. You would be better with a newer supported card, but it runs on chipsets with integrated graphics too.

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/efd0ee45-9605-42d3-9798-3b698fff3e081033.mspx?mfr=true That helped me...

One extra point: if you aren't getting something out of your relationship with Apple in addition to just using Apples in school, something is wrong.

Really? Where did you hear that then? You shouldn't trust everything you hear you know. The option to go fully Apple for the new build was one I put on the table. But it all goes out to tender. As a Specialist Arts school I happen to think it would offer us huge advantages for the education we offer students in the specialism we have been awarded and worked for. Our media department are working hard to integrate Apples into the network and with orders for more Macs coming it's something we need to address. Is the *option* to go fully Apple blind? Not at all. I am in touch with a senior engineer/consultant at Apple UK and I'm not entirely happy with some of the answers I have been given. I am glad that the issue will be resolved to tender. So in that way if Apple want to bid to provide for the school's future they can and they *may* win. They may not. Other options include thin client (which I am happy about) and vanilla network with mixed Apple and Windows clients (again, very happy about). As for the Training Solutions wireless workshop/seminar/sales pitch: yes it would be a good networking opportunity and it's something I rarely get the chance to have a bit at. Particularly now that I am on my own and running a very large split-site network. Thanks Tony.

It's hard to quantify the usefulness of something that isn't broadly available. From a subjective point of view using a new environment will help students adapt to the changing world of ICT. But how many students has it *actually* helped in this area? I would say very few. And mostly because this test isn't yet consistent. It has caused too many teething problems and students have had to oftne ride out those technical storms whilst RM or networks get to grips with the things themselves. And of course they will still be teaching "this is how you use ICT..." just "this is how you use ICT using RMs front end testing software.." Because if they don't then students will mostly be lost in the interface. As for us we will continue to use the test until and unless we get an official sanction to stop. If you read the article the test will still be used in any case, just as a tool for teaching assessment. So it will no doubt still be there, just not in its present context. Good points Tony. Paul