kingswood

We know. We also want you to get your iBook.

You're crazy. We're not changing the IP addresses, we're logging the IP addresses. There are plenty of IP scanners out there that would help, but the thing is the machine would have to be on to do it. We could get around it somehow by loading on some kind of application that would wake the machines up (they have WOL) but it wouldn't help because at the same time as checking the IP address it would be prudent to make sure that the SIMS.Net component got the last update. On top of that we need to log *where* the machine is (what room it is in). It would take an amazing application to do that ;-) So it's not such a crazy thought- just doesn't fit the situ right now. Paul :-)

RIS is a pretty cool (and free) tool. Since coming to the school I have been amazed how annoying Ghost can be! PowerQuest DC is actually pretty good too and I have used that in the past, but want to move on from ghost and other solutions just using RIS instead.

Guilty as charged too Tony- and it's an easy thing to forget! Paul

Whatever. :-)

No- I'm waiting for the rumoured 13.3 widescreen version with built-in iSight and Intel Solo Processor....667MHz bus speed and 2Mb cache...yum. Paul ;-)

I'd prefer the cavier RE2- with 400GB of storage and a speed of 7,200rpm (and with the addition of 16MB cache and Native Command Queuing) it would be a good addition to any server or high end workstation that needs some storage. I think the raptors are rated at somewhere between 32dBA when idle and 36dBA when active (don't quote me on that though), which is fairly good. I've actually heard people complain about the noise of these things- and that's with the bigger 74GB version. I suppose it's all relative to the hearer. I don't personally care. I need more space than that! lol! Paul

A room full of 10k rpm hard drives would be silent? Not even SCSI hard drives are *that* quiet! But in any case I jest. So- you haven't gotten your iBook then? Hehehehe...or your forms from MBNA? Ouch. Another two weeks for you then- lol! ;-)

Dell are a pretty safe bet when it comes to purchases for schools- and the stuff they sell is also quite good. Someone mentioned HP- I like their kit, in fact I've been looking at their servers for some time now ready for purchasing a new one for curriculum. Even so, the past two servers have been from Dell and are really good value for money (with excellent support- so long as you don't go through county for it). @Shane: raptor hard drives in school systems? Not only the cost would be prohibitive, but also the noise! And no- we can't use them in the proxy server so you can play Doom!! lol! Paul ;-)

Since MS are dropping the Beta 2 release of Vista it looks ever more likely that people without a Technet subscription might not see this one for some time yet. I'm talking with my systems manager about a sub this week...

Stick to your iBook young man. Vista. Pah! Paul :-)

Your reference is in the post Shane...lol! (Bit like your MBNA forms really) Paul :-)

What- they haven't sent your papers yet ;-) Paul

Robocopy it is then. I have looked at the Robocopy manual today and it looks pretty straight forward. I think we will test around twenty of the user areas on our test server and see how it goes. Thanks! Paul

Here's an extension to what Shane has asked (and thanks for the replies so far): We have an existing 2000 Server with years 10,11,12 users and Staff areas on it. On our lower site we have years 7,8,9 users and areas stored on a 2003 Server (same domain etc). Our Systems Manager is talking about letting go of CSE this year, and if this is the case my concern is that we make the user data *safe*. What I mean is, we want to take all those user areas from those two servers and put them on one new server (perhaps with a different domain name), transfer FSMO roles to the new server, take the old ones down and then reinstall the 2003 Server on the lower site and get some DFS working once we have re-installed things like Prism etc. I want to be able (if this happens) to allow the same user account to access the same user area they had before (under CSE) so that it is seamless. This is all conjecture right now, and I know it *can* be done but obviously haven't done it to this scale. We're talking nearly 2000 users and areas. A lot of stuff to mess up if it doesn't work. Commonly known as a CLM- "Career Limiting Move". Robocopy looks very interesting and I think I have used it already for copying some files between our existing servers. I'm not sure about how good NTBackup would be in this case- would it be better than ADMT? What about Veritas Backup- doesn't that keep permissions on the files? Thanks for the help people! Paul

I use a 1.2Ghz G4 iBook for all things work related- they are simply great. Sturdy, good battery life, fast enough for most applications, and cheaper than the PB. If it's a school purchase I would recommend the iBook. For DV I wouldn't recommend anything other than an iMac G5 (or obviously the new MacTel when they stop using Rosetta). Having said that, our media department enjoy DV editing on eMacs and it's fine (Final Cut Express and iMovie/iDVD). As someone mentioned, the choice becomes easier if you are thinking about editing HD. In this case it *has* to be a G5 of some kind. We have encountered the same worry about the size of multimedia files that others have, and so this last month our media department got themselves a 500GB external Lacie drive for less than £220. A steal, and an excellent option if the students are saving lots of movies and things for course work (which they are). Paul

Works really well too! I use it at home when testing my OSX Server and getting it to play well with my 2003 test server. It's nice being able to sit at the OSX Server and configure the AD Server from the same place :-) Paul

Doesn't ISA only block protocols when in Firewall mode? I really need to upgrade our ISA 2000 Server this year to 2004 because at the moment CSE have installed it only as a caching server- it doesn't do any kind of advanced level blocking (with the exception of web pages). Even so, I find that when I block login.passport.net and its IP address the little things get fair annoyed :-) Problem is, so do the staff and they moan like hell till you put it back on- and the moan again when the students figure out that it's back on!! Also I configured a GPO to block the msnmsgr.exe file on computers: Computer Configuration > Admin Templates > System > Don't run specified applications > add in any .exe files you want in there. It worked anyway. Could also use a registry key: HKLM\Software\Policies\microsoft Create your key called "Messenger" and another one called "Messenger Client"; create a DWORD under client call it PreventRun and give a value of 1. Export this key to a file and import it to your other machines. This worked for me too. Paul

Vista's imaging technology looks compelling but I doubt we would have the hardware to cope with it for around two years! I'm hoping to get the Systems Manager to subscribe to Technet this year when the new budget period enters in so that we can test things like Office 12 (which looks good) and Vista too. That'll depend on cost though. Paul

Veritas here too and I also complete a full backup to Lacie external hard drive once a month. In addition we have a Recovery Manager Server on our network, so this helps with dynamic backups of student and staff saved data and recovery of lost files (much like volume shadow copy). Paul

Haven't managed to sort out my online stuff yet, but I'll add my tag as soon as I have. The XBox 360 is great! Paul :-)

It *is* a great opportunity. Hopefully they will find someone soon. My wife studied at the CTC and liked it a lot. Come on- snap it up! Paul :-)

No- that was my house about three years ago as I set up my first Linux network :-O

No problem- and thanks! Paul

Didn't actually know that- thanks for the info! Paul