kingswood

We had the problem with ProDesktop 8. To fix it, you have to install it as an administrator locally, but only after downloading the latest Java patches. Apparently it has someting to do with that. Once installed, administrator must run an extrusion image and then close the application. When a user logs on, it "fixes" it. Mmmmmmm. Haven't tried it yet because the design bods in our school want 7 on instead anyway; they say it's because 8 doesn't have tutorials. Oh- and they want copies of it for students to take home. Can this be right- you are allowed to make copies for each student needing one (and member of staff) from a site license of ProDesktop? Seems strange to me. I have held off doing it because I want to be sure first... Paul

Yeah- I chill out at the weekend and try to recharge, and make sure I don't spend too much time staring at a computer screen. Even if I do spend a little time on the computer at home, it's light surfing and not heavily technical. After the week we all have, I think we owe it to ourselves (and our families) to guard the time we have away from work well :-) Did I get philosophical there? Sorry! lol! Paul

Do any of you have any ideas as to which book/s I should get to learn VB .NET? I will be getting the Deluxe Learning Edition (Microsoft Press) tomorrow- but any recommendations would be helpful. Basically I need to study all aspects of VB (not VB Script) including the development cycle to HND/Degree level. Thanks people! Paul

Should be interesting to see what you come up with... Paul

You might find that because you have concentrated on VB6 and haven't gone much into .NET that the jump straight into VB 2005 Express and LDAP interaction will be a huge leap! Then again, the principles are the same. What are you planning on doing with LDAP and VB 2005? Paul

Shouldn't you learn visual basic first? Aherm, anyway: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q187529/ http://www.ldapguru.org/ Lots to read there. Have you noticed any big difference between VB 2003 .NET and 2005 Express yet? Paul :-)

@beeswax: iiyama are great for games- I use one on my Mac and it's a solid piece of kit. Have also used it for gaming on a Windows machine (Halo etc), and no problems there either. I use the 17" iiYama ProLite e431S, and I'm sure it's less than a £150 right now. Other than that, if you have the money a good one to get is straight off the PC Pro A List- a 19" Viewsonic (VX924); it has a 3-4ms response time and is around £280. Paul

I wanted to use a BBC whilst studying 6502 assembly language, but couldn't get the courage up enough to buy one from eBay...*sigh*...they were great machines though. Paul

LOL! There's an analogy coming on..but hopefully you won't have to wait as long for your DFS to work as you sometimes do to get DFS to deliver a sofa :-) Good luck! Paul

Ahhhh...macs...integration...deployment...love it. Just what I needed. Well that's me definitely in then :-) Paul

Yep- we have DFS running on 2003 Server and it seems OK. The problem for us comes from our having a 2000 server in the domain too- and that *does* cause problems. Normally this is seen in our having to force replication of recently changed objects... Paul

Don't worry men- your bank balance will be safe if your wives shop in Corby ;-) Paul

In education Gecko, it is the integration of IT and curriculum that is important and delivering that in a way that meets the needs of both students and staff. So, that being the case, yes you have to weigh up security and cost with flexible IT provision, but you also have to consider this alongside educational requirement. In our case mobility hasn't led to lack of security necessarily. Lack of security led to stolen laptops. That's because when people speak of "mobility" they are really talking about data that travels with you- freedom to access your information wherever you are. Apparently some schools do this via PDAs. Same thing. Mobility. So- what's more important is education- after all, that's what I think I am here to support. The technology has to fit the educational needs of the school. How I deliver this is probably up for debate, but in the end the solution offered despite its inherent security concerns, works for the students and makes life for staff easier when they need to teach a lesson in IT in a location that doesn't allow for a wired connection. Paul

You could turn off the wireless access point and make people use cables. However, that kind of defeats the push for mobility (the new buzzword of course). I think that wireless offers great promise but as with everything is more marketing than reality. At our school we use wireless. At least I think we do- not many teachers use it at all, and those that do get such a weak signal that it isn't worth sniffing at. So we have this tension between the perceived need for more mobility and the security and performance issues that wireless brings to the table. Sometimes it isn't just a perceived need for mobility either. We have a trolley of laptops (wireless) and the freedom this kind of thing brings is amazing for both students and staff. Without this wireless solution, our main tower block would cost us more to cable and get ready for ethernet than it would to allow a wireless connection for two or three lessons a week! Just my 2p. Paul

Books that you read :-) Paul

Yep- System Preferences > Sharing > Internet > choose which interface you want to share from, authenticate if you have to and put a check in the box. I use BT Broadband for my connection and have never had a problem at all with either my Macs or my windoze based boxen. Good luck! Paul

I don't know if you would class this as cheap, but under our volume license scheme we got ISA 2004 for less than £300. Obviously this may not work for you- in which case have a look at something called GFI Webmonitor (the free version). I'm not sure that you can use this outside of a solution such as ISA, Squid or Smoothwall but it's worth a look into... Paul

If it all works out, it will sure look good! Thanks for the link. Paul

How did you image the machines? Did you make a default local profile, or are you just installing XP and locking it down with some policies? I'm asking because this really does look like a restriction somewhere in the settings, and since it's only affecting domain access I'm wondering if its something higher up the pecking order? Have you tried running a resultant set of policy on the systems (or GPRESULT)? This can let you know when a policy is taking effect--even if it is an obscure one at that. I know you've looked at GPOs already, but I'm more thinking out loud hoping something helps... Paul

Hey. That's a whole bunch of issues poured into one post- but here's my thinking: no- you shouldn't make this your job. First of all I don't think you are being paid enough to do this, and secondly there are really big saftey issues that need to be taken into account. Things like scaffolding, ladders (these are basic I know but major H&S items on their own merit). Then there's the safety of cables themselves (plenum grade etc etc). If it were simply a case of running some cable through wall mounted duct from a horizontal cross-connect, then I would say go for it. The experience would be good and you would learn a lot from it. But what you are being asked to do- from the information you have given- needs the attention of trained cabling guys with experience and the right tools. I say make 'em pay for that experience and get some cablers in to do a survey and quote. Paul

Great information there Tony- I haven't looked into the ramifications of the DPA as yet, but I've kept a copy of this thread so that I can look over them again when I get the time. I know this is perhaps a separate question (and goes out to all), but do you demand an SLA from those you outsource any work to? I am thinking of doing so from CSE who have recently broken our network and have offered very little in the way of support afterwards. If I had an SLA from them, it would be easier to pull them up when they do go wrong. Any thoughts? Paul

Yep- you can find all you need to get you started here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/VBasic/Express/ An excellent site too... Paul

For 2003 servers and XP, you could use the Computer Configuration Administrative Templates to enable and configure NTP clients and servers and also to specify some global parameters for time sources (under System node under Windows Time Service). Other than that there has been some very good advice here regarding time on a domain. Paul

"It's RM. I'd rather eat my own socks." That would be a bit extreme for me- but that was the funniest thing I've read all week! LOL. Paul

Ha! Love it. Thanks for that!! Paul