ICTNUT

@wesleyw: Not at the moment but with intergrated NTLM and with LDAP to follow would you really need to use IMAP??

Email polling is already in the pipeline, the helpdesk itself already supports it but there is a requirement for a little windows app to "poll" for email. The app itself is in development but I have put that on hold untill the helpdesk has been released and any creases have been ironed out but I wouldn't think it would be that much after the initial release. Once the inital release is out I will put together and publish a road map to work out the direction of development.

@LOUD: Why do you want the firewall turned on?? It is a major pain in the rear to configure correctly so that all users/services and communicate correctly. As long as your desktops are locked down correctly and execute access removed from various files and programs then all should be ok. I personally really wouldn't bother with it on both desktop or server.

you have forms based authentication which requires pre population of user data or you can use NTLM for authentcation which will auto populate the staff tables for you. I am working on the LDAP auth option and that should be available soon after the initial release. As far as logging issues goes there is a neat little trick that scans the words typed in by a user and references the keywords in the knowledge base, if a match is found the suggested article is shown in realtime to the user prior to submitting the request and thus reducing the number of requests made. Theres lots more in there but I am sure those that do use it will request additional stuff also.

Hi All, Very often you get posts about how people manage thier time and prioratise thier work schedules, well I know that a number of you have already got solutions in place based on OpenSource, *nix based products but there seem to be more and more eduTechs that are not in a position to go this route. So I have put together a very feature rich helpdesk based on ASP and will connect to MSSQL 2000 and 2005 and also MySQL. I am in the final phase of tweaking and hope to have it available to the masses on Monday 18th June 2007 but thought I would generate some intrest with a teaser screenshot and would welcome any questions people may have. Above all it's going to be free for anyones use and the source code is open to abuse within reason that is.

@ Netman: After speaking with a few people the site you have identified is with regards to the US of A and Canada. UK Agreements are different in that if you wish to cancel your agreement just don't pay for it. So the opt out is not to pay for it and then setup a second one, it also helps if you have a reseller that will play ball as they need to do stuff at thier end also to make it work. But it seems that there is a way out of this which in thoery should reduce my bill from £17K to £7.5K

Hi All, For those of you who have delaings with the school agrrements I have a couple of questions: My agreement is up for renewal at the end of July 07 and want to remove so software of the list as it has fallen out of use and I don't want to pay for software we don't use however my supplier is telling me I cannot do that, is this true?? Apparently I can only remove software that has fallen of the MS software list i.e. Class Server??? they are also telling me that I can not reduce the number of desktops that I have, originally a quantity of 500 desktops was stated and we paid around 17K for the agreement (I inhertited this from a previous person) but we only need 300 but they are saying no?? With the schools agreement you have the option of going in annually or for 3 years, this is the third year of the 3 year agreement. Any guideance would be great.....

Hi All, thanks for the pointers. I have decided to look at these ( http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=247716&CatId=9 ) as they will accept my mobo's and are cheap too.

@roland: NetSend is Ok but you will have to have the messenger service running, by default (after XP SP2) this is disabled so you will have to enusre it is on all PC's for it to work. It is also very limited in what you can do but then that depends on what information you are looking to send out.

Midget: Thanks for these although these cases are for MINI-ITX boards and I have MINI-ATX boards so I thik these cases are going to be too small. Or am I wrong???

Hi All, Having got my Thinstation setup working just the way I wanted I am now looking to refurbish the old PCs. I have around 25ish mini-atx mobo's and I am looking for a fairly small case for it. I have no need for CD-rom, nor is there going to be any HD installed however I would like to have "Maybe" front based USB ports. I plane to underdesk mount these and will even fabricate mounting brackets if need be but most of all they must have a PSU and be cheap. The room these are going into is to replace fat clients that have been damaged over and over as the room is an un-maned drop in center, hence the under desk mounting with minimal access. So here is the challange, anyone ready to take it up???

thanks for the replies all. I did not even think of ISA although all local addresses are set to bypass local proxy, hmmm might have to change that. I do like the scheduled task alternative though, i'll let you know what I have done once I find something that works easy enough. Thanks again ;-)

Hi All, Against my better jugdement I have allowed access to email facilities to all students, year 7 -> year 13 This has thrown up a problem in that students are just using email in class to email each other and not do the work they need to do. Does anyone now of a way or solution that will restrict access to a URL based ontime. I would like to allow email access during the last 10 mins of class, during breaks and lunches and before / after school. Any ideas would be great.

If you want these head over to http://www.etb-tech.com you can get the proper Dell ones for £195 plus vat and I have 2 of them. I get most of my kit from these guys and have never had a problem with them at all. If they don't have them in stock give Mark a ring and he'll let you know when they get them in.

@Geoff and @Wizzer, Thanks for the pointers, moodle setup and working now for the classes. Cheers All ;-)

Right back again, I have mooddle installed and working yey! Now I want to do the LADP auth thing and wanted to know what LDAP fields people have used to data map to moodle?? The fields I am looking at are: Firstname Surname Email all others are locked out as they are not required.

Cheers webman worked a treat ;-)

How would I enable my account (on ubuntu) to have root privs??

OK @webman, how do you get it so you can transfer files via WinSCP as root. I have checked the WinSCP forums and tried the suggestions but no joy.

For editing any of the files your best bet id to download PUTTY and WinSCP. Putty will allow you to remote into the box via a terminal windows and WinSCP will allow you to transfer files back and forth.

Many thanks webman, I may come back to you for some more advice as I am installing moodle, wish me luck ;-)

Hi All, Having never used Ubuntu before I ahve done a standard LAMP install on VMServer and can access the default website. I have 4 websites I need to port across so can anyone tell me where the webserver default web directory can be found.....? and is it a case of simply adding the folder within that directory and they become visible??

@vegas: Any chance of a copy of your press release please ;-) [edit] Not to worry found it [/edit]

I have just watched this (sky+'d it) what can I say, so many holes in evidence it's unreal. The bloke taking the reading in the science class said the em field was 3 times that of the mast reading he took outside BUT what is not pointed out is the "Other" electrical items and EM clutter that also add to that EM field. No tests were done with the WiFi on the laptops set to off. The link between Mobile Masts and WiFi units was unsubstantiated, all the evidence was based on mobile phone masts and NOT WiFi the frequences used by the mast and the WiFi unit (never shown) where not disclosed. I could go on but I am worried my rant my get out of hand. This program was nothing more than a space filler on TV. I think I may have a few parents to deal with tomorrow, better get round to sorting out some kind of press release to all parents before it hits the fan, damn I hate it when they do stuff like this.

@DSapseid: Thanks for that, I have now fixed the issue and it is downloading the correct file.