StephenPink

We recently upgraded our whole wired infrastructure - with Aruba. Pair of 6405's running as a virtual core - very happy so far. Don't currently have Central, but have looked at it - from what I've seen so far, I don't think you see much of a benefit from Central unless you have wired AND wireless with Aruba; for wired only I couldn't justify the additional costs. Cheers, Stephen

We're getting reports of this now - for history videos, relating to Nazi's! Was there ever confirmation if this was a bug/by design/if there's a setting to change? Thanks, Stephen

Thanks all, lots of good stuff so far - should've said they are currently using 365, no Google. So will likely stick with that path. Yeah SIMS is a PITA... I'm not sure moving away is realistic at this stage, but definitely a long-term goal. Unless they suddenly pull their finger out with development! Any merit to getting the same MIS across a Trust? Is it worth the work involved I should say... CCTV/phones - yep good point. Currently not IP based, so avoiding for now - but something to plan for, definitely. Along with yes, UPS for cabs especially with wireless, that's additional cost I will need to factor in. 5G backup internet I quite like the sound of! Assuming we can get service that is, I seem to still struggle to get 4G most places. Agree about the filtering at home - I think especially with it being junior, that's something that should be looked into it. Windows computers still being needed is interesting - I think we'll struggle to get rid completely, but definitely a reduction in need and also spec. I can't see anything needing more than a decent i5/8GB RAM/SSD these days, and they can be had for pretty cheap these days. Free service suddenly charging I hadn't considered. That would be a a pain, but something that would have to be dealt with if/when it happened. Have you an example in mind? Flat network - interesting. So no need for VLANs at all in this scenario? Ah yes that blog is where I started - lots of great stuff on there! Thanks, Stephen

Hi all, Thinking about a cloud-first, hopefully serverless design/strategy for a junior school. Would appreciate others who have done this thoughts/advice, especially on the following: - Network design. Is it time to rethink the traditional core-edge? The focus is mostly on wireless obviously, but then is there still a need for any NAC/security if there are no on-prem resources and it's all online, secured by credentials? - DNS/DHCP. And other still needed on-site resource that I've forgotten about... possible to run those on the core switch/router? Is that wise? - Internet. Leads on from the above, needs to have failover - 2 locations, 2 feeds, 2 core switches/routers connected? Does it need to be any more complex than that/can it be any simpler? Any downsides of cloud-based filtering? - Printing. How do you get rid of the on-prem print server, but still have follow-me printing? - SIMS. Yep, bloody SIMS. If everything is Azure only, what can be done about SIMS? It can be hosted at another school perhaps, that has plentiful resources, but how would that work? I remember there is such a thing as Hosted SIMS but I remember it being a bit rubbish... If anyone feels up for good ol' chin-wag about this stuff then please PM me - I think there are some very exciting possibilities, and would love to bounce ideas around. Cheers, Stephen

Unfortunately I don't have the answer - however am currently thinking about the exact same questions! The single tenancy, with subdomains and the format you have posted is actually the direction I was thinking of going, so interested in seeing what others are doing... Cheers, Stephen

Does that work on an iPad? I haven't tested the webclient thoroughly yet - staff are used to the full desktop client experience, so will need to ensure it is up to scratch. I gather the webclient doesn't support the additional UDP ports that make a huge difference to performance when connecting from Windows clients. I also have a small number of staff that remote to their personal desktops, via the RDS GW - which I don't think I can publish in the webclient?

From the HA front i've currently got 2x RDS GW/WA, 2x RDS CBs, 2x RDS NPS, 4x RDS Session Hosts. I think from reading the docs I could put the AAP connector on both GW/WA servers without issues. However, unless I'm missing something it looks like with AAP, the MFA prompt only kicks in/is applied when logging into the RDWeb page - once the RDP file has been downloaded and saved, they won't get prompted again. Does that sound right? Previously I have never even publicised the RDWeb and just published the RDP file to make it more straight forward to staff/for macOS and iOS given instructions on how to setup using email address lookup. So I don't think the AAP route would give MFA from the macOS/iOS clients? Is anyone able to clarify or point me in the direction of some clearer documentation?

Hi all, Currently having some issues with CCTV, so looking at replacements. Think now is a good time to "do the job properly" and look at all available options... We have around 80 Merit-Lilin cameras, linked to 6 of their NVRs, 2 of which are failing (1 seems to fail every few years). All IP based. I've been recommended the Milestone XProtect software - which I like the sound of. Not tied to 1 manufacturer, super flexible, but also not that cheap! Was wondering if anyone had any experience of Milestone, or any other recommendations for similar? Key requirements are: - manufacturer agnostic (can't justify replacing all the cameras at this stage, but would like to look at alternatives when we do need to replace/add) - high availability/failover; not just one recording unit that if it goes down, all cameras connected to it go down. XProtect will allow us to record to 2 places at once I believe? - single interface to view all cameras We do also have some Axis access control bits, that are currently connected to a different system but would be nice long term to have all the security type systems in one place. Curious to know what else is out there or how you do it... Thanks, Stephen

Jumping in on this thread - any pros/cons as to whether to use the NPS MFA Extension vs Azure Application Proxy? Doesn't seem to be much in it - I've almost finished setting up a highly available RDS infrastructure with the NPS MFA extension but have just come across the Azure Application Proxy and wondering if that's a better fit... My main concern with the NPS MFA Extension is the lack of visual cue for staff, but it does appear to work pretty well. Azure Application Proxy I couldn't find much documentation for setting up as highly available (2 RDWeb/Gateway servers) but as I only recently came across it I may have missed something... Cheers, Stephen

Thanks all - ended up getting a message from Richard at CrusaderAV. They had exactly what I was after, and at a sensible price too! Definitely recommend. Yep they definitely help, although I may have got the orientation wrong on my last attempt HDMI is not the best, but when you're connecting to large TVs it's kind of the only option! And projectors now have HDMI and VGA so HDMI seems the more universal for our needs. I disagree in terms of failure points there though - imagine if that cable broke? Or more likely, some child pulls it and breaks the end just enough for it stop working 100% of the time... we then have to rip out the whole 5-10m or longer cable, that is in trunking/up walls/across ceilings rather than just the 1-3m cable that simply connects from the faceplate to the PC. Or the faceplate itself. If only we had floor management haha! Not that lucky... Cheers, Stephen

Display Connectivity in Classrooms - how do you do it? Reviewing a number of classrooms at the moment, both in terms of IT and AV, and have managed to work out that the only connection we should ever need between teacher's desk and wall is HDMI (be that from a PC/laptop to a IWB/projector/TV). However, I can't for the life of me seem to find any decent HDMI faceplates - that don't leave the connection sticking straight out the front where you know it's going to get snapped. Wondering if anyone has any bright ideas? The Sahara AV panels are exactly what I'm after - if they weren't huge! If someone makes half size versions of those, I'd be very happy... Cheers, Stephen

Hey all, Been thinking about some data archiving - old home areas. Seeing as we have 365 and it's almost unlimited storage, I wondered if there was a way to use a SharePoint library literally as just some file storage? I can get it working by manually logging in, syncing the relevant library and copying the files. However I'd like it to all be automated.... Previously was using a Powershell script that would automatically check for user homes without an account associated, and move the whole folder to a file share. Trying to replicate that but to SharePoint is not going so smoothly - stumbling block appears to be the authentication to SharePoint. Anyone got any bright ideas or am I looking at this the wrong way? Cheers, Stephen

Hmm - we are on the latest firmware already it seems; using XMS Cloud and it's set to automatic. So all AP's are running 8.5.7-7694.... let me know how you get on though, I have a ticket open with Xirrus/Cambium support now but curious to see if it helps your issues. Thanks, Stephen

Sounding very similar to issues here - we upgraded our entire wired network over the summer, so was expecting things to improve not get worse! Lots of AP's restarting themselves causing clients to drop off, and then more weirdness with connecting - not sure if iOS14 is making things worse...

Yeah we have opened a case with Apple, it's just incredibly painful and slow! 1) Existing Managed Apple IDs, they're not signing out - just being prompted to "Update Apple ID Settings" and it asks them to re-sign in. At which point the Azure login box doesn't appear, and it says "Verification failed". 2) No, generally they are only on the single iPad. 3) Nope, no errors! 4) The format is @normalschooldomain.com - for the federation to work...so it's the same as their normal school email address, in order to make it easier for the students to remember. Thanks, Stephen

Software wise, we would be using PaperCut across them anyway, so that's slightly less relevant - however I have seen both interfaces, and tried the touch screens and both are very good. Both will be managed and supported by the suppliers, so firmware is not an issue - and both support more modern methods than SMB1! I have used Olivetti before, and found them solid but have no first hand experience of Canon. Thanks for your thoughts - from what I've seen the Canon hardware does seem very good. Was hoping someone had used both recently so could more directly compare, from more than just a demo of each! Cheers, Stephen

Hi all, Just in the final stages of a Managed Print Project - come down to Olivetti or Canon hardware. After some other people's thoughts/views - there's not much in it cost wise, and I like both hardware offerings. Need some help deciding! Thanks, Stephen

Yeah I'm struggling to find anyone else with Managed Apple IDs + Federated! The problem appears to be spreading as well which is not ideal. So far still got no clue where to even start looking... No errors or warnings in ASM/Azure. Hasn't been an iOS update for a little while, so don't think it's related to that, but you never know! Have had devices on 13.3.1 for a while with no issues, so not sure what could have triggered it. Cheers, Stephen

Nope - have tried to sign in whilst on 4G, to rule out firewall/filtering but still the same error. Nothing seems to be wrong with the accounts either, as they can sign in on other devices/browsers. Proper weird!

Hi all,We currently have a PaloAlto PA-850 firewall, and whilst it's a great piece of kit, it is somewhat lacking when it comes to reporting. The reports I have managed to get out of it are almost unreadable, especially to any non-technical staff and it's nowhere near accurate enough for our Safeguarding team. We previously had Smoothwall, and so although from the firewall perspective it's 100x better, the monitoring side of things is worse. Smoothwall used to give instant notifications as well as daily summaries of what students had been accessing, in a very friendly format. I'm after any recommendations for a product that could ideally just take the PaloAlto logs and turn them into something useful, but if not, a product that would sit on top nicely.Thanks,Stephen

Hi, We're a 1:1 iPad school, around 2000 devices and all using Managed Apple IDs - federated with Azure. About a week or so ago, started getting some weirdness with our Managed Apple IDs - in that a lot of users are getting constantly prompted to re-sign in to their Apple ID, but when they put the password in it doesn't accept it, just says "Verification Failed". Have checked everything in Apple School Manager/Azure AD and it all looks correct - and is working fine for the majority of users. The reason this is such an issue, is because if they can't sign back in, they can't access their iCloud Drive which is where their GarageBand files are stored. So far, the only workaround we've found is to sign them out of their Managed Apple ID on their device, sign them into it on one of our spares (which works) and then they can generally sign back in on their own device. Which is a massive PITA and takes forever! Not really found anything else online about this, so a bit stumped as to what else to check! Anyone else got the same issue/have any ideas? Cheers, Stephen