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gszech

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  1. gszech
    I've got UniFi UP Sense devices in all server rooms. You can configure them to send you temperature, humidity, motion and light alerts. The device also come with door sensor so you can receive alerts whenever someone opens up server door. They are battery operated and only work UniFi 6 Pro or Long Range APs via UniFi Protect App, so this is not for everyone. If you are not UniFi school, check out SwitchBot Hub 2 smart sensor and SwitchBot Indoor/Outdoor Thermo-Hygrometer dongle.
  2. gszech
    I'm suggesting updating the faq page as this page clearly says the encryption is 128 bit https://bromcom.com/faq/how-secure-is-my-data-with-bromcom
  3. gszech
    Search Bromcom posts on this forum and see how many schools complained on slow Bromcom performance or service not working at all. When we were comparing both solutions this was one of the key issues with Bromcom. Here are other minor differences that I've found: Arbor uses 256bit SSL encryption. Bromcom uses 128bit Arbor support is available between 8am-5pm. Bromcom support is available from 8am-5pm Monday to Friday except Wednesdays 8am-4pmArbor support page is more detailed and includes a lot of videos for every Arbor activity. There are no support videos on Bromcom support pages. Arbor will automatically flag records that are missing key information and potential duplicates, and the Data Retention page will help you delete unnecessary data. Bromcom will not flag this information automatically. Arbor Parent app is really bad to the point that I don't understand why this really exist. They might as well adjust their parent web portal to fit mobile phones screens, enable notifications and call this the app. From what I can see on Google Play store reviews Bromcom parent app is not any better.
  4. gszech
    That was my worry. The contract officially starts from 1st September, but the school is asking for data / email access right now.
  5. gszech
    Thanks you for the answers. I will suggest the same.
  6. gszech
    The school is asking to hand over laptops, access to email and drives for new starters one month before their official start date. Technically the staff is not hired yet, so for me this is a data breach. We asked our GDPR officer to confirm, but they take long time to reply. Does anyone know if the is legal or actual data / safeguarding breach ?
  7. gszech

    Arbor App

    gszech replied to jadzea's topic in MIS Systems

    Our school is about to move to Arbor, but I can't see option to sign in with PIN or fingerprint on the mobile phone. Anyone knows if there is a beta app that we can try? Current one is just dreadful with 1.9 ⭐ on Google Play Store.
  8. gszech
    What about Paxton 10. It's an UK brand but Paxton 10 cameras are actually Hikvision cameras in disguise but they do you have Paxton firmware but the technology is still Hikvision. https://www.paxton-access.com/product-types/cameras/
  9. gszech
    Majority of schools that are using PaperCut are on MF. Hive is a new product and there are few post here saying that it's quite limited in it's functionality. Saying this we are planning to test PaperCut Hive in our primary schools in near feature because just so we can get rid of servers. - - - Updated - - - Majority of schools that are using PaperCut are on MF. Hive is a new product and there are few post here saying that it's quite limited in it's functionality. Saying this we are planning to test PaperCut Hive in our primary schools in near feature because just so we can get rid of servers.
  10. gszech
    Thanks for this suggestion. I've been looking for SMART Notebook alternative for months, didn't know that they had their own product. Hopefully Lumio license for whole school will be cheaper than online price of £45 per teacher per year.
  11. gszech
    When you sign up to Google Voice, can you easily transfer your current school phone number to the service ?
  12. gszech
    You can get SIMS for free for your school or even your home computer from here.
  13. gszech
    If you are just after replacing Windows login with Google you can use GCPW (standalone) with free Google Education Fundamentals. You need license for GCPW with Windows device management which I've assumed that is needed in this case to deploy policies, bitlocker, wipe data, manage updated etc. from one place. There is Google Workspace for Education Standard license which is cheaper than Education plus.
  14. gszech
    1. Compare prices of Cube backup vs Synology appliance that can backup your Google data (home / shared drives, calendars, emails etc). Synology will work for both schools with no VPN required. It's a one off cost and then you can replace the NAS according to your IT policies. 2. You need a Google Education Plus license for each domain to use use GCPW. This is worth just for additional enhanced security. 3. There is a product called PaperCut Hive that is cloud based. It's quite new product that we are planning to order once our photocopier contract will expire. 4. You need Paxton server, if you are using Paxton doors in the school. There is a Paxton 10 product which is kind of cloud based. Make sure to order 8GB RAM Chromebooks for staff or use ChromeOS Flex to image current devices.
  15. gszech
    In our case we use the same firewall models across all primary schools. The firewall configuration is backed to the cloud on a daily basis. There is a spare firewall unit in our office in case one of the boxes dies. As per DfE recommendation we are using two broadband lines for each school, so there are two routers in each building. Because we use the same supplier for our backup broadband lines they gave us one spare router in case one of them fails. We also keep spare PoE switches and APs if needed in the main office, it's just common sense to have them ready on standby. In my opinion it's easier and faster to replace network appliance instead of recovering whole DC from a backup, but removing single point of failures is not a main reason of going serverless. As mentioned before if you manage 10+ schools going serverless means that you have less servers to worry about.
  16. gszech
    I will take your advice and remove the "paradox" DHCP server from the network. You are right there is no single point of failure if there is no DHCP.
  17. gszech
    If someone is managing one school then this is not a problem. This becomes an issue is when you work for multiple academy trust and manage multiple primary schools, here is why: 1. It's an extra thing to worry about as any server can fail at any point. 2. Additional costs: Server / UPS hardware, backup (plus cloud backup), antivirus and Windows server licenses. 3. A lot of extra work with fixing any vulnerabilities fund by apps like PingCastle. 4. Noise / heat issue. In most primary schools server cupboard is also a temporary office for IT staff. There are also some benefits by moving to cloud. Moving to Azure or Google Credential Provider adds two step verification to Windows devices. For hybrid schools that use Windows and Google, user management it's easier as there is just one account to manage via Google Admin panel.
  18. gszech
    Thanks, I thought that's the case. Bit annoying, will move away from other services first and at the end migrate DNS / DHCP. If school Windows laptops are moved to Azure Active Directory do they still need local DC / Windows DNS server ?
  19. gszech
    I'm in the same boat. I'm managing multiple schools and would like to remove all servers from primary schools. We just migrated SIMS to Arbor and I've got PaperCut MD, Paxton, DHCP and DNS services left. Our staff are using Windows clients and the plan is to replace DC server with Google Credential Provider for Windows. For DC services I've successfully moved DHCP to our UDM firewall and this works fine. I can't figure out how to migrate DNS service. I've migrated it once to the same UDM firewall, everything worked for few weeks, but later on Windows clients started coming up with domain error messages related to lack of DNS service hosted on DC.
  20. gszech
    I wonder how SIMS AI development is going ...
  21. gszech
    We are looking to replace few CCTV units with cloud based cameras. I'm considering Verkada, Cisco Meraki and Paxton, although the last one is not 100% true cloud based system. Roughly how much does one basic Verkada CCTV camera costs with 10 years license and basic storage? I'm after a price range: £250-£500, £500-£750, £750-£1000 £1,000+ per camera ?
  22. gszech
    Thanks I will check this out. I was hoping for an app (paid or free) that would just scan a drive for .Notebook and convert the files for the school.
  23. gszech
    We are planning to replace our SMART Notebook v.11 software with Microsoft PowerPoint. Does anyone know a tool that will allow us to mass convert all .NOTEBOOK files to .pptx PowerPoint format ?
  24. gszech
    We are moving towards serverless school. My plans are to completely remove DC servers, use Google Credential Provider for Windows and host DNS server on a firewall.
  25. gszech

    IT Procurement

    gszech replied to tangotech's topic in Hardware

    https://www.gov.uk/guidance/buying-for-schools
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