thom

Before I start A) I have read the other topics on EduGeek about licensing and it seemed best to start a new topic B) I am not thinking of upgrading any school PCs to vista but I need to know the information so I am fully prepared for any outcomes/meetings I, like many schools I know of, buy a PC with windows XP pre-installed and then re-install it with the volume licensed media that I bought from Ramesys with the correct number of licenses. For an installation, you enter the VLM product key manually or in a sysprep file, and can copy that from PC to PC with no activation required. Now, this all changes with Vista because they have brought in Volume Activation 2, which means you now need to activate VL editions. When looking into this I was surprised to find an education specific presentation online (and attached). However, the presentation didn't really click in my head as to how this will work in real life or what I should be buying (SA isn't an option due to cost). I phoned my account manager at Ramesys to see if he could help clear the waters but I was left feeling I knew more than him. They have one Product Key that they are sending to all customers with a Vista Business license for £29.50. He knew nothing about a KMS are MAK licenses. Does anyone (including Microsoft) understand what I need to get?

Yikes - what was that I said about fan boys? @petectid: i never said microsoft didn't copy anything, in fact i was trying to state the opposite, any way in terms of "evidence" (to which no-one can really prove anything) read through http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/macosx_leopard_preview.asp We use about 8 macs throught the school because they were donated to us and they are free to be used by anyone who feels the urge.

I will definately be sharing out the RAM more efficiently. Also, we don't use Exchange so I don't need to worry about that. Any other ideas/opinions?

Or view the British version @ http://www.apple.com/uk/getamac/ads with the guys from "peep show". I almost fell off my chair with the propaganda Apple was spewing out - since when does any OS contain pie charts?!? Don't get confused between the OS and the software that runs on the OS (of which Windows has by far the greater amount of supported software) I have always found a PC a lot more flexible in getting what we need done as well as being more cost effective in terms of repairs, upgrades and support. Also you may want to survey what kids/staff use when not at school, you are trying to make ICT an aid to teaching and learning, not adding to the workload. and finally Apple stole lots of ideas off Microsoft and implemented them quicker (and better) but that is big businesses for you. Whatever you do, don't search for Apple versus Microsoft or you will get swallowed into a world of bickering fanboys/girls.

I often find my searches here ending up with a result from every post in edugeek! Maybe re-organising the different forums could help people find what they a looking for.

I just want an early heads up on some changes we are going to be making here. In the feb half term hols we are getting a centralised comms room built to house our core switch and all our servers! Then in the summer we will be merging our admin & curriculum vLans into one domain. The question I am asking is - What should we do with our servers? At the moment we have many servers, some doing too much and some not being utilized enough. What would be the most effective use of the hardware for our network in terms of cost, stability, accesibility or performance. We use 1 - Dell PowerEdge 2800 (2x Dual Xeons 3.2Ghz 1GB RAM 2003R2) Curriculum DC, DNS, DHCP, IIS6, IAS, CA, Files, Print, Clickview, KS3 ICT Exams, Network app host 2 - HP Kayak XU800 (P3 753mhz 265MB RAM 2000Sever) Ghost images, Software distro, Curriculum AV updates, IIS5 3 - Dell PowerEdge 2800 (2x Dual Xeons 3.2Ghz 4GB RAM 2003R2) Admin DC, SIMS.net, DNS, DHCP, IIS6, Files, Print, 4 - Talmos(2x Dual Xeons 2.4Ghz 2GB RAM 2000Sever) Lesson Planning & electronic attendance 5 - HP Proliant ML350 G3 (2x Dual Xeons 3.06Ghz 1GB RAM 2003R2) Sharepoint Services 2003, IIS6, SQL 2000, Admin AV Updates, WSUS for both networks, Virtual server (for testing) 6 - Custom Build (Sempron3000 1GB RAM 2000Server) OCR ALAN Exams server 7 - Buffallo Terastation (1TB) Store videos for clickview We also have a CCTV Server, cache and firewall running on dedicated hardware. All your opinions would be extremely helpful

Try these out http://www.theitindex.co.uk/login/ - Various colour belkin 0.5m cables for 31p each http://www.cableuniverse.co.uk/catalog/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=23_138 - bulk pack .03 x 50 for £22.13 http://www.datalinkcabling.co.uk/cat-5e.aspx?id=3 - from 59p each Good luck organising your cabs. I spent a good couple of days doing that and it lasted about 3 mins before it got messed up again !

We also had problems getting our cover supervisor to click that extra button which is why it never took off at our school

I haven't looked into this for ages but this is what we used to do. 1:) Save the cover to a shared folder. 2:) Have a hyperlink on the intranet to shared folder e.g. \\Server\Share\cover.htm This was published to the share folder when the cover supervisor was finished doing the days cover.

We have had issues where the sysprep hate password if it has been encrypted so now we just leave it as plain text and that solved that problem. In terms of the warning message it only causes problems if the user (administrator) has used EFS to encrypt any files, if so they will become unreadable unless you have an EFS administrator to sort it out (and even then it is tricky). Apart from that it won't cause any problems.

I have used this tool in the past This is a free tool and is quick and easy without messing about with boot disks. http://www.danish-company.com/dcpc I haven't tried it on XP workstations but I presume it will work OK

*edit * Sorry I posted in the wrong topic. How do I delete this post?

I did the following from the clients and they were then picked up in WSUS Visit the following from a client's Internet explorer 1 - Register with WSUS http://wsusserver:port/iuident.cab 2 - Check WSUS for Updates http://wsusserver:port/selfupdate/AU/x86/XP/EN/wuaucomp.cab 3 - Download latest client http://update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/v6/default.aspx?betathanksurl&ln=en-us To check what settings the client has got run "gpresult" from the client's command line.

We have run the update on the server. Most of the clients updated automatically but a couple have come up with this error. I ended up hitting "Ignore" and setup carried on. Everything seems to be OK but it could cause problems in the future

Is there any official statement on what we should do and any deadlines associated with it?

After checking I see that Everyone has modify rights on most subfolders if not all of them, including the Setups folder

@dezt - I don't quite follow what you mean? I run the updates from a shortcut on the S drive so i was definately connected. What should I be checking?

I have a different problem with it. Half way through the client update it says there is not enough space on the S:\ drive. However both the clients and sims server have gigs of free space. Is it talking about some virtual allocated space for the update?

Adobe Stand - A range of higlighter pens ...ooooh Some security stand gave me wine and shortbread! The usaual pens/pencils/posters as much as I can stuff into a bag (hey the stationary budget is tight at my school) If you take a picture on a USB stick to Epson they will print it in A2+ si\e for free Best freebie I got was Microsoft Student 2007 with Encarta. I was watching a MS seminar and they asked a question at the end, I didn't know the answer but put my hand up anyway, bluffed a half-cobbled answer and won! Obviously I have entered every prize draw going (last year UI won an AIO laser printer) Can anyone beat that?

I was asked at the EduGeek stand to start a topic on the learning platforms. I intended to go round all 10 BECTA approved stands plus any more but I am running out of time. Anyway, so far I have been to a few. UniServity - Seems a bit basic, looks like a web site designed in 1995. The sales rep gave me a tour and it is pretty similar to everything else on offer. He said there biggest difference was that they have the biggest user base. When I asked him about how the Microsoft Sharepoint Learning Kit compares he said it basically puts them out of business! So I don't think I'll bother with that one. Learning Portal + - This one is basically a hosted Sharepoint system. It did look a lot more impressive and tied in nicely with Exchange E-Mail and calendars. As I am walking around it seems very hard to differentiate between the portals. Either it is sharepoint based, nasty looking or a completely new UI to anything a user may be used too. I think I will stop for now and only add to anything that seems unique or amazingly fantastic.

Are you sure about that? It says on the XP network wizard that you can. Also, as part of the wizard it creates a Shared Documents on Win98. You can get to that from XP just not the other way around.

OK, it has been many years since I handled windows 98 networking but I have come up with a problem. An office has had their network disconnected from the school's and put into their own workgroup by Beds County Council. For some reason (I suppose because they only have 8 PCs) they are not using a server but one XP machine has been set up with an all the shared folders. The problem is that they have one PC which is Windows 98 and it does not want to access the shares. When I try to access a share it asks for a password but no username. The 98 PC can see the other workgroup PCs in Network Neighborhood and can also access the internet by using the XP "server" as a proxy. I have tried using the Networking Wizard on the XP CD but it still doesn't work. Can anyone help? (Upgrading the PC isn't an option (believe me I tried!))

I am also looking into re-vamping my network. We are planning to centralise all our servers and plug them in to a core switch within a new dedicated comms room. We also want to upgrade our fibre-backbone So far I have got quotes from Azzurri - Good network knowlede (provided by a 3rd party consultant!) Misco - Average ACS Office Solutions - Average And DWM ( a local network company) - Very good Azzurri & DWM gave the best offerings but I was wondering if anyone knew of a great networking company who will really know what they are talking about. I want to get it right and could do with all the advice I can get

Whoever i get remotes from the despatch note always comes from mAVerick. You may be able to go direct. Even though they aren't listed on company websites http://www.misco.co.uk and http://www.theitindex.co.uk can usually source them if you speak to an account manager. I got a Sharp XR-10S remote £19.55 from Misco and could get Epson ones for 34.18. They are a rip-off though, I'm thinking of getting a long stick for the teachers instead - that would be better value for money. I looked for that programmable/universal remote but couldn't find it. That sounds like a great solution. If anyone gets a link they can post that would be great. Maybe we could do it as an a-level design project!?!

I also use the approach of mirroring my AD structure. It keeps it simple for managing the access as it is all laid out the same. I don't map drives though. I use folder redirection in group policy to create a user folder in the appropriate share. For example, i have a server \\0Files with one share on it called \Home In group policy i set it up like so... if user is in STAFF group link "my documents" to \\0Files\Home\Staff\%USERNAME%\My Documents If user is in the 2002 INTAKE group link "my documents" to \\0Files\Home\Students\2002Intake\%USERNAME%\My Documents. The bonus of doing it this way is that it creates the folder with the correct permissions the first time a user logs in. It was a bit buggy in 2000 but seems to work great with 2003 and XP.