Westley_IT

Hi! I hope that you are all safely tucked away with plenty of snacks and an endless pot of coffee?!? I'd like to ask if any other schools out there are using the Oak National Academy for distance learning? If so, have you had the same access issues that our pupils/parents are stuck with - i.e. today's lessons being overloaded with users? That's what I am assuming is the case. In talking with one hacked-off parent and then testing it myself, Friday's lessons work just fine but today's do not. Now for the stupid question. Some pupils are able to get on without a hitch. That being the case, do web servers exist with a limit to the number of available sessions? The site seems to be based on a G-Suite platform. Thanks for your help!

Hi! Having switched away from Schools' Choice and back to E2BN last summer, it's plain that Suffolk are no further forward in improving the situation. This won't be of any help to you stuck in the middle of it but I received a call from a Suffolk CC management-type who wanted to get some background as to why we stopped subscribing to the broadband contract. Regrettably, I did not make a note of his name but I told him in no uncertain terms what I thought of the 'service' that was thrust upon us. I even voiced my opinion that it felt like Suffolk were looking to drop the schools' broadband service entirely (and save a pile of cash) by forcing us to take alternative options. He tried to assure me otherwise but what other explanation can there be for the silence and diabolical provision? By the bye, if you are suffering in silence, it's worth checking in with the School's Choice IT Helpdesk to make sure that your ticket has not been closed before it has been resolved. That's what happened to me at one point and was the proverbial straw. Good luck!

Thanks very much for that, @localzuk - Your solution makes more sense than you could know. I have just added a 'MeritecData' job via a company installer. I'll have to see if I still have the relevant file for the redundant job. If not, I will do as you say and contact Groupcall. @fredbayker - Just in case you need to know, localzuk has the right of it. Sadly, there is no facility to simply delete a job on mmc-Xporter. That said, thanks very much for chipping in. 8)

Hi. I have an old 'job' in xporter that is surplus to requirements as we no longer subscribe to the linked service. Is it possible to delete it? If so, how? Thanks very much.

Hi, @DJ-1701 Can I please ask for the G-Suite permission on this file, too? I have just requested it but wanted to send a proper request, too. One of my staff members is looking to wean herself off of Notebook but, with a new mac at hand, I have just found that my old copy is no longer working. Thanks very much!

That's all very well, @DGardiner , but there's not much point in wasting an account manager's time if you only need a few sound cables, a couple of mice and some headphones. I have a few account managers that I work with but I wanted a Misco-type site where I can just dip in and buy the basics without having to raise a PO. In and out, no fuss sort of thing. What's wrong with that?

That sounds right up my street, @JoeBloggs - Thanks! 8)

Hi, @christhetech That's a pretty comprehensive list. Thanks! If there isn't one already (?) there should be a recommendations page on edugeek. It could save us all a lot of time if there were a categorized resource. I'll be updating my 'BUY IT' bookmarks after this. 8)

Hi, @StevieM and @CHiLL Thanks for the tips. The Kenable site looks good and it has quite a wide range of focussed kit - as well as having a good name*! @CHiLL - Do you use Softcat's eCAT at all. I used to use that all of the time but, unless I am frozen out as an absentee, it wasn't exactly helpful. Thanks again, *Ken

The IDNS site seems pretty comprehensive, @localzuk Thanks! 8)

Thanks for that, @lyricalway I'll check them out. 8)

Morning! Can you please tell me what sites you use for your day-to-day purchases? Ideally, I am looking for a site with an online shop where you can make your own choices (rather than have an account manager sticking to promoted brands...) when buying things like patch cables, headphones, iPad cases... Any and all recommendations are welcome. Thanks!

For anyone viewing this item, I have solved the issue myself. That said, I did not really have to do much more than run SIMS as an administrator, log on (where it had previously not allowed me to) and run two processes - Database Diagnostics and Validate Memberships. Having run those processes, I had to sort out another issue. When I got back from there, I was told that SIMS was back on again. When logging on to a workstation elsewhere in the school, SIMS did work perfectly AND with a good deal of extra zippyness. Whatever solved the issue, I am happy with the outcome.

Hello! This is a case of seriously bad timing but a member of our SMT was getting the last acedemic year on his workstation and was told to change it via 'Routines...' rather than simply clicking on the hyperlink at the top of the homepage. Having run that process, every SIMS user is locked out of the program and the only message that we get at login is - 'The database query timed out'. Can anyone point me in the right direction on this? How does a change of academic year on SIMS lock it down? Thank you, I hope, for your help. Ken

That's bad news, @TomHD You cannot help but feel that they are trying to push schools out so that they can drop the service and save themselves some money. They seem to be running it into the ground which has dire consequences for the schools that cannot afford to move. That said, with our quotation from E2BN, we save £200 on our annual, Suffolk fee and it is a dedicated, leased line with all of the benefits that you would expect. I know that there is a setup fee but a functioning service has to be better than paying less for problematic, malfunctioning one?!?

Well, who'd have guessed? Not me, thats for sure! I am just imaginging the awkward conversations at home with the puzzled 5 year-olds. Rather them than me, @sigma We have now moved back to E2BN and are very happy with the service. Disregarding anything else, they actually respond to my queries. Suffolk's network team do not seem to give a monkey's as I have not heard a peep from anyone when, to all intents and purposes, we are still a paying customer with major issues. It's nice to be look at that issue with some detachment but I feel sorry for those who are stuck with a service that is not fit for purpose. Have a fine summer, sir!

Thanks, Brimstone. I had already started an Apple ticket but thought that it was worth an ask on this forum. Even though I have, under another name (old school), been a member for some time, this is the first time that I have really tried it out.

That sounds about right, Ollie. You need to provide SCC with three months notice. If, however, you have had a new connection or it has been upgraded to a new connection type, then the noticed period is 1 year from the initial installation date. E2BN direct or Exa seem to be the favourites. You'd best get cracking.

It wasn't meant to offend, Primus, but I don't strictly agree with the anonymity. One, simple search will tell you who I am. I went along with the relative anonymity because that seemed to be the norm. As for the "voice of this message board" and "...agree to disagree...", I was simply pointing out that the argument was going nowhere. You are entitled to your unwavering opinion but TomHD, Sigma and myself take issue with it. Whichever way you look at it, the thread had gone off-track.

Oh, dear. This is like one of those REALLY long games at Wimbledon. I reckon that we should agree to disagree with Primus - whoever they are. Forum anonymity is all very well but it can also muddle issues. The world, unlike a computer, is not black and white. If a system is working with an incorrect dataset, it does not make any resultant log correct. Working on that premise, the 'pornography' flag can be misconstrued. A false and potentially harmful log that could result in an allegation against a member of staff should most definitely be amended. Even if the black and white programming cannot amend the flag, the resultant human intervention should, at the very least, mark it up as a 'false positive' and then remove the incorrect word from the dataset. My Impero system marks up the word 'oreo' as racist but our 9-13 year olds are talking about biscuits. It also flags up Raccoon when they are doing a wildlife project. I look at each flagged case objectively and delete or mark each one as a false positive where appropriate. On the odd occasion where a stupid pupil intentionally uses racist/offensive language, the headteacher and I come down on them like the proverbial tonne of bricks. On a final, more pleasant note have a great, IT-free half-term!

Fiddly indeed - but thanks very much for being so sneaky! I am in the process of finding out the relevant version numbers for the apps that won't work with iOS9 and have downloaded Fiddler onto my PC. In the interim, I have been tinkering with something and will let you know if it succeeds. The more options that we have, the better.

Hi! I have forty old iPad 2s that cannot go any higher than iOS 9.3.5 and am using Apple's VPP store. How can I now access older versions of apps to match these paging iPads and apply them via a profile? Unmanaged iPads are okay because the system recognizes that they are incompatible but the central service will, understandably, provide you with the most up-to-date versions. Any ideas? Thanks!

Hi! With thanks to Sigma for giving me the heads-up about this conversation, I have to say that the transfer from E2BN to MLL/Smoothwall has been and continues to be a rough ride. Being a Google school, Westley has been up the proverbial creek for far too long. My teachers think that I have lost it but I am still waiting for some help from Suffolk IT/MLL/Smoothwall. G-Suite is simply not working on mobile devices and it's not much better on PCs. Even though every device has the certificate on it, the issue would sem to be down to Google's use of SSL across the board. E2BN were able to allow it through so why can't Smoothwall?!? Our Chromebooks were, initially, expensive placemats until I discovered that wiping them and re-enrolling them onto the domain made them function again. That said, pushed/pinned apps are not appearing. The puritanical filtering on Staff/Admin profiles is yet another matter. Sigma's cucumber simply highlights how ridiculous the situation has become. If, like E2BN, they could add a comment facility to their blocked pages, they could start to turn the tide on such stupidity.Suffolk have closed the mail account that was supposedly our contact with the company so I have had to start afresh with an Schools' Choice helpdesk ticket. I was surprised to find that, even then, simple requests for exceptions to be added to the firewall are no longer dealt with in-house so I am not quite sure what the 'networks team' are doing. Having sent the standard form to the helpdesk, one request is finally, after a couple of months, sorted. When chasing it up on the IT helpdesk, I discovered that 'they' had closed the ticket without processing it or informing me of any problems. Finally, when I had a Smoothwall tech on the phone, he had the wrong information - thinking that we had a proper Smoothwall setup. This was clearly a case of Chinese Whispers, where the message changes from one end of the line to the other. Leaving the county's broadband provision is fast rising to the top of my list. As for the idex client, I have not bothered with that and have no plans to do so in the future. With regards to the contradictory need for monitoring pupils online activities for safeguarding reasons and the oncoming GDPR, I am happy with the Impero system that we have in place. The monitoring is purely in-house and the logs can easily be deleted. Finally, for now, with no signs of light or life at the end of the Smoothwall Tunnel, I will wish you all a sunny, good weekend!