markesmith

Hi. Primary school, mixed platform network of W98 and XP with 2003 server, more an annoyance than a problem. Desktop and Start menu are pulled down from the server through the GPO (and config.pol and ADMs for the 98 machines) and all works fine....I like to keep a very tidy desktop and start menu so what bugs me is that after logging on to the domain through a W98 PC we find rogue entries in the start menu for 'Accessories', 'Startup' (folders), and shortcuts for 'Internet Explorer', 'Outlook Express' and 'Windows Media Player'. Now, none of the staff complain about this (as if they would notice) but it is annoying. I was onsite yesterday and deleted the offending articles as usual but logging to their server tonight...there they are again. Any ideas??

Couldn't agree more. I've been using Stone computers and recommending there kit, where appropriate, since 2002. First class after sales, astonishing response to warrenty issues and very school (primary in my case) friendly. I've visited their offices in, well...Stone and it's a very slick operation. Fancy logistics of the sort you associate with the motor industry. Full marks all round!

Hi Not really a problem but an interesting development and I wondered what others thought. Large primary, new wireless laptops and around 40 workstations. The wired network is fine and works very fast, the XP workstations log on in around 10 seconds. The wireless laptops were taking around 2 minutes to log on with the exception of one access point which logged on users in around 30 seconds, which is quite acceptable. Maybe I should have thought of it earlier but on checking which hub the 'fast' WAP was patched into we discovered it was the old (very old)3COM 10Mg hub. We patched all the other access points over to the old hub and bingo, the wireless network is now flying along. The new'ish 100Mb switches are Netgear. Any similar experiences out there? Cheers

Hello All Many thanks for all your help and support on this one. We start at the school on Monday so I'll let you know how we get on. Cheers.

We've just taken over a small primary school which has a mixture of W98 and XP Pro workstations and server 2003 and I'm responsible for the overhaul of the suite over the summer holidays (I'm not really a techie as I work across all areas of ICT within the primary sector but I get by by keeping things simple!). The log in speed of the XP workstations is very, very slow......4/5 minutes. I don't think it can be the switches etc as the 98 machines log in very quickly. What are members views on the commenest causes of slow log with XP. I know DNS usually crops up. The DNS entries on the server point to the server's IP address, correct I guess as there are no external DNS entries on any of this authorities servers. Any ideas?

Because on our workstations (XP SP2) it points to the local C: drive and a click of the up arrow and they have left H: and have access to C: I deleted all the shortcuts from the users' home area on the server but when they login again it's recreated. Same for Sample Music. Any ideas?? Many thanks

Oh! That easy, many thanks! :oops:

Sorry if this is the wrong forum for this query, it's 'sort of' a Windows problem. ICT co-ordinator at one of my schools has asked me to help create a system where, from there (Word) planning documents they can link (using Word's hyperlinks) to other Word documents which would contain resources, further references etc. No problem with that but we would also like some links to open a folder when the relevent hyperlink is clicked. Word's hyperlink feature only allows you to link to files and not folders. I wondered if there is a batch file/VBS which you could link to which would open the desired folder (or any other way). I could go down the HTML route but a quick demo left the poor lamb nauseous and suffering dizzy spells for the rest of the afternoon! Cheers