Aprice

Wouldn't be happy with that. Bit of blown out brick OK, more care should have been taken but wouldn't be overly upset about that. Looks like they have at least siliconed in the hole, but a drip loop should be on that, and more frequent fixings. It's difficult without the context of the other options available to get the cable where it needs to go to judge it too hard, but it just looks lazy to me.

Believe you'd be looking at around the £3k sort of mark before install. (That's just for the turnstile) Granted we haven't quoted on one of these for a few years.

Yep, I'd stick with Net2 if you have an existing fingerprint solution that works with it great. Otherwise there are some anti-pass back features to stop kids passing back cards to let others in built into Net2. Turnstile wise I've worked with these in the past: https://parkingfacilities.co.uk/parking_products/single-turnstile/

Had to rebuild a failed S2D not long ago. Just exported whatever was salvageable. Started a 2022 install from scratch and imported back.

Can you RDP to the server? I'd check it's IP settings are correct as well.

Do wish schools would drop the blazers, thankfully I was in the year group that escaped having to wear them. Always thought that they look tacky. Never seem to stop hearing confrontation between staff and students about them either. I'd say that we probably have a 60/40% of male teaching staff who have now dropped the suit and tie.

Always thought mandating children to wear all black coats probably wasn't the best of ideas. Especially road safety wise and bearing in mind everything else visible will also be black.

We've worked with Verkada before, I will say it's quite a slick product. Definitely the other end of the pricing spectrum in comparison with something like Ring but it is a business product.

I do recommend the newer FLX range if you do look at replacing, quite easy to use and have some of the more powerful functionality.

Not blocked for most here, but looking through the logs I'm not sure how much of the kids usage could be considered educational.

On the whole the out of box Acer keyboards have lasted OK, and keys can be replaced (apart from the space bar) Currently we're on Canyon (scan.co.uk) keyboard & mouse sets. They're cheap & nasty but the kids seem to break everything regardless. Main issue is that they are usually destroyed when key caps are pulled off. K120s have always been pretty good, and would be my choice. Our burn rate is probably two per IT suite per day if averaged out.

Always been very happy with the IDP smart machines, have experience with a few units (50 & newer 51) both models have always worked well. Did have a bunch of issues with the Primacy in the past, could have just been a dodgy unit though. Currently have a Magicard Pronto 100 sat next to me, which is always a nightmare if someone unplugs it to get it back up and running. Usually involves re-installing drivers and about 10 reboots.

Swapping a push to exit for an exit reader, I have no issue with. I wouldn't consider high level mounted break glasses appropriate, as we have seen fitted in numerous primary schools, Someone in a wheelchair for example wouldn't be able to access. I try to ask myself if by fitting / not fitting something am I making it any less safe. In the event of a fire and for whatever reason the fire alarm system (which is outside of our control) fails to function could someone become trapped in that area. Fire alarm relays can be isolated for example on the panel which would prevent the door releasing. Alarmed hood units have worked well for us overall, with the addition of tamper evident seals. Kid breaks seal = Parents billed. Using triggers & actions in Net2 you could configure an email to be sent if the break glass is activated. https://www.nacd.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/EMERGENCY-EGRESS-HS-MANDATORY-COMPLIANCE-170422-1.pdf

I think you might struggle here. I can't see any player in the MIS market that would start developing a desktop app solution now, Even SIMS seem to be taking the direction of moving towards web apps (or have at least suggested that they are doing this component by component). SIMS market share is plummeting, that alone would make me nervous about investing in a declining product. A radical redesign of the product if it ever comes is likely to make it web based, which is apparently not what you want. The alternative option see for SIMS I can see is that it eventually gets to the point where the customer numbers no longer justify the continued development and support operations that keep it going. I'd suggest having a look at the following blog: https://bringmoredata.blogspot.com/

We use Syncro as our RMM software. It's priced per admin rather than per endpoint, so was rather cost effective for us. Does all the Helpdesk side of stuff as well.

It's all reliant on the information that the switch gives out in LLDP. I know in the past Unifi switches didn't broadcast that info, not sure if they've added it in as an option you can enable.

I'd probably say Unifi protect as well, Not sure I'd trust it for larger installs after the whole Unifi video issue. But for 3/4 camera setups it's great, and has a pretty solid interface I thought.

Not sure about running it on TrueNas, mine is running on a Pi4 with no issues. Although I have been eying up the new HA green box which seems quite reasonably priced.

5406ZL is our go to model, virtually every secondary we go to has had one already or we've fitted one. They just tick all the boxes.

Can you run a speed test connected directly to the BT connection? At least you then know whether it is their service or yours that is the bottleneck. Also is it up to 300Mbps or guaranteed?

I'd probably suggest something like a Hikvision turret camera with a MicroSD card in. The card slot is generally covered by a metal plate with Torx screws if I'm not mistaken, cover it with an Asset tag and record the tag number as an added deterrent against tampering / taking the card. I'd avoid domestic solutions like Ring for this.

Agreed, unfortunately almost our entire fleet is Acer. Got stacks of them with broken hinges. Desktops need their coin cell pulling out constantly, just will not power on otherwise. Support has been poor at best, logged a ticket with PXE boot issues on one particular model, waited for a bit then the response was PXE doesn't work on this model, despite that it will at least attempt to PXE. Bit of a mixed bag with the newer Lenovo laptops we've bought. The V15 G4 AMN I believe is the last one we bought which seems OK so far.

Personally don't know of many primaries with them anymore. However from the secondaries I've worked in over the last 5 years or so I think we have a real issue with the IT literacy of kids. Sure they know how to use a smart phone, but we have Y11 students that have no idea how to save a Word document, students that have never saved anything in their secondary career just turn the PC off at the end of the lesson job done. We now have to attend controlled assessment lessons to ensure the kids actually save the work. I do believe this has something to do with the taking out of IT suites, and the sort of move to iPads / Chromebooks that I've seen. Sure they're great devices but I think it isn't really preparing kids for secondary or the 'real world'.

Few basic tests: Do you have an IP Address (not 169.) Can you ping the gateway (PFSENSE) local interface Can you ping 8.8.8.8 (assuming Ping is allowed out) can you ping google.com (DNS Problem?) Traceroute to google.com / 8.8.8.8 (following the expected path, or being dropped?)

Nope it's just a glorified wireless ethernet cable. One end on a building with connectivity plugged into one nano beam, the other end ethernet out into whatever, or a unifi WiFi Point. Just needs a POE source at either end, which is where you might need to engineer something with solar.