rusty155

I certainly think that MCSE is one of the most worthwhile certs that you can gain. It is 'required' for many positions nowadays and is probably the most popular and widely accepted among employers. In my opinion however, it is only valuable when gained over time alongside experience and not via a two week brain dump course. How the cert was gained is a question that should be raised at interview anyway. It is possible to go on such a short course and gain the MCSE. However, a true 'Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer' will have years of experience to back up the qualification. I will get there in the end, by building up the relevant modules over the next few years. I would personally expect someone with the MCSE to have at least 5 years industry experience for it to mean anything. There is a huge difference between the MCSE and a 'paper' MCSE, the latter only shows an ability to store vast amounts of information in the short term and learn the answers to multile choice questions. Just my 2 pence!!

I personally feel that boot camps can be a dangerous and sometimes dishonest way of gaining certs. A lot of them are guilty of running 'brain dump' outfits where you are simply taught how to pass the exam without learning the hows and whys of troubleshooting. Certifications should only ever be a compliment to experience and never a substitute. There is just no way that anyone could ever learn everything needed to gain the MCSE in a two week course. It is something that should be worked towards alongside experience over a period of years not weeks. I maybe being slightly controversial in my ranting but just my opinion.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions people - it was indeed the ram. Switched it over with that from a different server, and came in the next day to discover the same error on the new server, with original one all fine! Got some more on order but will have to manage for a few more days with resetting it every morning and performing a manual backup as I forgot that the memory has to be installed as matched pairs, so cannot remove the faulty module! Oh well, least it was simple in the end!

The servers are in a locked room which only i have access to, and they are on a UPS anyway. Also, it is one of three identical DC's, and only one is problematic. My inital thought was indeed the memory. Will remove a module tonight before i go home and see what happens. If the error persists, i'll swap out again the following night and post back the results!

Hello people! I have come into work 3 days running now to find one of our servers showing the following message: http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p36/marmot155/error-1.jpg After looking in event viewer, it appears that this is occuring at roughly 18.40 every evening. The last entry in the system event log is as follows: http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p36/marmot155/event.jpg Now, I am currently having to reboot the Server every morning and perform a manual backup during the day, as the overnight scheduled one obviously won't run! Where do I start??!!! The machine is a dual processor P3 1100 with 1gb ram, and no it is not in warranty! 8O Help. Please!

Hello everyone, I have been asked this morning if it is possible to disable the spell checker in Microsoft Word. There is a student soon to sit her SATS but has a damaged hand and needs to use a laptop. The SAT requirements state that spelling and grammar checks need to be disabled. I have no idea how to do this however, or even if it is possible!! The version of office being used is XP. The only way I know of is to uninstall Office and have the student use Notepad or Wordpad! Any help greatly appreciated.

Hello! Wasn't sure where to post this but here seems as good a place as any! We are in the process of turning one of our IT Suites into a Language Lab, and I was wondering what systems / software others are using. We are after a solution that does the following: -Remote control (view and control of student's machines) -Audio chat - within groups and listening from the teacher via headphones -Facility to record voice -Streaming media from a variety of means (CD, DVD, VHS etc) -Teacher Demonstrations to the desktop -Built in assessment -Record to CD Is there anything people are using that facilitates all of the above in one package?? We used to have a Tandberg Divace setup that has long since decayed and we are in need of a replacement. Any help greatly appreciated!

Yes, I use sysaid - pretty easy to use once setup. I don't allow teachers to log calls however. Instead, calls are logged at reception and they log the call details for me. I have found this seems to be the best method here. Before i installed the helpdesk, i used to rely on e-mail. This was a nightmare as staff would just bombard me with problems most of the time lacking any real detail - such as where the problem was, what computer etc etc. I would usually get emails such as "my computer's broken - please help"!!!! The way we operate now is much more efficient because reception are fully briefed on the information that i need, so when they get calls they know what questions to ask! Then i simply log in to sysaid and read full and clear descriptions of any logged calls! Took a while to get there tho - hardest part was convincing reception to take on the extra workload!

Here, I have set up all of our staff laptops up with local profiles only. In my experience, this causes the fewest problems with logon. I also have group policies running scripts that setup the proxy at logon, remove it at logoff; map various network drives; load a little printer management interface i wrote so they can add printers from across the site; and a few other security bits and bobs like disabling access to the command prompt. On the whole tho, they have local admin rights for their own laptops. I don't use offline files because when i have in the past i've had nothing but problems! They just save files in the local "my documents" folder, but they are all made aware that anything vital/important should be placed in their home network folder when at school to ensure it's backed up.

Ok thanks Geoff - firmware update on all of the switches did the trick! :oops: I thought about updating the firmware early on but thought i'd try a few other things first. Why would these problems suddenly happen? one day fine and the next chaos!!?? Is buggy firmware common in switches and how does it come about? Thanks again for all the help!

Ok big update i'm afraid! Ok!! I've been able to spend some time on this problem and have discovered the following: First of all, the problem that I am having is not related to MS Access at all! I has just been highlighted by it due to the apparent sensitivity of Access to network issues. The problem actually lies with the 3COM switches. They are all Superstack 3 4200 series switches (4226T more specifically). They appear, for whatever reason, to be resetting themselves approx every 10-20 minutes. This is causing the workstations attached to them to drop off the network for about 10-15 secs before they pick up an address again. If I try to manage the switches through a web browser, I receive the error: "Error in SNMP read. Failed to get system information." I am then prevented from viewing / changing any settings for the switch. If I Telnet in, I am able to view most settings, and can reset to factory defaults. I have done this, which does not reslove the problem. I am not able however to view or change any settings with regard to the IP address. If I attempt to, the following error occurs: "Invalid option, or combination of options selected" Out of 12 3COM switches, across 3 separate cabinets, this occurs on 5 switches. The strange thing is, that the switches that I can manage are uplinked to at least one other 3COM switch. That is, the problem 3COM switches are either directly linked to the core switch, or pass through a non-3COM switch before the core. Another strange occurance with regard to the first stack of 4 switches in the diagram is that I can get in to the management of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th switches in the stack, and thus view the stack as a whole. I am however unable to view or change the device settings of the stack - just see an overview. Within this overview, I can see the IP Address of the switch that I have pulled up through the browser, but the other switches in the stack show an IP of 0.0.0.0. This is the case for the last 3 Switches in the stack - I recieve the snmp error if I try to open up the management page of the first switch in the stack. I am sorry for the bombardment!! - I have been looking into this for the past couple of days with an engineer sent from RM without much success. (He has never seen or heard of anything like this before!) I am severely stuck at this point, and sinking increasingly out of my depth!! As a further note, I have contacted 3COM who only offer support for 90 days after purchase, and are only able to assist via a paid support option which I really do not want to pursue at this time!! I cannot find anything of use on their knowledgebase either! HELP!!

Thanks for all of the replies. Are there any good (free??!!) network monitoring tools to keep an eye on network traffic and expose bottlenecks? This would certainy be a good start i think!

Yes! Thank you! I have been trying to get the school to fork out on a new core switch for over a year now!! The maxswitch is at full capacity so i cannot link any of the 24 port switches straight into it. It only has 4 gbit fibre ports which link to the other 2 cabinets and 4 gbit copper - 3 of which are taken up by the servers and the other 1 by the first 3com switch! I would like to replace the core with a Procurve chassis ideally, with modules for at least 12 gbit copper links (for the servers, and all switches) with room for future expansion. It must have at least 4 fibre ports also for linking to the other two cabinets. But then there are also similar issues in the remaining 2 cabinets, although the daisy chaining is not quite so insane!! But it seems like an impossible task to get the smt to part with over 5grand. I would really like to meet the guy who kept daisy chaining all of these switches because it is giving me a constant headache!! Any suggestions on convincing them to spend the money before the whole lot falls down, and I get the blame for shoddy extensions in the past??!!!

I have posted a problem in another area with regards to this but would I would appreciate some more general advice on upgrading our network backbone. I am getting all sorts of problems here and I am sure that a big part of it is due to the infrastructure here. I'll include as much information as I can of the current setup, and would be grateful if others could perhaps post their setups, and their opinions of the best way to upgrade here. We have 3 comms cabinets on site, I have included a very rough diagram of the setup in our main cabinet as this is the worst, although the other two are similar! http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p36/marmot155/files/Network.jpg All of the switches are pretty much at full capacity. The diagram is slightly inaccurate as there are actually two pairs of fibre going from the core to each of the other to cabinets. Each of these pairs are linked to another switch which in turn have at least 2/3 switches which are connected by 100Mbit copper. We have approx 320 client machines for 1100 students and 80 teachers. The 3 servers are all DCs and file servers, with one of them also acting as our mail server. They are all P3 1000mhz. How bad is this? and what should I ideally have for everything to run smoothly. I have my own ideas but would really appreciate some input. Thanks.

Hi all, We are experiencing a variety of problems and error messages with students using MS Access XP. The most frequent error is "Disk or Network Error" and a "Jet Engine" error when working within Access. These errors are occurring at seemingly random times and stages within the program. It results in Access having to be closed down and students subsequently losing any data they have entered. It is also occurring on seemingly random workstations for random users. Some students encounter no problems. I am having difficulty replicating the problem and error messages due to their inconsistency but it is making the teaching of Access extremely difficult! Could this be due to physical network problems. In my opinion, the servers and core switch here are VERY old and ideally need replacing. The workstations are having to travel through up to 4 or 5 10/100 switches before they reach the core and servers. The servers themselves are P3 1.0ghz running server 2000, and we have 3 of them. We also have approx 350 workstations of which 75 are wireless laptops. Any help or suggestions greatly appreciated

Just another note with regard to proxies. If a manual proxy is set in internet explorer lan settings, as long as the "automatically detect settings" box is also checked, the internet should still work at home without the need to constantly turn the proxy on and off, automatic settings will win if no proxy is found.?? This works for me anyway - I have no problems either at home or at school with these settings. Firefox however does still require you to manually switch the proxy on and off.

Ok people, thanks for all the responses. The proxy is not a problem - I have a script within group policies to sort this. Indeed most broadband suppliers/software cause no problems and the user is able to setup a home connection whilst remaining attached to the domain with no ill-effects at school. However, it is just recently that I have had a few teachers install software for the BT home Hub. The BT software disables and prevents the Wireless Zero Configuration service from running. In addition, there doesn't appear to be a wireless utility within the BT software that will connect to anything other than a home hub! Also, if I try to manually start the wireless zero service, it is immediately stopped!!- Frustrating to say the least! Now - I may be wrong but this is what seemed to be the case on a quick dig around. I can get around the problem by removing the BT software and manually adding the BT home connection as a preferred wireless network, using just the Windows wireless configuration (far better than any manufacturer or 3rd party tool that i have ever come across anyway! imo of course!) So I now have the laptop flying along again here but am awaiting confirmation that all is well at the teacher's home :? :? I'm sure it will be fine!

Thanks for all the help people! looks like i am going to have to remove as much of the bt stuff as i can to get it connected to the school wireless. And then cross my fingers that it'll still work at her house! If not then - I have made it clear in the past that i will try and accomodate home wireless systems as much as possible but that the school system takes priority. So if it doesn't work at home after i've messed with it - tough i'm afraid.

hi everyone, I have recently started to get all sorts of problems with teachers installing and configuring their own wireless networks at home for their laptops. Sometimes this isn't a problem, as the windows systems works as it should and connects at home and school with no problem. However there are certain broadband suppliers such as BT with the Home Hub that use their own utility and seem to only be able to connect to the Home Hub. Has anyone else had similar problems, if so how do you cope with it? Thanks.

Lol!! No! - i'm just a technician looking to step up to IT Manager Role and looking for a few pointers. Know that the SMT's are always banging on about 5 year plans and was wondering how to tackle this one really! What have you got planned? How do you respond to SMT if asked what your 5 year plan would be? Any help greatly appreciated!

Ok people! What is your role as IT Manager/Technician? What does your job involve? - Daily routine, what are you responsible for? And what are your plans for the future in your current role? (the dreaded 5 year plan?!) Just interested to know what everyone else is doing!

Wow - thanks for the rapid responses!! Anyone come up against any resistance from their LEAs when merging admin/curriculum networks? Ours isn't too pleased with the suggestion of a one way trust relationship between the two let alone a complete merge!!! The school do have the final say but it is convincing them that the LEA is over cautious - any similar experiences??

Hi all, At the school where I work we currently have two separate networks for admin and curriculum. Curriculum is CC3 and admin is Vanilla XP. Just wondering what the situation is elsewhere as long term I am hoping to firstly move away from RM and have vanilla curriculum and eventually perhaps merge the two together. Would really appreciate any feedback as how things are done elswhere and if anyone else has done anything similar - be great to hear how it went, any problems etc etc. Thanks,