alexinnard

Yeah - but they're still pretty cr@p tho'. Here (EMBC) I was trying to get a prog from the MS site (not too big - 12Mb) after restarting the download about 50 times after it kept cutting out, I drove home, dl'd it via NTL in less that 30 secs and USB stick'd it back to the office - and for that I pay 12.5k, hmmm, there'd have to be some serious add ons to make that a good buy :? We get the same problem with EMBC here at Latimer. I thought it was down to the fact that we can have 400 users over a 2mb/s radio link to EMBC, but if you're having it on 10meg fibre too then it has to be a fault with them! The new business manager here is possibly going to let us look at a different supplier when our contract expires... here's hoping...!

EMBC here..... they are truly cack. Our current connection is a 2MB radio link to EMBC, then a 155MB link from them to the internet (shared with all the schools in the East Midlands who are with them.) We are shortly getting a 10MB link to EMBC as they are currently in the process of digging up the road to the school for the fibre! In turn EMBC have contacted us to say that they are upgrading their central pipe to a gigabit. Should speed things up and cut out those dropped downloads hopefully.

Cheers for the info. We have had a rather rude letter from EMBC stating that they will only host .sch.uk domains for us, and that they cannot do anything else! We have our own webserver on site, with an external IP address from EMBC but are currently waiting to give it a domain name (we had hoped to use latimer.org.uk but EMBC say no.) Our idea was to host our own mail and webserver as the teachers and SLT here refuse to have [email protected] email addresses due to their length. Do you know if EMBC were just fobbing us off. Also how did you go about getting your staff exchange email access using your own domain? I might catch you on MSN tonight if you are in. Cheers Alex

We get the same problem here at Latimer. When downloading medium to large files (even printer drivers etc) it will drop mid-way through the download. Most of the time when web browsing, half a site will load then the rest will just be "cannot be displayed"

I am still waiting to move our principle domain onto EMBC. They are not allowed to put DNS entries in until they have the tag. That means that I have to move the tag to them (they will not contact nominet to do it ... the LA or the school has to), wait until they are happy ... then I have to ask them to add A and MX records ... and then confirm that the hosts on those records are ok for power user / internet server. We are doing something similar. We registered latimer.org.uk a few weeks back with a private host company but are currently waiting for them to change the tag to EMBC. Our aim is to redevelop our current website - http://www.lcac.org.uk - and put it on the new domain. Our webserver for latimer.org.uk is all up and running, just waiting for EMBC/the private host to do their bit grrrrrr!

We only got hold of the letter sent to us, because our business manager (bursar) is new to education (ex Misco manager) and believes we should be in the know about everything. Aparantely it was sent to the head, and passed to her. In my last school anything that was sent to the head stayed in her office and usually ended up straight in the bin if it was to do with ICT!

I have just had a letter through stating that EMBC are upgrading their 155Mbps pipe to a gig! Aparantely this means that on the 13th we will be without internet while they do the upgrade. not bad though eh?

Heh, cheers for that. I have worked at two schools that use EMBC now, and from my experience that are totally pants.

Definately radio. The kit was installed years ago long before I got here, and looking at old photos of the school, the trees were definately a LOT smaller. I think I will give EMBC a call just to check. Their webview doesn't report any known faults yet, and knowing my luck I am probably going to have to go out there with some clippers and a long rope!

Our school (Latimer Arts College in Kettering) has EMBC 2Mb broadband via a radio link 8O Lately it has been a terrible connection, constantly dropping downloads half way through, not loading all the gfx on websites etc all day. I was just wondering if anybody else is having the same issues with EMBC, or whether it's just us and we need to trim the tops off the trees surrounding the school!!! Cheers

There were lots of people there. I did speak to quite a lot of them but I have a terrible memory and forget names so quickly. I was the one who nicked coffee from the wrong machine and got rapped by the hotel staff!

I'll be there as well, whenever they decide to re schedule it. Sounds really interesting. It was only a few weeks since I went to the RM tech seminar in Peterborough and I enjoyed that too. Free food, can't grumble!