July 2001 - openSUSE Edu - openSUSE Mailing Lists

Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] software in schools/piracy
by Gary Stainburn 17 Jul '01

17 Jul '01

On Monday 16 July 2001 7:32 pm, Damian Counsell wrote: [snip] > (I'd like to > point out that I have nothing in particular against Ford that I don't have I'm glad to hear it - I suppose now's not a good time to advertise the latest Options? > against any other manufacturer of gas-guzzling, child-maiming, > environment-despoiling motor vehicles; I write hypothetically.) Ah! I guess not! -- Gary Stainburn This email does not contain private or confidential material as it may be snooped on by interested government parties for unknown and undisclosed purposes - Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, 2000

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RE: [suse-linux-uk-schools] software in schools/piracy
by Coulton,G 16 Jul '01

16 Jul '01

Morning Everyone :) I have worked in schools for over two and a half years and the ICT Co-ordinator has for twenty five years. Neither of use have seen ANY publication on licensing ETC. Does the DfES produce one? Is it a LEA thing? Who is in charge of letting schools know about licensing? TIA Gary Coulton Corpus Christi Catholic High School Neville Road, LEEDS. UK LS9 0TT Tel: +44 113 248 2666 Fax: +44 113 235 0758 Email: coultogi01(a)leedslearning.net Website: www.cchsleeds.demon.co.uk "Corpus Christi Catholic High School, has Technology College Status, and specialises in ICT, Maths, Science and Design Technology" > -----Original Message----- > From: Malcolm Herbert [mailto:mherbert@redhat.com] > Sent: 13 July 2001 17:00 > To: "Schools List > <suse-linux-uk-schools(a)suse.com>"@lacrosse.corp.redhat.com > Cc: Coulton,G; 'Mark Evans'; 'Simon Wood'; Schools List > Subject: Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] software in schools/piracy > > > hi all > > adding to the debate, here is the synopsis of a BESA report > on illegal > software use carried out in 1999 (and repeated last year), on > the Becta web > site. Wonder who the sponsors of the report were ? > > Malcolm > > > Half of schools found licensing overly complex. The main > problems were > reported as being the variety of different licence agreements > and confusing > language in documentation. > > Many teachers were unsure whether and under what > circumstances copying of > software was allowed. Half of teachers believed that it was > acceptable to copy > software for classroom use. Copying for home use or copying > for a colleague > was thought to be acceptable by about a fifth of teachers. > Ten per cent of > teachers thought it acceptable to lend colleagues software > when not in use by > the licence holder. > > Half of primary schools and a quarter of secondary schools > were unaware of the > penalties they might incur for use of unlicensed software. > Secondary schools > were concerned about others using unlicensed software because > they felt that > the outcome would be more expensive software products. > Schools were unsure how > easy or difficult it might be to identify schools using > unlicensed software, > but the majority thought it might be difficult. > > Just under half of ICT co-ordinators reported that they would > not know who to > ask for advice. Of the others, most said that they would turn > to local > authority ICT centres and advisers. Organisations such as the > Federation > Against Software Theft (FAST) or the British Educational Suppliers > Association (BESA) are unlikely to be consulted. > > Only a small minority of schools across the UK has ever > discussed licensing > at governors? meetings, and few schools indicated that they > had plans to do > so. > > The majority of schools thought it would be illegal for > software distributors > to sell unlicensed software. Schools indicated concern that > their supplier > might pass on unlicensed software. Generally, software > distributors and > producers were not felt to provide adequate information. > > A third of primary schools and half of secondary schools had > procedures in > place to ensure that software is licensed to the > manufacturer?s requirements. > > > > On Thursday 12 July 2001 14:59, Mark Evans wrote: > > > On Wed, 11 Jul 2001, Coulton,G wrote: > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > > > From: Mark Evans [mailto:mpe@st-peters-high.devon.sch.uk] > > > > > Sent: 11 July 2001 14:36 > > > > > To: Coulton,G > > > > > Cc: 'Simon Wood'; Schools List > > > > > Subject: Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] software in > schools/piracy > > > > > > > > > > > Hi Simon, > > > > > > > > > > > > I think something came across my desk in relation to Linux > > > > > > > > > > a while back. The > > > > > > > > > > > reason we didn't respond is because :- > > > > > > > > > > > > a) Trying to manage the network growing as quick as most > > > > > > > > > > High Schools > > > > > > > > > > > netwrks is very time consuming (to give you an idea I have > > > > > > > > > > 123 computers to > > > > > > > > > > > set up using some form of OS, a language lab with 32 > > > > > > > > > > machines, interactive > > > > > > > > > > > whiteboards and another computer room all before > > > > > > > > > > September). To change or > > > > > > > > > > > look at something as (I hesitate to use this word) radical > > > > > > > > > > as Linux is a big > > > > > > > > > > > step and eXTREMELY time consuming, where as I'm sure you'll > > > > > > > > > > agree - adding > > > > > > > > > > > an NT Box as a BDC to the network is extremely simple :) > > > > > > > > > > Since when is a BDC a workstation? > > > > > > > > I'm talking about workstations! I'm talking about > adding a Linux Server > > > > as opposed to an NT / W2K / XP Server > > > > > > snip > > > > > > I had to add my mite here as I don't agree at all. Your > argument assumes > > > you are moving from NT and learning Linux. I could set up > a Linux server > > > much quicker. It is only eXTREMELY time consuming if you > start from > > > knowing nothing about it. I would have the same problem > in reverse if I > > > > Possibly it's more time consuming for someone knowing only > NT, which would > > only apply to relative newcomers anyway... > > > > > ever succumbed to the suggestions I get to install NT - I > refuse to do it > > > > I actually have exactly this problem. In that I cannot get a W2K to > > reliably work as a replacement for our Netware 3.12 server in order > > to operate SIMS. But the new SQL stuff isn't supported running on > > a proper SQL server. > > > > Interestingly it's only the 95 workstations which have a problem > > communicating with this server, smbclient has no problem > recognising it. > > > > Both Microsoft and the LEA people have little idea why it shouldn't > > work. > > > > > as I don't have the time to spare to learn how to do it. > If I could see > > > *any* technological advantage in doing so I would have to > consider it > > > seriously. I won't go into the rest of the arguments > pro/con which we > > > keep rehashing here. I do know that if I ever do get > forced into getting > > > involved in NT/W2k I will miss the openness and freedom > of information I > > > get using Open Source. > > > > Virtually every time I have to deal with a piece of Windows software > > (especially if it's from Microsoft) I am left feeling as > though I would > > be better off headbutting a wall. (The only notable > exceptions have been > > Techsoft and Avco Systems.) > > -- > ------------------------------------ > Malcolm Herbert > Red Hat Europe > t:+44 1483 734955 m:+44 7720 079845 > ------------------------------------ >

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Success with small memory machine!
by Phil Driscoll 15 Jul '01

15 Jul '01

I'm very pleased to report that I've installed Suse 7.2 on one of the 32Mb RAM 200MHz machine with the Blackbox window manager, and it works a treat! Thanks to all who suggested it! Quick tests done so far: Konqueror web browsing - works great. Netscape - ditto. Abiword - works fine So the next issue for me is to select a useful range of 'non-bloat' software for the machines. The basic requirements are word processing/simple DTP, spreadsheets, some kind of graphics package (equivalents of !Draw and !Paint for Acorn aficionados) and anything else anyone thinks might be useful for a target audience of year 7 to year 11 kids. It would help if there is not too much of a culture shock involved in moving between the Acorn machines and Windows boxes already in use throughout the school, and some degree of file format compatibility would be useful. I'm happy with konqueror for web browsing, and the teachers and pupils use a web mail system to access their emails, so there is no additional requirement there. Cheers (and thanks again for helping me get this far!) -- Phil Driscoll

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Open Source/Free software vs. Windows - a quantative approach
by Phil Driscoll 14 Jul '01

14 Jul '01

Many of you will have seen this mentioned on slashdot, but for those who haven't, the document provides lots of interesting figures for when you need to argue your corner. http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html -- Phil Driscoll

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Compiling Sendmail
by Marcus Birkin 13 Jul '01

13 Jul '01

To start off with please excuse my ignorance (and in places my spelling) What I need to do is compile sendmail with database support (so I can use aliases, access, etc) I have added some code to sendmail for extra logging and as such unable to just use an RPM. Could someone please give me a step by step guide on how to do this (I can compile and install with out DB support) Thanks Marcus

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RE: [suse-linux-uk-schools] software in schools/piracy
by Coulton,G 13 Jul '01

13 Jul '01

> -----Original Message----- > From: Mark Evans [mailto:mpe@st-peters-high.devon.sch.uk] > Sent: 11 July 2001 14:36 > To: Coulton,G > Cc: 'Simon Wood'; Schools List > Subject: Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] software in schools/piracy > > > > Hi Simon, > > > > I think something came across my desk in relation to Linux > a while back. The > > reason we didn't respond is because :- > > > > a) Trying to manage the network growing as quick as most > High Schools > > netwrks is very time consuming (to give you an idea I have > 123 computers to > > set up using some form of OS, a language lab with 32 > machines, interactive > > whiteboards and another computer room all before > September). To change or > > look at something as (I hesitate to use this word) radical > as Linux is a big > > step and eXTREMELY time consuming, where as I'm sure you'll > agree - adding > > an NT Box as a BDC to the network is extremely simple :) > > Since when is a BDC a workstation? I'm talking about workstations! I'm talking about adding a Linux Server as opposed to an NT / W2K / XP Server >From the information I seem to remember receiving this is what they were seemingly talking about. > > It's workstations which take up most of the time with Windows. > Compounded by Windows being an operating system which expects to > be end user administered, hence makes it easy for the person using > the machine to mess with all sorts of things. That's the reason for profiles and policies surely? > > Let alone that being able to install an application only once > for the whole network is unimaginable with an entirely Windows > system. > > How much time do you think you would have to spend converting > to XP? > At the moment. None! W2K looks like you have to buy W2K CALs, so I'm presuming you have to buy the same for XP. As someone who has already spent a fair amount of money on NT CALs I'm not prepared to spend even more on something which we don't need in school at this present time. I can only talk from my schools perspective which to be honest has been playing catchup on IT. All the money we spend needs to be on new stuff - not upgrading year old stuff just because MS thinks they might like to release ANOTHER all singing and dancing OS

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software in schools/piracy
by Frank Shute 13 Jul '01

13 Jul '01

There's quite an interesting article at Salon about how US schools are being hunted down and fined for using pirated commercial software & how they are reacting: http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/07/10/microsoft_school/index.html Are UK schools going to be next in the line of fire? I've heard that controlling licences and the paperwork involved is a major time consumer and administrative nightmare for schools. Anybody got any personal experience? The real shocker was getting fined $50000 for 100 odd illegal copies of MSDOS. I'm sure there are plenty of schools in this country who have many illegal copies of DOS running under Windows without realising it. Anybody been investigated/fined yet? -- Frank *-------*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-------* | Boroughbridge | Tel: 01423 323019 | PGP keyID: 0xC0B341A3 | *-------*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-------* http://www.esperance-linux.co.uk/

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RE: [suse-linux-uk-schools] software in schools/piracy
by Simon Wood 12 Jul '01

12 Jul '01

> -----Original Message----- > From: Alan Harris [SMTP:alanh@bryngwyn.carmarthen.sch.uk] > Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2001 9:56 AM > To: Ian Lynch > Cc: Frank Shute; Schools List > Subject: Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] software in schools/piracy > > if we want this to work, and we want schools to go opensource, then we, > the open source community, are going to have to provide training > materials, faq's and example lessons which lead to defined National > Curriculum Levels. When we can do this THEN we can provide a total > solution to the Microshaft problem.... [Simon Wood] I agree 100% with this, I spent some effort with my local LUG (WYLUG) to put together a 'Schools Page' and wrote to a few local schools presenting ourselves and offer support and information if they wanted it. So far we have not heard anything back - I guess that they are either not interested or simply are too busy coping with the other problems that they have in school. I think it is a very difficult situation, if you are too evangelical you will only create barriers Simon Wood. PS If you want help (or to help out) in West Yorkshire check the WYLUG web site - http://www.wylug.org.uk

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Apache on the warpath
by ptaylor 12 Jul '01

12 Jul '01

Hi all: Sorry to divert from the interesting discussion on piracy and software. I have up-dated my machine from 7.1 to 7.2 (thanks Roger, cheque pending) which went okay but my web server does not work now. It created a new httpd.conf file but when I run apache I get an error message that tomcat.conf is wrong. I have tracked that down and it seems to be part of jakarta? I expect, I have not looked yet (100/350 A level papers still distracting me), that I am now on Apache 2 which I have not had time to look at. I renamed my old httpd.conf and it worked again but probably as 1.3. Not that this is a problem but the new server would be nice to play with. Any suggestions? Also, (one for Christopher Dawkins?) I am running vnc here at school and was hoping to get a nice linux desktop on my Win machine but only get the terminal. Any suggestions? Paul

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'Free' X Server for Windows 95/etc.
by Simon Wood 12 Jul '01

12 Jul '01

Hi all, There were a few questions a while ago asking about X-Servers for Windows. There is now a Cygwin port of XFree which seems to works quite well..... [It's a shame that X is state-ful you loose all your work when Windoze crashes, but maybe it's an option for some people.] Magic URL: http://www.cygwin.com/xfree/ Have fun. Simon Wood

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RE: [suse-linux-uk-schools] software in schools/piracy
by Coulton,G 11 Jul '01

11 Jul '01

> > I'm talking about workstations! I'm talking about adding a > Linux Server > as opposed to an NT / W2K / XP Server > Do I know what I'm talking about? LOL After today I don't think so LOL

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RE: [suse-linux-uk-schools] software in schools/piracy
by Coulton,G 11 Jul '01

11 Jul '01

Hi Simon, I think something came across my desk in relation to Linux a while back. The reason we didn't respond is because :- a) Trying to manage the network growing as quick as most High Schools netwrks is very time consuming (to give you an idea I have 123 computers to set up using some form of OS, a language lab with 32 machines, interactive whiteboards and another computer room all before September). To change or look at something as (I hesitate to use this word) radical as Linux is a big step and eXTREMELY time consuming, where as I'm sure you'll agree - adding an NT Box as a BDC to the network is extremely simple :) B) Thinking about this - it is just time - there purely isn;t time to look into Linux properly and role it out as an OS or a Server Based system (Althought our next one is going to be - thanks to Phil Driscoll). I do beleive we need to look at Open Source Software within school more. Star Office is one particular way of looking forward. It's not convincing the ICT Departments in School Really. It's your other staff that find they have to learn yet more programs, styles of doing things and are (to be honest) quite against radical change of any description. > -----Original Message----- > From: Simon Wood [mailto:Simon.Wood@pace.co.uk] > Sent: 11 July 2001 10:04 > To: Schools List > Subject: RE: [suse-linux-uk-schools] software in schools/piracy > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Alan Harris [SMTP:alanh@bryngwyn.carmarthen.sch.uk] > > Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2001 9:56 AM > > To: Ian Lynch > > Cc: Frank Shute; Schools List > > Subject: Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] software in schools/piracy > > > > if we want this to work, and we want schools to go > opensource, then we, > > the open source community, are going to have to provide training > > materials, faq's and example lessons which lead to defined National > > Curriculum Levels. When we can do this THEN we can provide a total > > solution to the Microshaft problem.... > [Simon Wood] > I agree 100% with this, I spent some effort with my local LUG > (WYLUG) to put together a 'Schools Page' and wrote to a few > local schools presenting ourselves and offer support and > information if they wanted it. > > So far we have not heard anything back - I guess that > they are either > not interested or simply are too busy coping with the > other problems > that they have in school. > > I think it is a very difficult situation, if you are > too evangelical > you will only create barriers > > Simon Wood. > > PS If you want help (or to help out) in West Yorkshire > check the > WYLUG web site - http://www.wylug.org.uk > > > -- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: suse-linux-uk-schools-unsubscribe(a)suse.com > For additional commands, e-mail: suse-linux-uk-schools-help(a)suse.com >

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RE: [suse-linux-uk-schools] software in schools/piracy
by Simon Wood 11 Jul '01

11 Jul '01

> -----Original Message----- > From: Derek Harding [SMTP:hardingd@warlingham.surrey.sch.uk] > Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2001 9:58 AM > To: Alan Harris; Ian Lynch > Cc: Frank Shute; Schools List > Subject: Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] software in schools/piracy > > Here, here about school/educational software on opensource. I've just been > told that my proposed terminal server setup won't get the go ahead unless I > can prove the educational, not financial, viability! > [Simon Wood] What are they trying to achieve....? If it's a teaching aid to Computer Science class then I should have thought the bootp, tftp, networking, nfs, remote applications, etc, would have much to offer the students, If it's supposed to offer a service (such a web-browsing) then the educational aspect should be irrelivant, providing it works.

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Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] software in schools/piracy
by kevin.taylor＠powerconv.alstom.com 11 Jul '01

11 Jul '01

> Government won't do it - they are already in the M$ pocket Ahh - maybe not so much these days (hopefully), see: http://www.ukonline.gov.uk/online/citizenspace/default.asp?url=/online/citi… Also, The Register carry many stories about this sort of thing, including details of what the government are trying to do to turn around the gateway thing. http://www.theregister.co.uk/ There may be hope for us yet :-) Kevin.

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How little memory can we get away with
by Phil Driscoll 10 Jul '01

10 Jul '01

Hi I've just installed Suse 7.2 on one of our 'scrounged' machines. The machines are 200MHz pentiums with 3Gb hard discs but only 32Mb RAM. During the installation I assigned the entire hard disc to Linux (letting Yast2 apportion boot root and swap) and installed the 'default with office' option - i.e. shed loads of stuff that we probably don't need :) Everything seems to work ok, but the KDE desktop frequently grinds to a near halt on redraws - you can see the screen slowly redraw on bit-blit operations, and the redraw is accompanied by a lot of disc thrashing. As a performance indicator, those who remember ARM 2 Archimedes redrawing in screen mode 21 won't be far off the mark. So, I disabled all services which I suspected we didn't need, to save on memory, however there seems to have been little or no performance improvement. Things get worse when running Star Office, which I guess is the biggest thing we would want to run. So, the question is: I'm I wasting my time trying to get KDE2 stuff working on a 32Mb machine, or can anyone point me at some tweaks that will make these machines useful? Cheers -- Phil Driscoll

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Demonstrating my ignorance?
by Alan Harris 10 Jul '01

10 Jul '01

Hi everybody This is not really a Linux query because Linux doesn't have a problem with what I want to do.... If anybody out there is more experienced than I with NT4 then perhaps you can answer this query :- I want to split a single NT domain into two separate domains, at present the domain is using the following ip address range :- domain : olympus Ip : 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.254 Netmask : 255.255.255.0 I want to split this into :- domain : olympus.cxm ip range : 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.2.254 asgard.cxm 192.168.3.1 to 192.168.4.254 Netmask : 255.255.0.0 At some point in the future asgard will be transferred to Linux only operation. I'm using the .cxm part as it's imaginary and neither network will be directly connected to the Internet. I know i could do this without any problems using Lan Manager but am not sure about NT4. Just to complicate matters, I need several servers to be visible to both domains (192.168.1.3 - Proxy, and 192.168.1.6 - bromcom). I assume that since i'm using CIDR for the addresses that shouldn't be a problem but i am happy to be corrected before I mess things up :) Alan ----------------------------------------------------- Alan Harris Network Manager Bryngwyn School Tel : 01554 750661 Fax : 01554 758255 E-mail: alanh(a)bryngwyn.carmarthen.sch ----------------------------------------------------- Notes: 1. The contents of this email may be snooped on by interested government parties for unknown purposes! Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, 2000. 2. The opinions expressed in this email are personal and may not be shared by Bryngwyn School. -----------------------------------------------------

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Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] How little memory can we get away with
by Chris Howells 10 Jul '01

10 Jul '01

> From: Derek Harding <hardingd(a)warlingham.surrey.sch.uk> > > I'd forget StarOffice, and look at KOffice, but then I am slightly biased > > ;) > > I've never got KOffice to run stable enough to use! What's your secret? Disclaimer: I have no idea how KOffice would cope in an education environment. I'm a Sixth Former at the moment, and I'm currently in the school Library, and typing this on a 486DX4 @ 100MHz, running Win 95. Unfortuantely, the school are heavy investors in RM crap, and I think NT4(servers)/Win95(desktops) is used throughout the school :( The first thing it to forget KOffice 1.0. KOffice 1.1beta is a *masssive* improvement over KOffice 1.0, and even the betas are significantly better. Before the final KOffice 1.0 release, there will be a release candidate and another beta as well. So basically, I would download the beta and try it -- it's really good IMHO. But then I'm slightly biased as I said (I help develop koffice.org and I'm trying to teach my self C++/Qt/KDE development). THe release schedule and resources are available on KOffice.org. Chris Howells

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Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] How little memory can we get away with
by Chris Howells 10 Jul '01

10 Jul '01

> From: Giles Nunn <giles(a)satproj.org.uk> > Star Office is pretty heavy on resources too. It will run in 32M but I > wouldn't bother except to prove it. With KDE2 and Star Office together > you will certainly need to go to at least 64M and to get good performance > I would aim at 128M (RAM is cheap now). StarOffice 5.2 runs terribly on my P2 300 with 192MB RAM (not much better than it ran when the box had 64MB RAM). StarOffice 5.1 crashes with XFree86 4.0.3. I'd forget StarOffice, and look at KOffice, but then I am slightly biased ;) Chris Howells

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Please Ignore, Just Testing
by adrian.wells 09 Jul '01

09 Jul '01

Please Ignore, Just Testing Kind Regards Adrian Wells _______________________________________ Systems Manager Sidcot School Oakridge Lane, Winscombe, Somerset BS25 1PD. Please reply to adrian.wells(a)sidcot.org.uk info(a)sidcot.org.uk for general enquiries admin(a)sidcot.org.uk for tech. enquiries

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D-Link NIC
by Coulton,G 05 Jul '01

05 Jul '01

Hi, Can anyone tell me if you have any experience of the D-Link DFE-570TX 4 Port NIC Using Linux please? Thanks in advance. Gary Coulton Corpus Christi Catholic High School Neville Road, LEEDS. UK LS9 0TT Tel: +44 113 248 2666 Fax: +44 113 235 0758 Email: coultogi01(a)leedslearning.net Website: www.cchsleeds.demon.co.uk "Corpus Christi Catholic High School, has Technology College Status, and specialises in ICT, Maths, Science and Design Technology"

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RE: [suse-linux-uk-schools] network design
by Grainge, Derek 04 Jul '01

04 Jul '01

> Can anyone point me to some good reference material on > network design? > Alternatively, thoughts on the matter are most welcome! I don't know what precise grade of cabling you have installed, nor which apps, but if your main switch works at 100 M, you may have a bottleneck. We have done things a bit differently as we have lots of separate buildings, we have fibre running at 1 Gb, and switches within buildings providing 100/10. Very little cat 5 at the server end. If you use Office applications and store files on the network; if you load bloatware from a server, if you allow media on the network, I think 100 M will not be enough bandwidth. If the servers are connected to the main switch at 1 Gb, the fibre at 1 Gb and the cat 5 at 10/100 for stations, it'll probably work. 1 Gig switch modules still cost serious money compared with 10/100. You can segment network traffic by using departmental switches, so if Mod Lang want media onto their stations, none of that will hit the main switch at all. I assume that's one reason why you're talking about a server for them specifically. Their switch would logically reside at the departmental end of the fibre segment, along with their server. If configured appropriately, no-one outside Mod Land need know that their server is there. I read the comment about SAMBA. It's pretty good at looking like an NT/2000 server but it doesn't do everything a pukka Microsoft server will. I guess if you are installing a specific product the suppliers may only wish to support it if it's on the correct platform? Do you have money to get a consultant in for a day? I would REALLY recommend it. -- ******************************************************************************** All mail sent and received may be examined to prevent transmission of inappropriate attachments and certain obscenities. Wellington College does not accept responsibility for email contents. Problems to postmaster(a)wellington-college.berks.sch.uk. ********************************************************************************

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Let me give you my scenario.
by Robert Moffat 03 Jul '01

03 Jul '01

Let me give you my scenario. I have been given a small computer lab to oversee. This is a subnet off the main college campus network. www.pembrokeshire.ac.uk We have to link through the college gateway to the outside world and are allowed no inward access. Our details. network domain name computerlab.pembrokeshire.ac.uk IP 212.219.110.x NETMASK 255.255.255.192 1 Compaq Proliant 350 file server IP 212.219.110.1 1 P2 333Mhz web server IP 212.219.110.2 1 HP4050 laser printer with IP 212.219.110.9 24 workstations IP via DHCP 212.219.110 10 up to 212.219.110.61, names Alpha to Zulu gateway 212.219.110.62 DNS 212.219.112.3 We run dual boot workstations with Windows 98 and Suse Linux (Ready to upgrade to 7.2 this summer). The Server currently runs Windows 2000 but I do not understand W2k and do not have time to learn (also the only technician who knew W2k has left). The MIS manager wants to Install Windows NT4 (Technicians can support this (probably)). I want to install Suse 7.2 and Samba as my file server. I have bought a book and am gradually working through it :( Can anyone offer advice on how to configure the smb.conf file for this network. Also how to get the login screens /passwords set up bearing in mind my dual boot. Thanks Rob Moffat Robert Moffat r.moffat(a)pembrokeshire.ac.uk 01437 765247 ext. 242 The contents of this Email and any attachments are the property of Pembrokeshire College and are intended for the confidential use of the named recipient(s) only. If you are not an addressee please notify us immediately at the address below or by Email at "support(a)pembrokeshire.ac.uk". Any files attached to this Email will have been checked with virus software before transmission. However, you should carry out your own virus check before opening any attachment. Pembrokeshire College accepts no liability for any loss or damage which may be caused by software viruses. Pembrokeshire College Haverfordwest Pembrokeshire SA61 1SZ

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Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] VMware
by John Phelan 03 Jul '01

03 Jul '01

Many thanks for your comments, Derek. I'll be at the Linux show this Thursday, with a view to buying the latest Suse Distribtion, or if not cheap enough, I'll get it via Suse-schools pricing. Several people have suggested this distro as a way of getting a look at VM ware. Regards, John. > >On 2001.06.29 10:03:31 +0100 John Phelan wrote: >> Hello to all, >> can anyone advise where I can get a copy of VM ware to run MS programs on >> a >> >> Linux box? I just need an evaluation copy for the time being- VMware's >> site >> >> wants money up front. > >Isn't it on the SuSE distribution? > >I use VMware on one machine at school because I have to be able to access >the Novell NDS - it doesn't get used for anything else! I have my own copy >at home because I sometimes have to develop MS based material and it is >really useful to run a virtual network on the desktop. It needs processor >and RAm power, though! > >-- >Best wishes, >Derek Harding, (BA MIAP) >ICT & Network Manager >hardingd(a)warlingham.surrey.sch.uk > > > http://uk2.net

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Re: Network Design
by Paul Munro 03 Jul '01

03 Jul '01

It *is* best to keep domains relatively locked in on themselves, and this helps keep the 80% traffic local and only 20% traffic external: this reduces broadcasts to outside segments and helps local (i.e language lab machines) utilise the bandwidth better. If you *were* to amalgamate these machines onto one server, then IDE RAID may not work too well. The amount of disk access can seriously screw around with your hardware's ability to operate properly and the MTBF could seriously drop..but cost is obviously important there- so that's your decision. Your language lab will need a good switch with excellent circuitry, and perhaps instead of separate servers you may consider VLANs? A more expensive switch with VLAN capability can offer far more granular control over network traffic than most other options..it may be worth looking into that. Anyway, you are right that your multimedia accessing school users will need some good bandwidth, and if it's any consolation to this discussion, I worked in a school where the language lab had a gigabit connection via fibre to the main PDC in the server room (one building away), and still had some useage problems at times (high yield times such as early morning logons, which we solved by logging the machines on remotely in stages before registration ;-) Our situation was similar in that 250 machines were used in the language/design block, and so we set up a local workgroup server, answerable to a PDC running NT 4 Server that had quad Xeon processors and 512MB RAM! The local server was just a PIII 450 at the time with 512MB RAM, and *seemed* to run ok. SCSI was used in both though. The switch used was a CISCO 1900 Catalyst, and this being manageable remotely via telnet helped in admin from a central location. The switch cost £400 second-hand. Anyway, let us know how the whole thing goes--I'm interested at least! Take care, Paul, CCNA

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network design
by Phil Driscoll 02 Jul '01

02 Jul '01

Hi Can anyone point me to some good reference material on network design? Alternatively, thoughts on the matter are most welcome! The story so far (approximately) is that we have about 200 network points wired with CAT 5 most of which come through to racks in the server room, although a couple of remote areas (language lab and D&T dept.) have their own racks with fibre to the server room. Broadband (well a 2Mb circuit anyway) will arrive at the school RSN. Of the 200ish computers about 50 are Acorn on 10M network cards and the rest are PCs on 100M cards. There are essentially 5 IT suites including the language lab accounting for about 3/4 of the machines, the remainder are in small groups (1 to 5ish) in classrooms. I hope that we can persuade the powers that be to let us have the majority of the PCs running Linux, although a language lab and a 'success maker' lab will have to run Windoze. You may remember from an earlier posting that we plan to have one Linux server for each year group which will handle pupil storage and login. A further machine will be a proxy, and separate NT/2000 servers are required for the language lab and success maker room. What yeargroup is using what set of machines at a given time can be considered as random for the purpose of this exercise. So the issues for us to resolve (since the wiring is already in and will not be changed) are things like switch configurations, where to logically site the servers and so on. Cheers -- Phil Driscoll

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