IT Support Blog

Chris is our new intern. You can find him down in the Library with Jim.

Helpdesk
Today we started creating the new IT helpdesk in the library. From Monday 18th all first level IT support will be dealt with at the new helpdesk by Jim and Chris (our new intern). We will also be launching a new online chat service for IT support queries and a online helpdesk management system very soon.

The IT helpdesk will also deal with the booking of AV equipment such as TVs, DVD players, VCRs etc. and we hope to create an online booking system for these resources soon.

Moodle
I upgraded Moodle from 1.5.4 to 1.6.2. The new 1.6 line has quite a few new features including student blogs.

Primary Intranet
I migrated the Primary Intranet from DIRGE to FAILURE2, this will reduce the strain on our Demon ADSL connection and will also provide a better service for users.

I've just finished setting up a new forum for school use. You'll find it at http://intranet.belperschool.co.uk/forum.

It authenticates against Active Directory via LDAP, so just use your normal network username and password. Feel free to start posting some topics and hopefully it will be a success.

Now things have finally started to settle down, I thought I'd update you on what we did, IT wise, during the summer.

IT1/2
IT1 & IT2 have had all computers replaced with refurbished Hi-Grade PCs. Ranging in spec from 2Ghz Celeron - 2.4Ghz P4 with 512Mb RAM, they are quite a nice upgrade from the Compaq and Dell machines they've replaced. IT1 has also been kitted out with 15" TFTs as a bit of an experiment to see how they last. If all goes well we will be looking to make TFTs a standard part of our upgrades.

The Dell machines from IT1 have been moved into IT3 replacing the aging Windows 98 Compaqs, meaning that all our main IT suites are now running XP. Compaqs from IT2 have been moved out into S1, S11 and various other places.

Sixth Form
The Sixth Form block has now been moved entirely onto a replacement Thin Client system and has been recabled. All workstations are now dedicated Neoware thin client terminals and a new server has been installed finally replacing the aging TERMINAL. We're still experiencing some teething issues with this, but hopefully these will be resolved this week.

The new Thin Client system is now part of the wider network, meaning anyone can logon to it without needing a specific thin client username and password. This means that all files are now saved on DOWNPOUR rather than in the past where work was saved directly to the Thin Client server, also Thin Client users can now make full use of our web services such as WebFTP.

Infrastructure
We have a new 24 core fibre run from the library to the server room, which has allowed to make improvements to the network infrastructure. We will hopefully be purchasing a nice chassis switch in the near future to make better use of the improvements.

Art
We've built and installed the new server for Art. This gives us 250gb of RAID 1 storage local to the art block. Each student will have their own area which will be less restrictive in terms of storage space and also quicker for the ineveitable large image/movie files that will be created.

At the moment there are 4 PCs in the IT bay, however we have 10 on order to replace them and also 2 iMacs that are awaiting installation. A temporary networked printer will be set up this week whilst we wait for the Ricoh Printer/Copier to be moved from the library. Scanners for each PC has also been ordered and will hopefully arrive this week.

Learning support
Learning support has been recabled, along with a new gigabit uplink to the Server Room. The cab in learning support will also be feeding the ACCESS unit when it is complete. The computers that are currently in Art will be moved into Learning support when the new ones arrive and will be a huge improvement on the current facilities.

Misc

We now have a huge stack of old IT equipment, some of which will be available to students via the equipment giveaway. The majority is stored in our container awaiting recycling by PCB-Plus

Demon & BT have finally got their act together and fixed our ADSL line. Leaving us without service for 20 days must be some kind of record.

Anyway, that means that incoming and outgoing email is now working again. Unfortunately, as the fault went on for so long, most incoming email since the 23rd August will have been bounced. Outgoing email that hasn't been bounced back to you will still be sent.