Advice for the K12 Tech Guy? 96
small fish asks: "I am a newly dubbed 'Technology Coordinator' for a K-12 school district. Things here technology-wise are not well. People here are ignorant technology-wise--which is fine, as being tech-savvy is my job. However, they do not seem to trust my judgment on anything except changing printer cartridges. I'm being measured against a former teacher who filled the role for a while and was VERY comfortable with using Microsoft products. Are there any other Slashdot readers out there in similar straits? If so, what advice do you have for me?"
"For starters, there is no firewall, all IPs are exposed to the public, they are relying on Windows NT 4 boxes to sustain operations, and they seem to love their Exchange for doing email and address books, although I have only one user who migrates between two different computers. The Exchange server died due to a spam overload and will not restart, so I set up a BSD box for handling mail and DNS. To make things worse, there is no real disaster recovery here and virtually no backup power. As I type my carpets are still wet from last night's rains that poured through the machine room wall - and this happens every time it downpours I'm told.
My coworkers do not want anything to do with Macintosh computers, they have never heard of Firefox, and Unix was a strange foreign word I had to explain to some before I gave up entirely. What tips do you have for surviving (even thriving) in this type of environment?"
Re:just one word (Score:2)
Re:just one word (Score:1)
Re:just one word (Score:2)
Re:just one word (Score:2)
Re:just one word (Score:2)
Not to mention if he leaves the next guy will undoubtedly know MS. He may not
Don't Punish the Students (Score:5, Insightful)
Kids are gonna push their technical limits, but don't be a nazi. They'll learn with time.
And get rid of the NT 4 boxes. Well, that's what I'd do, anyway.
- dshaw
Re:Don't Punish the Students (Score:1)
Just let it go... (Score:2)
When it fucks-up, ask your "windows happy" to help you fix it. After 10 minutes, say "fuck it, let's go Linux" and plug-in the Linux backup.
Laugh.
Huh? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Just let it go... (Score:1)
Re:Just let it go... (Score:2)
Run (Score:4, Insightful)
The last guy was a friend of the staff and just filled in. No real policy or leadership there (my guess) before. Now a new guy has come in and wants to change things. You're not going to be liked initially.
As another poster suggested, Macs are great. I'd try to force a change to them, but good luck. If you stay, you will be servicing old Windows boxes forever, and trying to get Linux to cover everything the old NT boxes did without anyone noticing (because they'll complain you changed something "for no reason").
Run.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Run (Score:5, Insightful)
That's just plain sad. Teachers are supposed to impart knowledge to the next generation, and they can't care enough to learn how to use the tools of the trade.
Re:Run (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Run (Score:2)
Communications with students and parents - what's easier than exchanging an e-mail with a teacher for a quick question?
Re:Run (Score:1)
Re: Emailing students (Score:1)
Re:Run (Score:1)
I didn't know computers were the tools of the trade for teachers. I could've sworn it was textbooks, lesson plans and a chalkboard/whiteboard. So what if a teacher *only* knows how to turn the bloody thing on and off, check their email and open Word. Do you know anything about your car besides hopping in, turning it on and that the round thing in
I used to work for a K-12 (Score:2)
Mod parent up! (Score:3, Insightful)
The facts are:
#1. Any changes you make will be "wrong" compared to what the last guy did.
#2. Unless something is done about the water, your systems will eventually fail (and you will be blamed because the last guy never had that problem).
#3. You'll be spending a lot of time and effort on making friends just to accomplish your technical goals.
#4. No matter how great you are, there will always be someone
Don't make these decisions (Score:2)
First, write a letter to your boss.
List everything horrible going on clearly describe how your organization is standing in a minefield of security concerns and how the vulnerabilities present in IE, Windows, patching, firewalls etc. Point out how this will cause sudden unwarranted emergency problems. You can predict these problems, but you can't predict WHEN they will happen.
It is
give up or push it through (Score:3, Insightful)
(If Linux) When faced with budgeting concerns, show them how much you'll save by using, say, Debian w/firefox, openoffice.org, etc. Even better, use the NX client/Server and terminal serve everyone with Knoppix CD's.
Seriously (Score:1)
It's education. So you'll get paid like crap, and nothing will ever change.
Run.
Dupe? (Score:5, Interesting)
Also, remember to think age-appropriate- nothing beats old TI-99 4/As (20 years old!) with speech synthesizers for kindergarteners- they're easy to maintain because the OS is in Rom, and the kid does not need to know how to read to learn how to type.
In other words, think outside the box- and don't limit yourself to one platform or operating system. Apples, IBMs, old 8-bit computers that might have been sitting in the closet for 20 years, all are usefull for kids.
OTOH, when it comes to the teachers- internet connected systems that are all alike but have Firefox, a standard IM program, and a floppy or R/W CD based e-mail program are the way to go. And don't forget Open Office for teachers- spreadsheets and word processors are the most usefull programs for their line of work.
Re:Advice (Score:2, Insightful)
What you need to do is to tactfuly suggest some small changes, to build up their confidence in your skills. Don't go at it like a bull in a china shop, trying to change everyting at once. This will get you nowhere fast. Go for the
Don't Spread Yourself Too Thin (Score:2)
I homeschooled part of highschool and therefore had the time to get way in over my head in a part-time technical position. I learned tonnes while working for peanuts.
See if y
Visual Display (Score:3, Insightful)
Try to show them visually. People can get confused if they are simply told about something. Also, maybe prepare a persentation and show why the new ways are better than the old, especially showing the benefits.
In fact, one of my teachers had no clue about Firefox. Trying to explain the extensions system among other things didn't seem to help. After showing him visually, he immediately looked into it.
Re:Visual Display (Score:1)
Win the crowd first (Score:5, Insightful)
In the end, you'll be just as highly considered as your predecessor was, and more-so with the money you save the district.
Sage (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Sage (Score:3, Insightful)
Once he's got that, then he can change things willy-nilly :)
There is only one solution (Score:2)
Look at whats working elsewhere ... (Score:1)
Make a plan... (Score:4, Insightful)
Get them a box with the best stuff you've got. You know, responsive, boots quickly and has the goodies they're interested in (Email, Internet and wordprocessing, spreadsheet etc.) but use your selections for the goodies, even cheat by ripping off icons, look-alike skins for the desktop and apps-- even each icon's position on the desktop is important.
Bend over backwards to keep the teacher you select happy with their new box. Even if it means undeleting a file from the hard drive that they fat-fingered or rearranging the desktop icons.
Once this teacher's satisfaction increases, word will get around and teachers will be approaching you to "fix" their computer just like you did for Teacher A.
best advice yet (Score:1)
And it's certainly better than what I was thinking, which had a 12 guage and a case of beer in the solution....
Re:best advice yet (Score:1)
while i've never tried shooting clay pigeons drunk, it certainly sounds like a thoroughly enjoyable way to relieve stress
Start Slowly. (Score:5, Insightful)
Exchange is very popular with users. What are you wanting to replace it with? Postfix? Good luck. You will quickly find out that only 5% of the users use the shared calendars, and that those 5% make up 95% of the complaining when you take them away...
the key thing is that as you upgrade equipment, add neat new features and reliabilty, they will start to respect you, and feel that you understand what you are doing. I know it sounds silly, but teachers hate to have to learn outside of their area. I have never figured this out, but a teacher gets very, very stuck in their ways. They have something that "works" and will almost never, ever change. So you need to move slowly at first, and make damn sure that they have only positive experiences. Make sure to point out the benefits, and most importantly, the time savings.
Oh, and congratulations.. this is one of those jobs that takes a lot of patience, but becomes very, very rewarding after time.
just do it (Score:2, Insightful)
Build a firewall, Smoothwall is a great solution and it's free and you can use some old boxes.... if you migrate will they know?
Continue to improve the spam filtering for the mail, DO the filtering your own way inbetween the internet and the exchange server.
Find ways to build an foundation below everything they have so it remains ultimatly protected.
Assess the damage of the
Do anti-stupid precautions (Score:3, Interesting)
The tech's there, made a magic-marking system so that the creation of comments and maintaining of a permanent record. Sounds like a good idea, it is. Implementation of technology in moderation can increase productivity, but only with certian precautions.
Anyways, tis marking system was in its first year of operation, the teachers grudgingly entered in their marks (It was a webapp, in the sense that things can be done simpeler and from anywhere). On the second day of the designated marking-weekend for the teachers the system died and they had to revert to a 12 hour backup. If you go by something like this, be sure to backup. Any information that it is entered over a rapid period of time needs to be backed up at least every hour.
UPS-Wise, K-12 systems aren't that mission critical. If you can configure the bios and everything on the systems to boot up silently without any human intervention. Make it so that once the power gets back on, everything gets back up.
Warming teachers up for technology is very hard. It is easier to talk to the tech-teacher, and get him/her to migrate first if he already hasn't. To warm them up to firefox start talking about how annoying popups and ads are, then explain to him that firefox with adblock can stop them. No use catching them on the compliancy/usability, catch them on the annoyances.
The most important thing I see is to avoid CMS's integrated accross the system. My school started using FirstClass which which is marketed towards the K-12. Teachers will probably love this. In the end, students and teachers will end up hating it. (A freind of mine's in HS and his tech only knows two words; FirstClass and IBM). He dosen't get much email from his teachers or any contact because he can't have any email forwarded.
If you want to use something like this for assignment tracking/calendars, use a system that can integrate it with email. And offer the teachers the posibility of forwarding email to their home address.
If you can come up with enough old boxen suitable for linux, you can do what a freind of mine in the K-12 tech position did. He started some labs which cluster together for use with Firefox/OpenOffice. This only works for the kids, but it still makes a low cost environment.
Again, if you find that some kid gets into your system. Don't get all high and mighty on him, let him audit your network and school and *work for you*. It makes it better for the student as he dosen't get into trouble and still is nutrured for technology.
Re:Do anti-stupid precautions (Score:2)
It also makes it better for you, as now you have someone who can run around and setup teacher's PC's for you, or help setup a lab, etc. Get a bright enough one, and they can setup the firewall, servers, and basically everything you can do (sorry, it's true).
So, now you have someone to help lighten the workload, and you will likely have earned the trust of a lot of your co-workers along the way.
Re:Do anti-stupid precautions (Score:2, Informative)
Uh, NO. If you've put any serious thought into what your servers are acutally holding (financial records, tax information, student data, budgets, insurance information) you dont want to risk corrupting your file systems when some dumbass construction worker up the street k
Quit (Score:2)
What tips do you have for surviving (even thriving) in this type of environment?"
Quit - if the machine room leaks and they won't even fix that then you're never going to be able to get them to move to better computing solutions...
trust (Score:1)
Run awaaaaaaay!!! (Score:2)
Sorry, no useful advice to offer.
Fix the hole in the wall first... (Score:3, Insightful)
It sounds like there are lots of problems, and you aren't going to be able to fix them all at once. Try and point out, in as professional a way as possible, what the risks are. What exactly would be lost if machine X, for which there is no backup, failed?
From a functional standpoint in a teaching environment, there may well be very valid reasons to keep using Microsoft products. Like it or not, that's what people will probably end up using in the outside world, assuming that their job is a little more fulfilling then "do you want fries with that?
There are also very valid reasons for NOT using Microsoft servers as infrastructure (cost of sale being an obvious one) but you aren't going to be able to get close to influencing any decisions if you're just seen as some sort of zealot.
So be helpful, be "a team player" and try and change the world a bit at a time, not all at once.
Oh, and the very best of luck. With water coming through the wall it sounds like you might need it.
As someone who has been there... (Score:3, Insightful)
Explain your situation in as no-nonsense of a way possible: Your predecessor clearly got by in your role on a huntch and some stupid luck, and that luck happened to run out on your watch because of the lousy infrastructure he built. NT wasn't built to take the abuse a school will put it through: My school district learned that the brutal way around the time I took over at my school.
If your paid, you have a lot more time to work on this than I did: Imagine being the only guy doing that job, training your replacement, and still maintaining a full high school course load and getting decent grades, without pay. My life, 1998-2000...
I've been there (Score:4, Informative)
First of all, your budget is going to be limited, while you might be able to get E-rate money to pay for a lot of network gear, and possibly some servers, you can't use erate for staff. You need to standardize so you get work done centrally. This allows you to hire 1 or 2 smart network admins, vs a horde of drones. Hardware, software, processes, etc... all need to be standardized. Get a good handle on what software you own and where it's installed. Put some policies in place to keep teachers from pirating software; which they will do in massive amounts. Make a business case to the administration that you need to have tight control on software and hardware. You can have every l33t tech teacher running around being their own little network admin for their cluster of 30 PCs only for so long, this will fail really, really badly. This isn't just about control, it's about establising a consistent learning environment for students who will switch between classrooms and schools; as well as teachers, some of whom will have little or no technology experience and will be befuddled by 2000 computers that all act a bit different.
If you don't have a centralized imaging system, get one. Altiris is nice, Ghost is nice. CA makes a very nice (but pricy) product that will do scripted Windows installs as well as packaged or scripted app installs. Their best feature is that it will keep track of all your app installs and where they're supposed to be, reinstalling them automatically when you reimage PCs; basically handling all your license tracking for you.
Do you have network monitoring for when an errant broom handle takes out the power to a wiring closet? HP Insight manager will monitor your stuff and is reasonably easy to setup (also free). Obviously there are tons of other options, but you'll probably never find the time to devote a week to setting something (anything, anyplace) up.
Chances are you'll have people from 4 corners writing and being awarded grants that use technology. Get in on the ground floor with these folks, make sure they understand that computers need desks, network ports, AV licensing, etc... Establish an approved hardware list, and make sure people only buy stuff on the list. This reduces the number of types of printer carts you need to stock and PC images to build. Figure out a per PC cost for network support, make sure they build it into their grant.
Realize that the point of the network is to teach, not to push an idealology. Most business use windows, you'll probably be using it too.
Again, centralize. Use login scripts, group policies (time to upgrade from NT to 2003), network based apps, etc... If you don't have some remote control software, at least on all the teacher and admin machines, get some - VNC is great.
Avoid peer-to-peer apps like the plague. One of my customers has a very nice (from a teaching standpoint) app called CCC. From a technology standpoint, it's a total nightmere. It even has a hardcoded backdoor password. To function at all, everyone has to have full control over all the files; guess how often a student nukes the database... Firefox is good, but chances are, you'll run into at least one app that only works in IE. Do you want to support 2 different browsers? A lot of educational software is poorly written. Your users won't be logging in as local admins, which will break a lot of apps. Make sure you test any apps before you buy them. Again, this goes to making the policies, users shouldn't be buying software until you look over it.
Make sure the department heads are with you and can enforce rules with their staff. You don't want each librarian at each school buying different card catalog software.
Obviously you h
Re:I've been there (Score:2)
I think heterogenious might be the way to go, if you have the resources for it. A student who moves from a Mac to a Windows box to a Linux terminal to a BSD shell to an old Apple IIe and a DOS box....
You'd think it would be confusing, but remember, they're children -- they'll adjust. Better than that, they'll be teaching you things before long.
And, better than that, you won't be pushing an "ideology", you'll be pushing real technical know-how, whi
Re:I've been there (Score:2)
My experience is that you'll see 1 classroom in the high school devoted towards the instructional side of this sort of thing. Which will probably be the base software set all the normal machines get, plus some specific apps for the class. They'll have another pile of machines, or routers, or whatever for the lab po
Lickable Appeal (Score:2)
There will be three very important things to demo: speed, functionality, and looks.
Speed - install few programs. Only what is necessary.
Functionality - Make sure you survey the current uses of the computers and chose a set of applications which cover these uses.
Looks - As much as it might chafe you, general users seem to judge the operating system and ap
Re:Lickable Appeal (Score:2)
While it can be done, the way of doing it (bootsplash) is a kludge, and on top of that, technophiles like to know what's going on when their system is booting up. And as confusing and meaningless as it might seem, users like it too -- they know it's actually doing something, and when (if) it stops, they have a specific message to bitch to you about, meaning you can actually help them.
Besides, it makes it feel like the system
Re:Lickable Appeal (Score:2)
Nail down a job description (Score:2)
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If it is broke, point out exactly how its broke and what will happen if
Make things work, low hanging fruit, small changes (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't even think about trying to switch people to Macs or introduce folks to firefox. If you have any success at all, you'll only be increasing the entropy in the environment making it even harder to manage. If you don't have success, you'll probably just end up with a bunch of suspicious users.
If the office is comfortable with Microsoft products and the old IT guy was comfortable with Microsoft products then you better get comfortable with Microsoft products asap. I'm not just talking about IIS/Exchange/Active Directory/SQL Server, but Outlook, Access, Word, Excel and Windows... the kinds of programs people use every day. It's a lot easier to change yourself than it is to change everyone and everything else.
That said, use what you know when you can.
- Project 1: Create a reliable backup strategy for any systems that are not going to be completely rehauled in the next month. If you have funds, consider buying something like a buffalo terastation or scraping together a single system with massive storage and raid5.
- Project 2: Add a nix based firewall or whatever you are comfortable with. If for whatever reason you can't do this, turn the firewalls on in the clients (assuming xp).
- Project 3: Fix Email. If people use exchange features, use exchange but protect it from spam by running a nix based host with spam filters in front of it.
Focus on one thing at a time. Once you get these three things done, then start looking at the little things you can do to improve things. Do you have servers to monitor? Install nagios. Are there any trouble systems? Take care of them. Do you have problems pushing patches and auditing machines, solve it with SUS or other tools.Once all of the critical systems are under control, start looking for low hanging fruit, not for yourself, but for your clients. Is the grade reporting system a piece of crap that everyone hates? Find something better. Is there a teacher somewhere teaching intro programming using notepad as an editor, set them up with something better and free whether it's sharp develop or jedit or whatever. Change things to improve people's lives, things that no one is going to fight to prevent you from changing.
Once you have built a track record of success, once people trust your judgement, then you can start exploring whatever preference based changes you think are best. When you suggest using XYZ, they will listen. Do you think your office should make a strategic commitment to Macs? Propose a pilot program using a single computer lab or a group of willing participants. Do you think people will benefit from using firefox? Pitch it to people and let viral marketting due its work. Maybe the foreign language teachers will be impressed by the translation extensions. Maybe the english teachers will fall in love with a form spell check extension.
Lastly, learn to work within your constraints. Eg... Do you really need backup power or will a couple of UPS's do?
Tear Down the Firewall (Score:2)
Therefore, I'd strongly recommend you Tear Down the F [slashdot.org]
Advice from a K12 Tech Coordinator (Score:3, Interesting)
The fastest way to gain the respect of others is to start writing grants. Once you are bringing in new equipment and monies from grants, people will start to trust you.
No matter how stable and secure the network and computers are, staff will still believe they are unstable. It's just something you have to shrug off.
Advice from a K-8 Tech Coordinator (Score:2, Informative)
2: The one thing keeping us on exchange (OK, two things) is calendaring (and its cousin, scheduling meetings). We have an exchange calendar for everything. I know th
Re:Advice from a K12 Tech Coordinator (Score:1)
As for liability, we monitor the k-7 but not 8-12. We DO NOT MONITOR STAFF. I will tell
Get some allies (Score:2)
Trust and Perception (Score:4, Insightful)
If you march in and tell them everything they know is wrong, of course they're not going to trust you. Trust is something you earn. And you don't earn it by belittling the knowledge and skills of the people you're working with.
Which is not to say that you shouldn't try to re-educate them. You're quite right to want to move away from Microsoft products. But you have to do it without screwing up their lives. That's a gradual process they they have to be active participants in.
Re:Trust and Perception (Score:1)
As an end user support type I have first hand knowlwdge just how 'ignorant' my users are and it might supprise you just how bad it is. A Director of HR with a Masters degree is either playing dumb or really is dumb when she asks for my help in several small tasks that should be no problem for even the moderately
From the trenches: (Score:2, Informative)
You are adept at unix/linux/bsd.
You are capable of writing scripts.
Forget expensive machines, you'll never get them.
If I were you:
Let the users run windows, it's good enough for the desktop, and you already have licenses for it (came with the machines, no?)
On the servers:
A firewall, pix ($350 on ebay)
A spam filter (repurposed pc)
An email server. Looks like you have that covered.
Try to get 1 windows 2003 server for active directory, stick t
More information please! (Score:2)
How large is the school? How big are your labs? What's your bandwidth to the internet? What is your tech budget?
My background: Programmer and IT manager during the '80s, HS teacher and technology coordinator during the '90s, graduate work in ed tech from '99 to '02, and since then back to just being a teacher. (The job opene
OT (Re:More information please!) (Score:2)
Students (Score:2)
This works. I was the student.
IANAST (Score:1)
Recently she's been bringing home assertions from the chief techie techer which are manifestly wrong: "We've got to teach microsoft products because that's what kids are exposed to in the work force"(it's very easy to demolish that one). "Viruses exist on other platforms but they're most common on windows because it's the most popular" (and Windows security systems have been designed by the marketing department) etc. etc.
It's difficult to change these entrench
Another vote for Deep Freeze, and Betwin (Score:2)
To stretch both dollars and the limited classroom electric power, you could set up systems using BeTwin from thinsoftinc.com.
You can have e up to 5 monitors connected to a single system, each appearing as an individual computer.
I did this in a small NYC high school, outfiting 9 classrooms this way saved about $13K (4 "comp
Jeebus! (Score:2, Insightful)
Jeebus! Tell them to fix that immediately, and if they say no, ask the local fire marshall to take a look at it. That would probably motivate them to fix it.
In general, I'd say you're in for a class-A headache. As I learned in high school, most teachers know jack shit about technology. Even basic terminology is a problem. (I heard all about this from my AP
Who writes your reviews? (Score:2, Insightful)
What you do need to do is to prepare a list of issues, graded in order of system and network critical prioriy. Make up your own rating system 1 to 10 or A to F, and assign each item a rating, timeframe and resources required. This doesn't mean a quote for new equipment. For example, Linux or BSD firewall, internal, DMZ and external segments. Reconfigure IP addressing. Priority 2, need to repurpose a
Survival Guide (Score:1)
Repetition, licenses, risks (Score:5, Informative)
Every week I send out a list of new security holes, and the impact. If it's an IE 0wn-u bug, I warn them not to open IE until the patch comes out. Every week, even if there are no new bugs, I warn them not to use IE, because there are still unpatched vulnerabilities.
I point out other businesses in our industry which have made the 5 o'clock news because they were hacked. And remind them not to open attachments or use IE, everytime. Or we could be next.
After a few months, everybody is using Firefox all the time, and they don't think anything of it. They do not open email attachments, they install patches when I ask them (I check).
---
Go to each computer and clean each one for viruses, spyware, bad cookies. Log the results. Post the results, but don't use names. You are not trying to embarrass anyone, just trying to show them how their systems have been obeying some other masters. Tear down their SEP fields. Discredit the "don't ask, don't tell" security policy. ("If I don't know my system is hacked, then it doesn't affect me.")
Put in a firewall. Log everything. Open up every legitimate outgoing port, for AIM, Folding@Home, whatever. Show them the attacks.
Show them logs from trojans phoning home. Chances are nobody is running a legitimate chat server, or is doing ftp or heavy traffic late at night.
Get them to *pay* for their software. (This may be the hardest.) As long as they are stealing software, Windows is an obvious, though short-sighted win. But when you point out the increase in piracy lawsuits, and get them to use only legal software, $3000 for Exchange (Exchange/CALS/OS) seems pretty pricy.
Switch out a couple systems (from volunteers) for Macs. They can coexist. I use my Powerbook 50% of the time at work.
Insist on installing OpenOffice on all systems, but that either MS or OO can be used. Insist that all Microsoft Office software be paid for. Ask them for reports or forms in PDF format, then act astounded that MS Office can't handle such a simple task. Insist that all software be paid for. Include 0wned bugs for Office in your weekly report. Mention at the cooler that the only viruses that exist on the Mac are Microsoft Office viruses. Point out new vulnerabilities found in Office apps, and what they allow into their systems.
Insist that all software be legit. Not pirated. After all, it's a lawsuit-happy world out there, and Microsoft is getting more willing to go after those pirates.
Expect the whole process to take a full year.
* Hammer home the security risks. Don't let them hide behind their lack of knowledge.
* Firewall-- first thing. Close off everything they don't use. Then tighten the worst holes.
* Firefox-- second thing. Your spyware scans should back you up. Mandatory install on every system, and lock down the settings in IE (using group policies on xp/2k workstations) every time you touch someone's system.
* Use the MSBA to scan all the systems weekly. It fairly automatic, but you get to see who's refusing to keep up with patches.
* Mandatory OpenOffice install, but optional to use. Request PDFs for the school website and forms.
* Hammer home the piracy idea. Lawsuits. Lawsuits. Lawsuits. Bad publicity. They are sending a message of lawlessness to the students.
Syngress Windows to Linux Migration Toolkit (Score:1)
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnIn quiry.asp?userid=QR3ELP4CM8&isbn=1931836396&itm=1 [barnesandnoble.com]
Migrate in stages. Put in a firewall! Do the things you think you should do. It's going to take time but maybe you can get some help from students.
Responsibility (Score:2)
I.e.: If they insist on not fixing the water leakages, make them sign a paper saying they take full responsibility for any problems arrising from the water leakages.
If they don't want to have firewalls, make them sign a paper saying the take full responsibility for any problems which a firewall would have blocked.
If they're making the choices, make sure they're taking responsibility as well.
It may sound a
Spyware (Score:2, Informative)
Get some kind of imaging software like Symantec Ghost, try to keep your software installations as identical as possible.
Give each user a share on the server and make them save their documents there instead of on their hard drive (you can redirect My Documents to a share with Group Policies). Makes recovery much easier whe
My experience (Score:3, Informative)
1. Log everything.
2. Review your logs.
Logs are what allowed me to discover a student logging in to a restricted teacher area, a number of weird log entries (logins at 4AM) which lead me to a number of compromized machines, etc.
3. Imaging software is your friend. Ghost, Acronis, even dd if you have to. Machines will be compromized, messed up, or even residual files will be left over summer. I went as far as building the image to automatically ask for the machine name and I could reimage a lab of 30 workstations in under 30 minutes.
4. Disable downloads.
This is the only thing that kept me on IE - you can choose to disable downloads. We had to tweak it a bit by adding a number of sites to one of the zones (to allow downloads from intranet, etc) but it really cut down the support calls.
5. Ticketing system. This may or may not work (it didn't for me as problems were always phone calls or walk ins), but if you need to justify additional spending/resources, it's great to be able to say "I handle X calls a month. Give me $Y and I can reduce calls from X to Z". If you do a lot of site visits, write down what you do.
6. Each student signs an AUP. No AUP, no account. Most students won't be a problem, but a few will decide to "test" your network security and you need to be able to keep them off the computers.
7. Watch how your resources are used. Every friday I'd run a scan for files in home directories over 1MB. This caught most of the MP3's, games, etc while filtering out the word documents. My AUP (also posted in each lab) stated academic use only, so anyone with MP3's had to explain themselves.
8. Get the staff on your side. You can't be everywhere and they're the ones who will be in the labs - picking weak passwords, allowing locked-out students to "borrow" another account, etc. Administration will be dealing with problem students and they need to know why things are a problem. They're not techs.
At the end of the day, you're a support service. You exist to support staff and students. There might be better ways, but non-techs need to use it. Don't bore people with details (they don't need to know that you've migrated from NT4 domains to a samba server. It's just an upgrade) - but, samba needs to work if you do this. Gradual transitions - don't take word away and replace it with OpenOffice. Install both for the year.
what is really wrong (Score:1, Insightful)
Secure it (Score:2)
Heterogenous windoze (Score:1)
1. Make the system heterogenous
2. Buy site lisce
I am in the same boat... (Score:1)
My suggestion is find ways to show what you want to do works with what you have on-hand. If it takes a lot of money up-front, forget about it for now. You need to show RESULTS with what you have now. If you want to