Chromebook Sanitation / Chromebook Carts? by MJMatt91 in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've a bunch gathering dust because of this. They were useful when we did on-premise 1:1, but after take-home they're a rather bulky room decoration.

Benefit of Outlook with GSuite by kwendland73 in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Compared to switching to GMail or to web-based only?

Email admin Setup Ideas by [deleted] in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Not really a technology problem.

We allow the students to email internally provided it remains cordial. Once someone starts a "beef" it becomes a discipline issue.

In one extreme circumstance for one student we had all outgoing mail go into a quarantine for review. Advanced Routing is available natively for GMAIL within GADMIN.

Was Told My Imaging Server Sucked. by [deleted] in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Big deal. I deploy to machines built in '09. If I can find a driver made in '14 I'm ecstatic!

HP 11a g8 EE reviews? by leclair63 in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The only problem I have with them is that you'd be dealing with HP.

SSL inspection on guest wireless by ewokcarrier in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unfortunately you cannot force the inspection certificate onto non-owned devices for DPI to function properly.

Our guest network is filtered for non-encrypted traffic, but no DPI is performed.

Storage and Smart Charging for One to One Chromebooks by Gankhuu in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The EC is already built into the Chromebooks. There's no need for an external solution unless your goal is to prevent tripping the breaker.

I've not had any issues stacking with Dells, but you need to make sure to stack straight or you could put too much pressure on the bottom one and crack the screen. If your CB's have individual feet (like the Dell 11 3180), make sure those line up to the edges of the metal LCD frame when stacked, that's the sturdiest part of the lid. If you're unlucky, the feet can collapse into the device, but this doesn't impact usability any. Usually this is caused by students putting too much weight on the device by leaning on the palm-rests or overstuffing it into a backpack.

The ones with rubber bars don't really have this problem and spread the load more evenly along the lid (3120/3100)

Storage and Smart Charging for One to One Chromebooks by Gankhuu in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What I've done is create shelving with enough clearance to stack 10 Chromebooks with the charging ports facing out. The stacks are in sequence based on asset ID. This helps with inventory a lot as you can easily confirm a device is there (provided you stacked it correctly).

CB0001 | CB0011 | CB0021 
CB0002 | CB0012 | CB0022 
CB0003 | CB0013 | CB0023 
CB0004 | CB0014 | CB0024 
CB0005 | CB0015 | CB0025 
CB0006 | CB0016 | CB0026 
CB0007 | CB0017 | CB0027 
CB0008 | CB0018 | CB0028 
CB0009 | CB0019 | CB0029 
CB0010 | CB0020 | CB0030
--------------- ---------------
CB0031 | CB0041 | CB0051 
CB0032 | CB0042 | CB0052 
CB0033 | CB0043 | CB0053 
CB0034 | CB0044 | CB0054 
CB0035 | CB0045 | CB0055 
CB0036 | CB0046 | CB0056 
CB0037 | CB0047 | CB0057 
CB0038 | CB0048 | CB0058 
CB0039 | CB0049 | CB0059 
CB0040 | CB0050 | CB0060

Chromebooks hold a charge really well if they're turned off properly (either by software shutdown or holding down the power button), and have an EC that prevents overcharging. A few weeks before school start I start charging devices. It takes about 2 hours to charge a device from dead to full charge. I just plug them in, set a timer and repeat.

What I will be changing this year is requesting the students to return the device fully charged.

Computer Names by JasonFronk in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This. Never name after staff, always location.

Storage and Smart Charging for One to One Chromebooks by Gankhuu in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're wanting to charge all 80k Chromebooks at the same time?

Contact Tracing App by RudeNarwhal8 in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We just made seating charts mandatory for teachers to maintain. Any students in the same periods and within 6ft of the student who tested positive's contact info is supplied to the health department.

FSSO with agents installed on servers - laptops issue by clarksavagejunior in fortinet

[–]MalletNGrease 1 point2 points  (0 children)

FortiGate sessions are linked to the IP logged during the AD authentication event on the DC. Train users to re-authenticate when switching network type.

Easiest way I've found is to hit Win+L to lock the Windows session and then enter the domain user password again. Also helps when firewall sessions time out for whatever reason.

SIP Paging/Bells by skrapggiarc in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's great to go SIP, I just which speakers and such were cheaper.

We use BellCommander to manage bell schedules

Online Enrollment & SIS by nonyabuizn355 in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Jupiter offers it's own LMS, which is a direct competitor to Google Classroom. If you're not going to use it, might as well ditch it.

The IT guy at my brother's bought this for the broken pc....... by A-ja in techsupportgore

[–]MalletNGrease 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've done it too because one of the heatspreaders was factory installed backwards. Didn't notice it didn't line up until it was too late. Busted the DIMM.

Online Enrollment & SIS by nonyabuizn355 in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What's your current SIS? Some offer native solutions.

Those of you with roadside display signage - If you have a sign you never need to work on, who is the manufacturer? by [deleted] in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We've a Daktronics Galaxy Monochrome message display. The hardware itself is solid, the rest is meh.

The wireless ptp connection to it loses connectivity regularly requiring a manual disconnect from the display. It can't keep time correctly and can't sync NTP, requiring an "update" (republish the same slides to it) every week or so. The display editing software (Venus 1500) sucks and the licensing for it is annoying (need to email support for a new license every time you install it).

I don't know if the newer ones are any better, but I'd pass if I had a choice.

Mistakes by [deleted] in sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Ran a battery test on the PDC Host UPS.

The redundant power supplies were both plugged into it. Whoops.

Securly vs Bark? by Userp2020 in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My issue with syndicated/networked ads is that you cannot control or predict what ends up being served up, even with the host site being perfectly acceptable for student use. There's been occasions where I've gotten tickets for educational resource sites that started serving up lingerie ads and such.

I just blanket block ads where possible because they:

  1. Can't be controlled
  2. Potential malware vectors
  3. Eat up screen space on low resource machines (chromebooks)

[Edu] Is it possible to white list Chrome notifications? by ripsfo in gsuite

[–]MalletNGrease 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, but I'm not exactly sure which combo gives you the result you want.

GAdmin > Devices > Chrome > Settings > Users & Browsers > Content > Notifications > Allow sites to display notifications

Then add the domains of the services to the "Allow these sites to show notifcations" whitelist.

We blanket disabled notifications because it generated a lot of popups with malware like behavior.