January 16-20, 2012

Monday - CLOSED

Tuesday - AM - Office (Meetings), PM - Bradley

Wednesday - Office (Meetings)
Thursday - Office (TIE projects)

Friday - AM - Office (Conv w/ Debbie Coffman), PM - Moodle (Facilitator Training)

 

Tuesday - Meet with USAble, TIE Meeting, then Bradley in the afternoon

Wednesday - Work on TIE Projects, E-Rate, etc in AM then travel inservice at 3pm

Thursday - Work on TIE projects, then other projects as time allows

Friday - 9-12 Conversations with Debbie Coffman, then Facilitator Training (Moodle Course) and other projects in afternoon

Days go by

Tuesday - Traveled to Arch Ford Co-op for the monthly Specialists/Tech meetings and mini training sessions.  Bob Cochenour and I did a session on things you can do in Google Mail.  I had WAY too many things on the agenda, so we hit about half of those.  We may do another session down the road some time.

Wednesday - The techs had a work day to figure out our grant proposals and the state tech plan.  The meeting was held back at Arch Ford, but I attended over videoconference and Jana from Camden joined me here rather than drive all the way to Plumerville (2.5 hours+ drive each way).

Thursday - I've been working on my ISA server and looking at which servers can finally be put to rest.  So far, I shut down two.  I will move some resources from one of the servers and then either shut it down or consolidate resources from other servers onto it.  I have spent any time not working on my servers helping Bradley with theirs.  They have some weird email issue going on and I have been troubleshooting it remotely.  I was supposed to go there today, but with my server acting a little off, I needed to kill two birds from one pond - or something like that.

There appears to be some kind of email spamming/blacklist issue, but they do not actually appear on any public blacklists. It's a mystery.

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For those interested, here are the rough notes of the Google Mail session:

Google Mail Tips and Tricks
Priority Messaging - Mail Settings > Inbox > Inbox Type (Classic, Important, Priority, etc)

Importance Markers - Mail Settings > Inbox > Show/Hide markers

Chat (Hide the Chat box) - Mail Settings > Chat > Chat: On or Chat: Off

Conversation View - Mail Settings > General > Conversation View: On or Conversation View: Off

Labels - Organize your email, can apply multiple labels to same message

Filters - Apply labels and perform other actions based on content, sender, etc (creating rules)

Use Labels, Filters and Archiving to organize your mail:
Create a label (Ex: Director)
Create a filter (Ex: Label all mail from boss as "Director" - from the previous step)
Skip Inbox (Do not show this message in the Inbox, but apply the label to show in labels list)

Archiving is *NOT* deleting!  Archiving just 'hides' the message from your Inbox. Archived messages will still show up in searches and in labels.

Google Labs
Bob demonstrated/discussed several handy Google Labs items for mail:

• Auto-Advance (automatically move to next message)
• Background Send
• Default "Reply to All"
• Multiple Inboxes
• Preview Pane
• Right-side Chat
• Other Labs were covered as well, but time limitations kept me from keeping notes!

The following items were *NOT* covered in the session due to time, but were on the agenda:
Advanced mail searching:

Use quotation marks-  "meeting agenda" will return mail with those exact words in that exact order

Subject
- subject:Google Calendar *or* subject:"Google Calendar"
-- The first will retrieve subjects with "Google" or "Calendar"
-- the second will retrieve subjects that contain "Google Calendar" together

From (To: works the same way)
- From:<name> or From:<email@address.com> (Can also use quotes!)
-- From:David Henderson (All messages from any "David" or "Henderson"
-- From:"David Henderson" (All messages from David Henderson)

Find UNREAD messages- is:unread
-- Returns all email that has not been read yet!

Labels (Can use quotes!)
- label:<label name> <keyword(s)>
-- label:0_Lindy "pay raise"
-- label:"Disaster Recovery" approval

Filename
- filename:<filename.extension> *OR* filename:<extension>
-- filename:test.doc (all emails with test.doc attached)
-- filename:pdf (all emails with PDF attachments)

Attachments
- has:attachment (can be used with other search terms)
-- from:cooptc has:attachment

Use "AND," "OR," "-"- label:cooptc -has:attachment (all mail from COOPTC without attachments)
- from:"David Henderson" and filename:pdf (all pdfs from David Henderson)

Use "anywhere" to search ALL mail (including spam, trash, inbox, etc)- in:anywhere
-- in:anywhere from:phoebe (Searches all mail, labels, etc for mail from phoebe)

Specify special folders (inbox, trash, etc)- in:inbox
-- in:inbox subject:meeting (finds messages ONLY in the Inbox with "meeting" in subject)

Combine search areas and terms- label:e-rate OR from:becky.smith@somewhere.gov (All E-rate labeled messages plus all mail from becky)
- subject:e-rate from:becky.smith@somewhere.gov OR belinda.jones@somewhere.gov (Subject is E-rate AND the mail is either from Becky or Belinda)

Monthly Area Tech Meeting

We held our monthly area tech meeting today, covering the following topics:

• ArkansasIDEAS, specifically the new commoncore site: http://www.arkansasideas.org/commoncore/


• Arkansas iTunesU


• NetQos offering from the state dept


• Various iPad/iPod apps (listed below)


• Apple TV demonstration (wifi features and AirPlay demo while showing apps listed below)


• Tech plans, erate


• Dirty Santa gift exchange (4 participants, made for a quick game)

Apps demonstrated (and some I remembered after the meeting)

• Presidents vs Aliens - Learn about Presidents, knock out aliens. What's not to love?


• Moxie 2 - Use randomly offered letters to build on/change existing words.


• StoryCubes - Shake your iPad/iPod, roll the dice, and build a story!


• Word Ball - Touch letters to build words. Forget to use certain letters long enough and they disappear!


• 7 Little Words - Use clues to build words with letter tiles


• Chicktionary - Make words using, well, chickens and eggs


• SparkleFish - Use the microphone to record verbs, nouns, etc and create funny adventures


• ToonTastic - Create cartoons, while learning the keys to good storytelling!


• Find My Friends - Pretty much what it says.


• ABC News - Again, pretty much what it says


• FluentNews - A news aggregation app


• Google - Yes, there is an app for Google. Give it a whirl!


• iCard Sort - Create word decks, sort into categories and more. Take snapshot of a worksheet then make it interactive as an iCard sort!


• ACE Multiply - Learn about matricies and find ways to solve them


• Calc Made easy - Very handy and advanced calculator with note-taking capability!


• http://www.techchef4u.com/ - Recourse for all kinds of apps, reviews, etc


• http://www.iear.org - Reviews education apps

Enjoy!!

Updates for the week of December 9, 2011

Monday - Went to Blevins to install a new print server since DIS no longer provides those. The software that HP uses is VERY finicky and we eventually got into the JetDirect through Chrome or Firefox or something non-IE. In the meantime, the Epson 4000EX/FX/whatever has a problem in that the main power connector loses contact as the wide-carriage return jostles the printer all over the place. We think we got it stabilized, but I believe there is a serious manufacturing defect there.

Tuesday - Went to Arch Ford for mini sessions and state tech meeting. I will post those notes from my iPad this weekend.

Wednesday - Spent the day troubleshooting various issues and getting the ball rolling for Apple volume purchasing. What a nightmare THAT is, especially when you are the one person running it all - Apple doesn't like you to be the only one. Evidently, bureaucratic red tape is their comfort zone.

Thursday - Ran between CWT and CCSS for a while there. Helped folks get set up and going in each session then checked with CWT every once i a while since I was attending the common core institute. For the record, the CIV was awful as far as video quality. As for program content, the presenters are so well-versed in CCSS they forget the rest of us are still trying to figure out how to tread in the waters. It moved way too fast and was a bit scattered for some of the participants at our site. Phoebe put together a summary sheet that she mailed to the participants and we are building a 'clearinghouse' page to house the various and sundry sites.

Friday - I drove to Bradley to help with some technical issues. This included:

• Helping the tech re-establish printer connectivity with several machines. After I had done the first two, I showed her how to do it - teach her to fish, as it were.


• Helping the tech get her firewall rebooted according to an email from the tech support folks she deals with. It is Linux based, so some of the commands were a bit foreign to the tech. We got it going, though.


• Working with the tech and a vendor to purchase SQL Server Standard for a new program the district wants to implement. To say the least, that was the hardest part of the day, only because the vendor could not wrap his brain around what we wanted. Also, it appears the vendor never processed the PO for SQL Server. Yoy.


• Examining the distance learning lab. They have a touch panel that has gone out. I re-routed several cables and connections to get them up and going, but we will need a few more parts to completely disengage the touch panel and the control unit attached to it. As it is, though, the faciliatator can use almost every function.


• Attempting to install Smart Notebook on a computer but it needed XP SP3, so the tech was going to take care of that


• We also talked about 470's, P1, P2, and other E-Rate related items.

This week...

Monday - help install new print server at blevins. Then go to office to write up operations guides for conference areas.

Tuesday - arch ford for monthly state tech meeting.

Wednesday - office. Install additional a/v wiring in conference areas.

Thursday - classroom walkthrough

Friday - bradley

Week of 11-28-2011

Monday - In the office.  I answered voice mail and email from the previous week.  I ran out to the Hope early childhood program to troubleshoot a computer problem.  Turned out the maintenance folks had cleaned over the holiday break and knocked the power cord loose on a video distribution box.  I employed the help of the DL Coordinator and we updated printer drivers in the APSCN mini lab.  I worked with our bookkeeper to locate various items requested on the auditor inventory pull (three servers, an Opscan scanner, a projector, and a partridge in a pear tree.... Sorry, couldn't resist the holiday spirit there!  I have talked with no fewer than three vendors and I shared the USAC E-Rate Window announcement via Twitter and FaceBook.  I helped a staff member point her home page to the company's new website address.  As this post was created at 10:30am on Monday, there is still a full day of tech ahead.  This post may or may not be updated to reflect everything done today (hopefully, I will!!).

A few of our DTU-16D's have been acting a bit weird - namely, when an internal extension pages directly to certain phones, a loud buzzing sound could be heard in the background.  After swapping units, I narrowed the issue down to the base/handset itself.  Luckily, I have a couple left from the old building and took care of the main users with the issue.  I have a repair/exchange in place for the two phones, so that should be fixed when I get back into the office next week.

Tuesday - OUT

Wednesday-Friday - I will be at the AESA National Conference in Colorado.  I will be co-presenting with Harry Dickens in one session and helping to man the technology for Phoebe in another session.  I will also be attending various breakout sessions, including the 2011 Digital Jam hosted by Kevin Honeycutt.  I will be posting updates to twitter (@davidinark), FaceBook, and at least one of my personal blogs (http://www.poppedinmyhead.com).

Thursday

Had the November area tech meeting. We covered IDEAS, MyEvent updates, new wireless in Co-op main building, iPads and bulk purchasing apps, had a vendor discussion/presentation regarding maintenance and E-Rate. This was done over CIV with a direct connection to the vendor's system.

After the meeting, several techs stayed to work on disaster recovery and/or tech plans.

I adjusted the time and timer settings for our parking lot lights. i also installed a new access point in the "attic"

Friday's plan: upgrade the active directory on my 2003 servers in order to prepare for the move to the new 2008 server. Once that is done, I plan to fire up the new server and start moving data to the new box.

Recapping... 10/19-10/26 and 10/31-11/13

In addition to daily duties, these are the highlights of days gone by:

*Note: At various times during this period, I was out sick. I have emails confirming this, as well as emails detailing some tasks not specifically outlined here. i will happily share any of that information with personnel in authority as needed/requested.

10/19 - Participated in the Prescott Schools Technology Committee Meeting.

10/24 - Worked with Blevins to get printers working at the district. Turned out to be an issue with wireless access points handing out "bad" addresses on the network. Resolved all but one a/p issue, but that a/p could not actually be physically located. Resolved issue in software, rebooted workstations. Set up reservations in dhcp. Then traveled to Fouke to work on various Server 2008 issues, tech plan items, and other issues.

10/31 - out sick

11/02 - Went to Txk ECH to work on laptop. Ended up bringing laptop back for complete factory restore.

11/03 - Lewisville ECH and Bradley Schools - Went to Lewisville to troubleshoot computer problems. Resolved settings in Adobe in order to make SEAS work via web browser. Also installed/set-up SmartBoard. From there, went to Bradley in order to resolve connectivity issues. Like Blevins (above), we found wireless access points handing out "bad" ip addresses. Evidently, a power surge over the previous night had reset the access points to hand out ip addresses. in one case, we resolved an ongoing issue (thought it had been an infected machine, but turned out to be an access point handing out ips). We also looked at other server issues, worked on e-rate (specifically BEAR form info), and took care of local work orders.

11/04 - Returned the Txk ECH laptop to the classroom, reinstalled the printer and tested everything. Looks great.

11/08 - Talked with Paul Glen, CEO of LeadingGeeks regarding communication differences between "techies" and "non-techies" for a book he is writing with a partner. The interview/conversation lasted about an hour. I also evaluated Xirrus and AeroHive for enterprise wireless solutions in our main building. Evaluated a couple quotes for Crestron installation of a control panel system for our conference rooms.

11/09 - Met with Lindy and Phoebe regarding several tech issues and topics. Ultimately decided to table the Crestron/automation project and move forward with AeroHive.

11/10 - Monthly Board meeting. Presented "app of the month." Covered FlipBoard and "This Day in History."

11/11 - Met with Lindy, Phoebe and Trish regarding TIE schedules and meeting agendas. Installed CWT on iPad and iPod for workshop. Worked on Operations Guides for various presentation rooms at co-op. Ordered parts to help clean up the wiring in the main conference center.

9/29-9/30 2011

Thursday, Sept 29 - Spent part of the day off and on researching and ordering various replacement items and equipment. Spent the better part of the morning meeting with the Director and Assistant Director over various issues - parking light timer, surveillance video, personnel matters, etc.

Cleaned my office since I had been out much of the previous few days. While doing so, I answered emails, conducted support via phone and text. a LOT of emails regarding distance learning connectivity and quality issues.

Friday, Sept 30 - Honestly, I don't remember what I did. A review of emails dated from that day shows a LOT of troubleshooting various distance learning network issues with a couple of schools - Bradley in particular. This was done through DIS, the school, and other personnel related to the process (AT&T, UACCH, etc).

I updated the trainer for an upcoming ACOOP training (the training took place on Oct 5).

I also spent a bulk of Friday at Blevins working on a variety of network, server, and desktop issues.

9/14-9/16 2011

Wednesday - Met with the Board of Directors regarding CIPA, Internet Safety, RUS Grant CIV system installs, monthly tech meetings, Website requirements, Disaster recovery training.

After the meeting, I went to Blevins to help with various network related issues.  We also tried to hunt down a rogue wireless device, but by then school was out.  I believe the device is a 'hockey puck' portable wifi spot that someone brought and plugged in to the network.  We will try again another day.

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Thursday - Met with Jeff Madlock of Hope Schools regarding disaster recovery testing, policy, Apple Lion server and other tech-related issues.

Also met with representatives from Howard Technology regarding a touch panel control unit for our conference rooms.  They will put together a quote and get back to me.  In the meantime, I will call in 2 or 3 other vendors for quotes as well.

Had some issues in the computer lab, so I spent the bulk of the afternoon ironing those out.  For the most part, Parallels would not print.  Installed correct network printer drivers on the machines and took other measures to help keep the lab up and running.  Mostly, I disabled some software updates and changed a few settings to help make the virtual environment more stable and efficient (memory settings, full-screen options, etc)

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Friday - Spent the day in Fouke.  We installed Server 2008 on two servers, created a secondary Domain Controller, and did some troubleshooting in a lab.  We had to make a few changes to the DHCP settings, and they will need to make some more as well, as the pool has filled up.  It is amazing how many devices they have!  Talk about tech in schools!  We also took care of some other network issues (DNS, subnets, etc)

Catching up... again.

Monday, August 29 - OUT

Tuesday, August 30 - Attended the "Get Motivated" seminar at Verizon Arena

Wednesday, August 31 - OUT

Thursday, September 1 - Blevins schools, worked on several server issues, workstation issues, networking issues all day

Friday, September 2 -

Monday - September 5 - Office Closed for Labor Day

Tuesday, September 6 - State tech meeting at Arch Ford Co-op

Wednesday, September 7 - Office and then to Hope Schools to help with conversion from Exchange to Google Docs, discuss iPad implementation, then office in afternoon to troubleshoot local network issues.

Thursday, September 8 - Help set up for a workshop at co-op. At 1030am, vendor shows up to install/connect new 6 Meg IMA!  After brief delay, 6 Meg IMA up and running after lunch.  Reconfigured local network and performed other troubleshooting tasks at co-op.

Friday, September 9 - OUT, though came in to office for a bit in order to restore connectivity to APSCN printer following the reconfiguration from the previous day.

May 19, 2011

On Thursday, May 19, 2011, I met with the Director and Asst Director regarding the future of TIE (Technology Infused Education).  It looks like the program will continue one way or another, which is great news for teachers in Arkansas.

I had my area tech meeting starting at 10am, so before that, I installed Impero Client on a couple workstations in the lab for a demo.  Once the meeting started, I discussed the Arkansas Digital Sandbox, ArkansasIDEAS, and Arkansas iTunesU.  We had a demo from Xirrus Wireless (more a presentation, really).  We discussed summer workshops, summer tech workshops specifically.  We also went over the changes to the tech plan inventory requirements along with AUP templates/guides provided by the state education department.

After the meeting, I worked with Blevins on their transition to Google Apps for quite some time.

Near the end of the day, I went to the Asst Director's house to work on a data transfer issue between the iPad app called "AudioNote" and the computer.  Turned out to be a much easier process than I was trying to make it. Basically, AudioNote will let you copy the recorded files through iTunes' file-sharing feature.  This serves to back up the data so one can free up the space on the iPad.  The audio files play in Quicktime, and rumor has it they can also be converted using Audacity.  If that's true, I never hit the right combo of import settings to get the audio to play in Audacity.  The format, according to Quicktime, is IMA-4, 16 kHz, Mono.  Audacity has only one IMA setting and it would not let me pull the file in.  I tried a variety of other options and still the file came in as a screechy mess.  To me, it sounded like the scene in 'Strange Brew" where Bob and Doug play a floppy disk on their record player.  In any case, we found a workable solution.

Time Flies!

Whew! Keeping up with this everyday is harder than I imagined!  But, I will try to rebuild some of what has taken place outside of regular daily duties (ex: fixing computers, printers, etc).

During the past week, in addition to regular daily activites, I have done the following:

Installed camera control cable in conference room to rear camera.

Spent Tuesday still fighting internet connectivity issues.  With the help of DIS, we narrowed it down to a local issue (not sure what just yet) and on Tuesday, we jumped from 500k usage to 2.86Mb usage almost exactly at 8:45am.  Turns out, that is almost exactly when we turned all the Macs on in the computer lab.  At lunch, I disabled updates on both the Mac OS and in the Windows running on Parallels on the Macs.  Not sure what difference that has made yet.  Today (Friday), our connectivity seems to be stable between 2-3 Mb, even with a video conference going on.  That is good.  Now, I will fire up all the Macs next Tuesday and see what happens, since the problem is mainly on Tuesdays.

Wednesday, I worked at Blevins schools troubleshooting several issues - one of which was another scenario where someone had plugged a loose end into the same switch it had come out of.  Since this unit was up on a shelf, it would take a deliberate effort to pull that off.  We're starting to suspect a mystery plugger-inner! ;-)  Steve and I also walked through a few fiber runs and a new cat-5 run to be done, trying to determine where the wires went, where they originated, and how to patch things together for the relocation of the administration offices.  So far, we have at least two runs that don't seem to line up.  In my experience, this usually means there is an inbetween stop that we have not yet discovered.

Thursday - Met with other state techs in Conway at Video-Relaity for a demonstration of the SAFARI Montage program/appliance.  We also met with Beck Rains and Debbie Coffman.  The notes from that meeting (if I can remember) will be posted once they are officially adopted/approved.

Friday - ran fiber between floors for data, hoping to resolve connectivity issues.  That will be a metter of time before I know for sure.  Worked with Phoebe and Lindy on the outside light issue for our new building (the timer is, well, wonky).  We also discussed the alarm system and I used the surveillance camera software to review a situation from earlier.

I am hoping to run the wiring for computer/dl labs today (Friday)  and beef up security even more.  Frankly, I'm liking the security we have in place.  Very nice!

Catching up on the week

Monday - Frankly, I don't remember.  I know I installed a new printer in the Mini Lab and worked on cleaning the tech closet.  I talked several times on the phone with Sharon at Blevins.

Tuesday - Helped get a workshop under way, then spent the afternoon in Prescott working on their distance learning equipment.  The issue (noise) seemed to be isolated to one of their microphones.  Once I unplugged it, things cleared up.  Will explained to me that it was most likely a problem with the phantom power that drives that mic (especially since the problem started after a power surge/outage).  At least it seems to be working now!

Wednesday - The day started off with a call from a woman whose daughter was having trouble with the ArkansasIDEAS site.  After a bit of conversation and troubleshooting, I had told her that I thought the daughter could find the info in her profile, but I could not remember how to get there. I told her to call AETN.  I also sent an email to colleagues and they offered up some suggestions.  I asked the woman to call me back later in the day, but if she did, I missed the call.

The rest of the morning was spent with the area techs as we participated in a videoconference for E-Rate.  There are some welcomed changes to the 470 Form, making it streamlined for entry.  There are also changes to the 471 Form. There are other changes as well, all presented in a handout provided during the conference.

The afternoon had us checking out various apps for iPads:

• DisplayOut app after jailbreaking for display help
• VPN - General, Network, Connection, put in info.
• Jump - Remote desktop $20
• Good Reader - open documents, file manager, Web Downloads, Connect to Servers (DropBox, Google Docs, Box.Net, etc), can turn on wifi and share ipad via web address
• Reeder - feed reader
• iNet - network scanner
• VTrace - visual tracert
• HeyTell - touch-to-talk - wifi or cell
• PhotoWall - collages, upload to FB, etc (print 11x17) text
• Flipboard - look at FB, twitter etc as a magazine
• iFlux - Flux Capicator
• Cydia - Jailbreaker - Wifi Analyzer
• Backgrounder - run in background
• Wi-fi Sync - sync iPad to Mac via wifi
• To jailbreak - 3.2.0 or 3.2.1 - www.jailbreakme.com
• i-prompt - teleprompter -
• Facetime - now out for mac
• phoster - create posters
• app shopper

We also talked about FireSheep - a proof-of-concept add-in for Firefox that is making waves in the wireless community.  It allows people to steal info via unsecured wireless locations.  

I also shared various topics with the area techs:

• DIS will launch a new bandwidth aggregation tool to help schools get more bandwidth. It is a combination of hardware devices allowing schools to band their T1s, DSL, Cable, etc into one box to share bandwidth.  Cost for schools sits between $4000-$8000.
• DIS will launch a program that allows Co-op techs to view status etc on school routers to help in the troubleshooting process.
• DIS is working on a statewide AD structure (secondary) to allow global addressing, etc
• I asked area techs to help with getting all of our certified teachers registered in the ArkansasIDEAS portal.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday

Wednesday, I spent the day hoping to help one of the schools, but instead had to wait on the elevator guy.  He got to the office and did his own troubleshooting.  When it was all said and done, he concluded that his modem had gone bad and thus was the source of our elevator communication troubles.  He bypassed the modem (the modem is not necessary for operation) and had us up and running with the phone securely connected and working! Excellent!

I passed time while waiting for the elevator guy by cleaning my office some more and installing Vineland one the early childhood computers.  I also began prep work for the TIE meeting coming up on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

I also answered emails, took phone calls, and had a discussion with an antivirus vendor about a new product.

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Thursday, I spent the morning in the monthly state tech meeting.  We met with Belinda Kittrell regarding ERate updates and issues, then met with DIS for their announcement of the new B.E.E. program to provide more bandwidth to schools.  It's a partnership between DIS and local telcos.  I will be sharing the information with my area techs, as they have been begging for a bandwidth solution for quite some time.

The afternoon presented itself with two great keynote programs for the TIE program: Tim Holt talked about problem-based learning and Tony Vincent talked about better presentations (specifically Pechu Kacha and Ignite).  The notes were taken 'live' and posted on Plurk, Facebook, and other social outlets.

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Friday, the group was broken into three subgroups for breakout sessions.  My order of sessions went from Tim Holt's Professional Learning Communities/Networks to Tony Vincent's Ignite presentation development session (we are to develop an Ignite-based preso for Saturday), and then to Jason Borgen's session on advanced Google.

Again, notes were streamed to Plurk, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

I will try to collate notes and post those here for your perusal.

08/09/2010

8:00am - Helped a couple presenters get set up for presentations.  The phone rang, and the tech from one district called to let me know that the power had gone out over the weekend, and now the server had an "IP Conflict" error on the screen.  This is never a good sign and usually means a computer on campus is infected with software that makes that computer think *it* is the server.

I was able to remote into their server from my office and I could see the server was trying to acquire an IP address on a secondary network card.  That is not normal for a server, as servers should have assigned addresses.  I checked the settings and everything seemed okay.  The tech unplugged all the wires from the main switch (including the router at one point, which gave us both a chuckle since suddenly my connection dropped!), and then plugged them back in one-by-one until the error message came back up again. Or, that was the plan.  The error never came back up. 

8:45am - I had to interrupt the phone call in order to help one of the presenters.  After that, I met briefly with the Early Childhood Coordinator to talk about our upcoming office move.

8:55am - I called the tech back at the school.  Everything looks good, right? Nope. The server still showed it was trying to get an address.  I disabled that card, and then PINGed the server's address.  BINGO! Another machine was using the same address.  One-by-one, I had the tech unplug a connection, then I would PING again.  When she unplugged her tech workstation, the PINGs stopped replying.  We found the culprit!

I had the tech check the properties and sure enough, under "Alternate Configuration," the workstation had been set to use the server's IP address.  I have no idea how or why that was set like that. I had her change the setting back to "Private" and the conflict went away.  I re-enabled the network card on the server and everything worked great. Almost.

The tech machine would no longer get an address from the server.  When all else fails, reboot.  After the computer rebooted, it grabbed a new address and everything worked fine so far as we can tell!  Wahoo! 

Now, at some point, we need to flush DNS and DHCP so the server can attribute the correct names with the correct addresses, but that's something we can do later.  They don't really do anything using DNS internally, so it does not "actually" affect their network. (Yes, I know that's not exactly right, but for the pinch, it works).

*Mental mistake on my part: I did not fully understand that her tech machine (located next to the server) was the one giving the error as well.  This would have saved some troubleshooting steps - namely, we would not have had to unplug each of the connections at the switch.  Call it a learning experience.

9:30am - Finished the phone conversation with the tech, typed up the summary above, then called Asus because I have yet to receive the shipping instructions to send back the 1201N I worked on last week.  I gave the tech my RMA number. he was very friendly and sent a new email out with the information.  Now, I just have to wait to see if it gets here.  If it is not here by noon, I will call back with my yahoo address.

9:45am - Called AT&T to let them know the address our new building changed - not the physical location, mind you, just the numbers associated with our new building.  This may be one of those times where *not* saying anything would have been the right path to take.  Guess we'll find out come Friday when the services are scheduled to be moved.

10:00am - Began installation of OpenOffice in the computer lab for a training taking place tomorrow.

10:45am - During install, called to Director's office to meet regarding a spreadsheet to keep track of Medicaid billing forms.  The meeting also covered topics related to moving into the new building.

11:00am - Returned to computer lab to finish OpenOffice installation.

11:30am - Returned a phone call to AT&T about the new building address.  And, just as I had suspected earlier, I have muddied the waters.  There now seems to be confusion about physically moving the wiring that is already in place at our new building.  So much for trying to do the right thing....thus far. We'll see how it goes from here. Had to leave a message. Will wait for return call.

11:40 - Began cleaning out SPAM filter. 12:10pm - finished (also had a brief meeting with the Workforce Ed coordinator regarding upcoming move during that time)

Around 1:00pm, I took a package over to the UPS store to have the malfunctioning laptop sent off to ASUS.  Turns out the reason I was not getting the RMA information is because the email comes from a .TW domain, and we block those.  Good thing I have an alternate offsite address to use.

Around 1:15pm, I headed over to the new building. I spent over two hours working with the alarm guys, elevator guy and meeting with the Director about other issues. 

At 3:20pm, I made it back to the co-op to wrap up the day. Whew!

08/05/2010

At 7:00am, I left my house and traveled 15 miles to the Blevins School District.  There, I met with the Superintendent briefly to discuss the school's web site situation.  He informed me that they were looking into a hosted scenario, most likely going with a particular vendor as the host.  We also discussed an upcoming staff development in which a shared folder was needed.  I left the office and sought out the school technology coordinator.

At approximately 7:20am, I met with Mr. Allen at the Blevins High School in order to locate the Technology Coordinator (turns outs he had an appointment and would not be in).  We talked about the shared folder and the Windows 98 machine that currently runs the ConsoleOne software for adding users, etc.  The floors were being waxed, so I did not have access to the appropriate room.

At approximately 7:30am, I met with Mrs. Lee in the Elementary building to discuss the school's potential new web site host.  We talked about the teacher who had started to redevelop the site and Mrs. Lee let me know that she would tell the teacher of the impending changes.

Around 8:00am, I left Blevins and drove 15 miles back to Prescott, as I would be presenting a workshop on the school's new Sharepoint-based web site.  During the drive, I spoke with the Blevins Technology Coordinator and filled him on my site visit.  Since I arrived back in Prescott early, I helped the local technology coordinator with several issues on their web site.  I also researched various ways to connect Outlook to their Sharepoint site.

At 9:30am, the Prescott Tech and I walked to the Elementary School to troubleshoot a fiber connectivity issue.  Though we could not resolve the issue, we did manage to eliminate possible reasons for the problems.

At 10:00am, the tech and I headed to the lab to conduct the workshop with teachers.  During the training, teachers learned how to post announcements, pictures, assignments, etc to their individual pages.  They also learned how students will be able to turn in electronic assignments through the web site.

At 12:00pm, I drove from Prescott to Hope (our main office).  When I arrived at approx 12:30pm, I helped the various CIV programs get underway, performed a cleanout of the SPAM quarantine system, and met with Phoebe regarding several building-related issues (re: new building).

Throughout the afternoon, I answered phone calls regarding tech support, answered email re: the same.

At approximately 2:15pm, the Supt for Fouke came in and we visited about his technology improvements rolled out this summer.  I offered assistance and will be visiting the campus once our office move is complete.  While meeting with him, the principal from Genoa came in and we began a discussion regarding podcasting with video.  The plan is to have two or three teachers record their lessons as they teach them.  After approximatelt 4 1/2 weeks, the teachers (or techs or students, depending on who will do final editing) will be trained on editing the video for distribution.  The most likely channel will be Arkansas iTunesU.  Both the Supt from Fouke and the Principal from genoa left satisifed with our visit.

From approx 2:45pm - 3:00pm, I wrote out this documentation.  The time from 3:00pm - 5:00 (our summer office hours) will be added to this post later in the evening.

3:00pm - 3:35pm, checked email, answered several phone calls and discussed various building-related topics with Distance Learning Coordinator.

3:35pm - 3:50pm, I talked on the phone with Asus tech support regarding an ongoing issue with a 1201N laptop we have.  After explaining the various steps (not to mention length of time - in WEEKS) I have taken, the tech agreed that the unit should be sent in for warranty work.  While on hold for RMA, I restored the unit to factory specs (thus removing any work-related information).  At the completion of the call, I emailed my boss to let her know the status.

Around 4:00pm, I talked with the teacher at Blevins regarding the web page changes, hosting etc.  We talked for about 5 minutes and had a brainstorming session. It went pretty well. There is much to do on that front though.

At about 4:05pm, the High School Principal from Bradley met me (along with other personnel) and said she appreciated everything I did and do for her school! Wahoo! It was a wonderful compliment!  We don't always get the "atta boys" and I am not one who seeks that kind of thing out, but it's nice to know that people notice what we do!

From 4:15 - 4:25, I spoke with Mrs. Lee at Blevins regarding their choice for web hosting, and I was very pleased with sample sites I had seen.  factor in the post e-rate pricing, and I saw it as a win-win all around.  I think the teacher that had already created content could easily copy/transfer the info into the hosted solution if they go with it.

LOOKING AHEAD:
Next week should prove to be quite full.  I understand there is a meeting with the general contractor about elevator inspection and at the end of the week, we move our data and phone lines.  I am very nervous about it as I have never done anything like this before.