This week, I have Shane Harris from HP's Network Solutions Group visiting the College to set up RADIUS authentication for a new WLAN. This will allow students to bring their own computers to the College and connect to the Internet.
I think we need to consider the following:
1) New SSID for privately owned student laptops
2) Configure RAIDUS authentication on new SSID
3) New DHCP scope for the new subnet
4) Access Control List to define what they can/can't connect to
5) New user group in Open Directory for users of these laptops
Once installed, we may consider extending this to other WLANs, or possibly to VPN access, or even wired LAN access.
On Monday I'll be a little behind the 8-ball. I only found out after leaving work on Friday that HP were coming this week....haven't got Linux and FreeRADIUS installed on the server yet...will have to get to that early Monday morning.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
TISIT Meeting 27 May 2009
On Wednesday we had our annual gathering of TISIT (Tas Independent Schools IT) at Scotch Oakburn College. Our membership seems to be getting stronger each year, and this year (for the first time) we had sponsors giving presentations, providing lunch and supplying a "lucky door prize".
Sponsors this year were HP ProCurve Networking and ComputerCorp. These sponsors, along with our own members, gave several informative presentations during the day. Things of particular interest to me were:
1) Cloud filtering of email. A couple of schools conveyed their experience with "outsourcing" their email to staff and students. Given the mail issues we've been experiencing, may be worth looking at Google Mail for our situation.
2) Universal Threat Management (UTM) solution. Given that we aren't particularly happy with our content filtering (proxy) solution, a Fortigate appliance could be the way to go. Will need to investigate further, particularly with Open Directory authentication. Could be a real bonus for users, as no proxy config will be required on client machines.
3) HP ProCurve product roadmap. On the downside, our current WESM wireless solution is unlikely to support 802.11n, and to move to this technology we'll need to "upgrade" to a Colubris wireless solution. However, I have it on reasonable authority that HP will allow us a "trade-in" of our existing solution once 802.11n is ratified. On the upside, it looks like HP ProCurve's ONE (Open Network Environment?) means that an Avaya VOIP solution (for instance) may just be a module that plugs into our core switch...will need further investigation, but I am quite excited by this news.
Spoke to some other members about formalising TISIT, and looks like we'll pursue this in the future, so that we become a recognised professional body.
Sponsors this year were HP ProCurve Networking and ComputerCorp. These sponsors, along with our own members, gave several informative presentations during the day. Things of particular interest to me were:
1) Cloud filtering of email. A couple of schools conveyed their experience with "outsourcing" their email to staff and students. Given the mail issues we've been experiencing, may be worth looking at Google Mail for our situation.
2) Universal Threat Management (UTM) solution. Given that we aren't particularly happy with our content filtering (proxy) solution, a Fortigate appliance could be the way to go. Will need to investigate further, particularly with Open Directory authentication. Could be a real bonus for users, as no proxy config will be required on client machines.
3) HP ProCurve product roadmap. On the downside, our current WESM wireless solution is unlikely to support 802.11n, and to move to this technology we'll need to "upgrade" to a Colubris wireless solution. However, I have it on reasonable authority that HP will allow us a "trade-in" of our existing solution once 802.11n is ratified. On the upside, it looks like HP ProCurve's ONE (Open Network Environment?) means that an Avaya VOIP solution (for instance) may just be a module that plugs into our core switch...will need further investigation, but I am quite excited by this news.
Spoke to some other members about formalising TISIT, and looks like we'll pursue this in the future, so that we become a recognised professional body.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Email server re-installation
At the beginning of 2009, we migrated our Mac OS X Mail Server to new hardware and new OS (Leopard). Since then, there have been several issues with user email accounts, which we suspected were to do with a corrupt mail database. Therefore, we informed users that we were going to completely format the mail server and re-install.
The install went as well as can be expected. 3 hours after taking a "just in case" backup, we had mail services returning to normal. Now, to sit back and wait for the complaints from users that "my Webmail has been deleted". That'll serve them right for not paying attention to the 10+ warnings they've had over the past two weeks!
If we still have Mail problems, I'll be seriously thinking about ditching Mac OS X Server as a suitable platform for mail...who knows, we might even end up with Exchange one day!
The install went as well as can be expected. 3 hours after taking a "just in case" backup, we had mail services returning to normal. Now, to sit back and wait for the complaints from users that "my Webmail has been deleted". That'll serve them right for not paying attention to the 10+ warnings they've had over the past two weeks!
If we still have Mail problems, I'll be seriously thinking about ditching Mac OS X Server as a suitable platform for mail...who knows, we might even end up with Exchange one day!
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