Posts made by bbigford

@scottalanmiller Ah, no worries. Thanks for popping in anyway. It's enough pressure that it's got some cold sweats going on. I'm pretty sure I have it to a point that all people have to do is simply reboot their machines, but I'm trying to make this as seamless as possible. I already put it right out in the open for everyone (more so for the higher ups) so it doesn't seem like I just made a mistake and have no idea what is going on. But would love to avoid anyone accidentally installing a test OS obviously. I thought I was distributing it, not deploying as available. Obviously I need to pay closer attention to what window I'm in. Thanks anyway Scott.

To be more specific... it is an operating system that, if installed, would certainly brick any laptop that it attempts installation on (it's an incomplete build I'm testing) unless it flat out wouldn't take (50/50 shot at that one...). Made the mistake of deploying it and not merely distributing it. Huge oversight on my part.

@scottalanmiller I've got the above issue and it's somewhat of an emergency with this company. Especially having software dangling out there for any users that don't read emails. Having anything in the way of productivity is basically a guillotine on my neck. I've removed it from "deployments" when going into "Tasks", going under the specific task. After removing it from deployments, I still saw it in my Software Center. I rebooted my machine and I just get an error in Software Center to the tune of "Can't be updated at this time. Please press F5." Press F5 and it displays correctly without error. I figured the error was from not having anything to show (which would be weird, but understandable I guess). Am I missing any steps? Can I force Software Center to remove the entry? Anything is helpful.

Hey everyone,

I was doing a test in SCCM and made a piece of software available to all systems. I went into SCCM and removed it from the "deployments" portion of the task sequence, found in the bottom section. After removing it from "deployments", it still shows up in user's Software Center as available software. Any way to force it to remove from user's Software Center so they don't accidentally install it? I've already sent out a mass email saying we're doing some testing, disregard the notification, and don't try to install it. Any help is appreciated. Thanks

Came here to say Spark, but since that is not ideal I would definitely say Pigeon. Used it before and it is very well rounded.

@scottalanmiller said:

If I wasn't so mobile, I'm sure I'd have been talked into a console by now, likely the XBOX One. But given how we move, they are not an option.

If I wasn't so cheap, I'd be a PC gamer.

Any gamers in here?

Here's the situation... I know Xbox Gold you can share downloaded games and content with a friend. My friend has downloaded Exo Zombies maps, but a physical copy of Advanced Warfare. The question is, can I download just the game, share it with him, and he can share the maps in the same session? Essentially playing together while combining my game and his maps since it would all be downloaded.

@scottalanmiller said:

So let's try to find some numbers. Let's try a 15K SAS 500GB drive versus an SSD. We need to figure out the difference in power draw as a starting point.

Are we only comparing power savings, or cost per GB as well? SSDs are coming down, that's certain, but cost per GB is still in the HDD side by a long shot (for now). If it is power savings, SSD definitely has less of a draw.

@scottalanmiller said:

So.... what is trapping you with your current numbers? Is it that customers already know them? You have advertised them heavily? What makes you unable to change your phone numbers?

This is common, I'm just trying to work out your unique strategy here.

Yikes. So he told me the school board will not allow phone number changes.

@scottalanmiller said:

Porting would refer to transferring you to another phone company.

I guess that's what he is trying to accomplish after all. I think this thread might be a jumble of miscommunication now. Haha sorry for that. Started off as one thing and seems like it is just going in a loop.

@scottalanmiller said:

@BBigford said:

@scottalanmiller said:

Let's back up a little. Instead of only looking at the phones it sounds like there is an issue with a bad provider. What provider are you using and how are you limited to them? How are they achieving lock in?

It's a provider called TDS (tdstelecom I believe). When he inquired about going with an Asterisk setup, the provider said "Nope, nope. You can't use Asterisk with us. You have to use a setup like Cisco." I was told it was how they port the numbers... He's limited to them because there is literally NO other company in the area. There is one single company that services all the surrounding towns within about a 40-45 mile radius...

Wait, are you not on VoIP? That's the issue. Can you not move to modern telephony? I can come to your town and would never even know TDS existed because I'm on VoIP and my phone lines come with me anywhere. TDS has nothing to do with my phone lines.

Right. Just received an email.. He wanted a provider (who he's migrate to) to host the phone service, but they told him that they didn't have the rights to port the numbers. He talked about possibly having to convert his POTS lines to PRI and see how many numbers he can port...

@scottalanmiller said:

Let's back up a little. Instead of only looking at the phones it sounds like there is an issue with a bad provider. What provider are you using and how are you limited to them? How are they achieving lock in?

It's a provider called TDS (tdstelecom I believe). When he inquired about going with an Asterisk setup, the provider said "Nope, nope. You can't use Asterisk with us. You have to use a setup like Cisco." I was told it was how they port the numbers... He's limited to them because there is literally NO other company in the area. There is one single company that services all the surrounding towns within about a 40-45 mile radius...

@mlnews said:

@BBigford said:

I had little input for him and wasn't finding anything concrete online for InCom/Polycom vs. Cisco.

That's why, because they are different animals. InCom is a hosted PBX. Polycom makes the handsets for any system you want. Cisco does a top to bottom integrated system. So comparing them is not a simple thing. Cisco could be compared against Avaya or Shoretel for example, because all of them offer a complete package of everything from the phone through the PBX.

Ok, that's where I was getting confused. I was thinking Polycom had a top to bottom solution like Cisco and Shoretel, but obviously that is not the case. So where we use InCom, serviced by a company called CTC... You can buy Polycom hardware, go with a variation of backend services (beyond InCom) and is managed either internally or through a provider like CTC? Is that right or am I off somewhere...?

@scottalanmiller said:

@BBigford said:

@JaredBusch said:

@BBigford said:

I've managed Cisco's UCS/UCM phone system in a previous environment, and I know it was really expensive. Now I'm in a network that uses Polycom, that we don't really manage all that much (we do about 90% of requests, but anything deep level we have a contract). I was asked by a director at a school district about Polycom vs. Cisco vs. Asterisk. I said Asterisk is going to be the least expensive but I didn't think his provider could port for outside calls (that's pending), and wasn't sure about cost difference between Polycom and Cisco. He also asked what the Polycom software is called (I thought it was InCom?). Does anyone have any numbers on an RFP they put out, or have gone down that road comparing Cisco to Polycom? Thanks!

Polycom is not a a phone system. So first, identify the actual phone system. If it is InCom, that is a rebrandable IP PBX.

Either way, move to Asterisk. The provider is not relevant to that decision.

The decision for What PBX to use is never part of the decision for a provider unless you choose a proprietary provider that uses their own PBX thus technically not even giving you a choice.

Asterisk, or any other modern IP PBX, can connect to any type of trunk you choose to use. Obviously, some trunk types require hardware to interface from the physical to the IP, but there is a device for every scenario out there.

The management console is indeed InCom. I know Polycom is just the hardware, for purposes I just said Polycom because I really don't know much about it to call it something else (like Cisco UCS/UCM..) If someone could correct me (Polycom PBX?) I'd use that in my questions instead.

I just went to Polycom's website to look this up and their main website is a 404 right now. You get their "select your country" portal, select "United States" and.... page not found.

Heh, that is very re-assuring... I'll ask about Asterisk again. Not sure if that is a dead end where he is at. There's a monopoly on the small town he's in with one provider and I remember TDS (provider) explicitly telling him they don't allow an Asterisk setup to go outbound. Maybe there was a miscommunication but they were pretty clear about that. I'll ask again though because obviously free is good.

@Jason said:

@Dashrender said:

Please, explain how this statement is helpful at all?

Oh, sorry I offended someone.. Don't care.

Dude, seriously?

@scottalanmiller said:

@scottalanmiller said:

How did Cisco and Polycom come up as options? Cisco would almost never be on a short list. Polycom isn't the same animal. Of these only Asterisk would I generally consider.

While a lot of people want to use this as "read into" what I asked to make this into something it is not to make a point that doesn't exist.... to actually help the OP here, it is important to understand what are the driving factors causing the short list to get created, which is what I asked and all that I asked. If that is behaving like a 12 year old girl and "reading in" then those are good things because it is an important and useful question.

Understanding what is driving the questions to be asked and why we are going the direction(s) that we are is important. We don't know all of the needs and requirements so we need to figure those out.

The short list was something I didn't ask about. To be honest, I was way too busy at the time to ask a bunch of other questions to go in a different direction, so I was just doing a simple "These are the differences in price and functionality" for the director. As I haven't worked with Asterisk or Polycom's side, I had little input for him and wasn't finding anything concrete online for InCom/Polycom vs. Cisco.

@JaredBusch said:

@BBigford said:

I've managed Cisco's UCS/UCM phone system in a previous environment, and I know it was really expensive. Now I'm in a network that uses Polycom, that we don't really manage all that much (we do about 90% of requests, but anything deep level we have a contract). I was asked by a director at a school district about Polycom vs. Cisco vs. Asterisk. I said Asterisk is going to be the least expensive but I didn't think his provider could port for outside calls (that's pending), and wasn't sure about cost difference between Polycom and Cisco. He also asked what the Polycom software is called (I thought it was InCom?). Does anyone have any numbers on an RFP they put out, or have gone down that road comparing Cisco to Polycom? Thanks!

Polycom is not a a phone system. So first, identify the actual phone system. If it is InCom, that is a rebrandable IP PBX.

Either way, move to Asterisk. The provider is not relevant to that decision.

The decision for What PBX to use is never part of the decision for a provider unless you choose a proprietary provider that uses their own PBX thus technically not even giving you a choice.

Asterisk, or any other modern IP PBX, can connect to any type of trunk you choose to use. Obviously, some trunk types require hardware to interface from the physical to the IP, but there is a device for every scenario out there.

The management console is indeed InCom. I know Polycom is just the hardware, for purposes I just said Polycom because I really don't know much about it to call it something else (like Cisco UCS/UCM..) If someone could correct me (Polycom PBX?) I'd use that in my questions instead.

@Jason said:

Why wouldn't you use asterisk? Start there. It's FOSS and easy to manage. I've used it at plenty of other jobs. We have avaya IP office and cisco call manager here, the IP office is going away though. For us shear scale is the only reason we aren't using asterisk.

I was told that the provider can't port an Asterisk setup. But again, that's just what I was told...

@scottalanmiller said:

I did K12 school work and I liked it, to some degree. But I answered to no one and it was a small, private school. I'd love to help schools down here in Central America. Their needs are very different.

The place I was in was VERY political, run by people that shouldn't be waving an iron fist, but instead listen once in a while. As soon as you contradict them, they plug their ears and open their mouths. Did I like the network though? Definitely. It was pretty laid back outside of administration politics.

@scottalanmiller said:

@Dashrender said:

It's I suppose believable that there are parents that feel this way, but the student/child? Wow - can we say brain washed?

So I blame this on high school. The average (I'm guessing) high school grad has never worked. By the time that @Minion-Queen, @art_of_shred and I were out of high school we each had years of experience (we all went to school together, that's why the example.) I was working as an IT intern at 13, then did farm work till I was legal to get a normal job and worked continuously through the rest of high school and during my college time. So both high school and college were always "sideline" activities to actually being in the real world and having jobs and careers for all of us.

But for lots and lots of people, high school is their entire focus. It is all that they know and, of course, people who work in schools are focused on that as "the whole world" in the same way. If you think about how there is a huge group of people who live their lives reminiscing about the "glory days" of high school and how cool that senior year football game and homecoming dance were and the rest of life is just working the cash register at the local hardware store and being depressed as life is never as good as high school.

We that same crowd exists, one level up, in college. There are tons of adults for whom college was the "glory days" or they imagine that it would have been and they want their kids to have those same awesome memories and they feel that a happy life and a good career are impossible dreams So, avoiding the hell that is their vision of adult life for four years while they party at college avoiding the responsibilities that will follow seems like the only possible way to at least have a memory of what happiness was like.

You never find people with these feelings that also went on to great careers or are happy with where they are in life.

...and THAT is the reason I stopped working for a mid-size public school district after some years of service, about a month ago. Never again, if I can help it. Never again.