Will SPICE do this? It's usually used for VDIs so normal setup it won't but not sure if it can be configured to do it.

Handbrake used to be pretty popular haven't use it in years though

Is there a free SIP to Fax Modem software out there (Cisco Phone system) I can use instead of having them keep up with our analog modems in the datacenter for the fax servers? They still go through the phone system now but plug into the VG320

@Dashrender said:

@coliver said:

@Dashrender said:

@scottalanmiller said:

For DESKTOP there is only one option.

Actually there are two, OEM and FPP.

But for servers there are three, OEM, FPP and Volume/Open Licensing.

Can't you get Windows Desktop OS's through a volume license agreement?

nope, only SA and upgrades.

And imaging rights as part of the upgrade VL.

@BRRABill said:

@JaredBusch said:

Yes. Because the machines are already legally Windows 10 Pro via OEM. You may now use imaging services to create and deploy a clean image on all 10 devices.

If it is so inexpensive, why the heck don't they just allow that with OEM?

So, if I had 100 machines, same thing? 1 license, and I get imaging rights?

AND ... that's the main reason people go to VL? To get imagine rights?

Mostly. Though companies will also buy it to upgrade computers such as from XP Pro to Windows 7 Pro.

@BRRABill said:

OK, so I think we are fine there on the desktop side. It is NOW safe to move to SA.

DESKTOP: is it even worth discussing SA, or is it too complicated? Maybe a high level overview, or the Cliff Notes version?

In Most cases SA is not worth it. There are a few cases where software assurance might be used

1.) A VDI environment since it's the same cost as the VDA and provides more
2.) if your company upgrades to every version of the software, For example if you upgraded all computers from WinXP, to Win7, then Win8, Win8.1 and now are considering Win10 then it would be worth it For the desktop. If for example you upgrade from Win XP -> Win7 and now conserding windows 10 it would have not been worth it.

Same goes for Office if you went from 2003->2007->2010->2013->2016 it would be
If you went 2003->2010>2016 it would not be worth it to get SA.

@BRRABill said:

The Windows 10 upgrade makes no sense to me, and causes a ton of extra work.

There has to be an easier way for them to do it.

Pay for the upgrade is the easier way.. If you want it free you have a little work.

Many companies charge us extra for network licences from a license server (floating licences) vs a stand alone ones. Some of these are even $1,000-$1,500 more per seat than an normal standalone seat. It's about what they can sell the ease of use at.

Easy just replace the Windows shell (explorer) with a script that runs chrome and the other background process. You can do this with group in policy (locally or domain) or registry. We use SiteKiosk for stuff like this though.

@Ambarishrh said:

Not even desktop. What is the best way to achieve this? Ideally admin should be able to use some hotkey or something to make any changes or access things if needed to troubleshoot.

Ok, so then the best way to do this is going to be Shell replacement (with a script to run chrome and background task, maybe even auto hotkey and use it watchdog function incase it gets closed). Make an MMC snap in locally on the computer for group in policy management that is targeted to standard users apply that there as well as other restrictions on the system such as blocking Ctrl+alt+del. You should look up microsofts group policy templates for creating a steady state like environment.

Make an admin account and a standard account both with Passwords. Have the computer auto login and force auto login to the standard account. You can over ride by hitting the shift key and then entering the admin pass. If you need to make changes to the standard user account you can elevate it to an admin to bypass the group policy restrictions in place.

I'd also recommend putting deep freeze, drive vaccine or the like on it.

The question is why is a centeralized company with some remote users are you using ZeroTeir? These things are great for fully mesh VPNs of clients across then country. But, if you already have a centralized site, fully mesh site to site network, or a hub and spoke site to site network then just using a VPN concentrator or router would make more sense.

@BRRABill said:

I mean, if the power supply goes, doesn't the motherboard, etc., also go?

At what point does this all become moot as components that aren't protected by power loss circuitry get involved and fail?

This isn't about continuing to process data. This is about writing data to the physical disks that have already been sent to the raid controller and is currently in volatile memory, if this is not copied to a disk before it looses power all of this data will be lost.

Same technology, different usage and bottleneck. With USB 3.0 the bottleneck isn't USB but the fact that it's a single lower grade NAND chip. SSDs have multiple flash chips and provide greater speeds because of that (much like having more chips on RAM DIMMs).

TVs have better contrast and brightness than most people buy for projectors.

If you are looking for the same quality out of a projector with the lights on you'll want something in the 5,000-10,000 lumens range if it's a decent sized room. And high contrast ratio.

TVs and laser pointers just don't work together.

Yes, why wouldn't it be?

Domain Conttollers OS doesn't matter the Functional level of the domain is only thing that would matter (and that would only matter if you are at 2000 or below). You get more features if you raise the functional level though. Also be sure to update your Group Policy central store.

@coliver said:

@JaredBusch said:

@scottalanmiller said:

@coliver said:

@scottalanmiller said:

One thing that I like about the Ubiquities, and this would apply to most decent gear, is that you can do PoE making the cabling much easier to deal with.

Right, which is why I would go with the Pro models since they support industry standard PoE.

Good point.

You could also go with Ubiquiti switches.

Didn't know they could do the passive 24v that's good to know. Although then you are locking yourself down to one vendor which if you went an industry standard that wouldn't be an issue.

The Pro is great. I have the AC model at home which is POE+ which I have powered from a PoE+ switch.

Keep in mind in a normal factory you have lots of interference. Also don't place the WAPs as ceiling height in the facilities if they are say 20-40' high. Lower them on your support beams to around 8-10ft above ground. Otherwise your just wasting RF energy and more likely to get reflections off of the (likely) metal roof/deck.

Generally you want to put more and lower their RF output rather than put one and attempt cover a very large area.

Why would you use a script? all this can be done with Group Policy preferences.

I have one of these http://www.amazon.com/Fluke-Networks-MS2-100-MicroScanner2-Verifier/dp/B000QJ3G42

Along with the toner for it and Office IDs. Rarely use it. Most of that stuff we contract out.

@MattSpeller said:

@JaredBusch said:

@scottalanmiller said:

@BRRABill said:

I was a little nervous with my new server I just bought, but it's only 6C.

A win for SOHO, LOL.

But you will pay for licensing 16, regardless.

Exactly. it means you wasted money buying licensing for cores you do not have. You have no way to buy only enough licensing for the number of cores in your system.

Yup! And this will drive really hard consolidation projects again, $6k is a lot to drop on software so your hardware better be worth it. I think we'll see a big rise in the super dense 16 core dual proc server loaded to the tits with RAM and SSD's.

Super Dense means a bigger single point of failure when it's for a small environment.

Do you offer and trade in discounts for large UPSs to switch to Eaton? We currently have Liebert 3 Phase UPS systems.