SCHOOL ICT NEWS BULLETIN No 130 - 01/09/2008

Published by Children’s Services

Email Migration – Password is not stored when the 'store password' box is ticked for new Microsoft exchange email accounts.

Some users have reported that their email password is not being stored on their machine even after the 'store password' tick box is ticked. Unfortunately, because of the systems in place for authentication and security on the new Microsoft exchange email accounts, it will be necessary to enter your password each time you log on to your email account even if 'store password' is selected.

Author: Paul Hurst

Handheld PCs, Webbooks, Netbooks, and Ultra Mobile PCs.

There has been growing interest in the past few months about hand held devices such as the ASUS EeePC due to their light weight, small form factor and low cost.

There is a Children’s Services project to evaluate the curriculum uses for these types of devices in a handful of Norfolk primary and secondary schools starting in September. The outcomes of this will be published and fed into the Norfolk Standard Product Set group.

Running parallel to the hand held project, the Standard Product Set Group will be investigating with the various ESPO approved suppliers the different types of handhelds that are coming to market between now and the end of the year. Again this information will be published to schools as part of the Standard Product Set to show which are the best handhelds for different curriculum uses and outcomes.

Although the lowest cost machines might seem an attractive option at around £170, you will need to take into account that these machines have very limited disc space to save files (at around 2GB) and will typically run a version of Linux instead of Microsoft Windows. Although the Linux desktop environment looks and behaves very similarly to Windows XP it will not run programs designed for Windows, such as Softease Studio CT and Microsoft Office. These machines will however run Linux versions of Open Source software such as Open Office and community developed curriculum software.

The Windows based handheld devices normally come with Windows XP Home Edition which while giving full functionality for installing applications, only has limited networking capabilities and cannot be logged onto servers in the same way as Windows XP Professional. You should also remember that buying the Linux machines then attempting to upgrade to Windows XP can turn out more expensive than buying a full size laptop.

There are many differences and usage considerations between a handheld device and a traditional laptop, so our recommendation is to wait for the new hand held machines to be launched and look to the Standard Product Set evaluations for guidance as there will be many different combinations of hardware, device footprint (size) and operating system ranging from low cost 7 inch screen, small, lower powered, Linux based up to the more expensive 10 inch screen Windows based hand held machines which can seem quite confusing.

If you would like further information about handheld devices contact the ICT Solutions Contracts Team and they will be happy to help.

Author: Paul Williams

New Generic Email Service - Remaining schools have been scheduled

The remaining schools have now been scheduled to be migrated to the new email platform. The schedule is available at:

If the migration date is not suitable please contact ICT Solutions as soon as possible so that a new date can be arranged.

The changes will impact schools' generic email accounts such as: head@, office@, ictc@ and chairofgov@ (personal email accounts, such as fsmith@yellow.esinet.org.uk will remain unaffected). As a precaution ICT Solutions recommends that a backup of emails and address book contacts is made before the change occurs as NO EMAILS WILL BE TRANSFERRED to the new service. Instructions on how to do this can be found at:

From the day of the school's scheduled migration, email will have to accessed in a different way. If you wish to use webmail this can be accessed via a computer with an internet connection by going to: https://webmail.nsix.org.uk and entering your full email address and password.

If you prefer to use an email client, such as Outlook, instructions on how to set this up can be found at:

ICT Solutions apologises for any inconvenience caused by the changes to the email service.

Author: Amanda Carr

Web Filtering Changes

There has been a recent configuration change to the web filtering service (also known as Bluecoat) which may see websites that were previously available now blocked.

A service called DRTR (Dynamic Real Time Rating) tries to rate and categorise websites as you attempt to view them, allowing or blocking access to websites depending upon the agreed filtering level for your school.

Information about what categories are filtered can be found at:

If a site you previously had access to is now blocked, please raise a call with the Service Desk via email to ictsolutions@norfolk.gov.uk, or via the online form on our website, or telephone 0845 303 3003.

Author: Robbie Gleeson