[Lias] School Intranet Servers, Continued

[Les Bell]

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water . . . I have a
few questions for those of you who have been through the process of setting
up an intranet server in a NSW public school, inside the DET intranet, plus
some more general questions.

1. According to the documentation I have, each school has a /24 subnet on
network 10.0.0.0. On this network, the school web server should be
10.x.y.30 (where x and y are school-specific). Does the department provide
a DNS for the school network? If so, is there an entry in the zone files
for the various hosts, and if so, what's the school web server supposed to
be called? Come to think of it, what's the school intranet domain name? And
if not, can we run our own DNS?

2. I need to quickly get an understanding of the way in which the
DET-provided network infrastructure operates inside a school. Ours has a NT
box functioning as file/print server and also apparently default gateway -
is this a standard configuration? If so, do all teachers have an account in
the NT domain? (I'm puzzling over how to integrate with the NT domain and
provide single sign-on). Also, can anybody recommend good open-source
network mapping/diagramming tools? We know where the cables go, but really
don't know how the datagrams get routed, distinctions between classroom and
admin networks, etc. so I need to get a handle on this.

(If no-one knows the answers to these questions, I'm happy to fall back to
ringing the DET help desk and documenting what I find out).

3. A question for the teachers here: In order to automate account creation
and management, I want to be able to import all the kids' names and class
data in a batch process. Do schools normally have any kind of file that
could be used for this purpose, perhaps from the OASIS system (about which,
I confess, I know nothing)?

4. I'm looking for recommendations for CGI-based games which are suitable
for deployment in a primary / elementary school environment. Any and all
suggestions welcome.

Best,

--- Les Bell, CISSP
[http://www.lesbell.com.au]