Problems with the network

We have been having issues with our school network, and today the problems surfaced so they were right in the face.

We use a managed network solution and it runs pretty much excellent however we have been having issues since the 18th September. that is when I emailed through one of the problems.
Not being able to access learning resources, this comes with a 507 null exception error.

We had a number of updates carried out throughout the holidays, IE7 and Adobe acrobat 8 and DST update. Now some students have managed to login without any problems, other have had a box that appears saying setting up personalized settings, and after setting up IE7 setting it just hangs. Now we have been waiting for the IT department to solve this issue and a number of classes have had to do very little until this issue is solved. At 2pm I got sick of this and worked through a solution that gets teh account working, not to sure how much it stuffs up the system however, but hey, they are able to get in and work.

When it hangs... User press CTRL + ALT + DEL

User selects Logoff. This will then cause a error in the personalized settings dialog box and make it crash.

Then the user logs in and the personalized setting are applied again, this time working.

Now this works and has been emailed through... I really do hate showing up the IT department but it has to done sometimes.

Now one of the issues that the IT came back with is that the programs are now not appearing in the Start Menu, hello, we stated this back on the 18th September. Someone has managed to break the management console and it probably needs a damn good health check to fix it. Am awaiting this to see if it works, I asked for this back on the 18th September...

His solution is a windows profile fix, however we are on a managed network!!! This is what I am getting annoyed with, the management console will do most of the repairs, send him on some training for the managed network.

Contents of email.
Bug Report Program sets are not loading up on computers Microsoft Office has not been appearing for a while now, Now I have the Programming set not appearing

Also we have a Tui Ad competition at the moment. He has it running, yeah right. This realates to some CD Software we have within the school. The department has been waiting for months for this software to be installed and running, every time we see the IT technician, he says, yes I have it running. But we have to prove to him that it doesn't run. I got in contact with eth makers of the program and they say that they will send out the network capable version of teh program. So how can he get teh single machine copy running. You can't.
So to the IT Technication, get this man a Tui!

Network Problem, Win32/Robknot.CA

On Friday last week the network went down, discovered 5 hours later, one of the network cards in one of the many servers that we have went down, this was causing intermittent network packets and bad packets to go flying around our network.

Now today we were looking at the network down again, one of the things that was looked at this time was the integrity of the network, were things were plugged in. We have had local loop problems before, but not on this scale. the problem was identified to be in E Block, so being told to get out of someones office, I talked to one of my colleges who informed me of a teacher who plugs her network cable into a the network plug beside her desk so it doesn't dangle. One quick run over and pull the network cable out the whole network goes back to normal. Why were both ports made active in the first place? There is only one teacher laptop!

So in all, both Friday and Monday, 6 hours of teaching with no network, unstable computers, and students. Things are now back to normal. Now for students to come running to me panicking about there assessments now being able to be handed in is all over.

One would have though things would be back to normal, however when our antivirus software Computer Associates eTrust starts throwing up errors and infected object windows it is not a help.

Win32.Robknot.CA, 258 Infections :(

From the ca website.

Win32/Robknot.CA
Date Published: 7 Jun 2006
Last Updated: 7 Jun 2006

Characteristics
Type: Worm
Category: Win32
Also known as: Email-Worm.Win32.Brontok.q (Kaspersky), W32/Brontok-N (Sophos), Win32.Robknot.CA (EZ Antivirus), Win32/Robknot.Variant!Worm (InoculateIT), W32.Rontokbro@mm (Symantec)

Description
Win32.Robknot is a worm that spreads via e-mail and modifies system settings in order to inhibit its detection and removal.
For more detailed information regarding the functionality of the Win32.Robknot family, please visit the Win32.Robknot description elsewhere in our encyclopedia.

Win32/Robknot.CA
eTrust Antivirus v7/8* (Vet Engine)
Removal Instructions

Signature: 12.6.2235

Removal Instructions:
Download and apply the latest eTrust Antivirus signature file update. Launch the eTrust Antivirus - Local Scanner and run a full scan on all affected computer systems, with the "Infection Treatment File Actions" set to "Cure File" and enable the System Cure feature.