Computer/Network questions. I need multiple computers for internet based school. Which way to go?

[HBARleatherneck]

computer/internet questions

[Ridge]

Do you need all 4 systems working independently of each other? If that's the case, you'll probably need 4 seperate systems. Hook them together with a 5 port switch, and you're ready to go.

http://www.microcenter.com/product/414915/GX520_Desktop_Computer_Off_Lease_Refurbished

They're slow, but they're robust.

[00tec]

Microcenter has some of the refurbished business machines. Usually compact dell towers. Cheap

Ridge beat me to it. They're not the BEST out there, but they do the job just fine. It's what we have at work for the most part.

[RblDiver]

Here's a Bing search for cheap laptops under $100. I don't know anything about these, but it's a start. (A very quick glance says that their screens are smaller than 20", but again, it's just a starting point for research).
http://www.bing.com/search?q=Cheap+Laptops+Under+100&FORM=R5FD

You wouldn't really need an additional keyboard for them. Wireless mice are OK I suppose, but A) you have to worry about changing the batteries (not "frequently," but still "eventually")(and I'm a cheap bastard about them! lol), and B) they cost more than a wired mouse (which can be dirt cheap for the most basic ones).

[RblDiver]

Oh, and for having them all on the internet at the same time, you'll also need a router (for 4-5 computers at once, you might need both the computers and the router to support wireless, since in my experience there are usually only 4 wired ports).

[spyder]

I would think a wireless router that could support all of your computers would be fine. Ours supported my wife's laptop, my laptop, my daughters computer (connections academy), and each of our bluray players using Netflix.... I would think that it could easily support four computers for just school stuff (which doesn't really use up that much bandwidth).

[RblDiver]

Indeed, just making sure (I always wire my computers since wireless is poor for gaming, but I don't even know if you CAN find a router anymore that doesn't have wireless support heh).

[Ridge]

I have a 5 port 10/100 switch, if that is what you need.

[cfortune]

Any idea what your internet speed is? Might want to take that into consideration. Multiple people streaming video might make you run into some quality issues.

[RblDiver]

Another idea could be tablets. For instance, here's one from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Blackberry-Playbook-7-Inch-Tablet-16GB/dp/B004UL34EY/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1373558762&sr=1-1&keywords=cheap+tablets

New it's $160 from Amazon (or at least their primary vendor, they list other new offers at $139 and used at $88). I know Blackberry used to have almost a corner on the market on smartphones, so even though they're not as popular now I'm sure you'd get a good tablet (it has good ratings too). It has a front-facing camera for that web chat you were talking about. As for keyboard and mouse, it wouldn't have that (tablets have a built-in "screen keyboard" and touch screen, so they don't particularly use them), but I know that'd make typing papers and the like more difficult. I'm trying to see if there are any keyboards with a "micro usb" connector (since that's what that tablet has). I also haven't checked if it has bluetooth-capabilities, since a bluetooth keyboard'd also work.

[RblDiver]

http://www.bing.com/shopping/moonar-micro-usb-keyboard-woven-pattern-case-with-stylus-pen-for-7/p/82A0578F68AFC77C5020?q=%22micro+USB%22+keyboard&lpf=0&lpq=micro%2bUSB%2bkeyboard&FORM=ENCA&lppc=16 is an example of one that'd work I suppose. You could also do other searches to find a keyboard with a micro USB connector (NOT "mini usb," or even regular usb, the three are separate).

[gos]

For kids would a wireless keyboard and mouse be good or no?

Thanks guys.

Skip the wireless parts, not worth the hassle if you're trying to save money. Standard USB mouse and USB keyboard will do just fine.

[Ridge]

is there any kind of shipping deals from microcenter? wow, tax and shipping. they are expensive. i put the stuff in my cart and almost stroked out.

maybe a computer on amazon prime?

Probably cheaper to drive to the Microcenter and pick it up. They're in DTC, at I-225 and I-25

[kwando]

Does it need to be windows? If not you can get a $35 raspberry pi chip, just to get on the new. get some free CRT monitors, USB keyboards are you are set.

[Delfuego]

Lots of advice here, not much useful. Be sure to budget for Microsoft Office (Word/Excel/etc) if the kids will need it for school. $200-$400 per machine... I would contact their teachers/school to see if it is needed, and if they have student discounts available for software and/or hardware.

It might not be cheap to get them all up and running. But hey, kids ain't cheap. Feel free to PM if you need some specific advice.

NitroxBoss here on the forum owns Action Computers http://actionpc.com
(http://actionpc.com)

[Ridge]

OpenOffice.org has free software that emulates MS Office, and supports their file formats.

[gos]

OpenOffice.org has free software that emulates MS Office, and supports their file formats.

+1. No charge, and is 99% compatible. MORE than capable enough for any school projects.

[cfortune]

OpenOffice.org has free software that emulates MS Office, and supports their file formats.


This. Haven't had office on a personal machine for years. Even in college.

[Brian]

I may be able to help you out if you want to look at laptops. I can check what I have today and let you know. I have several - was going to post on eBay but I hate dealing with eBay.

[Brian]

we havent had good luck with laptops. these are kids between 4 and 8. They really need to use a large screen and stationary computer.

Gotcha, I assume you've checked craigslist?

[Wulf202]

thats probably 100 plus miles from my house.

If you want to put it in will call ill be going down there the 22nd

[spyder]

You should check craigslist, and the local facebook swap and shop pages. There seems to be tons of computer stuff here in the taint.

[spyder]

Another thing, if you don't mind changing online schools, check out Connections Academy, they give you computers for evey kid that is enrolled. The computers come with every bit of software they will need also of course (including Microsoft office).

[Gman]

There's a lot more to the Raspberry Pi than just connecting stuff to it. I doubt HBAR wants to bother.

A Linux distro like Ubuntu will provide web and email. As far as finding drivers and other apps that they may need, that's not so clear.

I would avoid purchasing anything from Blackberry as you'll be limiting your flexibility.

The company where I work has periodic 'garage sales' to sell off older hardware. Maybe you could find someone that does the same and get some good deals?

[JM Ver. 2.0]

Jesus... This thread is full of BULLSHIT!!!!

You need a different computer for each kid. You need them all running off either a switch or a WIRED!!!!!!!! router. If you want, I could come up there from MicroCenter and set everything up for you. But, it wouldn't be free. I would need money for gas at least.

[JM Ver. 2.0]

Here's why it's bullshit...

Tablets? Really? PAY ATTENTION TO THE QUESTION!

Linux? Based off the guys question he's obviously not a computer guy. Linux isn't going to be his friend.

Raspberry Pi? Again, he's not a computer guy.

Make this shit simple for the man.

WIRED switch or router, 3-4 basic computers with Web Cams and WIRED peripherals. DONE! Simple.

Why wired? You really think a wireless set up is going to handle 3-4 systems pulling a live video DOWNLOAD and UPLOAD at the same time? Come on now....

[wax_job]

Here's why it's bullshit...

Tablets? Really? PAY ATTENTION TO THE QUESTION!

Linux? Based off the guys question he's obviously not a computer guy. Linux isn't going to be his friend.

Raspberry Pi? Again, he's not a computer guy.

Make this shit simple for the man.

WIRED switch or router, 3-4 basic computers with Web Cams and WIRED peripherals. DONE! Simple.

Why wired? You really think a wireless set up is going to handle 3-4 systems pulling a live video DOWNLOAD and UPLOAD at the same time? Come on now....



13yr Cisco certified individual here.

I confirm what JM says to be correct.

Once you decide on the Hardware for each kid (Your gonna be dropping $300/ea for a decent, minimal net book with a camera).... PM me if you want help with logistics. (I even have lots of wire and retro equipment if we need it)

And if these are for their school work.... Pay for a copy of MS Office for the house if you can manage it.

[wax_job]

Btw, is there a nerd section of the forum? Then we can talk about the distro's that we are all running on our Pi and how the MK802 is better than the MK809ii for running XBMC because its running Jelly Bean and 2 core gigaflops for the VM cluster flux capacitor.... RAM


Kinda just gave up there at the end...

[Marlin]

NitroxBoss here on the forum owns Action Computers http://actionpc.com
(http://actionpc.com)

Mention you are a member of the board. Or, Pm him here on the site.

[cmailliard]

HBAR - Stay away from Tiger Direct, never had much good luck from them.

Internet - If you can go wired then go wired. The only reason wireless is better is for locations were wired is impossible, impractical or you want freedom of movement. Knowing your setup at your house, go wired. A 5 Port Switch will serve you just fine.
Hardware - Again get the best you can with what you have. I have always had great luck with Dell machines. It's all I ever used till I went to Apple. For you and your Logistics, Amazon Prime is a good bet or take Wulf up on his offer. I may have two Dell Desktop CPU's I could give you. They need some work, just a reinstall of the Operating System and drivers. If someone is will to do the reinstall for you, you can have the machines.

Question, what online school are they using? The teacher in me is curious.

[Wulf202]

I have a desktop sans hard drive. Think the power supply was flakey so I junked it. Led monitor. 8ish year old gaming setup you can have if you want to deal with it

[Great-Kazoo]

I have a desktop sans hard drive. Think the power supply was flakey so I junked it. Led monitor. 8ish year old gaming setup you can have if you want to deal with it

Likewise. I have a desk top and HD other than that it works.

[JM Ver. 2.0]

If you need any help setting up let me know.

Wired from the router should be easy.

Sent from my teepee using smoke signals.

[Jer]

I don't have the time to read the entire thread but if it hasn't been suggested yet check out Chromebooks. Based on your needs I think this would be perfect. They're inexpensive, durable, basic and mobile which your kids will love not having to be in a certain place to learn. The boot up in less than 10 seconds so if your kids have a question it's no problem to open it, boot it and get the answer. The Samsung one retails for $249 and I've seen them for less than that. It's worth every bit of $250 IMO. If you're in the Google ecosystem it's even better because you can log into your account and there's all of your info: Email, contacts, calendar, browser history, bookmarks, music, Drive, Talk, Google+, hangouts, etc. Full size keyboard, plenty of expansion slots and what not and no HDD means no moving parts to go bump in the night. The Chrome OS is lightweight and won't have the same bogging down issues that full featured OS's tends to over time. These are really solid devices and for basic web access and about 90% of what most people do they're perfect.

[cfortune]

Here's why it's bullshit...

Tablets? Really? PAY ATTENTION TO THE QUESTION!

Linux? Based off the guys question he's obviously not a computer guy. Linux isn't going to be his friend.

Raspberry Pi? Again, he's not a computer guy.

Make this shit simple for the man.

WIRED switch or router, 3-4 basic computers with Web Cams and WIRED peripherals. DONE! Simple.

Why wired? You really think a wireless set up is going to handle 3-4 systems pulling a live video DOWNLOAD and UPLOAD at the same time? Come on now....

Do you really think wire vs wireless is going to matter when your bottleneck is a 4 mbps down and 1 mbps up interwebz connection.... Come on now...

[JM Ver. 2.0]

Do you really think wire vs wireless is going to matter when your bottleneck is a 4 mbps down and 1 mbps up interwebz connection.... Come on now...

Yes. Because the wireless is going to be a bottleneck of its own. Plus, for the kids school wired will be more reliable than wireless. I'd be pissed if my wireless dropped during a test. I'm sure they would be too.

Sent from my teepee using smoke signals.

[JM Ver. 2.0]

unfortunately the whole thing is wireless. We have Satelite (ethernet) it shoots the signal from here about 8 miles to a water tower that has a relay on. there have been several times already that I was paying for a session and we had either a power outage or an internet outage. of course a power outage is an internet outage.

for kids this small it has to be desktops. otherwise, they would break whatever they were using, plus they wouldnt be sitting correctly. all curled up with bad posture. you cant do that all day. and they would screw around if they arent seated in the same place daily.

I forgot you live in the middle of nothing...

Well, I'm sorry. :(

Sent from my teepee using smoke signals.

[Gman]

WLAN of today is much better than it used to be. I have both 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless N in my home and run a multitude of devices from it, including streaming HD video to many of them. I can even play online games without any issues. It's not the end of the world.

I like the fact that HBAR has dedicated space for the classes. I have a co-worker and he and his wife have home schooled their 5 kids. They're much further ahead than their public school counterparts and have a much wider volume of knowledge. They also have a dedicated classroom in their home.

...and they have zero social interaction issues by not being in a public school everyday. They go to one of the Cherry Creek schools one day a week to work on things like science labs that aren't so easy to do in the home.

[JM Ver. 2.0]

ok,
we bought the 4 computer, 4 monitors, 4 cameras, 4 headsets, 4 wireless usb adapters,etc....

I hooked them all up and 3 of them are up and working perfect, wirelessly.

the 4th one wont allow me to install the driver for the wireless usb adapter. It is a Tenda mini 11n wireless usb adapter. model W311M.

it keeps coming up

Feature Transfer Error
Feature RT2870 Driver
Component Rt2870_Driver_VistaX64
File D:\APP\setup.exe
error Data error (cyclicredundancycheck)

I got ahold of tech support for both the computer and for microtech. they couldnt be anymore worthless if they tried.

I have tried using multiple copies of the driver dvd. no luck
I have tried known good usb adapters. no luck.
I have tried to download the drivers from Tenda, so far no luck.

should I just stick the windowns 7 cds in the computer and redo the whole thing?

microcenter is saying bring it back. 200 miles round trip, I will try to get it done. I know some of you guys are very knowledgeable about this area.

Any help would be appreciated.

Use in order from left to right...

http://www.vincehuston.org/sw/hammer_bigger.jpg

[RblDiver]

If you've tried other DVD's, it sounds like it could be a bad DVD drive.
http://library.techguy.org/wiki/CRC_Error,_Cyclic_Redundancy_Check,_Feature_Transf er_Error

[RblDiver]

Hrm, not sure. There was another site with a different suggestion, but it was for a different error I think (not the cyclicredundancycheck one). Try the suggestion on the site I linked and see if you can straight-up copy the DVD. If you can, try installing from the copy on your harddrive that you've just created, if there's another error link it back here.

[RblDiver]

OK, here's a new link: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-pictures/this-application-failed-to-start-because-side-by/7673bf12-87c2-48ca-b5ae-b8aa85e295dc

You can try the official MS answer they post there. If that doesn't work, further down someone has a suggestion to run a repair reinstall of Windows (which, now that I look a bit more closely, seems like it may be the way to go, since the error is the program trying to run something designed for Vista and not Win 7). Essentially, boot the computer using your Win 7 disc, but there should be an option to run a repair installation instead of a full one.

[Delfuego]

error Data error (cyclicredundancycheck)Means the disk (CD/diskette) is unreadable.

Download the driver from the company's website and copy to that machine and try again.
PS: Always use the most recent driver from the manufacturers website, they are generally newer and improved.

Hope this helps.

[james_bond_007]

Retracted...

[james_bond_007]

nothing worked. it looks like it will have to go back tomorrow.

Let's do some trouble-shootiing before you drive 200 miles again.

If you have 4 identical computers (desktops?), try

1) Cables unsecured ? ----Ensure all the internal cables are secure (pull them out and reconnect them), then try to install the driver on the problematic computer
.....a) cable end to the drive
.....b) cable end to the Motherboard

2) Cables bad ? Try replacing cables by borrowing from a "good" computer then try to install the driver on the problematic computer

3) Perhaps the "adapter" is bad? ...try "borrowing" one of the "good" adapters and try to install the driver on the problematic computer

4) Perhaps the drive is bad? ...try "borrowing" a drive from another computer and try to install the driver on the problematic computer


These are a few easy things to try before driving 200 miles ...

If you find the problem, then you can call Microcenter and maybe they will ship you a new part (if you can identify what is bad).

[brutal]

If you can get on the intarwebz wired, maybe one of the desktop wizards can offer to TeamViewer or LogMeIn remote and help you out? Sure would seem to be an easier fix than all the back and forth.

[james_bond_007]

5) USB port bad/flaky ? There should be several USB ports on the computer and a few different USB controllers on board (each controller shows up in the Device manager, and shows the ports attached). Try a different port for the adapter that is on a different controller

6) BIOS -- view the Bios settings and see if you can find any settings "of interest"

7) Swap HDs - If the computers are identical, temporarily "borrow" the boot HD from a "good" computer and install it in the "bad" computer. There are a few things that might not work, due to settings like MAC address, but they can be easily changed .

8) Also try the "bad computer " HD in a "good computer, and see if you can install the driver

9) Memory not seated well ? - Try reseating the RAM

10) Memory bad/flakey?
...a) Does the (right amount) of memory show up (in the BIOS or Dev Manager)
......i) same amount as the others?
......ii) Equal the amount the modules add up to ?
...b) Right "kind" of memory or memory types mixed (non-ECC vs ECC , parity vs. non parity, )
...c) Unbalanced modules ? Often they need to be put in as "like-size-pairs" and can't be randomly mixed when inserted
...d) Run a memory test to see if you have any bad RAM areas.
...e) Swap in the memory from a "good" computer, making sure each module goes in the "Exact Same Place" ...you can tag and mark them with a piece of tape

In my opinion, these are not "tearing the computer apart" , as they are items that a user might want to self-replace/upgrade, like memory, themselves.

Having a known good/working and Identical computer is a HUGE benefit. You have a "golden reference model" of parts that are KNOWN WORKING/KNOWN GOOD. Swapping out good parts for suspect parts is a lot easier than having just a "bad" computer that you have to try and guess what is wrong, and find some tests to run.

IMHO, If you pulled the heatsink off the processor and swapped processors, opened up the power supply, opened up the HD or CD ROM drive, you'd be "tearing the computer apart" and voiding the warranty...but the items I mentioned should not be an issue, because you can easily put it back the way you found it , after testing.

...but, we all have different levels of comfort. Please do what you feel is best.

Please also understand that I, like others, am "just trying to help". [Beer]

[james_bond_007]

Sorry to hear you had so much trouble.

A simple way to "stream video" is to "share" your drive; mount the shared drive on the other computers; and have them access the video files (or copy them locally to theirs) as if they were "local" to their computers, just use your shared drive as a "remote" drive.

Also, you once again have several identical computers. When you have problems, use my previous advice to your advantage and swap in known good parts to troubleshoot.

I'd also get something like Norton Ghost (lots of others), and get an external USB drive, and make a backup "image" of a computer (after loading all your software).
So...when (not if) one of the computers crashes, and since they are all the same, you can just restore the image to the computer (or the new HD for the crashed computer) and have all the drivers/software etc. load with the O/S in "one swoop". This won't restore any data/pics etc., but the computer will be back to its old self pretty easily.

Otherwise, you will have to go through the whole "load o/s, configure o/s, load latest device drivers, load ms office, load firefox, etc." process each time.
With the "image " method, you just load the whole thing at once, and change the computer name.


Remember, you have "friends" here that can help you....don't try to do it all by yourself [Beer]