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Reddit’s r_k12sysadmin Credits: @r_channels @reddit2telegram
HP ProBook 455 G8 random NMIHARWAREFAILURE (0X80)
We have a fleet of staff HP ProBook 455 G8 laptops and we have a growing pile of them getting that error repeatedly. Shipped one in for warranty repair and they claimed they did "extensive testing" for 10 hours and could not recreate the issue. Anyone else running into this and have a possible solution ? Side note- we also had the issue with these where they would randomly lose the network adapter- We solved by putting in a different wifi card from old student Chromebooks. All of these issues popped up after upgrading to Win11 over the summer. Thanks in advance!
https://redd.it/1sgqkbk
@r_k12sysadmin
Chromebooks getting blank webpages after 146 update
Anyone else getting this? I mean its a fairly easy fix of removing the profile and then signing back in but it is a pain with how many we are getting.
https://redd.it/1sfvt0l
@r_k12sysadmin
I am starting to think going with Chromebooks for my teaching staff was not the best move
I bought my teaching staff Lenovo 14e Chromebook Gen 3's 8GB RAM and 128GB.
I am just getting so many complaints. I did it becuase our fleet of Windows machines were just past EOL and my budget was so small.
I even ended up having to hand back the windows laptops to some of our teachers who need more power. Our EC teachers...
But at this point I'm a bit frustrated. A teacher came to me today and mentioned the Neo (Apple) and I told him I wished that was available last year before I made this decicion.
I've seen it too, they are not abusing the machines. Aren't saving tons of stuff on it to fill up that 128GB or running way to many tabs, etc. It just is slow for teachers enough that is has become burdensome and I think the staff resents me for it a bit. 8GBs was not enough for longterm use.
So yeah, I just wanted to share. I am open to advice. My first time dealing with a budget and I don't like the feeling that I mismanaged this.
https://redd.it/1sg3p5z
@r_k12sysadmin
AirPrint
We utilize 1:1 iPads for students. At the end of last year we started experiencing AirPrint issues. All of our printers (HP 402dn LaserJet) seem to have random issues printing. The certs are up to date and firmware updated. All printers are on the student VLAN. When you print, they’re all visible. Most can print. But we have constant issues where you can see the printer, select it, then it disappears. Sometimes you can reselect it and it will stick and print other times students are forced to Air Drop to staff laptops. All iPads are on iOS 26. Any suggestions would be helpful.
https://redd.it/1sffuqv
@r_k12sysadmin
Palo Alto EDL for testing platforms
Does anyone know of a Palo url and/or IP EDL that is managed with all the various testing platforms in it? We are beginning to move towards decrypting more traffic and manually adding every testing platform to the exclusion list seems like it would be a solved problem.
https://redd.it/1sez2qa
@r_k12sysadmin
Chromebook keys silicone pad anchoring
Does anyone know the best way to affix the silicone pad for a key on a Chromebook? I replaced a key from a broken machine, and though it was fine, but the teacher said the silicone dome came out from under the key within an hour.
I'm thinking an adhesive, but I don't want to mess it up by putting the wrong type in there.
https://redd.it/1secyee
@r_k12sysadmin
POS Solutions for Consessions?
What is everyone using for Point of Sale for concessions at school games? I've looked at Fan Food, Future Fund, and Blitz Concessions. Is it worth the extra the vendors tack on or just run Square hardware, build menus, and go?
https://redd.it/1se3zf4
@r_k12sysadmin
Blocked malware website hit 100s of times... Should I do something?
Perhaps the answer is simply that the filter is doing its job, but there is a specific random website that is blocked for malware reasons through my filter, that students have hit hundreds of times In the past week, almost 2000x this month. Is this a sign of something more sinister? I've been searching the site and I can't find any information about it anywhere. Usrpubtrk(.)com
This is a school of 150 kids, btw.
ETA: turns out this site is showing up on 34 different users accounts; 36 managed Chromebooks and one BYOD. I've traced it back to the flippin video game site that it likely came from, and "patient zero." Although it doesn't appear to have been spread to each other through email.
I'm planning on resetting the devices and student passwords tomorrow, but how do I erase all of their caches? I I don't want whatever it is to just go back on once they log in.
https://redd.it/1s8wso4
@r_k12sysadmin
Papercut Cloud Print "Invalid Username/Password"
UPDATE 04/03/2026:
This has been added to Papercut's Known Issues (Issue ID MOB-3181)
While the official statement declares this is only a cosmetic issue, we also ran into problems with jobs sending to the queue so I'm not sure that I completely buy that / ymmv.
UPDATE 04/02/2026:
This appears to be an issue with ChromeOS version 146. We have begun rolling all of our computers back to version 145 in response. Papercut is actively looking into this.
The fact that we migrated our print server at the same time this issue cropped up was a complete red herring.
—————————————
We are using Papercut Cloud Print in our computer lab. The computer lab consists of Chromeboxes running in Managed Guest Sessions mode with the Mobility Print extension installed. The mobility print extension is configured in the Google Admin console with our Cloud Print invite policy.
To print, we are using shared generic accounts created internally within Papercut MF. For example, computer #01 logs into the mobility print pop up using the credentials "01" for username and "01" for password. To retrieve their prints at the printer/print release, a user would enter those same credentials. (Technically, any of the shared accounts can be used on any computer, since there is no actual way to assign a Papercut login to a computer in Managed Guest Sessions, but this helps keeps things organized especially when there are multiple people printing in the lab).
We just completed a server migration, and copied the old print server (VM) config over to the new server from a VMWare backup. Now, when anyone goes to print from one of our computer lab computers, they get an error that says "Invalid Username/Password" after entering the internal account credentials. However, 90% of the time, the job still goes through and can be retrieved from the print queue at the release station.
I have spent all day trying to troubleshoot this and am at a loss. I have run through the steps on various Papercut troubleshooting pages, and everything seems to be configured exactly as it should. I can't find anything amiss in the Papercut MF or Mobility Print settings. All Papercut services are running on the new server. I even tried creating a brand new Mobility Print link and updated the existing extension policy.
We do have Email to Print enabled as well, and this seems to be working fine as far as I can tell, so I'm more or less narrowing the issue down to something with Mobility print...? I did see that Mobility Print requires access to port 9163, and haven't ruled out that something could be blocking it, but that doesn't seem to fit the symptoms and also shouldn't affect the Cloud Print service.
Wondering if anyone has come across anything like this, or has any ideas. :-)
https://redd.it/1s9yo7k
@r_k12sysadmin
Oklahoma Schools | Microsoft won't validate (school).k12.ok.us domains for licensing?
I work for multiple schools. I've successfully done it on 2 of 5. I've given them accreditation letters. I've given them ticket numbers for the schools that were successful in getting licenses. They are getting hung up on validation of domain. I told them I can have MX records added. Nope. They want pics and legal docs saying we own the domain, even though all k12.ok.us domains are owned/operated by OneNet with the state.
Their constant request:
We would like to process your request; however, this domain (school).k12.ok.us cannot be verified by our internal team.
Therefore, We would like to request you to provide additional proof of domain ownership that must include:
1)Domain name
2)Entity name
3)Expiry date at least 1 month away from now.
4)Time stamp & URL (in case of domain management portal screenshot)
on a single document.
Acceptable proofs of domain ownership are:
• Domain registration document.
• Purchase receipt clearly indicating the domain, organization name, purchase date, expiration date.
• Screenshots of domain management portal, mentioning the domain and the name of the institution.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
\~\~
I've tried some escelation:
"I want this to be escalated to either the Data Protection Team or the Education Validation Team.
Every single time we have done one of these, we have spouted the SAME thing. The State Department of Oklahoma OWNS the domain. We are a subdomain. We cannot show you that. The state manages it, more importantly OneNet manages it.. You cannot have a **k12.ok.us** subdomain unless you are an accredited school."
I've even forwarded emails from OneNet on this.
\~\~
Their last email;
I wanted to let you know that, despite our best efforts, we won’t be able to proceed further with your request for Domain EUD validation directly. We’ve explored all possible options on our end and have done everything within our capacity to assist.
Please note that the validation from the ONE Vet Team is unsuccessful, there will be no additional actions we can take regarding this request.
We truly appreciate your patience, understanding, and cooperation throughout this process, and I’m sorry we couldn’t bring this to a resolution ourselves.
\~\~
I need a sanity check, tips & tricks, or someone clear up my misunderstanding...
Thank you
https://redd.it/1sampou
@r_k12sysadmin
GimKit Content
Just wanted to let everyone know about an incident we had on this site today. A 4th grade student was able to find a page with adult content and racism. I brought it to GimKit attention and this was their response below. I currently have blocked the site and they did remove the content. Heads up though.
Hi there,
Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
This was created by a student who fraudulently signed up for an educator account. The kit has been removed and the account banned.
I appreciate you bringing it to our attention for removal.
In the future, emailing us the link or using the flag option is the best way to have content removed:
Here is a list of individual domains that can be blocked by your network on student devices in case you want to lock their access down further.
https://www.pexels.com if you'd like to prevent any images from pexels from showing. Please note this means that teachers will not be able to see the image library at all, and if they add images from pexels to kits the students will see a broken image icon.
https://www.gimkit.com/host will prevent students from hosting games.
https://www.gimkit.com/kits will prevent them from creating kits of their own.
https://www.gimkit.com/creative will prevent students from accessing creative.
https://www.gimkit.com/signup will prevent students from signing up for student accounts
https://www.gimkit.com/login will prevent students from accessing accounts at all
https://www.gimkit.com/discovery will prevent students from searching educator kits in Gimkit
https://www.gimkit.com/view will prevent them from seeing kits even with a direct link.
Please let me know if you have any questions or if I can help with anything at all.
https://redd.it/1sbpcpg
@r_k12sysadmin
Infinite Campus - What the leak really exposed?
https://k12techtalkpodcast.com/e/infinite-campus-fallout-what-the-ticket-leak-really-exposed/ and all major podcast platforms
We debrief last week’s Infinite Campus interview, explaining new findings about the leaked support data - what was in the release, how directory-level information and PII were involved, and what districts can do to check and respond. We discuss vendor ticket practices, district ticket practices, minimizing data in support requests, and how districts should approach vendor privacy agreements going forward.
https://redd.it/1sbv29c
@r_k12sysadmin
ios26.4 Appstore
Hello all,
I just noticed yesterday after deployment. In ios26.4 Appstore there is no Log Out part under name.
We gave supervised icloud accounts. It is not allowed to use Appstore. On the AppStore side students logout from school account and login with their personal account for downloading their wanted apps such as games, netflix etc. Now I think it is not possible did anyone notice this and what will be your actions ?
https://redd.it/1s8e7kr
@r_k12sysadmin
Mobile parade solution
Looking for people who’ve built a mobile audio rig for a community parade to push along with 2-4 speakers , generator, and mixer .
https://redd.it/1s75ys3
@r_k12sysadmin
Has anyone turned EOL computers into a teardown workshop for kids?
I’m stepping out of the IT office for a bit and doing a laptop tear down tutorial with the older kids as a “Computer Science Lab”. Have any of you done this before? Besides going over computer safety and best practices, learning about parts and their roles, do you have any tips?
https://redd.it/1s4tsdl
@r_k12sysadmin
Anyone doing any state testing this week?
Just wanted to check in on those that are, trade any issues or bugs discovered or anything like that. I've heard reports locally of issues with freezes on one particular question on one grade level test, and have heard of some schools having issues with Chromebooks on v144.
https://redd.it/1sgom3m
@r_k12sysadmin
Edulink Systems (Intouch, Relay)
# Formal Notice of Immediate Cessation of Operations and Service Termination
Dear Valued Customer,
This notice is provided to formally advise that Edulink Systems, Inc. has ceased operations effective immediately.
Following the recent passing of the company's president, the Intouch notification service will remain operational on a limited and temporary basis, subject to availability. Service functionality may be reduced, intermittent, or otherwise degraded during this interim period.
You are hereby notified and advised to promptly secure alternative service providers. All SMS delivery services will terminate effective Friday, April 10 at 5pm. In addition, all customer support services have been discontinued and will no longer be available after Friday, April 10 at 5pm.
This notice shall serve as final communication regarding service availability.
We regret any inconvenience this may cause.
Sincerely,
Edulink Systems, Inc.
https://redd.it/1sg7zu9
@r_k12sysadmin
Screen Time on Chromebooks
Anyone have a recommended process or extension for gathering screen time analytics for school managed chromebooks? I know I can view active time by device in the admin console, but looking for something a little more granular that can provide more insights by grade or by application use.
https://redd.it/1sf65pn
@r_k12sysadmin
Dell vs Lenovo Chromebooks
Our last refresh with Dells has left a sour taste in my mouth. We have had no end of problems. Many of the touchpad cables were poorly seated. The motherboards have burned out of hundreds in just 2 years.
At the same time, we have had a lot of luck with Lenovo desktops and Laptops for staff.
It's almost time for a refresh at one of our schools. So I wanted to see what others are having good luck or bad luck with.
https://redd.it/1sf5cf2
@r_k12sysadmin
Wireless Configuration for Students & BYOD: 802.1X, or other?
Infrastructure context: We have ClearPass as our AAA system for our large district. Cisco WLC 9800s power our wireless deployment.
Problem: Our BYOD networks enforce 802.1X / PEAP as their authentication mechanism. A student changes their password. All devices with their old credentials cached try to connect to the network and in short order, lock their user account in AD after too many failed attempts. We unlock this, and it occurs again. It’s difficult to track down all devices, and it causes unnecessary interruptions for the student(s).
How do you operate your student wireless networks and authentication? How do you ensure password changes don’t impact their connection?
We enforce certificate-based device authentication for our managed staff devices, but for our larger user base of students, we have to enforce some amount of identity-based authentication.
https://redd.it/1sf0pd1
@r_k12sysadmin
Chromebooks student account
We have a mix of iPads and Dells in our district and this fall we are replacing the Dells with Chromebooks. What is the correct and easiest way to get passwords reset we always used AD to reset passwords. Trying to get a good process working to avoid confusion for deployment and help desk.
https://redd.it/1se6j0i
@r_k12sysadmin
Screen Share Devices
Greetings!
We've got some really old promethean boards that are like 10 years old that just need to be thrown away since most of them are really slow. We're slowly getting rid of Promethean Boards and are replacing them with newline boards instead. Do you know any devices that we could plug into the old Promethean Boards to at least make them somewhat usable? For example, I've tried using a vivi unit, but the vivi units make the old Promethean board's screens flicker constantly and make them unusable. I'm thinking of checking out some Chrome cast devices so that staff could use those to screen share. Do you have any recommendations of what devices I could use until I get the Promethean Boards replaced?
Thanks!
https://redd.it/1se3kzg
@r_k12sysadmin
Google Workspace settings: web session control, etc.
What do you all with GWS have for settings regarding student web session length? Do you have it set to days, weeks, or hours? And is there a separate place you have settings to make students sign back into their devices daily, hourly, etc. or is that the same thing as web session length? Thanks.
https://redd.it/1s9rztb
@r_k12sysadmin
Is it just us or has Raptor completely gone downhill lately?
We’ve been running their visitor management system across multiple campuses and it’s turned into a constant headache. Kiosks randomly breaking, badge printing issues, scanners acting up, and support has been basically nonexistent. We’ve had tickets open for weeks with no real resolution.
From what I’m seeing, we’re not alone either. (Saw many people are complaining about it) On paper the system *should* be solid—ID scanning, offender database checks, badge printing, etc. (). But in practice it’s been unreliable enough that our front offices don’t trust it anymore.
At this point we’re seriously evaluating alternatives. I’ve seen a few names floating around:
* Navigate360 (seems to come up a lot in comparisons)
* Coram (very NEW- Not sure if anyone has any feedback)
* Verkada (heard mixed but mostly positive feedback)
Also curious if anyone has looked at newer or more modern platforms lately—especially anything cloud-native, better iPad/kiosk support, or that doesn’t rely on weird printer/scanner dependencies.
If you’ve ditched Raptor recently, what did you move to and how’s it holding up? Worth the pain of switching or just different problems?
https://redd.it/1s9h3jh
@r_k12sysadmin
Engineering Support
For districts who do not have an in-house engineer to handle their infrastructure, how do you vet companies to make sure they can properly meet your district's needs? The MSP my district has contacted hours with over the last decade has lost their good engineers and now their support is not great. I rarely need engineer assistance, but it is nice to have when working on high level projects. What are key things I can ask for to ensure their staff's knowledge is greater than mine in the areas I need?
https://redd.it/1sb2kvy
@r_k12sysadmin
How do you handle tickets directly from students? Or do you?
Curious how or if your district handles tickets directly from students. I'm meaning older students (high school). Do you let students put in tickets directly, or do you have them go through a staff member or some kind of student technician?
We're rolling out 1:1 laptops for our high school students, and we'll need to change how we handle tickets. Currently we have some shared/assigned carts, so the teachers will put in tickets. But with laptops going home and with no permanent spot for them at the school, tracking down kids during the day will be tougher. I am assuming that communicating/coordinating with the kids directly is much tougher than with teachers.
Do you simply track down the student in whatever class they are currently in, or do you have assigned times/locations where students can receive assistance/meet with techs? Also, do you utilize "student techs" or any other form of student assistance for other students?
Curious what other districts are doing, so we can evaluate which options might work best. Appreciate any input or thoughts!
https://redd.it/1sd6ytk
@r_k12sysadmin
Server Pricing
This is more of a casual observation of the current server pricing landscape, but for those interested, this is what I was recently quoted for a single Dell and HP Server:
Dell PowerEdge R670 with dual 8c/16t CPU, 256 GB RAM, 8TB SSD, dual 480GB BOSS cards, 10gig NIC, and 5 year ProSupport was $35,000 dollars. I know Dell just did another round of price hikes so I don't have those numbers yet.
HP ProLiant DL360 G12 with dual 8c/16t CPU, 128 GB RAM, 10TB SSD, 10gig NIC, and 5 year warranty was $69,000.
The Dell quote is a few weeks old and the HP quote is from today. I can't say I'm surprised but I am still shocked.
https://redd.it/1s8siyf
@r_k12sysadmin
Custom AI for Students
I am trying to create a custom Gem (GPT) for students in my district. I want the AI to be a tool for the students; something that they can use to provide resources, get ideas, help walk them through math problems step by step, etc. while not doing work/solving problems for them. I want it to force the students to actually do the work and assist them in the learning process.
As a recent college graduate, I have seen how when students are not taught how to use AI, they allow it to do the work for them. I have friends whose college work was done almost exclusively by ChatGPT. My thought process in creating this is that by giving them an AI that will assist them rather than do the work for them, they will learn how to use it as a tool before they learn to use it as a cheat code. I also know that while students do not currently have access to AI on their school devices, they can easily use their personal devices to do access AI to do work for them. I am hoping that by allowing this AI on their school devices, I can cut down on the number of students who do this because they already have AI on their device.
The point of this post is to discuss how I can reach these goals. I already have a very basic Gem drafted, but it is going to need a lot more work before its ready for student use. What suggestions do you have? What rules can I give to the AI to help it reach its goal? Are my expectations of what I can create unrealistic in the current AI landscape? Any and all feedback is appreciated.
Godspeed my fellow sysadmins.
https://redd.it/1s806ni
@r_k12sysadmin
Blocking Github for students when Coding and Robotics teams "need" it to function
Good day my fellow k12sysadmins.
For several years we have had an organizational policy to block Github for students and staff. Only unblocking for certain IT Support and development staff members. The reasons being first that malicious actors host malicious scripts/files in Github projects so when a user for example gets hit with a Fake Captcha attack they accidentally download and run a script from a "trusted" website like github. The second reason being students also host malicious files to bypass controls and proxies and the like. Just recently a student was found to be bypassing their GoGuardian controls, in their bookmarks was a link to a Github repo that hosted a java script that disables GoGuardian. This wasn't how they were disabling the GoGuardian in this case because Github was blocked but it at least highlights why we keep it blocked in general.
That background in mind we have been approached by the Career and Technology curriculum coordinators on behalf of their robotics teams that they have a pressing need to access Github for their projects. Due to the cybersecurity concerns above its just had the can kicked down the road over and over. I am now being approached again and I am looking for solutions for them rather than hitting snooze again.
From what i see we can at least obtain an EDU license for Github Enterprise Server. We can host the server locally. Use our own LDAP to control access. Have staff members manually update or use a programmatic way to update the local repos with the live repos on Github. This seems to solve most of the issues we have and provides the students with a collaborative space to work on the projects and "learn" Github.
The issues remaining are that the Robotics teams have informed us they need the external sponsors and mentors to be able to access the projects. They also need to be able to publicly publish the code in order to comply with FIRST rules for their competitions.
So I am asking here if any k12sysadmins have come across this roadblock before. How are you handling the Github issue in your district? What work around have you been able to put into place?
I am the districts Cybersecurity Analyst so my role is to try and establish the "guard rails" and ensure we remain within our cybersecurity policies we've establish previously. The actual logistics belongs to other groups but I basically have to be able to sign off and say "yes, that works" or "Thats an acceptable risk" and so on. I cannot change policy at this time because we're in a bit of a cybersecurity leadership transition.
https://redd.it/1s4cwiy
@r_k12sysadmin
TestNav Notifications Problem
We're currently doing our pre-testing testing to find whatever fit TestNav is going to throw this year before it gets to the students, and this year it seems to be a problem with notifications. TestNav will shut the test down if it detects any program trying to become the dominant window, which notifications count as for some reason, and it will even freak out and shut the test down over its own notifications. Before you load the test it gives notifications asking for access to the camera and mic if it's the first time this user has loaded TestNav, which isn't a problem, but as you are loading into the test it will also ask for permission to find devices on the local network (no earthly idea why it needs this) and that will shut the test down. We have yet to find a way to keep this from happening.
We're running on MacBooks, on a combination of Sequoia and Tahoe, mostly Sequoia at this point. Anyone have any idea how to deal with this? Pearson support has been less than helpful, and our MDM Mosyle doesn't have any suggestions either.
https://redd.it/1s55nr4
@r_k12sysadmin