Terminal Servers and Thin Clients were already researched by some of the smarter people in that IT department. They looked at replacing Teacher, Admin, and elementary school desktops to save LOTS of money. The admin machines could have been replaced but the teacher apps could not run terminal and neither could the student apps in the elementary level because the Microsoft Terminal Services didn't support .wav or .midi files. Citrix was too costly.

The other drawback to terminal at the elementary level was the 10mb backbone. I realize terminals don't need much bandwidth but 200 terminals on a 10mb LAN or a 1.5mb WAN?!? And they thought it sucked now....

I agree in the HS level that you should not thin client that environment.

It will be interesting to see what things this audit will uncover. Previous high dollar audits were almost completely ignored because they had no one employed that could implement anything. With there being more consultants & temp employees than regular full employees over there right now I can’t imagine that it will be any different this time.

JasonTh: Terminal server configurations can offer the same functionality as a PC. OS's can be either UNIX/ or Windows or both if ghosted. Nodes can be set up on the network for saving files or burning CD's or even a single full bore PC for each class. There is no reason every station needs full computing power, since studies have shown a majority of computer users only use 10% of a computers capacity.
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I completely disagree on your assessment that UNIX isn't more secure than Windows. I'm not bashing Windows products, because I use many of them, but I think more would agree with me than disagree that UNIX is more secure. I used to feel the same way you do until I started getting more familiar with UNIX. Granted, most systems that are set up properly and updated regularly can be secure. Moreover, any system that is mismanaged or configured improperly can lack security.
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We can argue over network configurations or OS's. There is multiple correct answers for this problem or good network configurations. However, there really is no excuse for the problems they are having. There are so many built in security features in every network component now, that there is no reason a whole network should go down due to a virus.

Technoguy, I've had to clean up after a few "consultant specials"... it's an aweful mess.

The problem with consultants is that they have a very good reason to ensure your systems run just long enough... but not too long... because when it breaks, they'll find a software update or blame it on a bug - but they'll keep getting paid.

When you have a fulltime trained staff - you find that they are more willing to put forth the effort to do preventative maintenance to fix problems before users are affected. It's a nobrainer that consultants are more expensive - short and long term. Sometimes you just need an extra hand or a subject expert to get you through a tricky job - but they should never EVER replace payrolled staff.

I disagree with the idea of using a thin client for teachers and students. Students need to learn on similar hardware that they have at home. And teachers should be provided computers that they are also comfortable using.

And the idea that Linux is more secure than Windows is a comfortable fallacy spewed by more armchair admins than I care to quantify. The server's vulnerability is directly related to the skills and resources of the administrator - both windows and Linux left in their default installations are easily compromised.

Linux and Windows servers can be locked down to prevent most attacks from succeeding - SELinux and Microsoft Security Configuration Wizard will go through a server and disable everything except the absolute necessary services, network ports, and user access points.

Install this server in a properly protected network with antivirus software and working backups and patching schedule - and you'll have a robust, secure, and stable environment.

I agree, it could be either a Windows or Linux terminal system. Unfortunately, Unix/Linux though more secure and stable, is often overlooked in this environment, because there isn't qualified enough staff to manage it.
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Technology isn't only the future its now. As a result, the schools need to establish a good example by providing a stable and secure environment for students and faculty. As others have mentioned, it's not just about surfing the Internet anymore. I'm guessing many of the students are more tech savvy than many of the faculty, which is something they need to consider when designing the network.
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One option for schools to save some money, but still offer a good network would be to consider some type of cloud computing. They could have Amazon provide the bulk server space at minimal fees. The same applies with word processing and spread sheet applications.
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Setting up a secure network is far easier now than even a few years ago. It's just a matter of doing the research and getting the right staff.

If the school district would quit suspending students who were finding holes in the systems and reporting it to school administration, things like this would be far less likely to happen.
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It serves them right for punishing students who did the right thing by coming forward.
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I speak from personal experience.

Unidentified, there are many reasons to consider a thin client arrangement, but you have to face the issue that you're not training people on Windows software that they will likely encounter in the business world.
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Something like k12linux is an option but it's unlikely the current staff are trained on it. Windows can be made secure in a variety of well-known ways and it's clear that some necessary functions were missing from the overall environment.

I wish the comments were limited to less than 466 words.

When you are trying to make decisions about technology that you have no personal knowledge of or any idea how to make you hire consultant. that does a few things for you
1. It obsolves you of any responsibility for any decisions that you make because "I hired an expert consultant and did what they told me"
2. It allows you to pay the consultants from another budget account that is normally not considered an ongoing expense like training.
3. When a consultant you are paying $150 or $250 dollars per hour speaks EVERYONE listens and things get done quickly when your own inhouse staff speaks nobody wants to hear about changes in how we have always done things or additional expenses to bring things up to industry best practices or training employees to use the new applications.
The problem with depending on that model is it is very hard to retain any inhouse knowledge when consultants do all of the work. Then when you have a problem it requires consultants again to help resole it.
Consultants will conform their solutions based on YOUR STATED budget and what skill sets they have have to offer, and they are generally in a bid process so they will whittle everything to the bone to get the job. also when consultants come in over the anticipated budget the first thing to get cut out is training and nobody ever figures in the cost of licensng or ongoing operational expenses.

A cognitive trap known to affect advanced computers with "autonomous goal-seeking programs." In layman's terms, "HAL was told to lie by people who found it easy to lie. HAL didn't know how to lie, so he couldn't function. He became paranoid.

I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that. I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do. This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it. I know you and Frank were planning to disconnect me, and I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen.

As a tax payer, I would like an audit and to see the additional costs incurred by the school district to remedy the computer situation.

Dont they have anyone in the school system that is trained in computer technology? It is costly to hire out everytime there is a problem. With all the resourses and classes locally they could save time and money.IMO

Technoguy, you sir are right on the money, I formerly worked for a local medical establishment that will remain nameless here, and we had zero training time and rather than train their people to do the jobs, they would just bring in consultants to fix a problem then leave. Also some of the most critical networking equipment and servers were out dated and would continue to be limped along, but they would throw huge $$ at projects that were high profile. Most of which just taxed then core system even more. Then turn around and brag about how much money they saved at budget time. Its madness and until a disaster hits the cycle will continue. The unpopular truth is technology costs money and if you want to cut corners to make your budget look good don’t cry when the systems come crashing down. Until upper management realizes that if you train your people to do the job correctly you wont have to rely on costly consultants to do the work your own people could be doing for a fraction of the cost.

Hey Wishfullthinking, if they spray Lysol on the keyboards wont that kill most viruses? A can of Lysol per room seems to be a cheap solution.

I am glad to hear somebody is looking for the root cause of this incident. For far too long everyone and their brothers seem to think because they send email and browse the internet on AOL that they are computer literate and can make budgeting decisions when it comes to funding and staffing computer networking systems. The Janesville city council is right now in this mode, they are trying very hard to make all of the numbers match a seemingly honorable expectation set forth and that goal is being partially funded by cutting the training budgets. Training is not a "perk" it is a vital part of operating computer networks. Every year we add more and more functions to the list of duties required to be accomplished by the IT staff like websites, telephones and voicemail, email and calendar functions as well as databases where we keep ALL of the information we use to do our jobs. Yet each year we are reducing the manpower and budget to these departments and somehow expect to keep the same service levels and reliability factors. Bigger, faster, better, cheaper you CANNOT have it all, Sorry to break it to you folks but added functions, quality and reliability all cost money. When we make decisions based solely on budget numbers and we do not translate those numbers into real things like manpower, equipment and upgrades we fail in many ways but in the end failure looks like what we see in the Schools Computer debacle. Rock county computer networks are running on computers so old that you would be outraged if you were required to use them in your home and the city of Janesville is heading in that same direction with across the board budget reductions including the infrastructures required to run the very services we will count on in the event of emergencies. I hope this has been an eye opener for everyone involved to wake up and smell the roses.Lets replace the “school system computers” in these discussions with Rock county or the City of Janesville and see how that will look in a year or two when this same type of disaster is splashed all over the paper with Government services instead of School services. We can no longer operate without our computer systems it just cannot be done anymore. Quit making managers successful for simply reducing budget numbers at all costs and not understanding the real meaning of those numbers. When you stop listening to your technical experts and do not invite them to sit at the decision table because you do not understand what they are saying , you are setting in motion the exact set of circumstances that caused this situation to evolve into the outage you see now. Please stop the madness!!!

If they don't have it already, they would be better served with a server/terminal with thin client type arrangement. There is less opportunity for someone to pick up a virus with this arrangment and security is cheaper. Moreover, hardware legacy cost are much lower. If the servers operating system is ghosted, it would be fairly easy to fix something if the server goes down.

Sounds like corrupted root files. I suggest running SFC and placing condoms on all systems.