<p>I think that I might have jumped the gun by purchasing a laptop computer for DD during the 4th of July sales period. </p>
<p>I thought that I had gotten a really good deal, but it turns out that I just checked the school’s IT web page and they do not support the Vista Home Operating System that the laptop came with. Furthermore, the web page indicates that there are all kind of issues with using Vista on their network, and that they recommend that students wait until Microsoft releases Service Pack 1 for Vista. Additionally, the school’s network will not support “home” versions of either the Windows XP or Vista Operating Systems (i.e. their network will not function with these Operating Systems).</p>
<p>I bring this up to alert parents/students who are purchasing new computers to check to see which operating system(s) is/are supported by their school’s network.</p>
<p>If any of you have recently experienced a similar problem, I would appreciate hearing what you did. Did you purchase a new operating system (i.e. XP) and installed it on your computer so that it would work with your school’s network? Is this difficult to do? How expensive is the Windows XP Professional Edition?</p>
<p>It is important that the laptop work with the school’s network. Check with the school to see if they sell the software you need. Our DD found great discounts through her college.</p>
<p>Thanks for the warning/reminder. Our son is getting ready to purchase his college laptop (last one was purchased as an 8th grade graduation gift). I need to remind him to check what type he needs for his college and major. His sister needed to purchase a MAC because she’s a design student. One’s major plays a large role in type of computer suggested - because of the software required specifically for that type of work - so check with student’s academic dept for requirements (not just the college).</p>
<p>It is quite easy to replace Vista with XP Pro, but if your daughter can wait until she gets to school, tech support would probably do it for her for a small fee or she can buy a cheap version of XP Pro from them and do it herself. I think at my school you can buy XP Pro for only about $10. You could even contact them now and ask.</p>
<p>I think SP1 for Vista should be out by end of 2007, so support for it should get a lot better after that, though probably not for the Home version at most schools.</p>
<p>We just bought DD a Macbook–I wasn’t up for trying to figure out Microsoft cr***. I can’t wait for my computer to die so I can buy myself a Mac too.</p>
<p>Don’t ever buy the OS the school network needs; instead buy one which can be upgraded to what they want. Virtually all of the time you can obtain the upgrade to the required version of the OS through the school for far far far cheaper than buying the required version with the OS outright.</p>
<p>TC your best option is to go to the school where they should sell the XP pro upgrade for really cheap. You will also need an XP home disc or any other qualifying version of Windows which you can upgrade to XP Pro from (I believe anything newer than Windows 98 qualifies minus Vista and MCE, you should have one of these laying around your house somewhere). When you go to start the install process for XP Pro it will ask you to put the disc in so it can see you own a qualifying version of Windows, you don’t actually need to install this other version of Windows, and then will allow you to proceed with the install.</p>
<p>I’d also like to point out that the schools aren’t always truthful about the OS requirements as mine requires XP Pro and I have several friends who use XP home and Linux and are fine.</p>
<p>Before you panic too much… my daughter’s college said that they didn’t support XP Home on their network – only XP Pro – we disregarded that entirely and never had a problem. “Don’t support” doesn’t mean “won’t work” … it just means that they aren’t going to know what to tell you if you have a problem connecting. But there never was an issue. When I went to visit my daughter – I took my computer with XP home and when I wanted to use the computer simply plugged in the ethernet cord… and it worked fine. </p>
<p>Vista is another issue entirely because there are still a lot of bugs and compatibility issues to work out, but no matter what the college’s IT people say, half the freshmen are going to arrive in the fall with new computers running Vista … the college IT people are going to be dealing with Vista compatibility issues whether they want to or not. You can’t stop progress. (I admit that Vista is not my idea of “progress”… but Bill Gates has a lot more money than I do, and whether I like or not… and that’s what he has decided to push out).</p>
<p>Do you have a home network? Does your daughter’s computer work on the home network? If it works at home it probably is going to work on the school’s system. It is designed to work with existing network protocols. </p>
<p>I think the main Vista “bug” right now is working with hardware & peripherals that were not designed for Vista – things like printers or external drives.</p>
<p>Well, that answers the “does your daughter need a printer” question. </p>
<p>From what I can figure out from the Harvard site, the problem might be with your daughter’s ability to access & use certain software programs from her computer – these are shared, high end programs like “Matlab” - a math & engineering program. The “FAS network registration” referred to does NOT appear to be the same as course registration – it looks like the way to get onto the special network to use specialized applications.</p>
<p>fyi - There’s a beta version of the CIsco VPN client available that works with Vista. </p>
<p>These colleges need to step up their work to allow Vista to operate on their networks since Vista now comprises a huge percentage of all new systems sold. Vista beta has been available for a long time now to allow for IT infrastructures to be updated to function with it.</p>
<p>I agree with the earlier poster - the school’s network department will have to deal with this one way or the other and should be able to provide an inexpensive method to connect to their network - hopefully without changing the OS.</p>
<p>The colleges will quickly upgrade their networks. Hard to believe there would be issues with Vista over TCP/IP. I was running Vista beta for months and months prior to general release of Vista. It’s not so new it would catch any sentient IT system administrator by surprise.</p>
<p>Before folks are too quick to criticize the IT folks at universities, they should do a little homework. Very few corporate environments (which is what a U is) are upgrading to vista for the reasons stated. Any new OS creates tons of problems in a complex environment. Most workplaces did not upgrade from windows 2K to XP for years. Some still have not because of legacy application needs.</p>
<p>For the one who suggested buying XP pro on the cheap, good idea EXCEPT it will make support from the mfgr tough to impossible. </p>
<p>IMHO, it is better to do nothing. Let her head to college and sort it out there. She will hardly be the only one with this problem and there will be workarounds. For example, Harvard has shared computers all over the place. And she may even resort to “sneaker net” for printing. Just make sure she has a few thumb drives.</p>
<p>This is hardly a crisis, and I think the OP will be surprised at how well it sorts itself out if we parents don’t make a further mess of things…</p>
<p>good advice vlad! It is even possible that the college tech support has a license to install a compatible OS on her computer. </p>
<p>Our son’s college required all students to have a laptop. Those who do not buy one through the college are able to legally download all of the software which is preloaded on the college pc’s.</p>
There’s a difference though. A workplace is generally a controlled environment whereby the company provides the computers, OS, and apps to the people using the network. In the case of most colleges however, the users are providing their own computers, OS, and some apps. Given that Vista is the current OS for the majority of computers sold today, the colleges need to expedite ensuring their network will function with with that OS. It’s complicated though by the variants of Vista available (business, basic, etc.).</p>
<p>Again, the best advice is probably to not worry about it too much, let the student bring the laptop to the college, and let the college determine the best method to allow the computer to function with their network.</p>
<p>I’d note that there is a really good chance that there will be some students at Harvard who are smart enough with computers to figure out the workarounds needed, even if the IT folks can’t. </p>
<p>And I agree with ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad - one way or another, Harvard is going to have to deal with Vista – and Microsoft is going to have to deal with Harvard and all the other universities running into similar compatibility issues. </p>
<p>Generally its just a matter of tweaking internal settings on the laptop or installing appropriate drivers – which is why the kids will figure it out even on their own. Plenty of online support and tutorials available with simple Google supports – years ago I was able to successfully network home computers which included machines running Windows 98, Windows ME, and Windows XP Home – I just had to find the appropriate hacks online to know what to do to get the non-XP computers configured correctly.</p>