Author Archives: Brian Abeling

About Brian Abeling

Director of Technology, serving West Des Moines Community Schools

AutoDesk now providing software to secondary students for FREE!

autodesk
AutoDesk, a world-wide leader in 3D, entertainment, and engineering software is now providing free software downloads for secondary students.

Some of their most popular software titles include:  3ds Max, which is used for 3d modeling for games and movies; AutoCAD and Revit for engineering and design, and Maya for 3D modeling and animation.

Check out the AutoDesk website designated for K-12 students to get your free copies.. http://www.autodesk.com/education/free-software/students-k12/popular

@WDMCS Staff: Problems using Outlook at home? Do you use MediaCom?

UPDATE on 12/4/2014:

Although the issue hasn’t been addressed by Mediacom, they have provided users with a work around that can be performed on each machine.

Step 1) Open Internet Explorer

Step 2) Visit:     http://cas.wdmschools.local    This will bring up a redirect page from Medicom.

Step 3) On this redirect page, click on SETTINGS

Step 4) Under SEARCH GUIDE SETTINGS, select the OFF button and click SAVE.

After marking this setting, then close Internet Explorer and then open Microsoft Outlook.

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original message….

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Frustration! from Bev Sykes

Frustration! from Bev Sykes

We’ve had a number of reports over the last few weeks that WDMCS staff are unable to use Microsoft Outlook while at home, but everything works just fine when they are at school.  Unfortunately, the reports were sporadic and we originally weren’t able to confirm or replicate the reported issues…. however, we now have identified what’s in common with all the reported issues.

All of the users reporting these issues are using MediaCom services at home.    Some users have found that they can connect VPN first and then Outlook works and others have reported that Outlook doesn’t work with or without VPN.

Q1. I use MediaCom at home, so what are my options?
A1.  Option 1 is to turn on VPN services first, then try to connect with Outlook.  If that doesn’t work, you’ll then have to use the web mail interface until the issue is resolved.

Q2.  When will the issue be resolved?
A3.  We don’t have a time frame from MediaCom.  We have a support ticket with them, but the case is already over a week old, so we’re not sure what the time frame for resolution will be.