Development updates for parents and boys of Hough House are as follows:

• All the bedroom doors have been changed and painted white which has brightened the house considerably.

• We also have some great new carpets in the downstairs corridors as well as new plants and pictures.

• The sliding doors in the Common Room have been replaced with new ones and all the lights in the common room and TV room have been replaced.

• Rooms 1 & 3 and 18 & 20 have been knocked through to make two lovely big rooms.

• IT staff have installed aerials in the boarding house and wireless connection to the internet is now up and running.

Below is important information we have received from IT Support regarding the wireless system:

The wireless is up and running with access control to the network. This will allow pupils to access the internet only, however there is certain criteria that all pc's need to adhere to so that they are able to connect to the system. Pupils wishing to work on their school documents will either have to email them to themselves or use a USB stick to transfer the documents.

IT support are in the process of putting together a user guide for the system which will be made available shortly.

To enable access on your laptops these are the minimum requirements.

For laptops running Windows XP:

All windows "critical" and "important" updates must be installed on the machine. The machine must have antivirus software installed which needs to be up-to-date with the latest definitions, the machine also needs to have some kind of anti-spyware software installed which also needs to be up-to-date. If boarders do not have these they will not be allowed access to the network.

Free anti-virus and anti-spyware is available from www.free.avg.com this may not be the best but it will definitely stop the more common viruses.

For laptops running Windows Vista:

All windows "critical" and "important" windows updates must be installed on the machine. The machine must have antivirus software installed which needs to be up-to-date with the latest definitions, Windows Vista has its own anti-spyware program called "Windows Defender" which also needs to be up-to-date.

Free anti-virus and anti-spyware is again available from www.free.avg.com.

Policies

As the access rights will be the same as those on the school network machines, the standard internet usage policy will apply. Boarders have to be aware that use of any file sharing program or attempts to bypass the security in any way will result in the wireless access being suspended.