News and Updates

All work and no Play?

A few years ago when I started off in my first business, an Internet Café, I remember the nights we used to play through shooting each other in Delta Force or racing it out in Need for Speed. Since then I have lost track of the PC Gaming scene...that is until this December, when I got a few games to keep me occupied during the holidays.

It was in my preparation for my December gaming holiday that I first stumbled upon the EAST LONDON CYBER GAMES on facebook. Aha, these okes made LAN’s possible close to where I live, and I immediately joined their group. Richard Beard, the founder of the group, asked for help in the beginning of 2010 with their website www.elcg.co.za

Now, being January, we didn’t have a lot of work on the table, and I felt that as a non-profit organization, I have a social responsibility towards helping these fellow gamers. After a few skype chats, Richard was able to start working with me on a new Joomla version of their website.

After a few hours spent between Richard and myself, we had the website ready before their LAN on the 30^th January. The framework is there now, and it’s up to the gaming community to populate and use the website. After boosting a picture gallery, event calendar, newsletter, enrollment forms, forums and much more on the website, they have what it takes to make a successful community website.

We, at ActionOnline, will be the proud sponsors of their hosting, development and support package, making sure we keep a helpful hand available and watchful eye on their progress.

Gelukwaarts hitting 2010 running

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A small farm school in the Free State, called Gelukwaarts Farm School, starts 2010 with a complete new server and lab setup, and a brand new website at www.gelukwaarts.co.za. This all started when the principal, Danie Wilken, attended a Joomla Boot Camp in Johannesburg during September 2009

The objective of the Boot Camp was to take control over their website and be able to add and update information, events and more. After getting the basics of Joomla under the belt, the website’s content slowly started taking form online. The website was not completed by the end of the 4-day Boot Camp, but Danie went back home with the knowledge of how to change and extend on what had been created in the 4 days.
It was during the Boot Camp that Mr Wilken first mentioned to me that he had 20 desktop computers, 5 laptops, a windows server … and no idea how it all worked! He had a 24/7 VSAT connection, and would also liked to have it shared to the computer lab.

After arriving back home in Cathcart, correspondence started and we slowly got an idea of how the IT infrastructure was put together for the school … and then abandoned by their IT Administrator. Working from what they had, to what they wanted, we needed to fill in a few new hardware items along the road such as Senao Access Points. Most of the work would have had to be done on-site however, as their existing lab server would have to be reloaded and transformed into an ACTIONBOX

The ActionBox would be placed in the lab, and would isolate and manage all the computers in the lab. It then also manages all the user accounts for students coming into the lab, stores all the files they work on, and then also provides them with censored Internet access.

It was long before the sun peaked into Cathcart when I left for Gelukwaarts, and it took me the better part of 3 hours to get there. The last 60 km on a dirt road took me deep into the heart of the Free State. From arriving at Gelukwaarts around 11 am that morning, until shortly after 3 pm the following day, 20 desktop computers were reloaded with Windows, the lab server reloaded with Suse 11.1 and turned into an ACTIONBOX. We also reloaded the laptops in between, just to make sure they also got a clean bill of health.

Click here, or on the box to order your school's server solution today.

Cathcart goes wireless

In a remote little town called Cathcart, not much more than a single stop street on the N6 between Queenstown and East London, ActionOnline created a wireless network covering the whole town. The network is managed from a Suse 11 (Linux) server. The whole of Cathcart High School is also connected on the wireless network, and they have their own Linux server in for controlling the computers in their lab.