Windows 10: Windows Offline Network activation

I am looking for the best option to activate windows licenses for the systems on an offline network. We have multiple server 2016s, and 2012 R2s as well 10 to 15 windows 10 clients. I looked into Volume Activation but we don't meet the requirements. Is there another option besides calling them in?


Thanks

:)

 

Microsoft enables offline play for Windows 10 games

Most Windows 10 games will support offline play, but you'll have to work at it.





"Larry Hryb, the man known to the world as Major Nelson, announced on Twittertoday that Microsoft has "made some backend updates to improve your experience playing @Windows 10 games offline." Basically, if you're going to be somewhere that lacks online coverage—on a submarine, for instance—it will still be possible to play your games. But there are some restrictions.

"Most games available in the Store on your Windows 10 device support offline play, but check the details of the game to make sure yours is supported by searching for your game at http://www.xbox.com," the Xbox support site says. "Most games with a campaign mode will be playable offline, but games with network co-op or multiplayer features will not work while you’re offline. While playing offline, some features, such as the ability to purchase additional items from the Windows Store, will not be available. Additionally, any leaderboards will be unavailable while you're offline."

Obviously, online features like buying stuff from in-game stores won't be available when you're offline, but the bit about "games with network co-op or multplayer features" not working while offline really isn't clear. We tested with Gears of War 4 and confirmed that the offline features like campaign and LAN multiplayer worked just fine when disconnected.

There are more caveats, though. You're limited to just one "designated offline device" at a time, and you can only change your designated offline device three times per year. Switching into offline mode isn't all that easy, either. First, you'll need to set your designated offline device:

• Make sure that you’re online.
• Check that your device has the latest Windows updates: Go to Start,Settings, Update and security, and then Windows Update and see if any relevant updates are available.
• Open the Store. You’ll be prompted to sign in if you haven’t already.
• Select the Me icon (this is your profile picture).
• Select Settings, and then under Offline Permissions, make sure that the toggle is set to On.

After that, you'll have to "prepare" your games by launching each one that you want to play offline while you're still online, and logging into your Xbox Live account. This is a bit like launching Steam into Offline mode while you still have an internet connection... but you'll have to prepare each individual Xbox game this way before going offline.

Once you've logged into the game while you're online, you can exit at any time and you'll be set. Of course, if you change your mind and want to play something you haven't properly prepared, you're out of luck.

The upside is that this only affects Windows 10 games, but it still seems wildly complicated and restrictive to me. Worse, while improved functionality is always welcome, I can't see how this does anything but beg for unflattering comparisons with Steam: When I want to play my Steam games offline, I set Steam offline, restart it, and I'm on my way—and I can do it as often as I want. Microsoft's implementation of offline play is an improvement, but only because it wasn't available at all previously. As a step toward becoming more competitive with Steam, though, it falls woefully short."

http://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-enables-offline-play-for-windows-10-games/

 

Networked Printer showing "Offline"

Hey guys,

I'm having a slight issue with one of my printers in that it's showing offline and I can't print to it.

It's a Datamax label printer which is connected to my network via a Netgear print server, this has then be added to one of my servers for sharing etc.

So far I've tried the below.

- Classic on/off.
- Removing from server and re-adding.
- Ensuring that under port configuration SNMP Status is disabled.
- Assigning to different IP.
- Restarting Print Spooler.

I can ping it fine and the printer itself is letting me do manual test prints using its interface, but no matter what I cannot get it to stop showing up as offline and allowing me to print to it over the network. I should add that it's worked fine for the past year.

Any suggestions?

 

I need to monitor network activity

I've raped Google on how to's for monitoring network activity and can't find anything that suits my needs. I simply want to do one thing. I want to see the URLs of sites that people on my network are going to. I've tried wireshark but all it shows is a bunch of code and jibberish, makes you work really hard and dig too much to find an actual URL. I just want a program to actively list URLs that are being visited on my network. Can someone help?