Home Access

[FragglePete]

This is going to be the next stage of developments for me where I am. Getting home access for students and staff to their Home areas.

Extra hardware is limited at the moment, but now I've got a good base in place I need to think of the next step forward.

Two easy options for us present themselves at the moment; we use CSE here and they do have a CSE Webspace Solution which fits in with what we have already however, not cheap. The other which seems very cheap is Ranger Outpost.

As I said, both of these would be very easy 'off the shelf' solutions to implement and have home access up and running.

We haven't got a VLE at the moment, so that may fall in line with this (eg. Moodle), but was wondering how and what other Schools have got to setup home access? Not really had much experience in getting this sort of access setup before so just getting a few ideas and feelers.

We're sort of waiting for what the Merlin Project within SWGfl throws up but I can see myself getting hassled at the next ICT Development meeting.

Thanks in advance (again).

Pete

[kmount]

This is something we're looking at doing too as the current solution provided by RM isn't reliable at all.

[CyberNerd]

We use moodle with the web share plugin, this gives staff and students access to their files through the VLE:
Moodle: Modules and plugins
We setup moodle so that it integrates with SIMS and picks up all the students courses from there. All the moodle usernames/passwords come from Active Directory integration. Moodle email/instant messaging is done through zimbra. We then integrated drupaled with all of it. so from a browser (at home) students get email, courses, files, personal blogs/websites. if they need applications they have to use citrix through the java client/

[FN-GM]

For staff we using VPN on the laptops. You can do this free with Windows Server.

A better solution but a little more expensive was to setup a terminal server. This way the speed is still fast, everything looks the same as it would at school and both students & staff can benefit.

Hope this helps

[Sylv3r]

We use just bought the MyDocuments webpart from SalamanderSoft Limited - Active Directory & SharePoint provisioning. This is installed as part of our Sharepoint services install.

[Antp]

im Interested in this also as our school has not got home access yet, which is highly annoying.

[Steven_Cleaver]

We use CSE here as well and I used CSE Webspace I have set this up for a few staff as a test but as you said it can be a little expensive. I have also found it a little slow and unreliable as the server they used only had a two 2 Mb link and wasn't a dedicated server so their Engineers were downloading from this server during the day which made it slow. I know they were talking about increasing the link and making it a dedicated server but I haven't used it for some time so not sure if this has been done.

[rh91uk]

Hi all,

On our 2nd server we use htcomnet - a Web Based File Manager for AD. V quick and easy to set up.

Web file manager - web based file manager - HTTP Commander ::: FEATURES

R

[Oops_my_bad]

We use Citrix

[SteveLaw]

We have been approached and expressed an interest in an LA trial using Cisco ASA kit I believe.

[BaccyNet]

We would be using Citrix (which is installed and working internally) if someone higher up would change router/proxy settings to let it work

[amfony]

we use ssl explorer enterprise ... but community would suffice for free-ness. I dont think the community version is been maintained now though ...

[FragglePete]

This is all useful stuff, thanks to all who are replying.

Pete

[box_l]

we are using sonicwalls in the 4 high schools I support.

vpn-2000 model.

but we dont allow the vpn to be used at all as we cannot allow external machines to attatch to the domain in that way. we just publish the email anf directories that they need.

BOx

[jonathanhaddock]

Hi,

We're using a product called Ranger Outpost[1] for students to access their files, staff can use VPN or Outpost, it's up to them.

Outpost comes with either a yearly license or an outright purchase and was 500gbp at the time we bought it. Link is below if it's of any use.

One thing to note, it has to be installed on a domain controller, something I wasn't happy about...

[1]Sentinel Products Designed for Education | Ranger Outpost

Jonathan Haddock <><
Network Manager (and Webmaster)
Barton Court Grammar School