Thanks Smoothwall

[ninjabeaver]

Well, I've deployed Smoothwall Network Guardian and the complaints are rolling in. It's brilliant so far. I've been testing it since I purchased it at BETTS2009 and decided to take the plunge and roll it out.

Staff are on the unrestricted system still, while all the students are monitored. Very sweet and slick.

So, thanks to Tom and Gavin. I've not spoken to Claire G yet whos my account manager but....... wheres my mug you promised me at BETTS. Good work everyone there, this product is great.

[john]

Have to agree, 72hrs into my students going through smoothwall and the complaints are coming in like mad from the kids about no games, no fun anymore etc but the staff are very complimentary about it which is great

[tom_newton]

ninj: if you want a mug, mail Gav (gavin.logan@smoothwall.net). He does have a huge box of them on his desk today tho, so if you have already asked...

John: and I am sure I saw one with your name on it??!

[linkazoid]

Have to agree, 72hrs into my students going through smoothwall and the complaints are coming in like mad from the kids about no games, no fun anymore etc but the staff are very complimentary about it which is great

Exactly the same here.... On the first monday, I had the office door open so i could hear the kids moaning at no games... "oohh sssiirr, why have you blocked all the games.. what are we going to do now on the internet."

Michael

[Ric_]

Apparantly I block 'everything'

[everton4europe]

Installed Smoothwall School Gurdian 6 weeks ago. ANd the complaints we are getting is very long. Mainly off teachers who no longer can do there weekly shopping!

[john]

Yup Gav said I would get a mug so I do expect that it is mine I do assure you that wasn't the reason I wanted to buy the box though!!! I want a quality web-filter and I know yours is the product for the job.

As for the blocking, I seem to be seen as the root of fun spoiling what with me wanting to banish the shockwave games they love from there areas, and look at the embedded excel ones (once I've dug around here for the hints and tips on doing so ) I will be seen as pure no doubt by the kids but the staff will be singing my praises I hope! No moans from staff as yet, but they are not through it yet, well I say that, they will be from Monday Positive comments in relation to the few blocked sites we've had such as Linguascope which is key for language teaching but is pre-banned by the filter, but very supportive teachers, they sent a kid to my office with a note with the websites on saying please unblock, within 2 minutes they were all back on-line and working well and I spoke to the teacher and she was very supportive and said it wasn't a problem and she felt it was an excellent move and resource this filter as she can be more confident they will be on her sites and not games!

The 6th form have written me a lovely letter moaning about it, it is very tongue in cheek and will be acknowledged in a similar humour way I think but its very much how in a way I want it to be. I will consider, once the hullabaloo over it has calmed down to allow access to some less educational sites for 30 min's during lunchtime but to start with we just need to control the web as its got out of hand over the last 3 years of poor LEA filtering.

[tom_newton]

Email me the linguascope sites - shouldn't be blocked by default. This goes for any "blocking queries" - we have full control over our lists (unlike some) so if you think there's anything miscategorised, we can deal with it.

PS. I checked with Gav - he says he's sendin your mug, John.

[contink]

Just to indicate how good things are going with my two schools doing their trial at present..

I had a ticket in with the LEA about some realplayer issues for a legitimate site where RealP was being used to host a quiz. In the time it took them to respond, I put together a proposal to go with an ADSL alternative, organise the SG trial, ID'd a box to put it on, get a BT engineer in to fit the filter (it was on a school internal phone exchange system) and organise the ADSL activation.

I think we took 3 weeks to do that and a week later the response, about the original ticket from the LEA, was that Real Player was causing problems on the network so they'd blocked it.

If that didn't lend meaning to my pro's/con's argument of local control, responsiveness, etc... I don't know what else could.

[tom_newton]

contink: may I quote you in a testimonial on our website - that's very well put

[contink]

contink: may I quote you in a testimonial on our website - that's very well put

So long as you don't put my real name on it, that's fine...