Student laptop connection to network

[RoyG]

Out of interest, what policy does your school have about kids hooking their own laptops into the school network?

And what about PSPs for Internet access in school?

RoyG

[alan-d]

we don't allow it at all. We have enough IT for them to use. Besides who is going to carry out PAT tests on every kids laptop?

[Joedetic]

As far as PSP goes the rules are NO games in school. I know a few kids use their PSP for transporting files...genuinely! so they have USB cables and do it that way.

Wifi to laptops has always been a tricky situation. When we got our new elearning centre a 2-3 years ago, there were about 2 students in upper sixth and myself in lower sixth that wanted laptops on the network.

The head of ICT put the wep key in and mapped some shared drives to our user areas etc. That was it along with proxy settings.

When it came to put my laptop on we were satisfied with the AV software. Norton 2004 Pro...fully up to date. It went on the network and within about a week of it being there 2 viruses origionating from my laptop were found on the network.

From then on the main rule has been that if you've got XP pro then we'll put it on with our own licensed AV software. (SOPHOS)

If it's a student loan laptop then it's already a member of the domain...go ahead.

Anything else then no.

But....certain other members of staff worked out what the wep keys and proxy settings were and added the settings to the students laptops and more people have been using t'internet. Very bad practice, but...that was the year that didnt have the opertunity to loan a laptop with all the software that was a member of the domain.

So hopefully we should be OK in future.

[Sylv3r]

Students can not use their own personal laptops on the network and will never be allowed to.

Although I am starting a student loan scheme for 6th form students in September, all of these laptops will be added to the network in their own VLAN with an ISA server and a censornet box for filtering.

[tosca925]

We dont let any student/member of staff use their own laptops on our network.

All our teachers and LSA's and various supprt staff have laptops so we dont get asked very often.

[tosca925]

We had a sixth former try it once, told all the staff he could log on the network and see allour wireless stuff. Teacher paniced and called us straight away.

All he could do was see the names of our wireles access points, and they are all set as bridges any how and mac lock downed.

[pmassingham]

No connection allowed by students. APs locked down with MAC filtering and WEP. Teachers can log on provided they sign the laptop agreement and we then add the MAC address to the filter and install the WEP key on their machines.

[Geoff]

MAC and WEP really don't work. Use 802.1x and WPA.

[sahmeepee]

MAC and WEP really don't work. Use 802.1x and WPA.

Agree completely. There's a wiki entry with one possible secure authentication method. If one of the smart cookies using PEAP in a completely vanilla Windows 2003 network could post their method in there too, I'm sure that would save a load of people time (not just me!)

[broc]

I have just been told that we may be getting 80 (approx) laptops to be given to students for home use under a 'laptops for students' pilot program. The inevitable question will arise, can they be connected to the school network too?

While all of my 'technical' instincts tell me this is a very very bad idea, I have a sinking feeling that we may have to accomodate this as it is undoubtedly a very good idea in extending the availability of ICT in our local community.

Does anyone do this successfully, maintaining a secure & stable environment with laptops used both in the 'wild' and attached to school networks?

Thanks

[Joedetic]

Dual boot them. Have one partition running the XP Home that comes with the laptop for use at home...and have the other partition running your volume licensed copy of XP Pro that you'd use for your on-site machines etc.

That way it's /sort/ of kept separate and you can have them hooked up to the network. There's not much point in offereing laptops for students if they cant use them onsite too when they cant get onto a workstation in the library etc IMHO.

[GrumbleDook]

oooh... ooohh ... me isr, me sir ....

Drop me a PM and we'll have a chat, or register a request via the ICT Register

[Geoff]

I have just been told that we may be getting 80 (approx) laptops to be given to students for home use under a 'laptops for students' pilot program.

Not withstanding the other reasons why this isn't a good idea. My favorite is when the kids get mugged on the way between home and school for their laptops.

[wesleyw]

I have to agree with Geoff but I would use WPA2 instead if at all possible it's been tweeked slightly to make it more secure. WEP is not a very good protection method even when locking down to MAC addresses (You can get MAC address spoofers).

I'm setting up wireless this term so I'll be inundated with pupils asking if their laptop is allowed on the network. I think if they are they have to agree to have their laptop modified by us AntiVirus et cetera and if and virus is caught eminating from their laptop then they will not be allowed to use the network again either that term or at all depending on the severity.

Any thoughts on this as a suggestion?

Wes

[GrumbleDook]

If you are allowing external laptops onto yur WLAN then you have a few options ...

The best seems to be to get a few VLANs going ... have a wireless access controller and 2 SSIDs (a published on and a hidden one). The hidden one is used by staff and school configured laptops .. the published one anyone can join but gets filtered into a DMZ ... or through a filtered box ...

Bluesocket and Vernier spring to mind.

Speak to you local Uni to see how they do things in halls of residence ...