securus

[Chris]

Hi,

Anybody used securus monitoring system. I have tested it for 3 weeks, seems alright, planning to put in my school. Any feedback will be helpful.
also anybody tried to use it on laptops(standalones) for teachers.

Thank You

[djm968]

A few of my clients are using it and it seems to work really well. The only negative comments I have hear is that its an additional thing to monitor!

[plexer]

Please don't post the same question in more that one section pick the most relevant one and ask it once.

As I replied to you on your other thread a search on the keyword securus would have answered your question.

If after reading those threads it's still not clear then please ask a more specific question.

Ben

[danIT]

cots too much, how about anyone seen any open source verions of this software, i know remote screenshot is available, and also keylogger, but doind the two remotely and also only based on badwords is the trickey part¬!

[R-O-B]

!!Securus Rocks!!
We have it and it's great. It costs about £700 a year but is great. It has highlighted kids listening to music, what they are looking at on web, various Blogs about school life including racist remarks about staff and using word to chat with the person next to them in ICT lessons. It makes for great reading and is the highlight of our week. We check the violations once a week and they are great evidence if we need a change in policy to make our lives easier.

[mattx]

I had it for a few weeks on a selection of PCs but again it was too expensive. Plus I noticed it caused a few errors when users were logging off. I can't remember the exact error message but it was the software causing the problem.
They may have changed it now but I though it was odd there was no HD redundancy on the box so if the HD failed you had no records !!
Also the selling tactics made me laugh a bit, as they wanted to speak to and arrange a meeting with our SMT - most probably for a the hard sale...

It did work well though. The price is way OTT for what it does though. [ In my opinion ]

[eejit]

I also find the software very buggy. Use it for a couple of years and you'll soon get fed up of the installation problems etc. - Can you believe that it can't upgrade itself properly? You have to do an uninstall of the old version first.
meh.

[monkey_boy]

The idea is good and when everything works, its a really useful tool. Currently waiting for the next software update though. The weblog feature isn't working at the min, even though it was before :S. The custom reports feature is poor too. I think the company is fairly young and new, and what they've come up with so far is a good concept with a few bugs, and the support is very good, so we'll be hanging on to it for a while yet.

[R-O-B]

I'm really surprised to hear that others have been having problems with the software. We run it on CC3 and vanilla XP workstations and have never had any problems.

The HD redundancy thing is a bit lame but as it isn't 'mission critical' we don't worry about it. As HDs are so cheap these days they will maybe change that soon.

As for the upgrades I'm pretty sure the latest version of the client software updates itself now.

Now that Macs are using intel processors they are considering producing a Mac version of the client as well!!

[eejit]

R-O-B, how long have you had Securus? If it's less than 2 years then I'm going to have to disregard your opinions

I used to be 100% behind it too at first, but all the problems have gradually worn me down.

Way too expensive for what it is.

[monkey_boy]

My gripe isn't with the client software but the console - just for clarity...

[eejit]

Too true - it's pretty nasty alright.
Probably one of the worst things about it is that every bit of it is about 80% right. If they'd only get their act together it would be a superb product and if it was say £500 a year then virtually every school in the country would have one.

[R-O-B]

We've had Securus for several years and..

Yes the console is a bit amateurish, looks like it was designed in frontpage It's not the most intuitive but we've never had any problems with it's functionality.

The price is worth it IMHO, we have lot's of situations where students are using computers without supervision and although it isn't fool proof it provides an extra layer of protection. Once a few students have been dragged in to see the head of ICT for a roasting at the beginning of term the word gets round and the number of violations drops right off.

[StewartKnight]

I agree with R-O-B, once the kids know their being watched, and can't do anything about it, the transgressions fall off.

I'va had a few problems with the Securus Server, but I've always found the after sales support is excellent.

[danIT]

how about alternatives, may i suggest Forensic software co uk

Were trialing it and its smashing, better interface than securus, we also trailed securus late last year. Similar features, think may be cheaper but still over priced in my opinion.