Going it alone

Hey,

 

At the moment the internet is provided by SWGFL/LEA and it's becoming a bit un-stable, my question is has anyone sourced their own internet provider and if possible could someone give me some pointers i.e. is there guidelines set by BECTA/Gov

 

Tom G

There was a thread similar to this not so long ago I will try to find it. Basically there are problems as in some cases you need your LEA connection to access certain content/networks int eh future that main stream ISPs cannot, although a few have.

 

Anyway let me find it.

Have a read through this:

 

http://www.edugeek.net/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=1050&start=0

Another thing to consider is the lose of any other included resources provided as part of your LEA BB. Email relay / AV /SPAM. Firewall, content filtering. Stuff like britishpathe etc.

Also factor in that most RBCs now provide VLE/MLEs and the content they contain.

 

What you get from an RBC is broken down into 3 areas: connectivity, service and content.

 

The connectivity is the big, fat pipe onto the internet (and the RBC itself).

 

The services range from email, spam and virus filtering, content filtering, media streaming through to content.

 

The content can be materials created and shared by local schools through to purchased materials like British Pathe or SAM Learning ...

 

You should also try and ensure that the ISP you move to will connect you to the National Education Network at a later date ... there are only a few accreditted ISPs for this, but you can also use UKERNA directly or try places like NTL, who are in discussion about being accreditted.

 

HTH