[ipad] Help me, please drag me from this pit of despair

[mrbios]

How much planning and implementation went in to your networks prior to making full use of iPads? Even a little would have been nice here!

 

This is where we were this time last year:

Full windows network, no linux or mac devices bar two that aren't even using the network, some staff using iPads for their email and internet at max. So basically none of us have any real experience of iPads bar basic use, and we didn't have any intention of getting any more experience in that area either....

 

Now...3 months ago our head decided to go out and buy a load of iPads, with no consultation with ourselves (we've all felt this story in some manner before I'm sure) this was done in April. Bare in mind that we do all our planning for our next budgets between January and March, we had allocated where our money was going to go and what work we needed to do in the summer, expecting a few small extras that the site team often drop on us. So we had allocated no time or money to this.

 

Starting with no prior knowledge of iPads bar adding users email accounts to them, we've been lumbered with a trolley of 30 plus two stacks of 10. First off we hadn't finished rolling out our managed wireless throughout the school, this has now been fast tracked thanks to one of those magical pots of money headteachers seem to have access to and we're working on that over the summer, but we have other issues which i'll now list:

1) We have no knowledge of the protocols used by iPads and Macs (bonjour and mDNS are two thrown around)

2) Our network is segregated into 8 subnets which means...

a)Airprint doesn't work, so they can't find our printers, even the ones setup to fake being airprint printers

b)Airplay (is that the right name? whatever they use with apple tv anyway) doesn't work so they can't connect their ipads to their projectors

3)They (the staff) instantly expect a student to be able to pick one up, access their files, do some work, save it back to the network

4)Buying and installing apps is soooo cumbersome

 

Overall I'm sick to death of them, I don't have anywhere near enough time to work through getting them setup properly let alone getting all of the above working, because we've already done all our planning work for this summer... every sight of an ipad now makes me want to punch it.

 

I know they're not terrible devices, but I'm becoming incredibly anti apple over this, i know other schools have had success stories but in order for ours to be a success i need help! I'm effectively on my own in doing everything to do with the setup of them......oh and everything else on the network! (I know this bit should all be in BTRD but i just don't care any more, if someone reads it that i work with, they'll only hear what i've already told them in person multiple times)

 

Anyway, Can anyone help me with the above issues, sometime in the summer holidays I'm going to be looking to power through these issues so i need to start early. So here's some information:

We've already bought (even though i never said i was sure i wanted it ) "foldr" though it isn't setup yet and probably won't be until the summer hols.

We have a trolley that holds 30 and has two sync n charge kits

We have a macbook with apple configurator on which goes with the above

We'll soon have lightspeed MDM to get some control back

We use an entirely HP procurve managed switch environment and all servers are 2008R2 minimum - I've no idea what it takes to setup bonjour and mDNS, I can't even bring myself to google it again.

Aruba managed wireless system - soon to be 3 SSIDs, one specifically setup for iPads, one using RADIUS for internal devices, one using the aruba guest account system and firewalled off to allow no access to the network bar the internet connection.

 

I don't know if I've repeated myself anywhere in this thread but what i want from you guys is information, and from those of you who are well experienced in this area...help! PM me if you wish, ask me for more information, i'll no doubt add more things i hate about them to this thread as the replies come () and no doubt you wonderful people will tell me how to resolve that too (i hope) I just want to be rid of this feeling I've got that the iPads are going to make me want to leave IT altogether (i love my job, but i hate devices i can't control, i know i need to get out of this mindset though)

 

EDIT: holy moly that was longer than i was expecting. Have a read before bed if you want to sleep well! ha

[speckytecky]

Well worth giving Junction IT, Apple Education Consultant a call. Ross of this Parish is a magician with Macs. We had a so called expert in before who charged us £150 for his visited talked a load of baffling stuff and made absolutely no difference. Ross paid us a visit, stayed a morning and set our Mini Mac server up and configured loads of stuff so that even I can manage it now. Fair enough our set up is a baby compared to yours but I'm sure the modest fee they charge would be money well spent in your case as well.

[Ephelyon]

I think there will be several people on this forum who can help you.

 

We're currently going through our own tablet woes so I may be able to offer some assistance; if not, there are others who have already rolled out such setups who can offer better assistance.

 

Do you have a wireless infrastructure that can support this? Hint: you cannot answer this question until you know exactly how these devices will be used in lessons to support learning, so it might be possible to attend Curriculum Group meetings (or whatever) to ascertain just how big of a challenge you face. It might feel insurmountable right now, but sometimes schools buy in these things without planning for their use properly in advance, which might be poor management but it does at least give you some extra time to set up the resources needed.

 

Having an MDM is a distinct advantage and I'm aware of schools that rush into it similarly but without even some form of MDM solution to cover the basics. In a sense you've dodged a bullet there; it could be worse.

 

One way to regulate mobile devices is to enforce a setup in which they can only get on RDP (or ICA, if you're rich enough) sessions to an existing remote access server. Decent client apps are available for this at a minimal cost (if you set up a single school Apple ID and link all devices to this but WITHOUT storing the password), whereby you could aim to provide a similar experience to a bookable ICT suite, but at less money and without having to move kids around the building. This also makes the Head look good if you can support an initiative like that (whether or not they thought of it).

 

Can you find out through which supplier the devices were ordered? Some will set them up in advance to your specification at no additional cost provided enough of a bulk order has been placed.

 

Always on the PM if you need anything.

[CyberNerd]

1) We have no knowledge of the protocols used by iPads and Macs (bonjour and mDNS are two thrown around)

 

don't worry about them - they use tcp/ip too

2) Our network is segregated into 8 subnets which means...

a)Airprint doesn't work, so they can't find our printers, even the ones setup to fake being airprint printers

 

Papercut has some good options here: webprint works for us.

b)Airplay (is that the right name? whatever they use with apple tv anyway) doesn't work so they can't connect their ipads to their projectors

We just put appletv devices into the same subnet as the wireless devices (stafff wi-fi)

 

3)They (the staff) instantly expect a student to be able to pick one up, access their files, do some work, save it back to the network

works for us. Google drive is the key. Sync the desktop files to google drive, install the app and hey presto. THis is for staff though. I can't see a way of them being multiuser.

 

4)Buying and installing apps is soooo cumbersome

yeah. An apple server can install them I think (colleague did that work so I'm not sure). Ultimately its departmental problem as far as I'm concerned.

 

So all in all ipads have worked out fine for us with very few issues. We only gave them to 8 PE staff so it wasn't quite as epic as your dilema and I already stated to HT that we'd be happy to give students ipads - but they'd not be able to share them - one student -one device

Edited June 13, 2013 by CyberNerd

[SovietRussia]

iPads are first of all, not multi user devices. Buying foldr is a massive strain off yourself in terms of support. Teachers can't get their head around; They are NOT PCs. They are simply not designed for enterprise work.

 

A MDM is the second step to a good rollout, but key is proper wireless.

 

Btw, I was in your shoes in terms of 'here's some iPads, make them work'. It took my a lot of research to make our rollout stable and robust.

 

Any help on anything iPad related, PM me

[free780]

Unless you get a mdm such as meraki or sccm l. You probably need to look at a rdp solution.

[SovietRussia]

Unless you get a mdm such as meraki or sccm l. You probably need to look at a rdp solution.

 

Lightspeed MDM is on the same level as Meraki

[mrbios]

don't worry about them - they use tcp/ip too

 

 

Papercut has some good options here: webprint works for us.

 

We just put appletv devices into the same subnet as the wireless devices (stafff wi-fi)

 

 

works for us. Google drive is the key. Sync the desktop files to google drive, install the app and hey presto. THis is for staff though. I can't see a way of them being multiuser.

 

 

yeah. An apple server can install them I think (colleague did that work so I'm not sure). Ultimately its departmental problem as far as I'm concerned.

 

So all in all ipads have worked out fine for us with very few issues. We only gave them to 8 PE staff so it wasn't quite as epic as your dilema and I already stated to HT that we'd be happy to give students ipads - but they'd not be able to share them - one student -one device

 

 

Papercut - We're well engrained into uniflow now, they have an airprint option, but all our printers are on their own vlan, so typically we can't see the printers from our other vlans, even the one that's setup to be an airprint printer. If i connect an ipad to the printers vlan it'll see them fine though.

 

The managed wireless is on its own vlan currently, which is separate from what the wired devices are on, so this is where we have a problem again.

 

Unless you get a mdm such as meraki or sccm l. You probably need to look at a rdp solution.

 

I have an SCCM2012 SP1 server, how can i use this to manage iPads? Obviously the lightspeed MDM we're getting is built in to our agreement with SchoolsBroadband so we'll have it regardless, but i'd quite like to know what SCCM can do for us in this case.

 

iPads are first of all, not multi user devices. Buying foldr is a massive strain off yourself in terms of support. Teachers can't get their head around; They are NOT PCs. They are simply not designed for enterprise work.

 

A MDM is the second step to a good rollout, but key is proper wireless.

 

Btw, I was in your shoes in terms of 'here's some iPads, make them work'. It took my a lot of research to make our rollout stable and robust.

 

Any help on anything iPad related, PM me

 

This is my big problem, everyone wants to use them as multi-user devices, and i don't have the time to be bringing them back to our office in the trolley and unsupervising and resupervising them to clean them up every day (the only method i currently know of to keep them clean)

I think there will be several people on this forum who can help you.

 

We're currently going through our own tablet woes so I may be able to offer some assistance; if not, there are others who have already rolled out such setups who can offer better assistance.

 

Do you have a wireless infrastructure that can support this? Hint: you cannot answer this question until you know exactly how these devices will be used in lessons to support learning, so it might be possible to attend Curriculum Group meetings (or whatever) to ascertain just how big of a challenge you face. It might feel insurmountable right now, but sometimes schools buy in these things without planning for their use properly in advance, which might be poor management but it does at least give you some extra time to set up the resources needed.

 

Having an MDM is a distinct advantage and I'm aware of schools that rush into it similarly but without even some form of MDM solution to cover the basics. In a sense you've dodged a bullet there; it could be worse.

 

One way to regulate mobile devices is to enforce a setup in which they can only get on RDP (or ICA, if you're rich enough) sessions to an existing remote access server. Decent client apps are available for this at a minimal cost (if you set up a single school Apple ID and link all devices to this but WITHOUT storing the password), whereby you could aim to provide a similar experience to a bookable ICT suite, but at less money and without having to move kids around the building. This also makes the Head look good if you can support an initiative like that (whether or not they thought of it).

 

Can you find out through which supplier the devices were ordered? Some will set them up in advance to your specification at no additional cost provided enough of a bulk order has been placed.

 

Always on the PM if you need anything.

 

The wireless infrastrucutre is about to be put in place, the best way to set this up however is one we're probably going to have to trial and error. Like i said in the OP we were going to go for a 3 SSID solution where one is specific to the iPads, one is for internal devices using RADIUS for auth and one is a guest completely firewalled off from the rest. How i best setup the iPads part though is anyones guess....

 

The list in the OP probably covers their requirements based on the "can we do this?" questions i've had over the past 3 months, when i asked what they wanted to be used for when they were purchased the head told me that he didn't know because he didn't know what we could do with them, and to talk to some apple expert that he'd spoken to.....typical purchuse first ask questions later sort of job :/

 

Well worth giving Junction IT, Apple Education Consultant a call. Ross of this Parish is a magician with Macs. We had a so called expert in before who charged us £150 for his visited talked a load of baffling stuff and made absolutely no difference. Ross paid us a visit, stayed a morning and set our Mini Mac server up and configured loads of stuff so that even I can manage it now. Fair enough our set up is a baby compared to yours but I'm sure the modest fee they charge would be money well spent in your case as well.

 

Thank you that may be our best course of action, the last person we tried to get in to help us ended up talking like a salesman, telling us all the things we "could" do and all the things we could buy...rather than actually helping us with our problems.

 

EDIT: I wish i could have convinced them to buy Asus ME400C windows 8 tablets with 64gb storage and win 8 pro on them didn't even get the chance

Edited June 13, 2013 by mrbios

[dhicks]

We have no knowledge of the protocols used by iPads and Macs (bonjour and mDNS are two thrown around)

 

AirPlay (what the iPad uses to mirror screen information to an AppleTV or a computer) is an extension of the RDP-based RTSP protocol - the Wikipedia page is a good place to start:

 

AirPlay - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

AirPlay is a point-to-point protocol, so we found that with the iPad and the AirPlay server on the same switch (i.e. with the iPad connected to a wireless access point attached to the same switch that the PC in the classroom running AirServer was attached to) then performance was good enough to get 4 or 5 iPads mirrored to the same PC at once. We aren't quite sure what will happen if we start to transmit AirPlay data all over the network, but for the most part we should be able to keep it contained within given sections.

 

The problem, if I understand correctly, can potentially be with Bonjour. That's the broadcast protocol that AirPlay uses to annouce its services - an iPad needs to know an AirPlay server exists to be able to connect to it, so Bounjour has to sit on a machine and peridically do a broadcast to say that it has AirPlay facilities available. This, seemingly, can get out of hand if you have every teacher machine in the school doing Bonjour broadcasts the whole time, plus of course when someone goes to connect an iPad via AirPlay they get a list of every capable machine on the network. There's probably going to need to be some network configuration involved to limit traffic from given AirPlay-capable machines to given clients.

 

Our network is segregated into 8 subnets which means...

 

There's been a couple of threads on here recently about getting AirPlay traffic routed between vLANS - a search might turn up something, I'll have a look.

 

Buying and installing apps is soooo cumbersome

 

Actually, from looking at the Lightspeed MDM solution, managing the apps and other facilities available on iPads is quite easy - you can limit users from doing certain things, limit the apps they can use to just a given set, and you can have apps auto-install. The iPad switches to "school mode" when it's within range of your wireless network, and outside that the teacher or pupil can use the iPad how they wish. This, of course, rather assumes one-to-one iPad ownership of some kind - quite how this works in a shared situation I'm not sure. I've tried Lightspeed's MDM solution and it looks good, it did strike me as a bit pricy when Meraki's solution is free, though.

[mrbios]

AirPlay (what the iPad uses to mirror screen information to an AppleTV or a computer) is an extension of the RDP-based RTSP protocol - the Wikipedia page is a good place to start:

 

AirPlay - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

AirPlay is a point-to-point protocol, so we found that with the iPad and the AirPlay server on the same switch (i.e. with the iPad connected to a wireless access point attached to the same switch that the PC in the classroom running AirServer was attached to) then performance was good enough to get 4 or 5 iPads mirrored to the same PC at once. We aren't quite sure what will happen if we start to transmit AirPlay data all over the network, but for the most part we should be able to keep it contained within given sections.

 

The problem, if I understand correctly, can potentially be with Bonjour. That's the broadcast protocol that AirPlay uses to annouce its services - an iPad needs to know an AirPlay server exists to be able to connect to it, so Bounjour has to sit on a machine and peridically do a broadcast to say that it has AirPlay facilities available. This, seemingly, can get out of hand if you have every teacher machine in the school doing Bonjour broadcasts the whole time, plus of course when someone goes to connect an iPad via AirPlay they get a list of every capable machine on the network. There's probably going to need to be some network configuration involved to limit traffic from given AirPlay-capable machines to given clients.

 

 

 

There's been a couple of threads on here recently about getting AirPlay traffic routed between vLANS - a search might turn up something, I'll have a look.

 

 

 

Actually, from looking at the Lightspeed MDM solution, managing the apps and other facilities available on iPads is quite easy - you can limit users from doing certain things, limit the apps they can use to just a given set, and you can have apps auto-install. The iPad switches to "school mode" when it's within range of your wireless network, and outside that the teacher or pupil can use the iPad how they wish. This, of course, rather assumes one-to-one iPad ownership of some kind - quite how this works in a shared situation I'm not sure. I've tried Lightspeed's MDM solution and it looks good, it did strike me as a bit pricy when Meraki's solution is free, though.

 

Thanks dhicks that's some good info there. RE: the MDM, we haven't got it yet but it's built into our internet/filtering/firewall contract with schoolsbroadband for no additional cost, really looking forward to getting hold of it but sadly I'm playing the waiting game while we go through the motions of getting our internet setup.

 

If i can get airplay traffic routed between vlans then we may be on to a winner there, i assume this would sovle half the problem with airprint as well?

[dhicks]

RE: the MDM, we haven't got it yet but it's built into our internet/filtering/firewall contract with schoolsbroadband for no additional cost

 

Good deal - we are paying for our Internet connection, plus we paid a one-off fee for the Lightspeed server, plus annual maintainance, and then MDM is a per-user fee on top of that.

 

If i can get airplay traffic routed between vlans then we may be on to a winner there, i assume this would sovle half the problem with airprint as well?

 

I think so, yes. We're upgrading our network hardware over the summer, and I'm going for HP 3800 core switches and 2920 edge switches - all of which support OpenFlow for Software Defined Networking. My plan is to use that to limit Bonjour traffic.

[psydii]

MDM: You have a small deployment, so you could go Meraki very easily and very quickly and for free as an interim before you get the lightspeed.

 

I assume you have read the documents available at:

Apple - Support - iPad - Enterprise

 

 

For AirPlay /Bonjour/mDNS, Cisco have a guide for their systems - which would be a reasonable starting point. The secret source is Avahi on Unbuntu. I have not tried this, but a couple of independent wireless experts have both recommended this route to me.

[mrbios]

I've just been speaking to someone about avahi, looks like it might do the trick and save us some hassle with configuring switches. If we can get everything running essentially through a proxy that would be wonderful and a solution i would be happy with, going to start taking a look at it now

 

Good deal - we are paying for our Internet connection, plus we paid a one-off fee for the Lightspeed server, plus annual maintainance, and then MDM is a per-user fee on top of that.

 

 

Very impressed with the price we got from SchoolsBroadband, it includes a fortinet firewall, lightspeed filter, my big campus vle and MDM licenses, as well as the 100mb internet connection for what i think was £12-13k if i remember rightly. Not bad considering every other company wanted at least that for the internet connection alone! Should be quite an improvement over SWGfL and their dire filtering

Edited June 13, 2013 by mrbios

[CHR1S]

I currently have 48 iPads deployed and find I'm permanently tinkering and tweaking. There is always an app or something that will never play nice or a workaround for something very apple specific.

 

Feel free to drop me a PM if you need some specific help.

[mrbios]

ooooo

AirGroup for AirPrint and AirPlay | Aruba Networks

Mission Impossible: Enabling AirPlay on the Guest Wireless LAN | Aruba Networks

 

I'm actually starting to quite like aruba after all

[mrbios]

ooooo

AirGroup for AirPrint and AirPlay | Aruba Networks

Mission Impossible: Enabling AirPlay on the Guest Wireless LAN | Aruba Networks

 

I'm actually starting to quite like aruba after all

 

EDIT: sorry double post, not sure what happened there.

[ryoung]

As a school trying to work out how to enable staff to use their own ipads in the classroom this thread is a LIFESAVER! Can I recommend AirServer – 30 Apple TVs for the price of One (and instant sharing and engagement in the Classroom) and its threads as very useful and something we are going to try to emulate as a quick-fix low cost option.

 

How about staff with Google based tablets. Can anyone point me to some advice on how to let staff with their own Nexus tablet connect to the data projector in the room. Is there some bridging software we can deploy like the Apple AirServer?

[dhicks]

Can anyone point me to some advice on how to let staff with their own Nexus tablet connect to the data projector in the room. Is there some bridging software we can deploy like the Apple AirServer?

 

Not quite the same thing, but you can install a VNC server on the teacher workstation and let the teacher use an app on their phone or tablet to control the cursor through that, effectivly turning their device into a touchpad for their display. VNC servers are free to instll, and I'm sure the associated apps aren't expensive, although it can be a bit of a palavar setting up VNC servers on each machine with separate, configurable passwords (because otherwise children can bring in a phone, connect to VNC on the teacher's computer and start controlling the cursor and keyboard...).

[bossman]

@mrbios:

 

Feel your pain, I had 3 weeks to cost, install and connect 30 IPads for an LA consultant (Glorified science teacher) who knew absolutely nothing about how to conect the devices or get an Apple TV connected and working and she had been doing this for a couple of years, took 2 days to install and configure Aerohive wireless then 10 mins to connect the IPads, what really made it worse was the fact that we got a message 2 days before this consultant was to come in to our school asking us to install 25 apps of which 9 were paid.

 

It was a very steep learning curve as you well know and now they are asking about printing off these totally inept devices and what has my line manager done behind my back? Tried to get some firm in to sort the printing and control of the devices as she has been to an LA network meeting and they introduced another salesman who is probably a friend of the guy at the LA who told them this software was what they required to deliver and manage any wireless device guess what they told her to invest in? Impero!

 

I didn't know it could control and deliver apps to IOS and Android wireless devices as well as control which apps the students used? If anyone can enlighten me further I would appreciate it very much.

 

Anyway @mrbios: I do hope you have a better experience of the Apple devices as you go forward............me personally..........I think Apple will eventually be superceded by Windows as it seems the latest IOS 7 is very much like the Microsoft offering, it seems they have a similar target me thinks.

 

Anyway all the best in your quest to tame the elusive IOS device.

 

P.S. don't get me wrong I think the IPad is a truly remarkable personal device on a 1:1 basis but as a device for sharing it is not!!!

[MatthewL]

To help your pain with printing have a look at EveryonePrint, would recommend it to anyone. Install on your windows print server with any network printer attached to it and it will publish these to the iPad via the free app and you can print. It will also integrate with PCounter and PaperCut, not sure what the integration gives you apart from accounting but if all your want to do is print I would recommend it.

 

If you want any help on it PM me.

[mrbios]

Some fantastic advice so far, thank you all

 

I think my next step then is to get Aruba AirGroup setup, get foldr setup and also the various programs such as AirServer/Reflector and whichever printing program i go for to publish those to the devices, and finally an MDM solution. Once I'm at that point I'll have hopefully ticked most of the boxes for my issues and then i'll be back on to the tedious task of configuring the devices and setting up apps. Last time i did it the macbook i was using died in the middle of configuring them, this time though i've got a portable HDD that I'm going to periodically backup the configurator database to (as well as the network)....not falling over that hurdle again!

[maark]

regarding impero this was the last reply I got from impero:

Ipads are sandboxed so we are restricted at the moment. However, we are working closely with Apple and they basically tell us what we can and can’t do. Unfortunately we have no permissions yet, but that’s not saying we will never get the go ahead.

 

So it seems unlikely we can control ipads via impero which is a shame because it does a good job on keeping students on task.

[russdev]

regarding impero this was the last reply I got from impero:

Ipads are sandboxed so we are restricted at the moment. However, we are working closely with Apple and they basically tell us what we can and can’t do. Unfortunately we have no permissions yet, but that’s not saying we will never get the go ahead.

 

So it seems unlikely we can control ipads via impero which is a shame because it does a good job on keeping students on task.

 

Currently Impero has IOS app that has two modes mode one is a teacher console i.e control other machines etc (windows/osx) and then student mode so teachers can send broadcasts, exams, message, chat windows etc to the student. We do not currently manage the IOS device.

 

Russell

[Sean-OC04]

Looks like you are getting some good advice on here but PM me if you need any further advice or help

[seawolf]

Let me give you the straight scoop on doing this as simply and troublefree as possible.

 

First, the fact that you have eight WiFi VLANs isn't really a problem. You don't need MDM for a trolley full of iPads, in fact I'd recommend against it as it doesn't give you any advantages only more work. In a 1:1 or BYOD environment MDM is a necessity. So, here's what I would do if I were you:

 

1. Use Apple Configurator and a VPP account to manage them and install apps. You can create an SOE image and load that on all the iPads. If you have a charge and sync cart, you can do them all at once including installing apps. Anything you can manage with MDM you can do with Configurator. With MDM you'd have to manually enroll each iPad and install each app anyway so Configurator is actually quicker. You have to use Configurator to place the iPads in supervised mode for MDM to be able to use some features. So, again there is no reason at all to use MDM in your circumstances. I wouldn't.

 

2. Use Printopia Pro to enable AirPrint across all of your VLANs. It works a charm and can also be used to setup printer access by VLANS. So, if you want some printers accessible only by teachers, but others accessible by everyone you can do that. The cost is VERY reasonable for Printopia Pro and its very easy to use.

 

3. The AirPlay issue is easily solved by placing the projector PCs on the same VLANS as the teacher iPads (yes, even a WiFi VLANS). I would not try the various tricks some vendors have tried to make it work across VLANs as you risk mDNS traffic swamping your network or have unreliable AirPlay coverage.

 

4. Enabling file access is the hardest bit, but can be achieved at a cost with MobilEcho installed on your Windows file server. It works brilliantly and can be used by multiple users - they just logon and off the app like they would a PC to access their files. You could also use Google Drive, OwnCloud, DropBox, or WebDav, but these require you to change how you do things whereas MobilEcho doesn't (and MobilEcho integrates with SharePoint). You said the Head had a magical pot of money for the campus WiFi, so tell him to do what he wants with the iPads he'll need to dip not it again for MobilEcho.

 

p.s. I haven't used Foldr, but it requires a separate VM server and charges a per user license fee. In a large environment that could easily be much more expensive than MobilEcho, which has an unlimited user and server license for Edu. MobilEcho might be more expensive for very small environments, but if you go over 500 students + staff Foldr will start to get very expensive. If you setup the management server component of MobilEcho you have easy setup for BYOD and can revoke access easily as well. The only advantage I see to Foldr is the web interface to provide kind of a Dropbox like experience for your file server. Whichever you go with, it will be worth the money if you want to get max benefit it of the iPads (or Android).

 

5. Web filtering can be done either by setting a default filter by VLAN or using a capture page to make the user login for filtering. We use a default VLAN here and this approach works well as it is the least disruptive and transparent.

 

That, in a nutshell is all that needs to be done to achieve what is wanted. It is a proven solution. Don't make it more complicated than it is.

Edited August 4, 2013 by seawolf