Providers (Leased line), Filtering systems

[synaesthesia]

We've been asked to do a little research on what's available out there and what people's thoughts are. So, if anyone would mind indulging us with details like:

 

Who you use to provide your line

What filtering system do you use

Is that filtering system provided by your ISP - do you use a filtering system on top of what they provide?

Are you happy with those services?

Is anyone at larger schools providing any service to any other local/feeder schools such as filtering?

 

Many thanks

[zag]

BT 100/100mbit dedicated

Smoothwall

No we bought it independently

Yes very happy so far, seems like the best and fastest system out there.

Edited May 2, 2014 by zag

[tmcd35]

RM - 50/100mbps leased line and 10mbps EFM

Smoothwall

All bought independently

Early days, but we're happier than we were under the LEA

Hell no - not got the time, energy, expertese to provide for feeder schools.

[Jonah]

M247 - 100/100 leased line with ADSL2 failover.

Smoothwall UTM1000

All in-house, no LA involvemennt.

More than happy with everything, no issues.

[Sibrows]

Am I missing something here but wouldn't this be a fairer question if the numbers on roll and the quantity of devices connecting were being taken into consideration?

 

Exponential-e 400/1000 leased line with ADSL2 failover.

Lightspeed rocket hosted onsite but purchased through ISP who don't provide any additional filtering.

The above fit our needs (I'll explain below)

We aren't providing any services to any other schools.

 

1,300 students growing to 1,700 by 2018

750 workstations/laptops onsite

Currently 720 iPads onsite (growing to 1,120 by September and 1,850 at least by 2018)

Edited May 2, 2014 by Sibrows

[Oaktech]

Gigler/City Fibre 1000mbps fibre line.

Palo Alto 3020 NGFW through Gamma Networks.

All run in house.

 

we have 3 schools running off it. a 1600 roll / 1000 workstation/device secondary, a 500 roll / 200 device free school and a 250 roll / 100 device primary.

[synaesthesia]

Am I missing something here but wouldn't this be a fairer question if the numbers on roll and the quantity of devices connecting were being taken into consideration?

 

Exponential-e 400/1000 leased line with ADSL2 failover.

Lightspeed rocket hosted onsite but purchased through ISP who don't provide any additional filtering.

The above fit our needs (I'll explain below)

We aren't providing any services to any other schools.

 

1,300 students growing to 1,700 by 2018

750 workstations/laptops onsite

Currently 720 iPads onsite (growing to 1,120 by September and 1,850 at least by 2018)

 

 

Thanks, that's very true. Separately, what Rocket are you using? For instance our incumbent ISP says a Bottle isn't suitable for us yet Lightspeed say it's more than capable (1300 role, probably similar numbers to you for future, 700 devices)

[dhicks]

Who you use to provide your line

What filtering system do you use

Is that filtering system provided by your ISP - do you use a filtering system on top of what they provide?

Are you happy with those services?

Is anyone at larger schools providing any service to any other local/feeder schools such as filtering?

 

We currently have a 10 megabit EFM line from Talk Talk. Filtering is currently done by an on-site Lightspeed Rocket appliance, no filtering is done by the ISP. Both systems work - the EFM line has been reliable so far, the web filter filters stuff.

 

There's a chap coming from Expotential-E next week to discuss their fibre-based offering - @Sibrows, how do you find them? We're considering moving to Untangle for filtering, with a dual-server setup for failover. We could potentially partner with another school to link filtering and VM / storage capabilities - each school would keep the other's backups, and be capable of running VMs in case of a diasaster.

[MattGibson]

We're using a 100mb Fibre Lease Line from Exa-Networks. really happy with them and I'm surprised no one has already mentioned them.

 

Free cloud filtering called SurfProtect. Much cheaper than most LEA offerings...

[synaesthesia]

Thanks. Had a little root around SurfProtect and the information even from the horses mouth is a little vague. Will it work by via AD group at all? It comes across from their info as if it will only work on IP ranges

[MattGibson]

I know that the only problem is the lack of detail about SurfProtect. It's basic but does the job. The answer to your question is Yes it can filter by AD groups if you can enable ICAP on your DHCP so it forwards there AD details to the SurfProtect.

 

My only criticism is the lack of reporting. It doesn't exist! Not an issue if you're a small primary but secondary will need something on site such as Censornet or Impero ect for user based reporting.

[RichCowell]

Who you use to provide your line

Virtue Technologies

 

What filtering system do you use

Sophos UTM

Is that filtering system provided by your ISP

Yes

- do you use a filtering system on top of what they provide?

Yes but to a lesser extent - Impero

Are you happy with those services?

Yes

Is anyone at larger schools providing any service to any other local/feeder schools such as filtering?

Have done, but stopped due to power issues on site.

[IrritableTech]

I know that the only problem is the lack of detail about SurfProtect. It's basic but does the job. The answer to your question is Yes it can filter by AD groups if you can enable ICAP on your DHCP so it forwards there AD details to the SurfProtect.

 

My only criticism is the lack of reporting. It doesn't exist! Not an issue if you're a small primary but secondary will need something on site such as Censornet or Impero ect for user based reporting.

 

Any filtering provided to schools without any level of reporting can't pass the new ofsted esafety guidelines surely? Primary or secondary. I know that exa will sell you a NetAsk box, which will help with AD integration and I'm told reporting. Needs to be a standard feature if you ask me, unless you are putting another filtering solution on the end of their line.

 

Remember to compare apples with apples. A feature rich solution can not be compared with a bare bones connection on cost, reliability or service.

[IrritableTech]

Who you use to provide your line?

 

Schools Broadband

 

What filtering system do you use?

 

Lightspeed

 

Is that filtering system provided by your ISP - do you use a filtering system on top of what they provide?

 

Yes - we manage some classrooms with ABTutor, but it's more of an internet on/off thing.

 

Are you happy with those services?

 

Yep, pretty happy.

 

Is anyone at larger schools providing any service to any other local/feeder schools such as filtering?

 

We did look at this for a partner primary who geographically can't get a great connection. It's still a possibility if they out grow their connection before BT upgrade.

[caffrey]

Who you use to provide your line

 

Virgin 100mb leased line.

 

What filtering system do you use

 

Smoothwall Schoolguardian UTM (software with own hardware)

 

Is that filtering system provided by your ISP - do you use a filtering system on top of what they provide?

 

No

 

Are you happy with those services?

 

Virgin leased line yes, the company is fun to deal with but no issues with the line as of yet,

Been Using smoothwall for 4-5 years, considering a switch

[synaesthesia]

Who you use to provide your line?

 

Schools Broadband

 

What filtering system do you use?

 

Lightspeed

 

Cheers @IrritableTech

We're with SB currently and are judging our options for various reasons.

 

Do you have an appliance on site or are you using their hosted lightspeed setup? If the latter, did you have any issues with IP range conflicts?

How has your experience been with SB's support?

[IrritableTech]

Hello @synaesthesia

 

We have about a dozen schools on their hosted environment. A mixture of fibre, FTTC and ADSL. Because of the nature of the product, an issue can cause problems to many schools, but allows for greater redundancy than each school could afford. For example we had an issue last week with some packet loss - things were running pretty well, but monitoring the connection I could see some issues. SB identified the issue within a fortinet box, and were able to bring the backup fortinet online - nobody noticed the change over, but the packet loss returned to normal. A fix we couldn't have applied so quickly if we ran the box in school.

 

I know there can be issues with IP conflicts - although we haven't experienced any in any of our schools. If there had have been, I'd quite happily re-IP'ed where required. The last time I did it, it wasn't as big a deal as I thought it would be.

 

Support is generally very good. The support team are pretty knowledgeable and helpful. There was a period in March where support calls were on hold for a long time. They had an large influx of customers who left orders late (my own LEA changed their product, and about 80% left for other providers for example [we moved four schools in March ourselves]) and this increased the calls. I know they've added to the support team in recent weeks.

 

I'll DM you my number if you want a chat.

[Simcfc73]

BT Business Fibre running at around 35Mb,would like a leased line but we are only paying £500 a year, adding a second one in the summer.

Smoothwall on own hardware, going to UTM in summer for added oompf. It does a great job, support is better than 6 months ago, reports are awful still (had a demo of LS and they were loads better)

500 kids, 350 devices + boarders

Have thought of changing to SchoolBroadband but its double (if not more) what we pay now.

[synaesthesia]

Cheers, much appreciated.

[EXA_Mark]

I know that the only problem is the lack of detail about SurfProtect. It's basic but does the job. The answer to your question is Yes it can filter by AD groups if you can enable ICAP on your DHCP so it forwards there AD details to the SurfProtect.

 

My only criticism is the lack of reporting. It doesn't exist! Not an issue if you're a small primary but secondary will need something on site such as Censornet or Impero ect for user based reporting.

 

Hi Matt,

 

If you have the NETASQ or Fortinet firewall from us a decent level of reporting can be enabled on there for you. Just PM me if you want more information or contact the support team and they will take you through it.

 

Reporting (especially internally) has always been a challenge for a cloud based filtering system, but as we have developed SurfProtect over the past decade and introduced ICAP, which by the way, if you do not have an NETASQ or Fortinet device also works perfectly well using SQUID. The reporting side is VERY high up on our agenda for SurfProtect at the moment.

 

We also have a lot of our schools who also use Securus Software to complement SurfProtect too, again just PM me if you want any more information on that.

 

All the best,

Mark

[SchoolsBroadband]

Any filtering provided to schools without any level of reporting can't pass the new ofsted esafety guidelines surely? Primary or secondary. I know that exa will sell you a NetAsk box, which will help with AD integration and I'm told reporting. Needs to be a standard feature if you ask me, unless you are putting another filtering solution on the end of their line.

 

Remember to compare apples with apples. A feature rich solution can not be compared with a bare bones connection on cost, reliability or service.

 

@IrritableTech is right. You can't get Ofsted outstanding rating in e-safety if you don't have any reporting on user activity.