Link2ICT Network Managers and School Technicians’ Think Tank - Oct 2014

[foofighterjim]

Anyone going to this? I'm not sure if anything has really changed since the last meeting (except for the elimination of local proxy), so I am on the fence.

 

For those of you who missed it here is the message:

 

Date for the Diary:

Network Managers and School Technicians’ Think Tank

 

When: Wednesday 8th October 2014

Where: The Pavilion, Moor Lane, Birmingham, B6 7AA

Time: 9.30am – 3.30pm

Link2ICT is inviting you to the Network Managers and School Technicians’ Think Tank.

 

Following the success of the last Network Manager and Technician event, we would again like to open the floor for consultation. We have a number of topics that we would like to discuss with you and we would appreciate your feedback on each.

 

This will be a one-day event that will provide a forum for information sharing and an opportunity to gain knowledge around the Link2ICT Road Map.

 

On the day we would like to discuss:

 Firewall Update

 Filtering – Web and Email

 Mobile Device Management

 Application Control

 Guest Wi-Fi

 Office 365

 And other topics

We really want to hear from you and value your input, so if there is a topic that you would like to discuss, please email [email protected].

 

Further information will be available shortly, but for now please book your place!

 

This event is free to attend so don’t miss out!

[Trojan]

(except for the elimination of local proxy)

 

We are still using the local proxy.. should we not be ??

[foofighterjim]

Did you not get this?:

 

Dear Colleagues,

 

As part of our improvements to your Internet service, Link2ICT will be removing the local proxy servers located within schools. This forms part of our overall review of the service and requirement to adapt to the changing technologies in use, particularly those required to access cloud based services.

 

Following extensive testing and proof of concept (POC), Link2ICT is planning to migrate schools away from using a locally hosted proxy server to using a load balancer which will distribute traffic between the core proxy servers before accessing the Internet. The migration will be phased and your school is scheduled to move to the new service during the week beginning Monday 21st July 2014.

 

Please see the attached for more details:

ProxyServerupgrade.pdf

[Trojan]

No, never seen that before ! More excellent communication from Link.

[stevenlong1985]

Yeah I didnt see that too, but I rang them up about espresso.bgfl.org not working, they didn't mention these changes

[foofighterjim]

So are you guys going to the meeting? I seem to remember that communication was one of the main things raised from the last one.

[jamin100]

Hmm our local proxy is still on ...

 

Can I get rid of it now

[Trojan]

Mine's also still on.. Need to clarify with them if I should turn it off..

 

@foofighterjim -Yes I am going to try to be there where I will definitely be bringing up the issue of communications yet again.

[foofighterjim]

Yes 100% call them before doing anything, it could have been that they did my site and some others and then stopped. Anyone else getting intermittently horrendous internet connectivity?

[Trojan]

Anyone else getting intermittently horrendous internet connectivity?

 

Yes, last few days have been bad. Raised a ticket which was immediately logged as a priority 10 "child task" and not heard anything from them since.

[foofighterjim]

Just logged one too, staff have been complaining all week of being unable to add attachments in O365. I have only just put 2 and 2 together and tethered a computer to my phone on an edge 3g signal to have it work almost instantly!

[Tricky_Dicky]

I was planning on going.

 

Nothing seems to have changed, yes they have removed the local proxies, but the internet connection is no quicker. We still don't have any control on filtering/firewall. Network change requests still take a week!

[Little-Miss]

You guys need to go. You need to keep poking at them! Nothing will change otherwise.

[eshaq786]

I'll be going. We've moved away but had to retain an adsl connection at a cost of £3k just for a bunch of files via fcs.

 

Not at all happy with their service.

 

I will do a write up about our move and the problems encountered and solutions. I'll post it here as soon as I get a chance to write it.

[Trojan]

I've just had a phone call from a lovely chap at Service Birmingham who informed me that indeed the local proxies should not be being used now. One quick way to check is to do an nslookup on eduproxy.bgfl.org if it returns a series of 8 IP adresses you are indeed using the central load balancer. His one caution was where a device has been configured to use the IP address of the old local proxy rather than "eduproxy.bgfl.org" this would need reconfiguring, otherwise no local configuration changes are needed.

 

The old local proxy hardware can be retained by the school and repurposed / stripped for parts / disposed of as schools see fit.

[Trojan]

He was under the impression that all schools had been told.. I informed him that was not the case!

[foofighterjim]

So communication is still a point of contention then. That was one area that was absolutely clear from the last meeting they needed to improve on.

 

Edit: @eshaq786 As you still have the ADSL line and use FCS Login are you still being charged for the core subscription?

Edited October 1, 2014 by foofighterjim

[eshaq786]

Yes I believe we pay the core part. We basically just dropped the Internet part to adsl. We still have mis licence, mis support and service desk with them. Can't understand why we would need service desk when we only call them for mis support which we pay a separate charge for.

 

In an ideal world I would cancel the adsl part, cancel the service desk and just pay for the mis licence and support and anti virus. Policy central also doesn't work so had to sign up for securus. Wouldn't have minded paying them for policy central but they weren't offering any solutions for us as the pce server is internal on bgfl.

[foofighterjim]

If I recall you have to have the Service Desk otherwise you wont get any support (despite paying separately for MIS support). It may be something I look at as I am trying to get away but am being held back by FCS and MIS, the latter may not be an issue come April.

[jamin100]

I'm pretty sure we're still on the proxy as the net doesn't work if you don't enter the proxy details

[Trojan]

@jamin100 You still need to use the proxy details in your devices it's just that "eduproxy.bgfl.org" now points to the load balancer, not your local proxy box.

[foofighterjim]

@eshaq786 As you are still using the ADSL connection for FCS and (presumably) got a new non BGFL internet connection in. How have you resolved any IP address issues, or are you still using the Birmingham scope and subnet? IE is the machine used for FCS connected directly to the ADSL line and nothing else or do have a more elaborate setup?

[eshaq786]

We have setup our new internet connection using the same scope and subnet settings. Our ADSL is just connected to one machine which we use to get the files from and move it via USB. We cannot use both connections(bridge) which is why we have it like that. It is the only solution I can think of until they provide a better one. It still works out cheaper and faster having two connections than just one 10mb from Link.

[foofighterjim]

It's not a bad idea I might look at if this would pay off for us.

[eshaq786]

Filtering is actually more restrictive but I can add or remove websites and categories for staff and pupils separately. Image filter is better as it blocks images from the actual results page and just displays a big X on blocked images while still showing results. I have light speed filtering which others have so far said good things about. One thing that is an issue is youtube https which cannot be forced into youtube edu. But every filter software seems to have the same issue.