Anyone with Schools Broadband?

[Wubbalubbadub]

Anyone with Schools broadband here? With Lightspeed.

 

Had the web filtering update done?

 

Screwed over all your filtering?

 

Everyone is getting student level filtering! (Basically default level)

 

Absolutely hectic for the first day back!

 

Not happy!

[synaesthesia]

Yes, and no not yet - we're looking forward to it; lightspeed could be all levels of hell but it won't be any worse than Fortigate on it's own.

Should just be a case of teething; assume you've already contacted them, they should be able to resolve that quickly enough.

[Wubbalubbadub]

I contacted them and they have said there is no fix yet..

[synaesthesia]

ooer; slightly worrying considering this is due to be done at all sites. Can only imagine it will be an AD user issue. With Fortigate it tended to be a service user being picked up as the logged on user (sophos, symantec usually) but once those were added to the exceptions that was solved. Might it be the same this time round and the lightspeed doesn't have the equivelent control?

 

On the bright side, student filtering for all is preferable to lesser filtering!

[Wubbalubbadub]

Oh it also stops your servers IP specific filtering..

 

Day just gets better!

[IrritableTech]

You should be able to use OU based filtering. We quickly set that up this morning and it is working for us. The AD USer Group filtering isn't working as it should at the moment.

 

I'm looking into if those permissions cascade down for one of our local primaries. We've got it set on the OU our users are within, they're trying to implement it on a OU slightly higher up and it doesn't seem to be working.

 

We're using IP specific filtering without an issue too, odd that yours isn't working.

Edited November 3, 2014 by IrritableTech

[sted]

if your on their mailing list you got roughly the following

 

over the weekend 1/2 nov we will be updating our backend stuff this will require you to deploy a new version of the agent BUT NOT YET

this is now complete to get filtering working deploy the new client asap

oh dear the client works to a degree it can once again pick up who you are rather than being an unknown user but if you are using security groups to do your filtering everyone atm gets high level filtering like the kids were working on it stay tuned for further updates

weve worked on it and passed it on to lightspeed (who being based in the usa are probably in bed) to fix it so it will be a while we guess.

 

My server filtering (ip based) seems ok as I can get to youtube on the server as a test

[sted]

had an email a bit ago saying next update at 3 o'clock

[IrritableTech]

The info coming out today from Schools Broadband has been on time and appreciated.

 

Lightspeed (who I'm sure have 24 hour staff) are creating a patch to solve the issue which SB have suggested should be with them later today.

 

OU and IP based filtering working perfectly here. Client out now to nearly all machines, so users are identified in our logs.

[Snookered]

I came in today with the aim of firing off the new user agent to all of our pc's on our main site, only to be greeted at the entrance with a "There's no internet down at the Children's centre",

Have been here since 10ish, numerous calls to SB and still waiting for a fix. Users can use Outlook to read and reply to emails, but web browsing doesn't work, network shares and printers not working, and most folk can't even reach the domain.

Horrid first day back!

[Edu-IT]

The info coming out today from Schools Broadband has been on time and appreciated.

 

Lightspeed (who I'm sure have 24 hour staff) are creating a patch to solve the issue which SB have suggested should be with them later today.

 

OU and IP based filtering working perfectly here. Client out now to nearly all machines, so users are identified in our logs.

They do have 24 hour staff - in the sense that you can log calls - but QA are US based and they have to approve the fixes and such like so there can be delays.

[IrritableTech]

I came in today with the aim of firing off the new user agent to all of our pc's on our main site, only to be greeted at the entrance with a "There's no internet down at the Children's centre",

Have been here since 10ish, numerous calls to SB and still waiting for a fix. Users can use Outlook to read and reply to emails, but web browsing doesn't work, network shares and printers not working, and most folk can't even reach the domain.

Horrid first day back!

 

I'm guessing the Children's centre is connected via a VPN or point 2 point link? Can't see why the lightspeed change would cause such issues with 'local' traffic otherwise?

[clockend25]

It's not been the best of days. From our end the new package deployed fine, and users were being identified correctly, but the correct filtering levels weren't applying. We had a temporary fix put in place late morning and the issue seems to have been fully resolved since about 3pm.

 

Wish they'd done this last weekend.

[Wubbalubbadub]

Indeed! Terrible service I can't believe this wasn't tested properly!

 

Got an email about an hour ago saying it's fixed... I'll see how the morning progresses!

 

The worst part is... When I phones this morning there tech support didn't know there was an issue and even asked me to restart my main DC!

 

Need to start looking for other providers I thinks!

 

Very un-happy day today! Iv sent in a complaint let's see what happens from that. They haven't even acknowledged my complaint.

[IrritableTech]

It obviously hasn't been their best day, however I think we need to keep things in perspective.

 

Schools Broadband probably should have planned this in for one week previous, enabling schools half term to test and fix any issues. I suspect there was a reason why they didn't, and they'll probably learn from that decision.

 

I noticed the issue with user groups not getting the correct filtering before nine AM and after checking that the agent had deployed correctly on a few machines I was able to determine that our IP based filtering was working as it should. It became apparent that another group of users were being filtered correctly (one set up with OU based filtering) and I contacted schools broadband to confirm what I had found. About an hour later (presumably after testing themselves) an update went out to schools with a suggestion of the temporary fix (which I had already tested and implemented).

 

Unless you know something I'm not aware of all schools were given a possible fix by 10:30am.

 

Previous to this - assuming your client had been deployed correctly (a separate issue really and dependant on each individual school and their technical support rather than SB) your users activity was being logged, however all of them and the strictest level of filtering. If your client hadn't been deployed correctly, your users would all be anonymous, unless you challenge users to log in through the lightspeed blocked page.

 

Were users safe? Yes, they probably were perfectly safe. Were lessons distrusted? Yes, especially if teachers didn't have an alternative lesson plan, but only for a fairly short period. Were we all shouted at for an issue not of our creation? Yes, but that's the job unfortunately (reminds me of this...

Warning! One swear EDIT Warning! Three swears!).

 

I don't know about your school, but the most common complaint was the lack of YouTube. If worst came to worst schools had it within their power to unblock such sites on that strict level of filter if it was truly impacting on teaching and learning.

 

How quickly we forget the misgivings of our previous service providers - in my opinion, this wasn't anywhere close to the poor service offered by some of them.

Edited November 3, 2014 by IrritableTech

[XiJ]

I thought the communication - both pre and post upgrade was very good.

 

As someone who only visits school once a week I warned the it co-ord that worst case some users will only have pupil access (mainly the Mac users where they are standalone laptops). I've had no complaints though.

 

I do think that during the half term break would have been better - but this could be different for each area of the country. And it wouldn't have made much difference in schools who only have term time tech visits.

 

I'm pleased with the way SB have handled this.

[mrbios]

I thought the communication - both pre and post upgrade was very good.

.

 

I agree.....once i realised all the emails were being quarantined by EOP

 

Yes they should have implemented it one week earlier, but to me that's their only stumbling block, everything else they've done has appeared to be as i'd expect of any company.

[Wubbalubbadub]

You guys are obviously more forgiving than me :-)

 

If I had made this mistake I'm sure SLT would be down on us like a ton of bricks!

 

Let's see how tomorrow progress's

[mrbios]

You guys are obviously more forgiving than me :-)

 

If I had made this mistake I'm sure SLT would be down on us like a ton of bricks!

 

Let's see how tomorrow progress's

 

You are often only as forgiving as the man above you.

 

 

EDIT: I should add, atheist, no religious back crap intended to that, but it is often true.

Edited November 3, 2014 by mrbios

[Snookered]

I'm guessing the Children's centre is connected via a VPN or point 2 point link? Can't see why the lightspeed change would cause such issues with 'local' traffic otherwise?

 

You are probably right, though for years I have been trying to find out exactly how the two sites are connected, no one I ask can ever give a definitive answer, I'm certain it's not Point2Point, we are a mile apart, with no line of sight. Anyway as of this morning the CC has it's network back, I just have to iron out a few hitches such as why their secure print to the printer server is now unreachable and why on the main site I am seeing Trust relationships failing on some of our pc's and then I can roll out the Useragent and see what happens with that!

[IrritableTech]

After a bit of testing this morning it seems AD security group filtering is working again. Seems like the patch has worked. I've removed my OU filtering settings because they were a lot more messy in my environment.

 

Reports are much faster now too, which obviously was one of the main reasons for the change. I for one am pleased.

[Wubbalubbadub]

Well day 3 is over and there are still problems.. Turns out HTTPS sites are not being filtered now..

 

:-(

[synaesthesia]

That sounds oddly familiar.

[IrritableTech]

Is this in IE? There's a patch for that... It's planned to be installed in the early hours of Friday morning.

[Wubbalubbadub]

Yeah in the meantime students are roaming free on youtube & other https sites...