Segfl

[DMcCoy]

Anyone else have to endure using the South east grid for learning? Its run by RM (yay!). Although I would point out that the current problem may or may not have anything to do with RM.

 

I am now entering hour 77 since the internet connection was lost. These days I don't even have anything else to plug in to use, I only have a single 10Mb fibre line. Its not just me either, afaik its all the (lea) schools on the Isle of Wight. I can't cope without the internet anymore, its killing me!

 

I can cope without most internet stuff but loss of email is always a pita, and soon all my incoming mails will be returned as undeliverable (hooray for RMs short smtp delivery timeout!).

 

 

David

[DMcCoy]

As an update, it seems it is not all schools, but a selection. I'm not quite sure how everything escapes from the lea, but perhaps there are two links accross the solent. I have found another island high school with an awol website, they must host it locally like we do.

[linuxgirlie]

Oh, I agree, we use SEGFL here as well, and it often disappears for now reason, last time it was because they accidently pushed a back to defaults button on a switch.

 

Saying that I am hoping that since getting KCN2 (10mb) all will be fine, no problems to report so far

 

The only other problem I have though is getting ports open, its a nightmare!!

[Guest richard]

To be honest I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.

[DMcCoy]

Its fixed! After only 98 hours!

 

Seems it wasn't RM for once, there is an issue with a fibre link. The wonders of living on an island

[Disease]

We now use the SWAN network for our 10mb line, much better than SEGFL.

[E1uSiV3]

I cant get fiber at my new workplace, hell i cant even get an IP lease, theres question if we can even get SDSL at any reasonable speed so im screwed lol (we run VPN on a 512Kbps adsl line atm.... lol) You guys are spoilt in schools you know, they want £300 a month just for 2MB SDSL and you guys get 10Mbit managed links (or more depending on the locale) with support (yeah i know i know, its not always brilliant but its support nonetheless lol)

 

I spose i do get the joys of controlling my own connection tho (has its downsides too tho)

[DMcCoy]

I cant get fiber at my new workplace, hell i cant even get an IP lease, theres question if we can even get SDSL at any reasonable speed so im screwed lol (we run VPN on a 512Kbps adsl line atm.... lol) You guys are spoilt in schools you know, they want £300 a month just for 2MB SDSL and you guys get 10Mbit managed links (or more depending on the locale) with support (yeah i know i know, its not always brilliant but its support nonetheless lol)

 

I spose i do get the joys of controlling my own connection tho (has its downsides too tho)

 

Yes, its easy to think that more speed is always better, but having a connection that has the following deficencies is often a lot of trouble.

 

1) No public IP. Limited port forwarding, has to be arranged with plenty of red tape (and money per change request) to hold it in place.

 

2) No direct internet access. All the sodding traffic has to go through a http proxy! The joy!

 

3) No NAT (see 1)

 

4) No control over access rules port forwarding or router / firewall.

 

5) Terribly outdated and useless http content filter.

 

6) Previous mail server issues (48 hour delays). All access goes missing for hours at a time, several times a year. Flakey ntp server (goes awol many times a day - encouraging as its also their primary dns server).

 

7) 10Mb link, but NO QoS availiable.

 

8) smtp feed holds mail for a pitiful amount of time. I used to get 30 days on demon iirc, I think I have 48 hours with Segfl.

 

9) 10MB mail limit, its 2006 ffs! I can move 100s of GB a day, yet all mail still has to be 10MB or less, how rediculous.

 

10) Utterly stupid virus checking on email. You can not be virus checking mail if you are deleting all EXEs and ZIPs etc. This means you HAVEN'T checked them, just removed them without checking, otherwise if you do scan them you can class them as safe and let me get an attachement. I have had urgent patches, licenses and other vital email sent only for the one important bit (the attachment) to be removed with a nice message saying it *might* contain a virus (but then you don't have a virus checker if you don't KNOW). Ahem, slight rant there, but it winds me up.

 

I find the whole thing too restrictive. I have to ask to get ports opened to specific places, they lecture me when I want ports open to and from anywhere

 

I asked from an unrestricted internet IP address, I thought they might die from the shock!

 

All I really have is a 10Mb LES (lan extension service) to the LEA, from there it is a connection to RMs internal network from which I have restricted access via an http proxy. Not very flexible (linux is a pain as its so much easier without proxies). No control over anything.

 

Hooray for a 10Mb glorified http proxy that I can do naff all with easily.

 

Here endeth the lesson