localzuk Posted July 1, 2015 Posted July 1, 2015 We seem to be suffering a never ending stream of intermittent internet issues lately. Its almost a return to the unreliable internet that we had when I first started here. I'd love to know what SWGfL and RM are going to do to remedy this apparent new generation of instability! The downtime on Monday partly ruined a planned event day here. Which was a shame. 1
snagrat Posted July 1, 2015 Posted July 1, 2015 We seem to be suffering a never ending stream of intermittent internet issues lately. Its almost a return to the unreliable internet that we had when I first started here. I'd love to know what SWGfL and RM are going to do to remedy this apparent new generation of instability! The downtime on Monday partly ruined a planned event day here. Which was a shame. Switch provider then!
Steve21 Posted July 1, 2015 Posted July 1, 2015 Aye this last week hasn't been great at all, especially with so much more going cloud based, even emails for H&S/CP issues etc Steve
localzuk Posted July 1, 2015 Author Posted July 1, 2015 (edited) Switch provider then! Sadly, in this area we don't really have a choice. we'd end up paying 4-5 times what we pay now just for the connection and then more on top for filtering. We're one of those areas that RBCs were an absolute necessity. I'd love to be able to move away but when I go to my boss and say we're gonna end up spending £17k+ on it, I just get a reply of "we'll have to make do". Its a shame, but at the moment it'd be slightly more reliable internet vs someone's job. Edited July 1, 2015 by localzuk
aleach2 Posted July 1, 2015 Posted July 1, 2015 I feel your pain @localzuk. We have experienced the same issues here in the SEGfL. Apparently it is dues to RM Changing their connections to the Janet network (and in my view not doing enough testing before doing so). I have called them recently and asked why they didn't decide to do it during the summer holidays but got some half arsed excuse why. Hopefully they should get it back to a stable connection once all their on the fly testing is done. We hope.
kennysarmy Posted July 1, 2015 Posted July 1, 2015 Pain here too - staff and students of course think it's our fault the internet is so slow and pages time-out.... Had a good run of reliability but I'll be glad when the end of term hits....
TIOAOA Posted July 1, 2015 Posted July 1, 2015 We tend to find the end of last few weeks of Summer 2 are always plagued by slow internet - as are the last weeks of Summer 1, Autumn 1, Autumn 2 , Spring 1 and Spring 2. People seem to switch off and wind down a lot more often than they used to and the easiest way for them to do that is to give the pupils free reign on the interweb.
witch Posted July 1, 2015 Posted July 1, 2015 We changed our provider via SWGfL and we now have a much better connection - I think it is talk talk. Actually costs us less than we were paying for a rubbish connection. I know Dorset LA have sorted it out so that we still get the same filtering and connections to country - presumably Somerset isn't doing that then?
localzuk Posted July 1, 2015 Author Posted July 1, 2015 We changed our provider via SWGfL and we now have a much better connection - I think it is talk talk. Actually costs us less than we were paying for a rubbish connection. I know Dorset LA have sorted it out so that we still get the same filtering and connections to country - presumably Somerset isn't doing that then? Somerset do things differently to the other LAs down here I believe. Basically, there is a single connection to SWGfL at Somerset County Hall's data center. (Well, they're redundant connections, but to us end users its one connection), we are then connected via the Somerset WAN - we all connect back there. SWGfL provide the internet bit, SCC/SWO provide the connections to the WAN. The WAN is pretty rock solid - don't think we've had any downtime in quite a long time on it. Its the SWGfL connection to the net that's been the issue.
Oaktech Posted July 1, 2015 Posted July 1, 2015 We're jumping ship in september, but I'm having to take a budget hit because SWGFL sent the reminder in January to an address that hasn't existed for years, auto renewed us for 12 months and didn't bill us until the start of June. Their contracts dept are playing hardball about things.
drdos256 Posted July 1, 2015 Posted July 1, 2015 RM have published this on their status web page:- " Intermittent browsing issues through RM proxies Identified - We have identified an issue relating to a slow performance degradation over time which has been affecting certain proxy servers. We will be rolling out a patch to all of our proxy farms by the end of this week which will resolve this problem. A workaround is place to address the issue until all proxy farms have been updated. A second issue has also been identified and we are investigating a variety of potential solutions in order to best resolve this issue. Investigating - We are aware a small number of customers have experienced intermittent slow browsing speed issues through our proxies. We have put a temporary workaround in place to help mitigate the cause of the issue whilst we are working on a permanent resolution. " We are one of the "small number of customers" that have been suffering over the last week.... 1
AJWhite1970 Posted July 2, 2015 Posted July 2, 2015 I think it was a typo, it's actually a small number of customers who haven't been suffering over the last week/month. Several schools in my local area are all suffering, mine included. My job has been open a week and not even acknowledged yet, 3 jobs open in my other school, 2 in another school down the road etc. I appreciate a system of this complexity will suffer issues occasionally but the past couple of weeks have been a joke. Andrew 2
Steve21 Posted July 2, 2015 Posted July 2, 2015 Unless it's changed: The problem is it's generally a "minor issue" and then a "second minor issue" So it's not a "big issue" Steve
Steve21 Posted July 2, 2015 Posted July 2, 2015 On a side note, you'll find that "poor connectivity performance" is only level 3 Steve
AJWhite1970 Posted July 2, 2015 Posted July 2, 2015 Assuming your connection is up long enough, the SLA for SWGfL is here:- http://swgfl.org.uk/products-services/schools-internet-service/Terms/Content/SWGfL-Customer-Manual-v2-0 pp 15-18
CyberNerd Posted July 2, 2015 Posted July 2, 2015 We don't have an SLA that I've ever seen! wow, how on earth did that get past the business manager! They tried to pull that one here - LA offer a 100mb/s connection knowing full well they couldn't deliver it as it would be contended with other schools. Unfortunately, if you don't have any guaranteed level of service there isn't much you can do about it -there is a reason why it is "cheap".
bossman Posted July 2, 2015 Posted July 2, 2015 We switched from our LA's black fibre offering as it was no good for us due to intermittent failures along their WAN, went with just a raw 100MB up and down 1 to 1 fibre feed from BT with a 100% uptime SLA guaranteed or else large KPI's come into effect for every hour of disconnectivity. Past 3 years we have had no issues whatsoever! Very impressed
Gardinho Posted July 2, 2015 Posted July 2, 2015 We moved away from SWGFL and are now with EXA Networks. The broadband hasn't missed a beat in 2 years. If anyone would like some more info on this PM me. We carried out a lot of research before switching provider. 1
localzuk Posted July 2, 2015 Author Posted July 2, 2015 So your happy to pay them for a service with no level of standard or expectations ? I don't think you understand. We cannot afford to go from, say, £4k or whatever it is to £20k per year, even if it meant we got a proper SLA. As far as I know, we as a school don't have an SLA with SWGfL, as we don't actually pay them anything. We pay our LEA who provide the WAN and they go via SWGfL, so we are a sub-customer of sorts. SWGfL provide us access to SafetyNet Plus as part of this, but we don't actually contract with them direct.
localzuk Posted July 2, 2015 Author Posted July 2, 2015 Oh I understand perfectly. I can assure you money would be found if your provider was seriously impacting on the school. You pay someone for a service, and if your not happy with the service you go elsewhere. If you cannot afford to go elsewhere you inform the bean counters to release more beans or they accept the current service. End of ... No, not end of. That's an overly-simplistic view when you have the school budget to take into consideration. That money is someone's job. We're down on numbers at the moment, and our budget is in a very tough spot. Schools have faced, for the first time ever, having to fund teacher pay increases from their existing budget with no extra funds from central govt. Balancing the annoyance of internet instability with having someone in a job is a difficult thing to do! So, no, it isn't as simple as you're making out. 2
localzuk Posted July 3, 2015 Author Posted July 3, 2015 (edited) You have already said in another thread that your tech is leaving and they might not replace them. Add to that the budget woes you said in which the the budget is will be to only keep things running. That money is someone's job. < huh? irrelevant. We're down on numbers at the moment... < So what ... and our budget is in a very tough spot. < Are you SMT SLT and set budgets or you just spend what your given? no ... well then irrelevant. Schools have faced, for the first time ever, having to fund teacher pay increases from their existing budget with no extra funds from central govt. < Same as above, become a governor if your interested and want to rubber stamp all the heads wishes. Balancing the annoyance of internet instability with having someone in a job is a difficult thing to do! < So you are SMT SLT !! no ? It seams to me it is as simple as that unless your job extends to SLT/SMT duties. It sounds to be like your position, if you have one, will be one of a single person support department. I can see your frustration, but it really is as simple as that. I don't know how to say this without it seeming rude, but that attitude is one of "jobsworth". My input doesn't just end at the servers. I do give input into whether we should spend money on IT or not. Sure, I don't make the final decision and I'm not SMT but I do still have a responsibility, as do we all, to ensure our money is spent in the best way for educating our kids. So, the fact our budget is tight, that we're down on kids, that we can't afford to replace our technician, it all paints a pretty clear picture to me - that there's not a lot of money around. So, for me to justify spending more on internet, I would have to show that these short bits of downtime are worth more to fix than, say, an LSA, or half a teacher - and I just can't do that. What I do then, is post a thread about how the service by our current ISP hasn't been great. It allows me to vent, and it gives some visibility to the issue - and maybe SWGfL even pay attention a little and things might improve. Have you looked at Trust Net (LgFL) Via Virgin/BT? I haven't. Do they do outside their geographical area? Their site is very much "London". Edited July 3, 2015 by localzuk 1
CyberNerd Posted July 3, 2015 Posted July 3, 2015 @localzuk at the end of the day mate you've gotta cut your cloth to fit. Personally I would say that access to reliable communications and learning materials (ie, the internet) trumps the majority of what we spend on in schools bar teachers. I don't think @Galway is being unfair; it is SLT responsibility, but it is your responsibility to give them options. Sometimes radical ones. Is the SIMS contract worth the money? Do you need an EES agreement ? Is the prized bit of software for X being used? Could we run our desktops for 7,10 years? what are the barriers to this?
thebatman Posted July 3, 2015 Posted July 3, 2015 I haven't. Do they do outside their geographical area? Their site is very much "London". They have started too this year, We are in Cheshire. We are not live yet, in the proses of having it installed over the Summer. 1
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