Not impressed lately

[Opendium_Steve]

Why was there an issue with Google SSL ? Our LA use netsweeper and saw no issues with google SSL.

 

I'm not sure whether this is specifically what @JGoswell is talking about, but originally Google used to have a mechanism to force searches to be unencrypted so that filtering systems could filter them. Unfortunately, some wifi hotspot providers took to abusing that mechanism to inject advertising into Google pages so Google pulled the feature and replaced it. The replacement system allowed schools to force safesearch on whilst keeping the searches encrypted. Safe search is only part of what many schools want though - schools often want additional protection from their own filters, audit logs, etc. and all of this requires intercepting the encryption. Whilst many filter systems have supported HTTPS interception for years, it seems that the systems used by the regional broadband consortia often didn't, or at least required major changes to support it.

 

To be completely fair, HTTPS interception does require significantly more resources than filtering HTTP traffic so its not unreasonable to need to upgrade hardware, etc. to support it. However, I'm aware that some LEAs sent memos around to schools saying that they would no longer be able to offer any filtering for Google searches (I sincerely hope that they've upgraded by now though!). The SWGFL introduced SSL interception for Google just before the summer I think.

 

Also, I was advised by one company that the issue of Google Translate being an open proxy and that is was a known issue with ALL filtering solutions.

 

I think that's a simplification anyway. Some filtering systems rely on nothing bug a big URL database and they have big problems with Google Translate, others also do content analysis to categorise sites. Whilst not perfect, the latter type of filter will offer more protection to Google Translate abuse.

[JGoswell]

Hi @ITGURU,

 

Regarding Google SSL, essentially, yes, what @SteveHill just said - we've an explanation here: Changes to Google SSL and RM SafetyNet | RM Education - What we do

 

And with that, I've got to go.

 

Jamie @ RM

[SchoolsBroadband]

Well people walk with their feet. We've had a lot of annoyed SWGFL customers join us this year.

 

If a service keeps on breaking that you rely on and pay a small fortune for then leave. Whether that be to us or another provider. We've had 100% uptime i the last 18 months whether that be proxy, firewall or core network.

 

Also why are changes made in the day time?! We ban anything but the highest level of emergency maintenance for anything happening in the day time. All upgrades are done in the early hours of the morning which makes sense so if it goes wrong people are not affected....

[pirran]

Our feet are moving, not fast enough for my liking due to contracts. Yet again today, transparent proxy will not allow Outlook to connect to 365 and users can't even access the 365 website.

 

Tested externally, tested on non-transparent proxy = fine. Connection issues are sporadic with some machines working others whilst others don't. No notification of issues from RM and this is the 'new higher capacity service' (I've lost track of the number of times I've been told it's been improved).

 

It looks like we're going to manage to get a smoothwall UTM in place before the end of our SWGFL contract and then request a bypass for the proxy farm. RM or @AJWhite1970 how about refunds for a service not being provided?

[witch]

Sorry to swim against the tide, but I have had very few problems with the SWGfL filtering or proxy and we are pretty happy really

[Boredguy]

Can't say we've had any major issues recently. I'll be shopping around in the next month ready for the renewal that is due in August but on the whole there is nothing that is making us say "We must move"

[JGoswell]

Hi @pirran

 

I'm sorry you've experienced an issue this morning.

 

I understand Chris in our support team spoke with a colleague of yours this morning. As you might now know, we were unable to find a solution-wide problem and we’ve had no similar reports from other schools – given your issue was with O365, we’d expect to have heard about it pretty quickly if others were experiencing the same thing.

 

We’re going to send over some suggestions about how to find the root of the issue – there’s a tool you could put on a machine on your network to capture info and track it down.

 

If the problem reoccurs, please do give us a call, as we’d of course like to help if we can.

 

Jamie @ RM

[localzuk]

I've had a call open for 2 weeks, and only today did someone actually pay attention to the problem we're having. My earlier date/time/proxy server details were ignored and now I have to go hunting for another user experiencing the same problem so I can report it again!

 

Its a bit of a major issue as well, as some users are currently getting unfiltered YouTube!

[JGoswell]

Hi @localzuk

 

It’s can be hard to identify customers on the forum because of usernames but I think we’ve identified your support number and I’ll pick this up directly with our engineer – apologies for the delay.

 

It seems the issue is at least partly related to Google’s recent withdrawal of its schools YouTube service. We informed all schools that use the service about this by email. We’ll be following that up with another email shortly linking to an FAQ explaining what’s happened.

 

You can see the information we’ve already provided here: RM Education

 

Jamie @ RM

Edited November 20, 2015 by JGoswell

[Steve21]

Pew pew goes the DDOS

 

ARGGGH death.... Goes the SWGFL!

 

Steve

[Boredguy]

And there I was thinking it was just cause I was sending ya a PM

[Steve21]

And there I was thinking it was just cause I was sending ya a PM

 

Haha slacking at work detected! NUKE

 

Steve

[JGoswell]

Hi all,

 

Yes, that was an unusually large DDOS attack. A couple of customers did notice the affects for a few minutes but our new DDOS mitigation system had by then kicked in and neutralised the attack in short order.

 

Jamie @ RM

Edited November 27, 2015 by JGoswell

[Gibson335]

Zen Internet. Best thing we ever did. However I have heard good reports about @SchoolsBroadband

 

We're moving to Zen Internet next year I think. Glad to see them mentioned on here so positively.

[Steve21]

Anyone else getting proxy issues?

 

Steve

[localzuk]

Yup. Experiencing some very odd behaviour @Steve21.

[Steve21]

*stab stab* Ah well, at least it's nothing broke on my end haha

 

Steve

[AJWhite1970]

Investigating - We are aware a small number of customers are experiencing degraded browsing performance in SWGfL. Our engineers are working on resolving this as a priority

 

 

Good job it's only a small number!!!!

[Boredguy]

Shame the status page only shows them investigating from 10:25 though (and it only just refreshed on my rss feed)

[Oaktech]

Still high latency here...

 

But it's OK, my FTTC was installed over Christmas, I'll be on a new 80/10mbps FTTC connection by monday morning and I'll be able to remove my sub to this page!

 

My 100mbps symetric leased line is still dragging on because of civil engineering difficulties.

[localzuk]

Update from SWGfL.

 

The degraded performance being experienced by a number of customers is due to a DDoS attack against a specific school within our network. Steps are being taken to block the attack.

[newpersn]

The degraded performance being experienced by a number of customers is due to a DDoS attack against a specific school within our network. Steps are being taken to block the attack

 

A specfic school?!?!

[Steve21]

Who did we upset?!? haha

 

Steve

[Opendium_Steve]

Yes, We've got several schools currently with ~90% packet loss on their SWGFL connections (doesn't appear to be a proxy issue, just a connectivity issue). Helpfully RM said "No one else has reported a problem" when they phoned them...