Dropbox

[Bankesy]

Hello

 

Our IT department are keen to extend their use of Dropbox, the idea is it will be installed on the workstations and then the students will sign in with their Dropbox accounts which have already been setup.

 

At the moment there are no problems with staff using Dropbox this way but the students receive a 'No Internet Connection' error.

 

As far as I'm concerned it's not our internal firewall preventing access so I forwarded the page from Dropbox FAQs concerning firewall and port configuration to the local authority.

 

Has anybody else had or overcome this problem?

[JoHimself]

Putting the question aside for a moment...

 

How is this going to work practically? Are all students going to sync all of their stuff to each machine they use? Are there measures in place to prevent the students from putting illicit content in their Dropbox? Is there a problem with the functionality of the web interface as opposed to the full client?

 

I'm just thinking this is a lot of unnecessary bandwidth, storage and support overhead.

[robjduk]

Putting the question aside for a moment...

 

How is this going to work practically? Are all students going to sync all of their stuff to each machine they use? Are there measures in place to prevent the students from putting illicit content in their Dropbox? Is there a problem with the functionality of the web interface as opposed to the full client?

 

I'm just thinking this is a lot of unnecessary bandwidth, storage and support overhead.

 

Just to throw my hat into the ring with JoHimself here, seems odd to me to use dropbox over MS or Google who offer automated systems which sync with AD. Sorry its not exactly to do with your question but to me it sounds like someone in your IT department has a hardon for dropbox without thinking about the schools requirements.

Edited November 16, 2015 by robjduk

[JoHimself]

Dropbox for Business seems to have AD auth and SSO. I strongly suspect that Dropbox for Business is not being considered.

 

I'd aim to introduce this as part of a proper cloud storage project. You need to think about the practicalities and choose the technology based on requirements rather than selecting a product and shoe horning it in. Sustainability and value for money need to be considered (as well as the legal implications of where data is stored etc.) and selecting a consumer version should not be an option.

 

To be honest a cloud storage solution, properly implemented, will be of use to everyone not just the IT department.

[Bankesy]

Hello

 

Well what happened was the IT teacher went ahead and got himself and all the students setup with Dropbox.

 

The practicality of it? We are a small school with only 1 IT teacher who only ever teaches in one room so yes all of his students were to log on to the Dropbox app.

 

Due to some historical\aging problems with the Windows image and Group Policy the school has been stuck on Internet Explorer 9 for a while which does appear to be causing some problems with the Dropbox web interface\uploader.

 

In terms of content control, I'm not exactly sure what the IT teacher did but he can see the students Dropbox folders to leave and collect work.

 

You mention MS and Google services that sync with AD, is this One Drive and Google Drive?

[robjduk]

yes it is. Also free to schools (along with a few other perks such as googles unlimited storage or MS office free for all).

 

If dropbox was free to schools I would be all for it but seems to me this setup is a disaster waiting to happen.

[JoHimself]

Of course he did.

 

If there is 1 IT room surely most of the school will use it at some point. Is there enough storage on the machines? Is there an impact on the rest of the school to potentially a whole class of students downloading their whole Dropbox account all at the same time after, say, the room has been reimaged? Is there sufficient storage on the fileserver which is hosting their profile? Is "My Documents" redirected or will the whole Dropbox folder come down in their profile to any machine they log on to?

 

Honestly, your GPO and image problems should be sorted out rather than faffing around fixing unauthorised Dropbox installations.

 

It sounds like each student has shared either a folder of the whole of their Dropbox with the teacher. When I talk about sustainability I'm referring to what happens when new users come in, in this scenario the teacher will need to set it up manually for the new student. I'd have a quick check with finance to make absolutely sure he's not bought Dropbox for Business.

 

This setup is not really content control but if SLT are happy with the risks to the network associated with this strategy then who are we to argue. Perhaps more importantly, Dropbox for Business is ISO 27001 and 27018 compliant. I can find no information regarding this compliance for the consumer version. Tread carefully.

 

Yes it is One Drive (for Business) and Google Drive. The user uses their AD credentials to sign in to either a web interface or sync app.

 

Honestly this sounds like a nightmare. Good hunting.