Internet browsing issues with new Smoothwall... Can't get my head round them!

[Jawloms]

@TomHD sorry I don't believe this to be the case - I couldn't under FoI request all the records pertaining to staff conduct etc.

 

There is data that the school holds that is exempt from FoI requests - you can absolutely refuse disclosure - you don't need to anonymise since it's exempt from disclosure.

 

I'd have thought refusing to give that info would just make you look even more guilty.

[Westley_IT]

It wasn't meant to offend, Primus, but I don't strictly agree with the anonymity. One, simple search will tell you who I am. I went along with the relative anonymity because that seemed to be the norm.

 

As for the "voice of this message board" and "...agree to disagree...", I was simply pointing out that the argument was going nowhere. You are entitled to your unwavering opinion but TomHD, Sigma and myself take issue with it.

 

Whichever way you look at it, the thread had gone off-track.

[Olliesaurus]

Not sure if this is the case for anyone else but if I log into the Smoothwall portal and click on Filter > List Groups I can see a very large list of IP addresses of people currently accessing the Smoothwall box, if the school is using iDex, I can also see there domain names and usernames...

 

I have informed SCC about this, however they didn't seem to understand and said they had no idea how to use the Smoothwall technology, I then emailed the supplied Smoothwall email address and never got a reply,

 

I am planning to move away from this stagnant turd as soon as possible.

[Westley_IT]

I have informed SCC about this, however they didn't seem to understand and said they had no idea how to use the Smoothwall technology, I then emailed the supplied Smoothwall email address and never got a reply,

I am planning to move away from this stagnant turd as soon as possible.

 

That sounds about right, Ollie. You need to provide SCC with three months notice. If, however, you have had a new connection or it has been upgraded to a new connection type, then the noticed period is 1 year from the initial installation date.

 

E2BN direct or Exa seem to be the favourites.

 

You'd best get cracking.

[Jawloms]

We told SCC we are leaving and not giving notice as they changed the service so drastically that it is no longer what we signed up to. We haven't heard anything back.

[Olliesaurus]

Just out of interest, has your internet speed decreased considerably at all after the migration to Smoothwall?

[sigma]

Not sure if this is the case for anyone else but if I log into the Smoothwall portal and click on Filter > List Groups I can see a very large list of IP addresses of people currently accessing the Smoothwall box, if the school is using iDex, I can also see there domain names and usernames...

 

I have informed SCC about this, however they didn't seem to understand and said they had no idea how to use the Smoothwall technology, I then emailed the supplied Smoothwall email address and never got a reply,

 

I am planning to move away from this stagnant turd as soon as possible.

I don't see that, all I see is the list of categories and tick boxes for the user groups...? Do you have your own Smoothwall appliance?

[sigma]

Just out of interest, has your internet speed decreased considerably at all after the migration to Smoothwall?

 

One of the primaries I support is in an FTTP trial. Upload and download speeds are great but just browsing the web can feel like dialup. It does feel like https is noticeably slower than http, but that's not a proper measurement. I've raised another support ticket.

[sigma]

Jawlooms and I had a useful meeting with County and Smoothwall yesterday. I'm not at work today but will try to put some notes out next week. County, the network provider and Smoothwall have a project meeting today. I hope they are able to share some if not all of the outcome with us. They have quite a lot of work to do if they want to rescue this project and not leave county paying for a fixed term contract that becomes unfunded if too many schools walk away.

[1an]

Anyone else having issues accessing the Smoothwall portal site for your schools? The page is not loading at two of my schools.

[Jayellcee]

We can't login either. In fact we haven't been able to for at least two weeks. Have put in a support ticket to smoothwall and to county but no one is telling us anything!!

[sigma]

Anyone else having issues accessing the Smoothwall portal site for your schools? The page is not loading at two of my schools.

 

Did you try using an account from one of the working schools?

[1an]

It was my mistake. I had been tinkering with my proxy exceptions and forgot to add the one back in for smoothwall

[Jayellcee]

Anyone else in suffolk unable to log in to smoothwall @ http://smoothwall.gfl.suffolk.org.uk/?

We get 'the requested url could not be retrieved

[1an]

Anyone else in suffolk unable to log in to smoothwall @ http://smoothwall.gfl.suffolk.org.uk/?

We get 'the requested url could not be retrieved

 

Can you get to the login page or do you get the error when you attempt to login?

[Jayellcee]

No can't get to the login page. That's when we get the above error. It was working a few weeks ago but not now.

[Jayellcee]

Fyi finally solved this by allowing for a very long time out time. It was a very slow response from a dns upstream.

Got it running finally but is still VERY slow!!!

Thanks 1an for help

[sigma]

Today's issue:

Teacher does news search (think she mean't to do image search) for "cucumber" and it gets blocked for reason "Core blocked - porn"

 

I do pupil search (KS1/2) for "news for Cucumber" and the first Google search result is:

Why would anyone cleanse their vagina with a cucumber? - BBC Three

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/ab7a165a-3904-477b-8878-e55833f44e1a

 

This system is seriously failing.

 

County Childrens' Services (who now have responsibility for blanket county wide blocking) have said in writing that all BBC3 content including the above "Why would anyone cleanse their vagina with a cucumber?" is absolutely fine for KS1/2 pupils to access.

 

I had not realised that I was so out of line with the norm for what children should be able to access in Primary schools. I can't help wondering what their definition of adult content would include, but not so much that I can actually bother to pursue this any further now that I am clear that they have taken responsibility and that it no longer even tenuously resides with me.

[Westley_IT]

Well, who'd have guessed? Not me, thats for sure!

 

I am just imaginging the awkward conversations at home with the puzzled 5 year-olds. Rather them than me, @sigma

 

We have now moved back to E2BN and are very happy with the service. Disregarding anything else, they actually respond to my queries. Suffolk's network team do not seem to give a monkey's as I have not heard a peep from anyone when, to all intents and purposes, we are still a paying customer with major issues.

 

It's nice to be look at that issue with some detachment but I feel sorry for those who are stuck with a service that is not fit for purpose.

 

Have a fine summer, sir!

[sigma]

Most of my schools - those that can afford it are leaving county broadband thankfully.

Have a fine summer yourself too.

[TomHD]

We are still stuck with issues SCC/MLL just aren't doing their part! It's a shambles.

[Westley_IT]

That's bad news, @TomHD

 

You cannot help but feel that they are trying to push schools out so that they can drop the service and save themselves some money. They seem to be running it into the ground which has dire consequences for the schools that cannot afford to move.

 

That said, with our quotation from E2BN, we save £200 on our annual, Suffolk fee and it is a dedicated, leased line with all of the benefits that you would expect. I know that there is a setup fee but a functioning service has to be better than paying less for problematic, malfunctioning one?!?

[sigma]

We are still stuck with issues SCC/MLL just aren't doing their part! It's a shambles.

 

I am fed up with being told that everyone else is really happy with the new service and that I am the only one who is having problems (still) and the only one who is complaining.

 

In spite of variouls meetings, the ony problems that have been fixed (so far) are:

 

You can't change one school's filtering with another school's account anymore.

For the schools I support, the Microsoft service that updates revoked certificates has been unblocked. These were blocked at higher than Portal level. (They wouldn't do that globally).

Various automatic updaters have been unblocked that were also blocked at higher than portal level.

 

Still no Privacy Policy.

Still takes ages to navigate into reports.

I don't always get the report I asked for.

It times out in the middle of doing things.

The Policy tester doesn't work.

Safeguarding reports don't work.

Can't run some detailed reorts for some small time periods.

Can't unblock or block anything that is case sensitive such as specific Youtube videos.

Global changes happen such as new categories which are set without being informed.

Lack of timely response to dealing wth queries/problems.

[TomHD]

Still issues here Sigma, things are just getting worse and MLL are doing nothing! I am currenlt writing a proposal for our BM to move to a business solution and wave bye bye to this terrible service

 

I stopped complaining as there is clearly no point, was told similar fables as you were that others were happy!

Edited September 18, 2018 by TomHD

[Olliesaurus]

Only slightly off topic (but still fairly on topic) has anyone else had nothing but issues with Schools Choice and MLL this last week?

 

I've emailed network support, MLL directly, even the head of Schools Choice, nothing from anyone.

 

My trusts schools have effectively been offline for 4 days, almost 5.

 

I will be moving them all over to Schools Broadband in the Easter half term and it really cannot come quick enough, the service provided by Schools Choice is useless and I feel sorry for all the schools that will be stuck with them, I'd rather stub my toe than deal with them any longer.