Wireless

[Gibson335]

Anyone out there running SIMS and/or Lesson Monitor through a wireless network? If so, how many clients do you have and what do you find the pros and cons to be?

 

Cheers.

[Michael]

Although I support many wireless networks, at all sites the MIS workstations and servers always run over Ethernet. MIS systems can be bandwidth hungry, but also, it keeps data as secure as possible. I personally would advise against wireless with your MIS system(s).

[Gibson335]

I've been fighting it off for the past 3 years...our LEA Support Providers still won't even support it - which is actually my main argument against it when dealing with serious enquiries - but with the flakiness you can get with SIMS/LM at times, it doesn't take much to corrupt its data, and I wouldn't like to think of around 100 laptops all sending out data at the same time across wireless...

[plexer]

Hmm data over wireless is encrypted data over wired is not.

 

If anything I'd say the wireless portion is more secure.

 

Sure once it's onto the wire it's then no more secure than anything else.

 

Ben

[SYNACK]

Hmm data over wireless is encrypted data over wired is not.

 

If anything I'd say the wireless portion is more secure.

 

Sure once it's onto the wire it's then no more secure than anything else.

 

Ben

 

Depends, you have greater physical security with the data on the wire, you can't simply sit outside the school and grab the admittedly encrypted data. You can also enforce IPSEC between your management stations and the SIMS server encrypting all the traffic to those secure servers on the wire.

[Michael]

Hmm data over wireless is encrypted data over wired is not.

 

If anything I'd say the wireless portion is more secure.

 

Sure once it's onto the wire it's then no more secure than anything else.

 

Hypothetically speaking, I could park outside your establishment and more than likely "see" your wireless network. If everything's wired, you're going to have to be a lot more clever getting access to sensitive information.

[steve]

Anyone out there running SIMS and/or Lesson Monitor through a wireless network? If so, how many clients do you have and what do you find the pros and cons to be?

 

Cheers.

 

We have about 100 laptops running Lesson Register over a wireless network everyday, that's 400-600 registers a day.

 

Pros:

 

Most Teachers love it - PE staff not so much.

Great for staff to see if Jonny is wagging it in there lesson

Reports / data from the class.

 

Cons:

 

Its wireless, when it works, its good, when it doesn't, its a real pain.

Damage - laptops are fragile, they get dropped, power supplies get broken.

SIMS updates are a nightmare - 100 staff want to do a register first thing after an update - inevitably a large number of problems (we now get staff to leave their laptops after school and we do all the updates in the evening)

Expense -damage, batteries, shorter life span, cases, all make them more expensive.

 

 

The teachers now love them after 3 years, if we were to ditch them there would be uproar.

[Gibson335]

Thanks. We already have the laptops...since 2002, and already using SIMS/Lesson Monitor. The wireless feedback is interesting, because it's what I experienced in the past and I always thought using SIMS/LM across wireless, with in excess of 100 teachers, might be a nightmare.