Filtering solutions for SIM cards that will replace Government Huawei routers?

[mikeglover]

Hello,

 

I am currently looking at what is required to replace the SIM cards in the government issued Huawei 4G wireless routers.

As some will know the government are cancelling them on 31st July 2021 and leaving it to schools to provide the service moving forward.

I have been looking at SIM card contracts but the main thing that will be missing that the government ones had was web filtering. And it is a safeguarding issue if they are not filtered.

 

Has anyone looked into web filtering solutions on SIM cards. I don't know much about this area. The government provided a solution so I know that it isn't impossible.

If anyone could point me to any products that could do this, much appreciated.

[synaesthesia]

There's a few solutions available for remote connected devices, both from a provider level and a local management level (i.e. Lightspeed filtering, Senso management).

I do however wonder what the actual requirement is - *is it* a requirement for schools to provide filtered access? I assume the only reason this is likely to be the case is because the school are providing it so covering themselves for liability reasons?

[mikeglover]

Correct. We have students without internet at home and because lessons can be remote due to having isolate, we have to provide internet for those students. The government issued us wifi dongles for during lockdown but that is now coming to an end on 31st July.

Don't think we are the only school in this situation. :-)

[Wave9_Lee]

Correct. We have students without internet at home and because lessons can be remote due to having isolate, we have to provide internet for those students. The government issued us wifi dongles for during lockdown but that is now coming to an end on 31st July.

Don't think we are the only school in this situation. :-)

 

We can provide a couple of options if needed. One is the device filtering route (Lightspeed) - but you'd ideally need management of the router to prevent other users accessing the internet (i.e. restricting access to only approved devices, by MAC address etc) This is why we used proper 4G routers rather than dongles, for the security and managability.

 

Alternatively, we can provide a SIM with a private APN that uses our hosted Sophos Web-filtering and cannot be bypassed. A managed 4G router is still preferred, to prevent unauthorised use etc.

[SchoolsBroadband]

Hello,

 

I am currently looking at what is required to replace the SIM cards in the government issued Huawei 4G wireless routers.

As some will know the government are cancelling them on 31st July 2021 and leaving it to schools to provide the service moving forward.

I have been looking at SIM card contracts but the main thing that will be missing that the government ones had was web filtering. And it is a safeguarding issue if they are not filtered.

 

Has anyone looked into web filtering solutions on SIM cards. I don't know much about this area. The government provided a solution so I know that it isn't impossible.

If anyone could point me to any products that could do this, much appreciated.

 

 

Hi Mike,

 

We have unlimited usage sim cards on something allied a private apn.

 

A private Apn allows us to connect a mobile network to our isp network in exactly the same way we can for leased lines and general broadband.

 

This means we can do transparent filtering which is all cloud based. No proxy, no pac files, nothing! It just works! If you're a customer of ours then you can have the same filtering profiles as you do in school. We integrate with all major authentication services and have full prevent reporting as standard.

 

It was my understanding that the dfe service used a form of netsweeper which is what we use.

 

In the first six months after lockdown we connected nearly 4000 sim cards with one trust taking over 600 from us.

 

You can use your existing hardware too.

 

If its of interest do send me a pm.

 

Thanks

 

Dave