Senso Enterprise Cloud. Good / Bad

[Alastairb25]

What to change to?

[Olliedawg]

Senso does work well enough for us overall - i'll admit broadcast can be hit and miss sometimes though (only hitting about 80% of the class 1st try)

 

I'm keen to see what Senso V2 brings.

[bigal06]

We have an active ticket open with Senso regarding slow thumbnail updating issues. Only yesterday did I stumble across this post after we also discovered the curser over buttons trick as @mrbios also noted.

 

If live viewing lots of machines in one go in thumbnail view, you'll find most machines on the first view load fine, then you scroll down and you see machines haven't loaded.....weird workaround is to wiggle your cursor over the control buttons above the thumbnail view, and you'll see them refresh.

 

We have added all the URLs and IP address to exclude from SSL inspection and authentication on our firewall/filter. We have also added the 'Pre-Load' thumbnails policy which does make them load faster on first load but does nothing for the issue when you scroll down. We have added the WebRTC settings as a GPO to all our devices.

 

Has anyone got a solution to this yet other that wiggling you mouse to make the thumbs load?

[jgrabowski1]

Hi everyone, I am having exactly the same issues as what everyone else is stating with regards to the broadcast functionality being very hit and miss. My setup is a 800mb line with a HP-Switch-5406Rzl2 core switch and UniFi Pro edge switches and also Smoothwall S9. When I called SENSO a few weeks ago regarding this they didn't point the finger at my network they tried to tell me it was my client machines and specifically the host (my teachers laptops) which I seriously doubt as they are using: HP ProBook 455 G10 Notebook AMD 7530U 16 GB RAM. So not certain what the issue is exactly. We are using V1 still at the moment and not opted to the V2 beta version at the moment but would be interested to hear if anyone has made the jump yet and if they are still having the same issues as what the rest of us are having...

 

If this is going to be an ongoing issue; as a work around do any of you know of a decent locally hosted broadcast software that I can run along side SENSO to keep my IT teaching staff from pulling their hair out any more lol?

[talksr]

Helpful thread thanks. I tried to contact Senso three different times for a quote and never heard anything back!

 

Thank god I found this thread, I won't bother chasing them.

[MrBrow]

Just going to say I totally agree with all the references to the Broadcast feature. Just not reliable and I have to deal with complaints that I am not fixing it.

 

Senso support have been good in the past and did a diagnostics session. They took the logs, discovered an issue and developed a fix, then deployed it to their central servers. Only, it didn't fix anything did it! Broadcasting is still inconsistent.

 

I'm hoping that Senso 2.0 will be truly amazing and fix all the performance issues.

[PotNoodleTech]

Welcome to the cloud, where you don't have a local server with under 1ms ping to coordinate things like one to many PC broadcasting.

[synaesthesia]

Does it not/should it not have a local proxy for some things like that like it does for WOL?

[mw184]

We have been using senso since pre covid here. Must admit we only really use the software for monitoring purposes which it seems to be extremely good at and catches everything as far as we have seen. The classroom functions can be clunky but not needing to use these means this isn't a problem. Moved over to Senso from Impero after having nothing but issues with Impero. Once you get the setup stuff right with Senso I have found it very good for the safeguarding side.

[Ex-MGSTech]

Does it not/should it not have a local proxy for some things like that like it does for WOL?

 

Pretty sure it does they call them relays...

 

SETTING UP THE RELAY MACHINE

 

 

 

In the Admin Center of the portal, at least one device will need to have the client installed and then has to be selected and set as the Relay.

 

1. Select the Device to be used as the relay

 

2. Click the Edit button above the device list

 

3. Tick to select the box next to Use as relay to select device to be used

 

4. Click Confirm

 

5. Restart the device

 

(No I don't work for SENSO!)

[broadld]

The relay is only used for WOL. The Sensor client is meant to keep traffic on the local network. Only should use the internet if you are connecting from outside your network. However from our testing a few months ago the safeguarding screenshot system worked fine. But broadcasting your screen and locking students screens was so intermittent. It would miss big chunks of the class. Support couldn't resolve it and said no one else was having issues like it. But just from reading forums lots of people are having exactly the same issues.

[Alastairb25]

Exactly this, they refuse to acknowledge the issue let alone fix it

 

That said the Safeguarding side is good

 

We are possibly minded to find another solution for remote control as I suspect DSL / Safeguarding would not want to lose current level of service from Senso

[Olliedawg]

Has anyone tried the new Senso V2 portal? Looks like they've rebuilt a lot of the backend from the ground up

[TheRobins]

Not as yet, seen some of the videos. Not sure if it means they have re-build the actual client on the end devices more so just a portal refresh, be interesting to find out.

[Olliedawg]

Not as yet, seen some of the videos. Not sure if it means they have re-build the actual client on the end devices more so just a portal refresh, be interesting to find out.

 

Yea i'm not sure either. "designed from the ground up" was the wording used in the email i got

[TheRobins]

Lets watch this space.

[HarkNowHear]

I've requested access so let's see if the wait was worth it.

 

Staff don't like Senso as much as Impero but from my point of view the pricing and the ability to manage loads of sites from one console appeals, so I'm hoping they've made some much needed improvements here.

[Iain.Faulkner]

I'm kind of pinning my hopes on V2 being better as well. Think we're looking at doing some work on it at February half term. I have regular requests demanding we move back to Impero as quickly as possible. To be honest though, it's been hard to defend Senso as for classroom management it hasn't been reliable enough.

[Olliedawg]

If the senso classroom mangement tools were consistent it would be a solid product. It's a shame as the other aspects of the platform are very good. Here's hoping V2 is better.

[broadld]

The safeguarding side seemed to just work in v1. But the broadcast of screens and locking screens was very hit and miss. Like other have said if they got this sorted it would be great. Hoping someone can test and see if it works any better in v2.

[TheRobins]

I am chuckling here, none of us are brave enough to go for it first. I think they had some challenges from the changes that Microsoft keeps bringing in during updates that they just dont seem able to get on top of. Hoping this is a re-write for that reason instead of trying to patch the old system. When it works, it works well. The safeguarding side is very reliable, shown by the number of students who have to visit me on a weekly basis for a "chat"

[ITGuyNW]

I'd give Senso a go but it seems I'd be paying double what I currently do for Impero ed pro.

[TheRobins]

Think you have answered that question

 

If it works with the new V2 it will be a serious competitor.

[gotenks1321]

I've requested access so let's see if the wait was worth it.

 

Staff don't like Senso as much as Impero but from my point of view the pricing and the ability to manage loads of sites from one console appeals, so I'm hoping they've made some much needed improvements here.

 

I don't think you'll be disappointed.

 

We're not sponsored by Senso but are early adopters with over 25,000 clients. v2 is a complete ground up rewrite and we would recommend that everyone tries it. Broadcast has been completely rewritten and is so much faster as are the other modules.

[TheRobins]

I don't think you'll be disappointed.

 

We're not sponsored by Senso but are early adopters with over 25,000 clients. v2 is a complete ground up rewrite and we would recommend that everyone tries it. Broadcast has been completely rewritten and is so much faster as are the other modules.

 

Either your an AI bot, or I am just booking in my upgrade as we speak, we will find out