Netsweeper configuration in a MAT

[Daryn]

Hello. Seeing as this forum is sponsored by Schools broadband, I thought it'll be apt to ask about Netsweeper.

 

I've started work in the team for a multi academy trust. They've recently finished moving all the schools/colleges over to use Schools Broadband with Netsweeper as it's filtering solution.

 

My question is aimed at the IT support teams that deploy the Netsweeper WAgent via a managed service like InTune or Google Admin.

 

Do each of your schools have their own individual NSW-XXXXX WAgent deployed to them? If that is the case, as the trust IT support team, do you have a single admin@NSW-XXXXX login which can gain access to the configuring of all the schools?

Our trust is deploying the same single NSW-AgentA WAgent across all our schools, then I'm guessing groups are sync populated with staff/students; SBB_School1_Staff_Filtering, SBB_School1_Pupil_Filtering, SBB_College1_KS3_Filtering, SBB_College1_KS4_Filtering, so on and so forth.

 

When there's no WAgent, the user is identified as NoAuth@NSW-AgentA and gets given the highest amount of filtering as though they're a student.

 

I'm guessing the problem is when the agent is deployed to SchoolA and CollegeC, someone who's name is John Doe (jdoe@NSW-AgentA) and Jane Doe (also jdoe@NSW-AgentA), Netsweeper couldn't tell the difference and so both are given the same SBB_x_x_filtering group.

 

I have a suspicion that our IT department has deployed it incorrectly and I just want some clarity as to how other Trusts deploy the WAgent and administer the filtering as well as deal with FOI requests for individual schools.

[sigma]

We are a stand alone Academy, so can't comment on a multi school configuration.

 

I would suggest you take a "real good look" if you are using the SBB supplied lists/settings.

 

The Netsweeper online documentation is very good.

 

Good luck with getting support tickets looked at or answered.

[lwatson213]

Hi Daryn,

 

I’m the Product Manager over at Schools Broadband and I’ve also worked as a Systems Engineer over at Netsweeper. I’d be happy to explain the best ways forward for Entra/O365/Google when it comes to agent config and management capabilities on the platform.

 

As it’s a little complex, do you want to drop me a PM and we can arrange a Teams call to discuss your setup in more detail.

 

Hopefully it will all become clear after that and you’ll be able to easily manage your configuration.

 

Luke

[gpjt]

Hi @Daryn,

 

We're in a similar position and have recently moved over to SBB and 4 out of 5 of our sites are now on Entra/Azure AD.

 

We were provided the WAgent from SBB because you're right that they are specific to the school. Ideally we would of had the same where all Trust schools filtering can be administered by a single login/agent. (thought that's what we requested when we signed up too) We do though have access to a single Netsweeper account with access to all the Trust schools. I'm not sure if they have fixed it, but we had to send over lists of all the staff and students users to SBB who i presume populated the relevant sites with the users from the provided csv. We were told that the grouping functionality between AAD and the client wasn't working, but that may of changed since.

 

We had issues with filtering at one of the sites and it turned out that the wrong agent was sent across and therefore all users were picking up base level filtering. Took a while to identify the issue and to be honest a lot of complaining too because support has been really slow.

 

Hope that helps and feel free to DM if you need any further info.