njreynolds

Hi Staff and students have used Youtube for year with no account (not logged in). We do have a GPO to show not show restricted videos (its not this, as I have tried without). Today, all PCs are saying "Sign in to confirm you are not a bot" This is happening on all browsers. We cannot do this, as students and staff do not have an account. Even if we made accounts, they wouldn't not remember them Not sure if its something to do with my IP Address or its just a bug with Google Has anyone else had this issue today OR in the past ? Is there anything I can do ? Thanks

Hi I have some Windows 11 laptops that need to go to students homes perminantly. The are not going to be connected to the main domain in anyway, totally standalone. I know this is a 1990's type of question, but what filtering products are people using for standalone home laptops ? I don't need to VPN into my school filter or anything fancy. I know of Netsweeper, just wondering what everyone else has use in the past. All I need is a decent filter with a cloud admin/portal, where I can tweak filtering options. Thanks & sorry for the basic question Thanks

Hi I am wondering if anyone uses "allowlisting" software. I've looked at something like Threatlocker, which seems to do everything that I need - but I am guessing its way to expensive. I am looking to be able to BLOCK all exe's,msi's,dll's and then allow them. With proper apps (Microsoft, Adobe, etc) pre approved. I know I can do certain things with a GPO, APP LOCKER, etc - but I was wondering what good value third party software we been used. Thanks

Hi Does anyone know what is the best value Anti Virus (Windows) product at the moment for schools ? I'm currently using AVAST BUSINESS SECURITY, which is expiring soon & I am sensing that the deal I got 3 years ago is no where near available :( Thanks

We've been using KnowBe4 for 2 years and never had this issue before. Yesterday we issues a Phishing test to 200 people. 30 clicked the link, but another 70 forward it to me & it counted as a click. I am 100% sure it didn't do this before. I contacted support, but they said thats how it works Thanks

Awesome, thanks for this info. I really like Wonde, it just works

Hi We currently use a service called KNOWBE4 which lets us create fake phishing emails and if the end use CLICKS the fake link, it records this. Offending users then automatically get enrolled on a training course. Its always worked fine, but now when a staff member (correctly) forwards a Simulated phishing emails it counts as a click So, I am looking for an alternative to KNOWBE4 - does anyone know one ? THANKS

About a year ago, I switches from Smoothwall to Fortigate. No one has noticed any difference to the filtering and I've had no major complaints.

Hi I am buying a new Lapsafe Mentor cabinets and there is the option to include in the cabinet 30 RJ45 sockets for each laptop. The laptops will be wireless, but I was just wondering what other people have used the RJ45 sockets ? Maybe, just for Wake On Lan or initially rolling out an image ? Thanks

Hi I've used Classcharts for a few years. Over the last year its been a bit iffy and since September 2023 they have had many many many issue - making it unusable for hours during the day or it runs at a snails pace. Does anyone know of an alternative for (behaviour/registration) ? We use SIMS, but apparently we don't want to use that for behaviour. Personally, I'd like an onsite/hybrid cloud version - as I am sure many of these issues are caused by the poor performance of cloud services. Thanks

We have just replaced the very poor & flawed Inventry system with SignInApp. Its much better than Inventry (and cheaper) but I have one issue. For example, A student signs out at 2pm for a Medical appointment, at this point an M gets written to SIMS. The student returns at 2:30pm (I know Doctors appointments are never this quick!) and signed back in. SignIn App will write back a U by default and apparently there is no way to change this. I just wondered how other SignIn App users are handling students signing out for 30mins and then back in again. Thanks

Hi. We have just done this, and its very simple. You need to buy the Wonde add on, which SYNCs sign ins to SIMS. The only problem we have is when a student signs out at 2pm for a Medical and then returns - it always writes back a U Apparently this is the default action and there is nothing they can do

I've been running SQL2019 since summer on a Windows 2022 server. No issues whatsoever.

Hi We currently use Inventry sign in & it has the nice extra feature of CLUB REG. We are trying to leave Inventry as soon as possible, due to so many issues....... Does anyone know of some simple software that can: Allow the teacher of the club, to be able to sign in & check-in the students assigned to the club and sign-out when finished. Ideally, we need SIMS Integration via Wonde - so all the student names need don't need retyping. The after school attendance marks, don't need writing back anywhere. I've had a look at a few options, but not many have Wonde integration. Thanks

This is a personal review on my experience in switching from Smoothwall to Fortinet in my school. Reason: For years I have been unhappy with the quality & timescale of Smoothwall Support. Most recently, I called for something urgently and was told “No that cannot be done”. Once I was cancelling, I explained why & I was told “Yes, that can be done”. Basically, the support engineer didn’t know how, so I was told no. My Set up: My previous setup was a CISCO Firewall (old) and a Smoothwall box, which was just used as a proxy/filtering. My new Set up: I decided to go with a Fortigate F400, which is my Firewall and Content Filter. I decided on FortiGate as it seems the best at identifying “APP’s”. For example if someone is using the YouTube APP, I can tell & block is necessary. The Transition: When you buy FortiGate you have to buy via a third party to get the licensing & the hardware. Fortinet themselves don’t really support you, so you have to get support via the same third party. Yes, this is an extra expense – but it does mean the support is good. If its not, you can simply move to a different third party. I assume this is why my support has been generally good, because third parties know you can move! The basic installation was reasonably straightforward. It was a bit more of a hassle for me, as I was replacing the Firewall and filter at the same time. The FortiGate blocked a lot more than my old firewall, which I guess is good and bad ! My main worry area was the content filtering, so I tested this a lot before rolling out. Smoothwall works with bad lists, good lists and dynamic filtering (ie: whats on the page). FortiGate works differently. All websites have a category and you block or allow these categories. For example: ALLOW: Business, Education, Arts, Entertainment, etc BLOCK: Adult, Gambling, Dating, etc As far as I know it doesn’t do any dynamic filtering, which I thought was bad at first. BUT, it works ! We have not had over blocking and we have had no dodgy content so far. There is an option for UNRATED. So, if a website is unrated (ie: unknown) you can block or allow by default. I had read that blocking UNRATED could over block, but it my experience its fine. So, the only way I can get something dodgy would be if an adult website was mis-categorized. I have had a few things blocked, because they were in a slightly wrong category. Nothing as serious as something like onlyfans classed as GAMES. The bad bits: There are some bugs that I have found, mainly GUI stuff. Some are pretty annoying and there is no quick fix. Once Fortinet agree its an issue, it will get fixed. BUT it goes into the ALPHA firmware release first, then a few months later into the BETA release, then finally a few months later into the STABLE release (called Mature). So, basically you can be waiting 6 months for the fix – as its recommended only to use the STABLE release. The good bits: It works fine, it feel more secure. I went for the F400 models and it doesn’t break a sweat for 2000 users. Overall: It was a lot more work, than I expected. However, I am pleased I did it. Performance seems better & I know if I need support, I can get it. Hope this helps.