m8ttysmith

This may of been asked many times before, but i am reviewing our symantec agreement and someone told me forefront is free for education establishments... does anyone know if this is correct ?

The LA I worked for adopted exactly the same model you describe. Are you connected directly to an RBC or are you connected to an RBC through the LAs network ?? The only reason I ask is because if you are connected via the LA's network then the reason they charge more the bigger school you are is because they argue that the more kids you have then the more traffice you will create across the LA's network, so therefore they pretend that they need to invest in more infrastructure... Which is total rubbish, but they think they can charge what they want, and its only a matter of time before every school has an independent internet connection....

As someone who use to work for an LA 6 months ago.... The reason costs are rising is because the majority of LA's use to keep a percentage of the harnessing technology money back to help buffer the real cost to schools. Now thats gone and with the cuts LA's have to make, this cost is passed onto the school. Part of the issue in our LA is that all the schools are connected to the LA's network and then to the RBC connection. Which to be honest has forced schools away, because whenever a port was requested to be opened the LA just blocked it. I have since moved from the LA and set myself up as self employed and now provide ICT Support and Internet Connectivity to 20 primary schools.

I work for a company who provide ICT Support to several schools and we implement a product called untangle. Its a brilliant product and integrates really well with Active directory. It doesnt just do Filtering either, it has a firewall, spam blocker, anti virus blocker and VPN.... etc There is a free version of it you can try but we bought the full Education Pro version for around £600... Here is the URL Web Filter - Protect Your School's Network | Untangle.com Thanks Matty

So now you have got it working will you be mentioning it to your LA who have the other connection coming in. I use to work for a LA and if a school was attatching a secondary connection A) not on the LA network and B) was unmanaged by the LA we would instantly disconnect them. Alot of LA's have to sign upto Government Connect which means they have to have full management and visability of what is going on, on there network. So by adding a connection yourself you are potentially putting the whole LA at risk.

Hi, we are a small primary schools looking to move away from the local authority. Has anyone had any experience of the Virgin 20mb Business Broadband service ? if so I would love to know your experience. This is the one im talking about. Business Broadband & Phone - High speed 20Mb business broadband & Phone Matty

quick answer ! get rid of the cachepilot ! we support 60 schools and have been nothing but trouble for years... now moving away from them... loving it !

Hi, did you get any response to this ? I am too looking for something for something simple that works for small primary schools. have you looked at untangle ? Multi-functional Firewall Software - Open Source Content Filter & Spam Filter | Untangle.com ? Thanks Matthew

Hi everyone, is there anyone out there using the Untangle web filtering and firewall ? Im interested in implementing it due to its pricing being so competative. Multi-functional Firewall Software - Open Source Content Filter & Spam Filter | Untangle.com Thanks in advance

I work for Redcar & Cleveland Local Authority and we support 50 primary schools. There all RM CC3 well I say all, some are now CC4. Im not gonna go into it too much but CC4 has been such a disaster were now starting to remove the other CC3 servers and replace with Vanilla networks. Not only is CC4 not very good but it is very very expensive, and over kill for Primary Schools. If I was a school upgrading to CC4 I would get a contract with RM drawn up to say if your not happy then you can have a full refund. Service Release 1 for CC4 has made it alot more reliable but im afraid it still is very unstable