SchoolsBroadband

Yes Sally and I will be there too. We're looking forward to see all of our fellowedugeeks

Hi folks, FYI we do a 10% discount for all primary schools on recurring rentals for broadband + filtering + security if 3 or more schools in the same geographic area sign up at roughly the same time. PM me if interested Dave

The Internet Watch Foundation has today actioned the removal of the 100,000th URL containing child sexual abuse content. Long may they continue their work and a good job well done I say. See 100,000th URL removed by the Internet Watch Foundation | Schools Broadband for more info Dave

Hi @IrritableTech , this is really a question for my Office 365 guru Luke here in the office. I believe that if you are storing email on LLN's servers (or any ISPs for that matter) and they are either POP and keep a copy on the server or IMAP then there's a tool to do this that can help link one account to the other and move the mail over. if you give the office a call and speak with Luke he'll help you out although he's not in this morning. Thanks Dave

Importing the user list is quite easy. There are tools that you can use to move email over as well. We can do this on our daily rate or we can point you in the direction and you can do it. Alternatively local IT companies such as Schools ICT or Connect Up can do it for you too. Do give me a call or a PM and I'll put you in touch with our office 365 expert here. Thanks for thinking of us Dave

This happens quite a lot. There's also another scenario where it can happen. If your property / school is very close to the telephone exchange often the line goes straight there rather than via a BT street cabinet. There are no FTTC / VDSL DSLAMS in the telephone exchange therefore FTTC and FTTP is not available. Currently BT does not have a solution for this so the customers is stuck with ADSL only. Fortunately the ADSL is fast as they are so close, but still nowhere near as fast as FTTC. Dave

Hello Andrew, I'm sorry to hear you're not happy with your solution at the moment. I know our support department has spent a lot of time with you trying to resolve your issues and we will continue to do so. I think the above is a bit harsh to be honest. Never the less I want all my customers to be happy and the vast majority of the 500 schools which all use Fortinet filtering and AD authentication are and don't have the issues you're experiencing. We are moving to Lightspeed content filtering in the very near future in conjunction with Fortinet security services. You'll be please to know that there will also be an upgrade path for existing customers. I will be in touch again Thanks David

phew, there's quite a difference between 3Mbit and 3Mbyte

That doesn't sound right at all. If you're only getting 3Mbit download that's a lower threshold breach and needs to be taken up with BT. It's true that although the line can support speeds of 66Mbit that BT can't necessarily deliver this to the ISP (I presume us here) as FTTC is not a 1:1 contention ratio service. Still though you should really be getting speeds of 20Mbit + for the vast majority of the times. I know the updated version using web filtering proxy flow mode can put load on the devices if heavy usage occurs but it should still never go that low. I'm in the office tomorrow afternoon so will give you a call. FYI if you're not happy I'll make sure we give you an upgrade to our new hosted Fortigate / Lightspeed FOC which will be here very very soon. That gives you carrier grade Fortigates and you will never have any issue wiht load on the box. I'll send you a PM too. Thanks Dave

It's a good job my position here is Technical Director then and not sales person

We're based just over the Pennines and would happy to be a guest speaker on topics of broadband, filtering, security or esafety. Do send me a pm. Fear not we won't do a sales pitch Dave

They have a 700mbit Internet connection for all schools, libraries and council offices in Leeds

Evening folks, LLN only has 1 x 700mbit Internet connection which looks after all schools, libraries and council offices in Leeds. How do i know this? Well I was at the meeting at South Leeds stadium when Virgin, LLN, Smoothwall and Microsoft were there. It was interesting as Virgin and LLN were banging on about how they have a 1:1 Internet connection for all schools in Leeds. Funny really. I think there's about 260 schools in Leeds all with at least 10mbit Internet connections which equates to. Total traffic of 2600mbit if it was 1:1 and that's not even counting the majority of secondary schools that actually have 100mbit links. So I think you can work out easily that he contention is not 1:1! It's also interesting as in the current Capita contract you all signed it says and I quote "your school has a 1:1 contention ratio all the way to the Internet" which of course you don't. I'm not making this up here just to be trying to cause trouble and get you to go elsewhere, it's in your contract black and white and you're not getting it. Don't get me wrong I'd love you all to ditch LLN and come with us but I'd recommend you go with anyone other than LLN due to the history you've had with them. I think the votes and answers speaks volumes.

Yes, BT charge us that and then also the rental of the 10GIG interconnect into them. The price is actually fixed for all ISP's to buy at that price on Wholesale Broadband Managed Connect (WBMC). You should see the 20CN prices on old ADSL Max (up to 8Mbit) circuits. The price is over £100 per Mbt ... So yes its chuffing expensive !!!!

Thanks @mrbios we're really looking forward to work with you! Dave

We've actually already installed FTTP for a school on the Bradwell Abbey Exchange in Milton Keynes. It's been a massive success with the school getting speeds of over 100Mbit. This was on one of BT's few trial exchanges. It's going to be interesting to see prices from broadband providers on FTTP and how contended the service is. It costs an ISP £48.55 per Mbit per month using BTs' 21CN network which both FTTC and FTTP use. Therefore in theory if a customer of ours took a 330Mbit FTTP based service and maxed it out it'd cost us 330 x £48.55 x 0.95 (95th percentile rule) which would equate to £15,220 per month!!!!! And that's before Internet transit costs, the FTTP service cost etc. Therefore FTTP on any ISP's network will be a contended service. It's all about managing the Interconnects ISP's have into BT and giving a good end user experience. Mind you I can only see the bandwidth prices from BT to ISPs go one way and that's down after BT's new network starts to pay for itself and they can get a return on investment. From looking at networks statistics even for a large primary school, FTTC is more than ample. Thanks Dave

Yes Gigaclear network will be good where it's available although I'll eat my mouse mat if you actually ever got speeds of 900Mbit out of your connection FYI we may be getting a wholesale agreement with Gigaclear so watch this space as you can have our other services bundled in with it. Dave

err for some reason I can't PM you. Edugeek keeps on crashing! Do send me a PM or give me a call if you like and I'd be happy to help. Thanks Dave

Yes Virgin can use BT fibres if need be. They won't want to though as they have to pay more to do so but it'd work in your situation the best. You can also get BT to do expedite installs and not take the normal 65 working days to get it re-activated. It costs a little to do (circa £500) but is possible. Dave

Hi Dezt, same here. We've already moved quite a few schools away from CLEO. We don't do sims support ourselves but we've plenty of IT partners that we know that can. They'll also give you a discount from their normal prices if you say we passed you onto them. Do send me a PM if you want to get in touch. Thanks Dave

Hi GSK, we do bonded DSL with content filteirng and security all in. I'll PM you. Dave

I most certainly can. The way to do it is find an IP address from three's network, then find the AS number of it and then find all IP ranges associated to that AS number. I've done this for you and all the IP ranges can be found here AS21327 Hutchison 3G UK and Ireland Core AS - bgp.he.net enjoy Dave

I'm afraid not they are like gold dust. I'd suggest putting up an advert on RIPE's resource transfer page. There are also some brokers but you'll have to pay top dollar to get a range. Dave

Yes we are going to be offering this to existing clients too. I'm not sure if there is going to be a small upgrade cost (we need new on site routers etc). I believe the previous Fortigate only solution is still good, but the Lightspeed does IMO better content filtering and also integration into mobile devices which we are seeing more schools take. If you're not happy about something with your current service please send me a pm or call your local account manager. As one of the owners of our business I want all my customers happy so please do get in touch. Thanks Dave

Oh and full integration with Windows Active Directory and Mac Open Directory of course