CliveMinion

Can anyone suggest a way to block iMessage for students who bring their own devices? we use RM's Safetynet for our internet filtering, but are open to a third party solution if that makes it possible.

I'm pretty sure the files on demand setting isn't available for older versions of Windows 10 (2016). Obviously upgrading would be ideal but with a large number of clients, that's a longer term prospect and not an immediate solution.

We are looking into using OneDrive as out primary storage instead of traditional home directories on our file server. What do people think is the best way of doing this? I don't the native OneDrive client is viable as it will result in endless amounts of synching every time a student signs in to a different computer. A workaround for this would be to configure the client to sync with a network drive, but this doesn't seem to be possible. Ideally, I would map a drive directly to the user's OneDrive account, but this only seems possible using a third party utility such as IAM Cloud, and therefore introduces an additional risk of failure. Any thoughts or suggestion on this?

Search filtering should be the same between Yahoo and Google but it absolutely isn't. To suggest that the service is working correctly when it's displaying an error message rather than the RM Safetynet filter page is ridiculous. I don't believe that this is normal behaviour for other commercially available web filtering systems. Personally, I feel exhausted and totally disillusioned by the amount of time spent discussing this with service desk engineers. SWGfL and RM are hopelessly behind with their response to a move towards https throughout the internet. Never mind "considering changing this in future." It should have been addressed years ago!

A couple of specific issues with RM Safety have recently come to light. It would be useful to know if it's just us affected, or whether other schools have the same problem: 1) Assuming you have the SWGfL SSL certificate installed, and the appropriate proxy address configured (which is a big assumption in a BYOD school), inappropriate Google searches are filtered. However, if a student opts to use Yahoo search instead, a whole range of filth is freely available and goes undetected by the filters. 2) If a user attempts to access a blocked website that uses https, the customised RM Safetynet filtering page doesn't appear. Instead, a browser error message is displayed. This looks messy, and means the normal links to terms of service, contact details and filter lists, etc, aren't visible. Does anyone else experience these issues, and if so, has anyone found a workaround? RM don't appear to recognise it as a problem!

One desktop PC and two iOS devices are showing three different proxy servers according to that test. Both iOS devices behave the same as each other though. WPAD isn't involved here. Thanks for checking this for me. I don't believe SWGfL support have contacted other schools to see if they have the same fault, so this is helpful to know.

Here's some specific examples: I've created a search rule to deny the words "porn" and "sex". If I do a google search for "porn" on a Windows PC, I immediately received a message to say this search is blocked by restriction list. The same search on an iPad brings up a whole load of articles relating to pornography. Wikipedia is another example of an SSL site. On a PC, if I search Wikipedia for "sex", I get redirected to the SWGfL filter page. On an iPad, the search isn't blocked. Similar tests involving non-SSL encrypted sites result in identical behaviour between the two platforms.

Regardless of the contents of our search rules, would you not expect to see the same results on all devices? It doesn't seem right that a search for pornographic material (for example) is blocked on a Windows PC, but not on an iPad.

Yes we have, and the test shows as passed. Can you confirm, if you open Google on an iPad and search for an inappropriate four letter word, you receive the SWGfL filter page? That doesn't happen for us, although it does on a Windows PC. Thanks

We are using sslfilter.proxy.swgfl.org.uk

Can I ask what other schools' experiences and opinions of SWGfL's web filtering are, particularly in relation to the filtering of SSL encrypted websites? Having installed the SWGfL Google SSL certificate, and enabled the corresponding proxy server, we've discovered that the filtering of Google searches works, as does the filtering of Wikipedia and a handful of other sites. However, this is only the case on a Windows PC. Installing the iOS version of the certificate on an iPad, and entering the same proxy details doesn't seem to have any effect. No amount of searched for inappropriate content seem to be blocked. Has anyone else tried implementing the "Google SSL" certificate on an iPad, and if so, has it worked? Even if this apparent problem could be resolved, it seems a very weak solution if only certain specified SSL websites are monitored. I'm wondering whether we need to put a third party filtering solution in place. Does anyone have any recommendations for this?

I'm sorry, but that's utter nonsense. All staff already have an AD logon, or a SIMS ID if they don't use AD integration, so why not just use that? It's a total botch-up, and equally clear that Capita didn't think to consult their customers before proceeding with this.

After signing up and installing the Teacher App, you have two weeks before they invoice you. You can cancel the order in that time, so there is sort of a trial period.

I see! I termed it a workaround since the proper and correct solution would be a web interface, or a client for all common operating systems. This is a lash-up with a bizarre dependency on a Hotmail or Google account in order to connect to a locally installed service!

What do you mean? If it's not a workaround, are you saying it's a proper solution to a problem?

Exactly. I think that's why the Teacher App situation annoys me. SIMS should have been made web-based years ago but wasn't. Now they produce a workaround and expect us to pay a fortune for it!

They don't charge an additional fee for the Windows client. They've never charged anything extra when their software has inevitably needed updating due to later releases of Windows. When you pay thousands of pounds per year for something like SIMS, it's reasonable to expect the client software to be available for common platforms. Nowadays, that includes iOS.

The SIMS Teacher app should be completely free. You don't pay extra to install SIMS.net client on a Windows PC, so why should you be charged if you want to install the closest equivalent on an iOS device?

Could I suggest the inclusion of an iPad forum somewhere on this site? Many schools are adopting iPads as a key tool for teaching and learning. Somewhere to discuss their deployment, management, usage and support would no doubt be very useful.

We've tried Emerge from Groupcall, and also Capita's SIMS Teacher App. At first, we were put off Emerge by the lack of AD integration, however, trying the Capita alternative has put this into perspective for us. The installation of the SIMS Teacher App isn't actually too bad; it appears worse than it is by the less than clear documentation. The biggest snag by far is the need to use a Microsoft or Google account. Why is this necessary? SIMS is (usually) hosted internally, so why must the app be dependent on an external cloud based service? We don't need a Hotmail or Googlemail account to access SIMS on a desktop PC, so why on an iPad? Equally as bad is the process of registering a device. Once a device has been added to the management console it can never be removed or renamed, so what happens if a tablet gets reissued to a new member of staff at a later date? Similarly, once a SIMS user account has been associated to a Microsoft or Google account, that link can never be modified. Overall, providing it provides the functionality you require, the Emerge system seems like the more sensible option at this stage. Lack of AD integration is an issue, but it's probably preferable to the alternative string of complications created by Capita's own system.