Wave9_Lee

Quick bump!

@robjduk If you drop me a mail, I can get a Lightspeed engineer to sort this for you

A basic broadband connection with a VPN capable box on the end would work - I'm sure EXA can quote you an FttC connection that would do the job? A Sophos XGS with base licence on an FttC would work cheap as chips too - you'd just need Exa to agree to terminate the VPN. I'm not sure why people saying that a VPN is harder to manage or more expensive than a P2P Wireless link. You have to get it surveyed, installed, supported, and unless it's licenced (£) you'll have the risk of interference. Needs to be at height to stop something crossing the 'link' and if the internet in the main school goes down, you lose both sites.

'If' you accept there's a finite amount of money, or at least a prolonged phasing is required, then there has to be a way to allocate and prioritise I guess. If there was no criteria or large, succesful schools were getting the benefit in advance of poorly equipped/supported schools, there'd be an equivalent outcry I imagine. I would think that as they deal with 'failing' schools, then the criteria will change slightly. At least there's a 'standard' albeit slightly over-specced, and there's 'some' money. Surely better than nothing. And someone's previous argument holds too, in that if you argue that good IT is critical for good outcomes, then you can't argue against poorly rated schools getting priority. Perhaps for a different thread (and sorry for taking it off-topic) but not sure there are any easy answers for funding. Here's a thought - as the specification is quite good, there's a lot of adequate wifi and switches being replaced in schools, perhaps it's worth Edugeek or this community creating a sub thread, or market place where some of the non-qualifying schools can benefit form the outgoing equipment etc. MATs are doing this within their own Trust, but smaller MATs or individual schools could probably do with some free/cheap kit. Anyway now we're definitely off-topic, so will leave it there!

Hi Kieran - you could try these, we've used them quite a bit and not too far away from you https://jprgroup.co.uk/about-jpr/

To be fair they are funding a ton of network upgrade for schools. It's subject to certain areas and eligibility, but £150M committed so far. The areas currrently in scope are detailed in a doc here; https://www.wave9.co.uk/dfe-funding-connect-the-classroom/ So they do recognise the issue. For sites that don't qualify, through our Managed Infrastructure service, we can refresh a network and spread the charges over 5 years including services, hardware, licences, support etc - (not a lease)

We've secured a really good deal on subscriptions and handsets for our Hosted Telephony service for a limited period. If anyone is in the market in the next 8-10 weeks, PM and hopefully will be of interest to you. All the features you would expect, free handsets, free calls, free softclients, adds/moves/changes included as well as self-service for those that want it.

I'd be happy to show you around Sophos XGS - fully featured NGFW with SDWAN capability, Central Dashboard - fully supported by us and the Vendor as well as the ability to make your own changes, and training provided. Won't be as cheap as Ubiquiti, but a different proposition in my view. Drop me a PM if interested.

First thing is to test your connection directly from the router or NTE, with all other users/network removed.

There are only a small set of options really, and your choices are limited by what's available at your location and what you can afford. £= Fttc @30-60Mbps (EoFttC if you can get it) £ = FttC @ 80Mbps (EoFttC if you can get it) ££ = 2 x FttC (Eofftc IYCGI) ££ = FttP up to 1000/115Mbps £££ leased line 100-1000Mbps + Backup ideally Most primarys we deal with are migrating to leased line from FttC at the moment, except perhaps in v rural areas where it can be prohibitively expensive (so 2 x fttc next best option) FttP is coming, and DFE have committed every school will have access in the next 3 years, which will be a gamechanger for most primaries, so keep your eye out for that. It may be that you could double up on fttc in the short term rather than commit to a leased line, only to find FttP becomes available a few months later.. At the risk of starting a supplier debate in this thread, I do think that a direct internet connection gives better speeds than those that terrminate in shared service clusters in data centres for a lot of reasons. I'm sure there are exceptions, but that's what we find.. I'd be happy to review options for your particular site, no obligation obviously.

Just be aware that if you have any centrally hosted services (firewall/filtering for instance) then the second line won't have it unless you buy through the same provider

If you upgrade/switch to the client/cloud version then you'll be good. Given that it's a safeguarding issue, I would suggest putting your request/concern/requirement in writing to the highest exec you can identify in the outsourcer and copy in your line management/SMT.

Lightspeed does this, so perhaps it's configured incorrectly or you have a legacy LS product? Let me know if you need some support from LS. The Alert product uses both AI and Human interpretation to understand the context too - so is an improvement on simple keystroke logging, which could probably raise a lot of false positives. Https inspection shouldn't be an issue as the Agent is imbedded on the device - are you using a rocket type product? cheers

My two pence as a provider, user and supporter/maintainer - Personally a big fan of Cisco Meraki, in terms of support, features, capability, ease of management, roadmap and whole life costs (yes honestly).

+1 for Everything ICT

Hi Chuckster - If you'd like a comparative quote or info on our service, please drop me a PM or contact me using the details below any time. You can book a meeting via the link if you'd prefer a chat thanks all for the recommendations : )

We have many of our Schools and MATS using Lightspeed Filter, Lightspeed Alert and Lightspeed Classroom. Definitely worth a look before you decide - if you'd like I can arrange a demo or trial anytime, works wel lwith Chromebooks and have the logging functionality you're missing. cheers

Same offer @Steve21 - if you're an existing customer, let me know. If not we can still assist if you need cheers Lee

Hi, we can take a look if you want to send me your contact details? We’d have to charge something but sure we can work something out. Cheers

I'd be happy to arrange a Lightspeed demo to add to the list if it helps. Lightspeed Classroom Management has similar functionality to all of the solutions mentioned, works in multi-OS environments, has additional integrations with Microsoft and Zoom. It also allows teachers to easily allow and block specific URL’s during lessons, easily create groups and see AI insights on any unusual browsing activity.

There's a fix for this in the next SFOS update - probably September. As the current fix requires clearing out files via CLI, its best to get qualified help - All Sophos licences come with access to Sophos Support to do this, or Wave 9 customers can drop us a note and we'll do it for you.

We're finding that many customers are taking a hybrid approach - Teams for SMT or WFH/mobile staff, and hosted voice for classrooms, places that require a handset. Our hosted platform has a Teams 'plug-in' so minutes are all inclusive across both. Happyto talk through or quote any time.. cheers

Do you take the core services from empsn (I recall their filtering providers used to have to be 'inline' at their datacentre - but this may have changed) - if so you need to think about whether any of your services will still work on a 3rd party backup line. What do you do for DNS for instance?

This. We offer a co-managed service for this exact reason - you can make changes if you like, but if you're under resource pressure, or don't have the skillset, we provide all changes/patching/monitoring, so you get compliant filtering and advanced threat protection without having to worry about the learning curve. Happy to quote or provide info anytime. cheers

We have 100's under management on V19, and we don't see disconnects like you're describing. Are you losing internet connectivity, or just access to Central? Are you running HA (Active-active) or are these firewalls in separate sites? Are you a customer of ours? We can take a look if you raise a support ticket.