Noel ReynoldsIT ManagerLeedshttp://www.lawnswoodschool.co.uk/
Lawnswood School has a proud history stretching back over a hundred years, and over recent years has seen many significant milestones. The school is now housed in a new building with excellent facilities and was recently awarded specialist status in Mathematics and Computing. This has enabled the school to enrich the curriculum, facilities and continue benefiting students with cuttingedge developments. IT Manager Noel Reynolds looks after Lawnswood's network which comprises of over 1500 users on 600 PCs with some thin clients and laptops. Access to the Internet is via an 20Mb leased line.
Lawnswood School has 1500 users on 600 PCs. The network environment is predominantly Windows with some thin clients and laptops. Access to the Internet is via an 20Mb leased line.
Lawnswood School needed a Becta Approved filter that could competently control Internet access - particularly for home users working on school-owned laptops. Noel also wanted a solution that would work on VMWare ESX Server to prevent him having to purchase or maintain any additional hardware.
As a VMWare-ready and Becta-approved solution, Guardian was an obvious choice and Noel said he found the evaluation process surprisingly straightforward and Smoothwall staff supportive to his needs. Noel purchased Guardian and Mobile Guardian as a replacement for their existing Bloxx filter and was immediately pleased to find his renewal premium reduced. From the outset, Guardian's filtering performed well, accurately detecting and blocking a range of problem content, including proxy sites and games. The remote filtering solution, Mobile Guardian, was also a key element for Noel, who particularly needed to control laptop users to prevent them installing web-based downloads and reduce the chance of virus infections as a result of unrestricted browsing at home. The regular Feature Packs issued by Smoothwall also help to keep Guardian up to date with emerging threats and trends - such as the rise of online gaming in schools.
Guardian effectively stops students wasting valuable lesson time on games or social sites and is very good at blocking proxy sites, which are a massive problem in most schools.
The trial version was easy to install and use and the sales team were very helpful throughout. Smoothwall have very good support AND sales - which is rare these days
In comparison to other similar products, Guardian is very good value
Mobile Guardian is a unique product, as far as I know no other filter works at home in the same way. It allows me to effectively control home Internet access, stopping users from installing programs and lowering the chances of picking up viruses from dodgy sites.
Guardian is constantly improving, for example, the newly added Flash Blocker will stop a lot of online flash games on the fly.
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