Internet Connection Nighmares!
This month I would like to discuss how the internet services we rely on everyday are being seriously affected by those who are there to manage this on our behalf. First of all, let’s look at how far we have come in the last 20 years or so.
Let’s rewind to January 2003, we had just moved house and finally had this new ‘superfast’ broadband installed and we managed to get a download speed of 2mbps!! The maximum at that time was 8mbps as long as the BT green cabinet was outside your house. We live over 1 mile away from the nearest cabinet and to this day don’t have any chance of getting anything faster than 12mbps down and 1mbps upload. Over the last 20 years I have lost count how many times openreach engineers have been out to us. I remember one weekend about 10 years ago we had 3 vans outside. Another occasion we lost connection due to thieves stealing a very long section of cable from an underground channel whilst the local police stood talking to them about how hard they were working in the early hours!! You couldn’t make this up. The whole area was out of service for two weeks whilst a large openreach team had to install a full length of cable and associated connections. To this end I cancelled the broadband service and opted for a more reliable and quicker speed provided by a 4G mobile router with an unlimited data package. Throughout all this time we have complained to Openreach as to when they will upgrade our ‘rural’ area to meet the super fast speeds that are so heavily publicised. This month after several abrupt replies from openreach I have now opted to upgrade the 4G service which is not at all sufficient to have Starlink installed at a premium price but will transform the internet service. This will be an 18 month stop gap until we can finally receive the superfast next generation fibre.
My story above summarises the challenges that schools have faced for many years. There are still many schools who are in the same position who cannot receive anywhere near the DfE recommended connection:
“Primary schools should have a connection with a minimum of 100Mbps download speed and 30Mbps upload speed.”
The minimum leased line package that we would recommend is a 100mbps each way service which works well for an average single form Primary school. However, even a small school can have many devices and would need a much higher speed. On average now 200mbps prices are not much different and the cost for 500mbps has become much more affordable. There are other providers now who can provide their own dedicated service at a much fairer price than the big well known providers. Please consider your options, for example a 500mbps leased line provided by one of the new companies is at least 30% cheaper than one of the well known providers.
So, the next challenge faced by schools is the ongoing management of the internet service along with filtering, monitoring and alerts. It is vital that schools meet the Keeping Children Safe in Education 2023 recommendations but there are many providers who are creating an awful set of new headaches for end users and on site services.
There is one school who we are working with at the moment where hours and hours of mine and school staff time has been wasted due to the heavy restrictions in place by the local authority provider. The latest example for safeguarding at one of the buildings requires a ring doorbell solution which is a simple and effective service to quickly set up and use. The local authority has been given all the ring doorbell ports & protocol details required to be allowed through the firewall but we are now approaching week 4 as they continue to not be proactive and carry out the request. This is one of the many frustrations that providers create for schools and it’s simply not good enough. Yes, it’s important to protect everything and ensure that devices are kept secure for the safeguarding of everyone in school but this can be done in a far simpler way where the key people in school can manage this with their IT provider more quickly.
In the last 3 years I have worked with schools to assist them in moving away from the stranglehold created by these providers to set them up with a very straightforward system as follows:
Dedicated leased line with a school owned firewall unit, managed by the school IT support team either internally or externally in close association with the Headteacher, DSL and senior leaders.
Cloud based filtering, monitoring and alert systems for all devices in school. This also works wherever the devices are online and allows the DSL to receive all alerts and reports that are required.
All infrastructure services can then work seamlessly without any interference from external entities who don’t understand what is required for the school.
This in every case to date has proved to be more cost effective and is a far greater benefit to the school.
Back to my home situation, as you can imagine I had not been able to practise what I preach and had to opt for the best option available in order to be able to function. If you adopt the same approach for your school and don’t accept anything less than the best available, providing it’s in budget you will have a much better ongoing experience.
Nigel Milligan
IT Director.
