The ICTS Technical Services Team implemented a Sophos Web Filter online this past summer. This new Sophos Web Filter is replacing the Barracuda Web Filter that we had in the district for seven years. With the new web filter we can make internet access more reliable for educational needs.
Last school year Internet traffic by the school greatly increased causing the Barracuda Web Filter to
perform slowly. This caused the Internet to not be
as reliable as it should.
The Sophos Web Filter works seamlessly for users on PCs attached to our domain, their login credentials are passed behind the scenes and the user will get the appropriate policy for access to sites that are important to the education of our students. Mac users will be prompted for a login screen to verify their credentials. Once verified the user will get the appropriate policy for the internet. Chromebooks, will have a different type of access, when the browser opens they will be given an option to login or “Login as guest”. If a teacher or staff member is using a Chromebook, they can login with their network credentials and get the same policy they would get on their desktop
computer. Students using Chromebooks can either enter their credentials or click the “Login as guest”, they will get the same internet policy.
Some facts about CPS Internet usage. Looking at a monthly report for October 2013 & October 2014, our Internet traffic has increased dramatically in
one year.
|
Internet Traffic
|
Connections Handled
|
October 2013
|
7.9 TB
|
148,170,786
|
October 2014
|
16.9 TB
|
364,315,377
|