WatchGuard provides wireless access points and firewalls that have had been adopted by Franklin County Board of Education (FCBOE), Chester School District (CSD) and Portsmouth Grammar School (PGS) and their respective communities.
Internet Access for Franklin County Schools and Residents
Tucked into the hills of rural Northwest Alabama, Internet access in Franklin County is so rare that only an estimated 20 percent of students have it at home. FCBOE turned to WatchGuard for a solution that provides security services tailored specifically for their needs.
"The school board can't afford to hire a huge staff, so it's essential to have a system and appliances that are easily manageable, and that's what WatchGuard does for us," said Tim Burks, network administrator at FCBOE.
With WatchGuard's firewalls, secure wireless access points, and cloud-based logging and reporting tool, Dimension, they can identify key trends across all wired and wireless activity in the district, providing insight into Internet usage to help prevent student exposure to inappropriate sites. The schools' perimeter wireless access points (separate from the internal networks) are considered reliable enough that community members throughout park on the school grounds to securely connect to Internet access they cannot get at home.
Read the complete case study here.
Chester School District
In New Jersey's Chester School District, the IT staff needs to provide Wi-Fi access for more than 1,200 students and 400 staff members, and their many devices. The district must be able to maintain control over web applications, block websites with malicious material and inappropriate content, and stay compliant with the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA).
"The ease of access to information and the intuitive platform provided by WatchGuard has freed up valuable time that, in the past, was spent monitoring and maintaining the previous device," said Dean Anderson, technology director, CSD. "Now, more time can be spent where it matters—supporting the staff and students.”
Within weeks of deployment, WatchGuard's reporting tools helped to identify when students attempted to access inappropriate websites and allowed the administration to pinpoint who was involved.
Read the complete case study here.
Breaking down walls with Secure Wi-Fi at Portsmouth Grammar School
At Portsmouth Grammar School, students are surrounded by history. Based in former army barracks, the five-foot thick walls of the former Cambridge Barracks stood through a WWII bombing, but were not designed to allow a modern Wi-Fi signal. These rock-solid walls hampered connectivity and made it difficult to provide wireless access to students learning throughout the school's 300 rooms. Keeping students' private data secure and blocking unsafe online content were also major points of concern.
WatchGuard set up a wireless network comprised of 136 WatchGuard secure wireless access points spread across the school, with one access point in every third room. This solution ensures a strong Wi-Fi signal across every part of the campus. And because they work in tandem with a WatchGuard firewall, users are authenticated as soon as they reach the school grounds, and administration has control over which websites students can access.
"Having a strong Wi-Fi signal throughout the school now means that tutors, students, and visitors have continual access to key resources and communications wherever they are on campus, helping us to deliver the aims of our curriculum," said James Priory, Headmaster of PGS.
Read the complete case study here.
