[Year 12 SofDev] Internet Costs at School

Sat Aug 25 08:06:30 EST 2007

Thanks Kevork.

I'd love to do something like that, but believe (PLEASE correct me if I am
wrong anyone) that I am limited to 1 of 4 providers at present (VicSmart
approved by the Dept) and am not permitted (we were never a "self governing
school") to step out to other providers.

The traffic allocation I give our kids is not acceptable (way too low) and
we need to address this by the end of the year.  But I want to be sure that
I can stick with whoever I move to. Editure (our current provider) have not
come back to us with a plan review, although requested twice.

16 to 17GB per month seems to be our standard traffic amount, but we
throttle it. Could be much more if I used the speeds I'd like.

I hope I can find a plan like yours within my (perceived) current
constraints. 

Thanks for the feedback!

Neil

-----Original Message-----
From: sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au]
On Behalf Of Kevork Krozian
Sent: Friday, 24 August 2007 3:49 PM
To: 'Year 12 Software Development Teachers' Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [Year 12 SofDev] Internet Costs at School

Hi Neil,

 We have an Optus cable account ( not sure if they are still available to
schools ...we were a trial school back in 1995 ) at 20 GB peak ( 12 noon to
12 midnight ) and 24 GB off peak ( 12 midnight to 12 noon) at $330 per month
< $4K per year. That works out at 0.75 c per MB. 

 Students get 100 MB per month each and occasionally are topped up. There is
no cost recovery imposed on the students with internet access. 

 We give $20 print credit per semester which does require an actual payment
to top up if breached.

Regards
Kevork

>>> "Neil Wallace" <neil at norwood.vic.edu.au> 24/08/2007 2:48 pm >>>
Our costs have gone nuts this month too - again, anonymous proxies.

Russell - who is your provider, and what do they charge you per meg?  We are
with SINA and the schools cops 9c per meg traffic charge. I budget about
$15000 traffic charge per year, and often exceed this (1500 per month, exc
January, most of holidays and a lot of December).

We use ShapeShifter on a Novell BorderManager to throttle our port 80
bandwidth but still get excessive charges through peer to peer and streams
that are not properly disconnected.  Our ISP does the accounting and I am
not convinced that their accounting is accurate.

Can anyone else share their costs management strategy, and perhaps the way
they charge students?

Regards

Neil Wallace
Norwood Secondary College

-----Original Message-----
From: sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au]
On Behalf Of Russell Curr
Sent: Friday, 24 August 2007 2:12 PM
To: sofdev at edulists.com.au
Subject: Re: [Year 12 SofDev] proxy servers

James

we use a combination of tools:

Papercut to control web access - works very well and we give all students 25
meg per week.
Squid to block access to a list of sites SARG to randomly check who is using
the latest proxy unblocker sites

If students do manage to bypass Squid via  proxy unblocker, then they can
only access up to their credit limit anyway.

cheers
Russell

--------------------------------------------------------
Russell Curr
Network Manager
Avila College
Ph: 9831-9645
Fax: 03-9888-1202
email: russell at avila.vic.edu.au
-------------------------------------------------------

>>> jgy at sthelena.vic.edu.au 08/24/07 10:14 am >>>
Hi all,

sorry for the cross posts. 
Firstly, thanks to all the people who replied to my query last week about
Value Adding through VB programming, it was most helpful. 
I have another problem and would appreciate any advice. lately, we have had
a spate of students using proxy servers to bypass the school's internet
restrictions. Word is spreading that this can be done amongst the students
and it has proved impossible to block all sites that provide proxy access. 

At the moment we cancel internet access to those students we catch but we
only catch them by fluke and we don't want to end up banning large number of
students from the internet but if we let the students know these sites exist
it will advertise the fact and more will use them.

Has your school had these problems and does anyone have some advice on what
to do?

Thanking you in advance

James Gibney
ICT Coordinator
St Helena Secondary College
Wallowa Rd
Eltham Nth 3095
Ph 03 94388500
Fax 03 94388555
email: jgy at sthelena.vic.edu.au
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_______________________________________________
http://www.edulists.com.au
IT Software Development Mailing List kindly supported by
http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au - Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority
and
http://www.vitta.org.au/vce/studies/infotech/softwaredevel3-4.html  - VITTA
Victorian Information Technology Teachers Association Inc