[Technical] dynamic Internet browsing control

[Chris Hopkinson]

Wayne,

We use ISA Server 2004 to do a similar job and it works well. By default all
students in the school do not have access to the Internet when they log on
.. they only have access to the edulist and a local white list that we can
add sites to. When staff logon they have normal filtered Internet access.

I have setup rules in ISA server that then allow access to the Internet for
various groups and from various locations and at various time. For example I
can set a rule that allows VCE students access to the Internet when they log
on in a particular computer classroom during a particular timetabled class.
The schedules are setup based on the timetable at the start of the term - so
we don't need to make many changes during the term.

The rules in ISA server are based on IP address rather than MAC, but we
solved that problem by simply reserving IP addresses in DHCP for each
computer in our computer classrooms. Each room then has its own IP address
range that I can setup as a rule in ISA. It took a few hours to set this up
- but it was a one off job!

With this setup we have complete control as to who has access to what and at
what times. Our problems with inappropriate Internet access and the costs of
Internet traffic have all but disappeared. Therefore, we no longer worry
about charging students for Internet costs.

Regards
Chris Hopkinson
TSSP, Bairnsdale SC


-----Original Message-----
From: tech-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:tech-bounces at edulists.com.au] On
Behalf Of Wayne Hewett
Sent: Sunday, 19 June 2005 5:52 PM
To: tech at edulists.com.au
Subject: [Technical] dynamic Internet browsing control

Greetings
Does any school use dynamic internet browsing control applications?

It has been policy at Rosebud Secondary to allow students to have full
but filtered access to the web. 
We have the normal controls of IUAs, bans and real time account
monitoring, everything goes well. We operate on a student user pays
system once the free allocation has been exceeded. Internet cost is not
an issue since we are only a modest user.
There are times that I want some rooms or pods retstricted to the
internet - but still having access to the intranet. In a perfect world,
this could be teacher activated from an excutable from their laptop, or
scheduled well before. The IT help desk should be out of the loop in
terms of dynamically connecting or disconnecting the room.

There is a product called Browse Control out of the UK, but it is
expensive and only opeates at the IP level. I would like this to operate
at the MAC addreess level.

Any ideas?

TIA

Wayne Hewett
Rosebud Secondary College


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