Top Private School Relies on NG Firewall to Protect its’ Students and Campus

Admiral Farragut Academy

Industry:  Education

Network Size:   Over 450 students and staff filtered into 5 separate network domains, each with 150 devices.

“The product runs itself. I can rest assured all my networks are protected against all types of attacks.”

Background

Admiral Farragut Academy is a private, college preparatory, boarding and day PreK – 12th grade school located in St. Petersburg, Florida. Farragut is one of only two Honor Naval Academies in the United States where students in 8th – 12th grade are involved in the Naval Jr. ROTC program. Farragut is also known for its Naval Science Program that provides students a path to pursue higher education in various military academies. Joe Sloan has been the Chief Information Officer and Technology for the last 25 years at Farragut.

The Search for an Open-Source Solution

Admiral Farragut Academy is a unique type of school, catering to not just day students, but also housing boarding students. Protecting all of its students from inappropriate web content, as well as maintaining security for its teachers, administrative department, and guests are top priorities for Joe Sloan. Maintaining five separate networks is a cumbersome task, especially when using Active Directory. So Joe began the search for an open source, web-based solution that was easy to use and he could implement himself.

“Web filtering solutions can run very expensive. After using Barracuda and SonicWALLproducts for years, I stumbled across Untangle,” said Joe, “I downloaded the free version to test it out.” Untangle’s simple interface has allowed Joe to get the solution up and running without the need for professional services.

NG Firewall’s Power Web Filter

Joe was able to save a lot of money by installing Untangle’s NG Firewall solution on his existing hardware. To set up Farragut’s unique network, Joe has five separate domains, two for the boarding students, one each for administrative staff, teachers and guests via wireless. Each domain utilizes the Web Filter, Application Control and Policy Manager applications to block inappropriate types of web and application content by group type.

The Web Filter and Application Control applications work seamlessly together, blocking not only specific websites, but also bandwidth-draining applications. “We don’t want our younger students accessing Facebook. Our upper level students are allowed login to Facebook, but not play the games. Application Control and Policy Manager allow me to easily create different rules for different groups,” said Joe.