Untangle Helps Protect Students at K12 School
Huntingtower School
Industry: Education
Network Size: 700 students bringing around 175 BYOD and 120 staff bringing 250 laptops, iPads or phones on campus. Over 1350 total devices on the network.
“We have been using Untangle for the last few years and love it.”
Background
Huntingtower School is an independent, co-educational day and boarding school that provides a high standard of education at sub-primary, primary and secondary levels. Founded in 1927 and located in Mount Waverley, Victoria, Australia, it is Victoria’s oldest co-educational boarding school. Ranga Subasinghe has been the ICT Systems Administrator at Huntingtower School for the last three years.
Untangle Beats Out SonicWall
As a K-12 school, Huntingtower School must prevent their 700 plus students and visitors from accessing inappropriate content while on the school premises. The main problem Ranga had been facing is that users were able to bypass content restrictions by using HTTPS or using web translator pages. Another problem was the school’s VPN services did not restrict users from accessing inappropriate content on their mobile devices and tablets while on campus. Their incumbent firewall, WebMarshal, was inefficient and made bypassing restrictions too easy, so Ranga started researching for alternatives.
While researching, Ranga seriously considered Dell SonicWall, but also stumbled across Untangle NG Firewall. “We decided to test out Untangle with the free trial,” said Ranga, “and were pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to implement. Untangle is priced significantly lower than competitors and does not require multiple hardware appliances for a complete solution. This is why we chose Untangle NG Firewall.”
Untangle Makes Managing Networks Simple
With NG Firewall, Huntingtower School can now effectively block their students from viewing restricted websites and inappropriate content on all devices brought on their campus. With Application Control, Ranga is able to block or flag hundreds of applications, like Facebook games, instant messaging, or file sharing, with just a simple click. This dramatically helps to keep the network running smoothly with plenty of bandwidth for staff and students. “Untangle’s Web Filter and HTTPS Inspector applications have made life much easier for me,” said Ranga. As the administrator, Ranga is able to block any inappropriate web content, including websites in different languages. “If a staff member needs to access a site that is being blocked, I can quickly allow them temporary access with just a simple click.”
With NG Firewall’s complete set of features, flexibility, customization, and simple UI, Huntingtower School has been able to take control of their network and protect their students. With discount options available for educational organizations of all sizes, Untangle provides schools the power to choose an enterprise product at an affordable cost.
