National grid for learning has been brought about and we seem to have some compulsory broadband connections forced upon us. So far I found
system unworkable because there are private companies involved. For example I wanted to run the school web server from school but the ISP will not provide a public IP address for the school. They also seem reluctant to re-root I don't think you can really knock LEAs or ISPs for not wanting to open
in their firewalls to allow traffic into schools. Approximately 100% of UK schools do not have access to the technical skills to maintain a secure network which is exposed to the internet. I say approximately, because
are obviously a tiny few who do, and most of them will have representatives on this list :)
Even when you've had the wit to stick a gnu/linux or bsd box between yourself and the outside world, you are surely fighting a losing battle if you have a couple of hundred windows boxes running IE and Outlook on the other side of it. To compound the problem, you also have a pile of portables which staff take home and connect to the internet, before plugging them back into the school network to unleash their dubious payloads.
If I was responsible for this in an LEA I would insist that somebody from
the ports there the
school sat, and passed with flying colours, a very scary network security exam, before they'd get me to open any ports :) -- Phil Driscoll
I can knock them all as far as I can throw them. Just a question for you -> When you and millions of others are connecting to their broadband service from home or office do they not have full access to all the ports. I am in fact running my own mail and web servers from home using my broadband connection. Why should schools be an exception. All the ISp's are doing is providing a pipe between you and the Internet. I think you missed the point here Your statistics (almost %100) is also wrong. Almost everyone here on this this are to some extent are proficient enough to do that. In any case the security issue is for schools to worry about and not the ISP's. If schools don't have the technical experts to run a school network then they should invest in hiring skilled technicians but I know that they do. Regards M Gural