Anyone using Lightspeed Relay for IOS devices?

[Aldixie]

We have a Lightspeed Rocket Appliance and Mobile Filtering setup. We have had issues that when an IOS update is applied it breaks the Mobile Filter and the only way to re-instate it is to reopen the Lighspeed Mobile Filter App.

We have everything setup correctly and push the App out via Jamf.

Lightspeed support confirmed that today which really makes it useless for the amount of devices we have as its a K through 12 enviroment.

Lightspeed has a new product called Relay that is cloud based and independent of the school network.

Anyone using this product?

[Hugonaut]

We are using it & it works great. The second Relay was available for iOS we jumped from Rocket to Relay because there was no way it could be worse than Rocket & it was worth it! We have encountered very little headache with Relay, Rocket you could say was a constant migraine.

[Aldixie]

How easy was it to setup? We have been using Rocket for a number of years but with the way SSL decryption is going we need to look at a better solution. We are using the Rocket box to filter our IOS devices while off prem as well. Lightspeed finally admittted that IOS updates do break the Mobilefilter app and the only way is to open the app again while within the school network.

We hide the mobile filter app once its installed so that the student cannot alter it. So we have to unhide it and then touch everyone of the 12000 plus devices we have so that it will hit the proxy again.

We are going to download a demo copy of Relay and see how it works.

[kcranford]

We just moved to Relay a week ago and it has been great. iOS deployment was simple, especially using Jamf, and we couldn't be happier. We never used Rocket, but iBoss and it was horrible,

[blackholemac]

We are in the “study” phase of dealing with Relay right now.

Simple question...how do you folks “protect” the Relay app from being deleted without laying down a profile blocking kids from deleting all apps.

Sure I can set the app to auto install, BUT there is that indeterminate amount of time from the time a kid deletes the app and the devices notices it’s missing and reinstalled. At home this would leave the kids unfiltered. Our district has a mandate to filter...even at home.

Lightspeed says no proxy should be used with Relay.

Basically if I can solve this issue, I am reasonably okay with the Relay product.

[adamlalicker]

What variable did you use in setting up Content Filter in a JAMF payload? In the Username we used $EMAIL and it does not seam to pull the users email into the Relay Agent on the ipad.
Thanks

[blackholemac]

We are actively looking at Securly now for other reasons but we did use $EMAIL

[Tolandese]

Hi all, our experience so far with Relay is that it is a complete disaster. In fact, we are reaching out to other districts that are using it to try and crowdsource some situations on our own as tech support has been equally abysmal for us. Would anyone care to answer a few questions for us?

We had some trouble initially setting up the $EMAIL wildcard but eventually got lightspeed to clarify that the device info needed to have the users Email added, we originally were led to believe it knew to pull it from the preexisting ipad data.

Unfortunately, we had to lock down the deletion of apps because deleting the app gave kids up to 24 hours to roam free.

[thekosherphone]

@blackholemac we are having a similar issue. Have you found a solution?

[rsmith]

I am also having an issue with setting up Relay. I cannot get it to reconcile the device info with the users in Relay. We synced with Google Classroom in relay, and it needs an email address to connect to JAMF users, but my JAMF users are in by LDAP and then Apple Classroom so I'm not quite sure what to do.

[ewettach]

@rsmith We have been using Relay for almost a year and had issues setting it up initially, but a few clarifications from Lightspeed seemed to make it work. We have our Google Suite users being synced to Relay, which I assume is what you are doing. The next part would be to make sure that your LDAP server (in our case Active Directory) contains the user's email (same as their Google Suite email) that is assigned an iPad. Then make sure the user is set on the User & Location section of a device's information. You can then use whatever field that contains their email (typically $EMAIL) as a variable within your Relay configuration profile.

Here is the documentation to current variable options.
https://docs.jamf.com/10.12.0/jamf-pro/administrator-guide/Mobile_Device_Configuration_Profiles.html

[rsmith]

@ewettach Thank you. I have started to add emails to LDAP. It probably should've been done before now anyways, though no quick, easy way since we are using Open Directory. This is very helpful! Thank you!

[eissey]

We purchased Relay during summer 2019 and it has been definitely a very rough start. Finding support familiar with more than basic Apple troubleshooting has seemed difficult. My biggest issue was user authentication. You can set up with Google, Apple ID or AD (using Usernames in Jamf Pro).

Sidenote: The client for Mac OS is not 64-bit though, and does NOT work with Catalina. Stay far far away.

[paulvb]

We've been using Relay for 2 years and aside from original set-up issues it has been running smoothly.
As far as the variable drawing a name from JAMF, we used $USERNAME@unity.k12.wi.us
and that has worked just fine.

[Rjackson1]

Could someone that has relay working on IOS be willing for me to give them a call?

[msswarriors]

eissey, I have been working at getting SmartAgent setup with Catalina, it appears they do now have a version that is compatible. Still trying to get the classroom part setup in JAMF.

Joy is we have both Apple and Microsoft environment so I am waiting to see how it the monitor works in the mixed setup.

I did also notice that in our AD we needed to make sure that the email address was setup in all of our user profiles, as noted a pain, but once done it does go back and link the relay filter results to users that were reporting before we defined the email in active directory.

[khinkelman]

Can someone email me a screenshot of what their configuration profile for Relay looks like? Much appreciated. kswaney@oes141.org

[cboatwright]

We transitioned from the Rocket appliance to Relay on all devices last Fall, and it has been extremely frustrating at times. For a good number of months the iOS client was working flawlessly, then 13.1 was released and apparently broke Lightspeed's app. We had to grant the students the ability to delete apps in order to clear the update Lightspeed automatically pushes to clients - this is still ongoing, but working with Lightspeed they seem to think that if we remove the app from our 5000 devices, update to 13.2+ and then reinstall it should be okay...

Windows was flawless, until it wasn't! Just like iOS we were merrily trucking along until clients began to lose their ability to access anything outside the domain. Lightspeed doesn't have an answer for us, maybe it was a service locking up during an update, maybe antivirus wiped out some essential files, all we know is that uninstalling and reinstalling fixed the problem. However, they must be the ONLY software company in the world that cannot figure out how to make an uninstaller for their own product!!! Every uninstall left random keys in registry that will differ with every version of the client, and you cannot reinstall until you find and clear them all manually!

Do not get me started on the macOS client, it has been the worst experience for us. We have not updated our user's to Catalina because it is barely working in Mojave. Every day we field calls about loss of Internet, and the only fix is an uninstall/reinstall.

Lightspeed just got us their alpha version on some of these platforms, but we are still waiting for a Windows uninstall tool...

[danny33c]

We transitioned to Relay for all iPads and Windows 10 devices summer of '19. It's been working well with Windows devices, fortunately we have not had the issue @cboatwright has had. We did have to work with Malwarebytes to fix an issue that was on their end, because it wasn't playing with Relay. The iPads are a different story. We've had major issues. It seems like Apple, Lightspeed and JAMF can't get on the same page or Apple is making changes and the other two can't keep up. I can't even go into all the problems we've had/having. All I can say is, whatever you do, don't use the app usage restriction to "hide" the Relay Smart Agent. @kswaney Did you get a screenshot of the config profile?

[mattboo89]

@cboatwright We had the same issue with Windows and Uninstalling leaving keys which would block installs. I had a support call and the technician shared this with me: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17588/windows-fix-problems-that-block-programs-being-installed-or-removed

If you click through it and choose Install issue and click Smart Agent and next the Microsoft tool will clean up all of Relays issues and allow you to install the new version. We also had a huge issue with Version 1.4 and 1.4.1 so they package version 1.3.2 or whatever the last version was as version 1.4.2 for us and so far it has been working so much better. Just like you stated we had about a month and a half where staff couldn't get out to the internet at all. I was ready to go back to strictly our Rocket but since doing 1.4.2 and using the Microsoft Tool for computers that won't allow the install to go through or an uninstall not working it has been much better.

The tech also shared with me this command line: msiexec /x SmartAgentx64.msi PASSWORD="Your Uninstall Password" for times when the Uninstaller isn't working either but the only issue with this is you must have the msi of the same version you are trying to install. So I started storing and saving every version they send us.

Hope this helps you!

[ssurma]

Matt, what did you use for the app confiuration?  Your doc was very helpful but I am still having issues with the config.

[khinkelman]

@danny33c I have not received the screenshot. It would be much appreciated if you could send them over!

[danny33c]

@kswaney email me at dan_pusateri@eastiron.monroe.edu and I'll send it to you.

[rsmith]

Anyone else having issues with Lightspeed Relay breaking pdf editors in Google Classroom? It deletes student work when they try to work on assignments from within the classroom app. This has been going on for months and Lightspeed doesn't know what to do to help me.

[danny33c]

How about it not working at all this morning! P.O.S.!!

[rsmith]

Yep very frustrating!

[khinkelman]

Has anyone deployed this to shared devices? 50% of my shared devices will not access the internet unless I uninstall the app and config profile! I have an open case with Lightspeed. I wanted to know if anyone else is experiencing issues like this!

[catesr]

A bit late to the game here but we want to start testing Relay before deciding to use it next year. I'm wondering what, if anything, is entered for the "Service Address"? Thanks.

[danny33c]

@catesr My "Service Address" is blank.

[bradsschroeder]

I have removed the Jamf Nation tag so it relies strictly on the Security Management tag please let me know if you disagree with this.

[belldesean]

The lightspeed relay app issue has been a real showstopper for students until the parent or staff member reaches out to iOS user support. I manage around 9000 iPads for Topeka Public Schools, and for whatever reason when the Relay app updates it does not allow a Wi-Fi connection. I have created a document to help parents "How to remedy "internet not connected" on iPad" https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R6Xe8v_sxt07Mq3YggLUmRnNKeQp9jrNF-h-2cVrfNU/edit# but I'd like to know why this is happening. Why is the iOS or app update causing the app to be physically touched BEFORE the iPad correctly connects to Wi-Fi? This affects any iPad requiring Wi-Fi for apps like Zoom, Clever, Seesaw, etc.

[belldesean]

It's truly frustrating for parents and staff that call me for support, and thankfully I figured out that the Relay app was the issue. We had iPads that would not connect to WiFi for a week because I could not figure out what the problem was as there was no obvious sign. I reached out to Jamf, Apple, and my networking team and nobody had a clue that the app was the issue.

[jbisgett]

We’ve been dealing with this issue as well. The problem occurs when the app is flagged to automatically update in Jamf. The app refuses to keep internet functional while the app is updating, and requires that you cancel the download before the app suddenly shows as being updated and the internet works again.

I spoke with our Lightspeed rep and their suggestion is to disable automatic updates for the Relay app. When an update is made available, they recommend removing the app from all devices, then scoping it back out, basically an uninstall/reinstall scenario, so that internet functionality isn’t affected while the app is updated.

This is the scenario that I plan to test out the next time an update is released.

One issue I did run into is that you can’t have Automatic Updates enable for apps in settings and then go and disable automatic updates for a single app. I had to disable automatic updates for apps in settings, and then manually enable automatic updates for all apps except for Relay. Thankfully I found a script that would do that for me for all of my apps. I’ll update this post later when I find that script again.

[belldesean]

Thank you for your feedback @jbisgett I have a support ticket with Lightspeed right now and am curious if they'll reiterate just what you said. We do have auto-update turned on in Settings and it'll be a pain if I have to manually go in and change the setting for each app so a script will be greatly appreciated.