Web/Content Filter

[tbaumann]

So we are about to do a 1:1 iPad initiative next school year for each student and teacher, as well as Macbook Air's for the teachers. We currently have iPrism in our school with Chromebooks, Chromeboxes and Windows 7 machines. We aren't very happy with it currently as we have issues with it being able to filter our Chrome Devices the way it handles our Windows Machines. I've heard about iboss, OpenDNS, BASCOM and Lightspeed. Is there anybody out there that can give me a better idea of what will work best with our new Apple Products, as well as the ability to integrate with our PC's and Chrome devices.

Thanks

[CasperSally]

I've never had a worse experience with a company than I did with iPrism, so I feel your pain. They basically shrugged at our Apple devices and asked us to find a new filtering solution because they weren't going to be able to support us. I guess they're happy in their windows only world.

We've been happy with iBoss for our Macs. I like that I've had engineers remote in and look at issues right away. They have slick Chromebook integration as well.

[tatiang]

I've found iBoss to be responsive to support requests and as @CasperSally said, they will always offer to remote in and take a look at settings.

The problem we're dealing with at the moment is that they don't have a mobile client that supports Yosemite and they can't give us an ETA for its development. So our 1:1 students who realized they could update to Yosemite are now unfiltered which is a big problem in a K-8 school. iBoss has suggested configuring a PAC script to force student computers to use a proxy which is what I'm currently testing. It seems like this will be an okay workaround provided we can keep students from disabling the proxy settings.

In Mavericks, the mobile client works quite well for off-campus filtering.

[GaToRAiD]

@tbaumann I've used OpenDNS in the past, and it' pretty amazing at what it can do. At the time it was free, not sure if it still is, but it's super granular on you can block. Can even customize the block page. The reporting matrix's are pretty decent too.

[CasperSally]

@tatiang - We're lucky in that we block the app store. I've always had good luck getting the mobile filter to work on new the new operating system (been with iboss 2 or 3 years now I think). Sometimes support has to work with me, but it is usually fixed in a day or 2. I'll try out yoyo this week if I can, we won't support it until this summer.

[dfilbert]

I've never had a worse experience with a company than I did with iPrism,

Been there, done that. So true.

We moved to Sophos UTM. It is a very nice platform.

[mcs-jamf]

We roll iPad Pro's 1:1. 10.5" for students and 12.9 for staff. We roll Cyberhound filtering, it also have a system called ClearView which is unreal for pastoral care duties, gives us real time data based on search queries, email and instant messenger etc..

We filter off site via a VPN, we trigger Jamf via bash to shut the VPN off when on site, and re-engage when offsite. Works nicely.

[lee_smith]

@tbaumann

We are currently using Lightspeed Systems Rocket Appliance. We have been on it two years, maybe three. We have thoroughly enjoyed over iPrism.

This year we are moving to iOS 1:1 for our Middle School 6th and 7th Graders. Thus far we have been very pleased with using in Windows, Chromebooks, macOS and now iPads.

I have been testing with iPad integration this summer and so far so good. It is a beast in itself but I have a good team around me along with tech support.