NetSpective Case Studies

School Districts Turn to TeleMate.Net Software's NetSpective® for Fail-Safe Internet Content Management and Bandwidth Optimization

The Opportunity

The McDuffie County School District states that it is 'committed to providing a safe, respectful environment where academic excellence is achieved'. Part of that safe environment is regulated access to the Internet, and like all Georgia school districts, McDuffie must comply with the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), a federal law enacted by Congress in December 2000 to limit access in schools and libraries to the Internet. Therefore, CIPA compliance and content management is of critical importance to school network administrators.

Additionally, the Internet is playing an increasingly important role in educating the district's 4,200 students. So beyond meeting FCC compliance regulations, the school district sought to protect the network from bandwidth draining applications as instruction and testing grows more Internet dependent and webmail and social networking sites such as Friendster and Myspace grow in popularity. Finally, the school district sought to protect itself from various vulnerabilities and points of entry created by P2P applications.

The Solution

To ensure CIPA compliance, McDuffie schools required the most secure content management system available. Additionally, like most school districts, McDuffie operates a limited network and needed to prohibit access of webmail, new social networking sites and file sharing via P2P applications. In terms of network considerations, McDuffie Schools Technology Specialist Will Wilson sought a solution that would easily configure into the Novell network with an Ethernet connection to seven school locations countywide. "The box was easy to install and we have excellent relationships with TeleMate.Net Software reps," said Wilson of the TeleMate.Net Software product. "It was extremely easy to implement."

Another requirement was a cost-effective solution dictated by limited school board funds. TeleMate.Net Software addressed these needs by providing the same fail-safe technology used by large corporations, but with a 20 percent discount for school districts. This discount, available to all Georgia schools districts, has proven to be an attractive selling point to IT professionals in area schools.

The Results

Since implementing the TeleMate.Net Software solution in 2001, McDuffie has consistently maintained compliance with CIPA, kept students on task while using the Internet for research and instruction, and protected the system from network degradation by preventing inadvertent and deliberate downloads. And by consistently blocking P2P sites, the network is freed up to handle academic assignments.

"NetSpective features block everything we need to avoid-gambling games, advertisements, chat, P2P, and social sites like MySpace.com," Wilson said, which protects the network from bandwidth drains and other vulnerabilities. "Additionally, we get excellent customer service and regular updates that meet the evolving challenges of Internet content management," he said. "Overall, NetSpective has just been extremely reliable and very easy to use."