Texas District Deploys Internet Management, Monitoring

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Llano Independent School District in Texas has signed on with security provider Cymphonix to deploy appliance-based network filtering and management district-wide.

According to the district, it had been suffering from an inability to combat anonymous proxies and was also unable to identify which users were doing what. So it installed the Cymphonix Network Composer DC30X, which automatically maintains a list of anonymous proxies and scans content for anonymous proxy activity.

"We needed a level of punitive measures that we could impose on students we considered regular Internet abusers. While we didn't want to completely eliminate the student's ability to access the Web for fear of directly affecting school related projects, we are able to control which sites, and at what speeds, the offender could access material," said Jim Beasley, technology director for Llano ISD, in a prepared statement released by Cymphonix. "It's great because I can quickly identify students who require disciplinary action by their user name instead of IP addresses, which obviously vary from one computer to the next. When you're dealing with hundreds of public access points, how can you beat that?"

The appliance is also being used to control bandwidth usage and define prioritization for Web sites accessed through the network.

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About the author:David Nagel is the executive editor for 1105 Media's online education technology publications, including THE Journal and Campus Technology. He can be reached at [email protected].

Proposals for articles and tips for news stories, as well as questions and comments about this publication, should be submitted to David Nagel, executive editor, at [email protected].

About the Author

David Nagel is the former editorial director of 1105 Media's Education Group and editor-in-chief of THE Journal, STEAM Universe, and Spaces4Learning. A 30-year publishing veteran, Nagel has led or contributed to dozens of technology, art, marketing, media, and business publications.

He can be reached at [email protected]. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidrnagel/ .


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