Portland Public Schools

Industry: Education
Network Size: 730 PCs across 6 sites

“Untangle® gives us everything we need for keeping our staff and students safe, and at a cost about half that of competitors."

Background
The Portland Public Schools District in Portland, MI, comprises four schools, an adult and alternative education center, and two administrative offices. Serving 2,100 students, the District believes that access to information resources is essential in preparing students to succeed in a global society. It also maintains that investment in technology is a key step towards accessing information, achieving learning outcomes, and providing equity to the students in the area.

Continuous Improvement
The District has a policy of constantly re-assessing what technology options are available, as its systems and software come up for renewal or replacement. David Palme, Director of Technology, said: “School technology budgets are under pressure. However, we aim not only to maintain service levels, but continue to innovate and move forward. Untangle fits that bill.”

Secure, Yet Simple
David selected Untangle for the completeness of its security offerings, coupled with the ease with which it can be administered. Portland is using Untangle to block spam, prevent access to inappropriate web sites and stop viruses getting on to the network. David explained, “It’s important for teachers in the schools to have the ability to make administrative changes to our Untangle system. Untangle’s interface is straight-forward and easy to grasp for the occasional user but robust and detailed enough for modification to the unique needs of the educational environment.”

Staff and Students
Untangle’s policy management and integration with Microsoft® Active Directory® has allowed David to set up and enforce different web policies for staff and students. “Differentiated access is critical for education”, commented David. “Teachers need to be able to access certain web sites that would just prove a needless distraction to students in the classroom.”

Report Time
Untangle provides David with reports by user that enable him to see what network usage has taken place, aiding network management, policy enforcement and potential risk assessment.

School Budgets
David adds: “Untangle is the lowest priced vendor we’ve found. We’re always looking, but there’s been no need to go anywhere else.” He has just renewed his subscription for another year.

Untangle in Education

Keeping students safe on the Internet

Through the Internet, students now have the world at their finger tips. Along with its many riches, students must also navigate a mine field of distractions and hazards. Many schools and libraries count on Untangle to help them keep their students safe while on the Internet and focused on learning. In particular, Untangle can assist schools and libraries in:

1. Keeping inappropriate content out of the classroom and computer lab
2. Creating a safe learning environment
3. Achieving CIPA compliance
4. Qualify for E-Rate funding
5. Protecting computers from spyware, viruses, and other malware

Easy, Affordable, Flexible

With Untangle, you get ease of use, affordability, and flexibility to accommodate student, teacher, and staff needs. Untangle makes it straightforward to manage your network and comply with CIPA requirements through:

• Dynamic Web Filter – Filter websites by critical categories for CIPA such as Pornography, Illegal Drugs, Dating, and Hate and Aggression, as well as manage access to web mail, shopping, proxies, and other sites.
  • Control Internet usage based on 53 categories that covers over 100 million URLs.
  • URLs that have not been seen before are processed and classified in real-time, allowing you to stay one step ahead of your students.
  • Block https/ssl sessions by IP, thwarting a popular work around for standard web filtering solutions.
• Control Instant Messenger and other P2P applications – port hopping applications such as instant messenger and bit torrent can bypass standard firewall rules, consume network traffic, introduce malware, and open a door for child predators. Untangle allows you to control these applications and set reasonable restrictions for your network.
• Block Viruses, Spyware, Spam, Phish, and Other Malware – Untangle scans all traffic including http and ftp for viruses, worms, spyware, phishing, and other threats to protect your network and the personal information of your students.
• Monitoring - Untangle Reports lets you see who’s doing what on your network, including reporting by active directory user name. This lets you monitor for violations of your acceptable use policy and identify suspect behavior.
• Policy Management – Create an unlimited number of web usage policies based on user and/or time of day, including rules appropriate for teacher, staff, and students as well as different age groups.

Watch a Webinar recording: Untangle in Education

Untangle hosted a webinar on Thursday August 27, 2009, aimed at IT administrators in Education. You can watch the replay here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/765529233.

Pickaway County Sheriff’s Office

Industry: Local Authority
Network Size: 120 nodes

“Untangle is way ahead of the game, combining all these open source and premium apps into a single multi-function firewall that just works. Untangle was ‘hands-down’ the most cost-effective solution we could find.” "

Background
Pickaway County in Ohio has the historic distinction of having the longest-serving sheriff in the USA. Sheriff Dwight E. Radcliff has been in office since 1965. Throughout this time, the Pickaway County Sheriff’s Office has embraced new technology to keep up-to-date.

Protection Inside and Out
Today its staff are protected from online threats both in the office and out on the road. Mobile police units are connected to the headquarters through virtual private networks (VPNs) and their internet traffic is scanned and filtered just as it is at their desks. Untangle provides the VPN connectivity and web filtering all in one box.

Comprehensive Cover
The Technology Manager at the Sheriff’s Office, Matthew Parish, has deep experience with network security. He is highly familiar with the vendors of dedicated appliances and open-source projects alike. Matthew liked what he saw in Untangle. ”Untangle has integrated best-of-class web filtering from eSoft and combined it with rich reporting, anti-spyware and a host of other services; it’s a complete offering, and really sets the mark in the industry.” Untangle’s virtual rack metaphor has made it easy for Matthew to set up and enforce multiple different web policies for various departments throughout the office.

Open Source Origins
Matthew originally installed Untangle’s free open-source package at the Sheriff’s Office back in 2007. However, he subsequently upgraded to the premium offering for its additional features: “Untangle now connects to our Active Directory server, which allows us to monitor, track and log web browsing by user account and sign-on. No other product we looked at can do this.”

Implementing Untangle
Matthew installed the Untangle server in transparent mode, just dropping it in behind his existing firewall. It was up and running , filtering web traffic within five minutes. Matthew praises the ease of administration of the Untangle server, and its cost: “Untangle’s subscription pricing was a fraction of the price of other vendors we considered. Given the budget pressures we’re all under these days, this decision just made great sense. We’ve just renewed for another three years”