Wireless setup and internet filtering for students at school
Question:
We need Full WiFi Internet Accessibility in our high school. Most of our students bring their laptops to school, but are not able to connect to the Net on the benches in front of the school on a warm day. In the library, only about three laptops can connect at any one time. Many students who do gain access to the Internet then lock up bandwidth by downloading music, accessing chatrooms or viewing non-educational sites and blacklisting websites does not seem to work.
1) We need hardware/software to enable at least 300 laptops to be connected to the Internet at the same time wirelessly anywhere on our school grounds.
2) We need whitelist hardware/software to block out all websites except those that have been preapproved by our staff as educationally acceptable.
Is there any way to have the above two features in a school wifi system or do you know a company that has the expertise to create such a system? I am told that we need a gateway computer between the modem and router but cannot find anyone that has such software or such a system.
Answer:
In my day job, this is the kind of stuff I and my coworkers do regularly. However, what you’re proposing is a pretty big deal. It’s not something you purchase, plug in and assume it’ll work. Consider this a medium-sized project, with a few weeks of planning, site analysis and setup.
With all that said, yes, there are tools to allow you to do exactly what you need to do. Off the top of my head, Sonicwall or Cisco devices should be used for the wireless access points. And Sonicwall also makes an excellent filtering device that I’ve set up for multiple clients – it filters web traffic so that you can do things like allow people to only specific websites, or block access to a category of sites (like “pornographic” or “firearms”), or allow people on during specified hours of the day (so you don’t get people stealing your web connection at midnight).
This is really beyond the scope of this website, though, and to do this properly should be considered a moderately expensive project (in time and money). If you’re local to Michigan, let me know and I’ll get it touch with you in a professional capacity. If not, then you should contact your nearest IT consultants specializing in network or communication services, and they’ll be able to help out.
