The Challenge
The Fowlerville Community Schools, a K-12 institution, has all the regular security needs of an educational institution. They need to restrict Internet usage to prevent students from viewing inappropriate material and downloading unecessary files like music and movies. However, their content filtering system was outdated and required a lot of active management. The school district's reporting tool required Joshua Siwek, Network Specialist at Fowlerville Community Schools, to import files into MS Excel and then search through all of the Internet traffic to determine what new anonymous proxy servers students were using to bypasstheir old firewall and then add the site to the block list. Siwek explained, "I was adding about a dozen new sites a week, and sifting through each report took hours of my time."

The Requirements
The amin feature requirement the Fowlerville Community Schools needed was the ability to restrict access to inappropriate websites. Because students were becoming more and more web savvy, the community schools also needed a product that would ensure students couldn't circumvent the school's firewall via proxy bypass sites. Siwek wanted an easy-to-use solution that provided consistent content filtering updates so the network would evolve to block newly created undesirable sites; and a solution that would seemingly integrate into their E-Directory environment. Siwek also needed the ability to audit Internet usage to determine if student misconduct did take place so he could take action to rectify the weakness. Finally, the school district needed to provide selective access to several web services that it hosts on its servers.

The Solution
Siwek considered implementing Cisco and Fortinet "But once I saw the Astaro management interface and spoke to other Astaro customers, I was sold," said Siwek. The Fowlerville Community Schools implemented an Astaro Security Gateway 525 to filter content on their network, which is used by approximately 3,500 students and faculty.

Success with Astaro
With the Astaro Security Gateway, Siwek has seen a dramatic increase in their content filtering reliability. "Our students are no longer able to download installable programs from the Internet and I am much more confident that the border between our internal network and the Internet is secure because the filters and reports are generated in such a way that it is very easy to monitor and examine," he said. The consistent updates Fowlerville Community Schools receive also increases Siwek's confidence in his network security. In addition to the enhanced content filtering, Siwek is also enjoying increased productivity as he is no longer spending time sifting through Internet usage reports. Siwek continued: "I no longer have to scan our logs for proxy bypass websites, and if I do have to check on a user, it is extremely easy to go into the web interface and a search on their user ID. I spend very little time administering our firewall now."