Marshal8e6-Henrico County Public Schools

Vendor: Marshal8e6

Customer: Henrico County Public Schools http://www.henrico.k12.va.us/                    
Vertical Markets: Education
State: Virginia

Technology Used: R3000 Internet Filter

Solution: Henrico County Public Schools oversees numerous K-12 schools, as well as a small number of technical and specialty centers in the county of Henrico, Virginia. To ensure students possess the 21st century skills necessary to compete in today’s job market, Internet use is a vital part of the curriculum of all schools. Students are encouraged to use the Internet for educational purposes both at school and at home. Overall, Henrico County Public Schools has more than 45,000 users, most of which are students.

Like every organization responsible for the education and safety of young people, Henrico County Public Schools is concerned with reducing inappropriate Web surfing, as well as security risks such as spyware and phishing. The issue that presented the biggest challenge to the organization, however, was the rise in popularity of Myspace.com. The increased number of hits to this site interfered with the ability of schools to access educational applications. Teachers had to constantly monitor whether students were using computer time to complete school work. Safety was also a concern, as the site is frequented by online predators and contains inappropriate content. Henrico County Public Schools needed to find a way to block access to Myspace.com.

The organization concluded that the best solution was Marshal8e6's R300 Internet Filter. The features that made the R300 Internet Filter the clear choice for Henrico County Public Schools included the program’s ease of integration and its ability to block specific URLs and inappropriate content and images.

The R300 Internet Filter freed the schools’ networks of bottlenecks and downtime, and has also allowed IT staff to make more productive use of their time since they no longer have to constantly manage filtering. Most importantly, students’ access to Myspace.com has been blocked. By locking out Myspace.com and common back doors, Henrico County Public Schools has managed to prevent students from accessing the site, which keeps them safer and encourages more productive use of computer time. 

Further details: http://www.marshal8e6.com/documents/pdfs/case_studies/education/CS_HenricoCountyBlockingMyspace.pdf