15 March 2017
Portsmouth Grammar School is based in a former army barracks.
Founded in 1732 by the city’s mayor, Portsmouth Grammar School (PGS), has just over 1,000 pupils from nursery to sixth form and is based in a former army barracks. It has been fully co-educational since girls were admitted in 1991.
The school encourages pupils to work from their own tablets, smartphones and other devices within the classrooms. However, while its building’s 1.5 metre-thick flint-filled walls were once ideal for withstanding enemy artillery attacks, they also proved good at blocking radio signals, making Wi-Fi access across the campus a major challenge. Even with access points in every room, the thickness of the walls hampered connectivity.
The answer came from WatchGuard. The firm installed a network comprising 150 of its AP100, AP102 and AP200 APs across the school, with one located in every other room. It claims this cut the cost of deployment while delivering a full Wi-Fi signal across every part of the campus, capable of supporting 1,500 concurrently connected devices.
The access points are connected to an XTM 860 network security appliance, also from WatchGuard. Staff and pupils are authenticated using RADIUS as soon as they are on the school grounds, removing the need to login each time. Guests can also join the network automatically if they have a password from the IT department.
Other WatchGuard products deployed include the Unified Threat Management suite which runs on the XTM 860 to provide online and email security. The company’s WebBlocker service is used to allow the school to control which sites pupils can access.
The entire setup runs on WatchGuard’s Fireware operating system, claimed to be the first in the industry with “true consolidation” of wired and wireless management in a single integrated view. The company says it provides a real-time, single-pane-of-glass interface for analysing wireless coverage, evaluating traffic and channel conflicts, as well as identifying and plugging network vulnerabilities for both wired and wireless networks.
Tim Howlett, head of IT at PGS, says the school is now able to introduce new technologies with confidence, knowing they will be secure. He adds: “It is reassuring to know that our more adventurous pupils aren’t able to hack into the network!”
Principal Corporation, based in Horsham, West Sussex, carried out the installation. It says the school can also now setup additional wireless networks on a “pop-up” basis if required to support one-off events.
