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The Madeira School: Harnessing the Best of the Internet Thanks to Bloxx

Background

Founded in 1906, The Madeira School provides day and boarding education to girls in grades 9-12. Students come to study at Madeira from across the US and from 16 countries around the world. Its mission is to provide a rich and varied community that appreciates the distinctive social, emotional and academic needs of young women. The school, based in McLean, VA, strives to empower and encourage students to explore their interests, develop their abilities, act with self-confidence and compassion, and assume responsibility for their actions in the global community, so that they may become effective and ethical leaders of the future.

The Challenge

The school’s previous Web filtering solution was causing challenges for staff and students alike, as Jeff Dayton, Director of Technology, explains: “With our previous Web filter, latency on the device was impacting Internet speeds, resulting in poor Internet performance, issues with streaming video and complaints from frustrated users. In order to report on Web browsing usage, we had to use additional software on a separate server, and we couldn’t use other features such as malware detection because this just added further to the issues with latency.”

As a result of these challenges, Jeff began looking for a new Web filtering solution in 2011, and chose Bloxx.

The Solution

The school installed a Bloxx 500W Web Filter to create an online environment for its 440 staff and students which balanced e-safety with access to the wide range of excellent learning tools the Internet can offer. Bloxx’s ability to categorize Web pages in real time through its patent-pending Tru-View Technology allows Madeira to ensure it provides just this environment for students.

The Results

Dayton explains, “When we switched to Bloxx we hoped to get improved throughput and use of full reporting features, both of which we definitely have. The Bloxx filter’s reporting features are great and we can run reports once a week and get access to all the information we need. The Bloxx product does a better job of categorizing Web pages in real time than our previous solution, and we’re getting full use of our bandwidth.” “We’ve also been able to increase staff productivity as teachers can rely on the Internet and streaming video working when they need it and there are fewer complaints and issues for IT staff to manage.”

Jeff highlights the end-to-end technical support provided by Bloxx as particularly impressive:

“Installation and support are awesome, particularly as tech support at my last provider was poor at best. It was also nice to have someone onsite for the initial set up. Bloxx’s after-install tech support was timely and their technicians are extremely capable and informative.”

Overall, Jeff is delighted: “The Bloxx filter is much, much better than our previous solution.”