Charters School Protects Pupils Online with Ruckus Wi-Fi

Ruckus Zoneflex Network Provides Wi-Fi that is Reliable and Wide-Ranging

Ruckus Wireless, a Wi-Fi technology pioneer in the enterprise wireless LAN (WLAN) market, today announced that Charters School in Sunningdale, Ascot, UK has installed its smart Wi-Fi technology to deliver reliable wireless coverage across the school. The Ruckus ZoneFlex solution will accommodate the rapidly increasing number of laptops and other mobile devices in use within the school, and will enable teachers and pupils to connect to a Wi-Fi network that is both dependable and secure. Net-Ctrl, an internet connectivity and security reseller and Ruckus gold partner, provided the system.

Charters School is a mixed comprehensive specialist Sports and Science College in Ascot with 230 members of staff and more than 1,600 pupils. There are currently more than 300 laptops in use every day at the school – well in excess of what had been anticipated when the previous consumer-grade Linksys solution was installed. Given the increasing amount of traffic from these laptops, as well as other mobile devices, this solution was struggling to deliver the required coverage and speed and it was also increasingly difficult for the IT staff at the school to manage.

“We tried to enhance our existing Linksys network by adding more access points, but it soon became apparent that it had reached its limits,” said Ben Roberts, network manager at Charters School. “What’s more, with so many devices logging onto the network, we found it hard to maintain effective control – anyone from sixth formers to teachers and even school visitors could connect whether or not they were using one of our devices. Security was a growing concern, and with fears about child safety on the web increasing we urgently needed a secure browsing environment for both pupils and staff.”

Net-Ctrl provided IT staff at Charters School with a Ruckus Wireless test kit to try out on site, and the results were so impressive that the school immediately decided to invest in 50 802.11n ZoneFlex access points (APs) and a ZoneDirector controller under Ruckus’ ‘Education ‘n’ matching donation’ programme, which offers two-for-one on the APs. With the new network in place, the teachers at Charters are confident that the school’s video streaming facility, Click View, won’t fail in the middle of a lesson. In fact, it’s now possible to use Click View in any of the school’s classrooms without so much as a flicker on screen – something that had been a common problem previously.

Another big draw for Charters School was Ruckus’ Dynamic PSK wireless security, which installs unique encryption keys on mobile devices automatically without the need for additional input from administrators. Sixth form students at the school can now log on using a secure portal, simply plugging in a unique password to access the network from any of the classroom laptops.

“In the first week using the Ruckus system, we securely logged 80 staff laptops onto the network without a single error,” continued Roberts. “We can also configure additional devices brought in by guests in no time at all, and we have peace of mind that only authorised devices and personnel are able to access our network. This way, we know we’re providing a safe online learning environment without having to spend hours on manual authorisations.”

After looking into options from Ruckus, Trapeze and Meru Networks, the school decided that the ZoneFlex Enterprise dual-band 802.11n solution stood out as the most comprehensive for its requirements.

“We’re seeing a lot of cases like Charters, where the consumer-grade systems that were previously in place have simply buckled under the pressure as more and more computers make their way into schools,” said Mark Power, wireless security specialist at Net-Ctrl. “The Ruckus solution is more than just a quick fix for this problem – in addition to its unrivalled coverage reliability, the kit can easily scale when traffic increases, so Charters School can be confident that its investment will stand the test of time.”

“The ZoneFlex system makes it easy to monitor who is using the wireless system,” said Jim Calderbank, director of enterprise sales at Ruckus. “This is vital for ensuring that any network remains secure, making it perfect for schools that need to provide a safe and reliable learning environment for their pupils within the constraints of what is often an already tight budget.”