The Iceni servers from Opendium are designed to be a complete control system for your Internet connection. Not only does the system control traffic coming in and out of your network, but also provide facilities such as an Intranet, webmail and client-based email, ical accessible and web-based calendaring and a host of other facilities all within an integrated configuration system.

Hierarchical group structure

Managing your Iceni couldn’t be easier. With nested group support and a drag and drop interface, you can configure a group with one policy and then refine that policy as you move down through the group structure. Users can be members of any number of groups for amazing flexibility.

Integrates into existing environments

All our Iceni solutions integrate into existing directory-based environments including Active Directory, Novell eDirectory, Apple Open Directory and more. With one-touch synchronisation of user accounts and group membership you have the benefit of combining a single database with ultra-fast local lookups.

Infinitely varied settings based on time, group or location

The unique way the Iceni server is configured means that any complex configuration is done once in a central location. Once a set of rules have been set up they can be varied on a per-group, per time or per-location basis using a simple set of sliders and tick boxes.

Monitoring and Reporting

All accesses to the Internet are logged against time, IP address and content details. This data is stored in an optimised database which can be interrogated in any way you wish. As well as retrospective reporting, the Iceni servers have a web-based dashboard giving you up to the minute statistics on:

• Current mail queue
• List of the top 10 most blocked users
• List of the top 10 most blocked websites
• List of the top 10 most accessed websites

These live statistics also provide details of which category was triggered when a site was blocked and this information is linked in with the main log database to allow you to investigate any problems quickly and efficiently giving you the ultimate control over how your Internet connection is used.

IPv6 Compliance

The central authority responsible for allocating internet addresses (IANA) exhausted their pool of spare addresses at the start of 2011. Over the coming months, an increasing number of services on the internet will be only accessible to systems that support the newer IPv6 protocol. All Iceni servers are already IPv6-ready, giving you one less thing to worry about!

The Iceni server was designed from the outset to be an Internet control system for schools. It is not a
business system which has been tweaked for education. It is the best tool for the job.

Mail Filter and Delivery System

It is not possible to run an establishment without email. Parents now receive the majority of their communication through emails, whether they be individual correspondence or general weekly updates on school events and activities. Along with the convenience of email comes a different set of problems to overcome. Iceni gives you the tools you need.

Integrated industrial grade email server

The Iceni server runs a fully-scalable email server able to handle millions of emails per day. The system supports all the necessary protocols including smtp, pop3 and imap4, both encrypted and unencrypted connections, with integrated content control and filtering.

Comprehensive anti-spam controls

Whilst email is a great tool, over 90% of all email on the Internet today is unsolicited, or junk mail. No matter what claims are made, filtering the good mail from the bad isn’t a black and white process. That is why the Iceni servers employ multiple anti-spam techniques to ensure that as much junk mail as possible is removed from your system with the minimum chance of a good mail being incorrectly classified:

• Greylisting support to weed out automated spam agents
• RBL support allowing you to configure any number of real-time black lists
• Content examination using thousands of rules to identify unwanted emails
• Statistical analysis of mail format and content to fine-tune a site’s requirements

Sophisticated content filtering

With so much inappropriate content being sent by email it is important to filter out any emails which may cause offence or upset, or emails which contain malware or links to malware infected sites. In addition to the server’s anti-spam technologies the system will scan all emails for viruses or malware, removing any infected items before it hits your network.

The Iceni server uses deep inspection technology to analyse each component of the email, meaning attachments are not treated as plain text, but are handed over to a suite of different filter engines,
each one tuned to analyse the specific type of content. This prevents the false-positives prevalent in other filter systems.

Webmail and web calendaring

The server comes complete with a sophisticated webmail and webcalendaring system. This allows safe, secure email to be provided to the students without the hassle of setting up a separate mail system. The web interface utilises the latest AJAX technologies making the system responsive whether it is used inside or outside the school.

Fully monitored

All the email coming in and out of the school is monitored, with emails trapped by the system being redirected to a per-group configurable address. The system allows you to search for email based on time, recipient, sender or subject.

Web filtering, monitoring and control

It is important for any school to have control over what web sites their pupils can access. The Iceni server web filtering systems utilise multiple technologies to categorise the websites and provides system administrators with an unprecedented level of control.

Real-time content analysis

Filtering the Internet today has evolved into something which can no longer be achieved by just defining a set of addresses or locations. URL lists, whilst providing an excellent first line of defence cannot be solely depended upon to provide a comprehensive filtering solution. It is for this reason that the Iceni server continually inspects every page as it passes through the filter to make sure that the content being delivered is appropriate right up to the end of the document.

SafeSearch enforcement

With the ability to utilise SafeSearch facilities within search engines and other websites the Iceni server can allow you to give access to resources such as Google Images without the worry of inappropriate content. The Iceni server will allow you to transparently re-write requests on the fly to impose SafeSearch irrespective of an individual’s personal settings.

Special content categories

Not all the content you want to filter out is the same. The Iceni server allows you to mark certain categories of content as special. These special categories will track a user and automatically disable their account if they pass a configurable threshold.

Fine-grained overrides for specialist control

Since users can be members of any number of different groups you can create exceptions to the normal filtering with incredible ease. For example, you can create a group for members of the A-Level art group. Members of this group are allowed to search for nude art during the timetabled periods for art. Since these users will also be a member of the students group they will revert to normal filtering once the art lesson has finished, all automatically.

Quota management and caching

All Internet connections need to be managed in order to allocate resources fairly. Iceni servers control how much data is downloaded using its unique dynamic control systems. Also, with Iceni’s built in caching, frequently accessed pages will be stored locally for near-instant delivery. Extendible and upgradeable
There are lots of solutions available to filter your Internet connection, each one has its strengths and weaknesses. The Iceni server has been designed to support third party extensions. This means that your investment can be upgraded and extended whilst keeping a single interface to manage solutions from many different vendors.

A good example of third party integration is support for the CIPA and BECTA compliant Netsweeper filtering solution which will enhance the existing filtering with yet another layer of protection for your network.

Advanced technical support

Even if you have the best technical systems in the world you cannot replace good technical support. The Internet is a huge collection of wildly different types of systems and so when it comes to trouble shooting a problem you do need access to a team of experts. The Opendium support team have proved themselves time and time again to be able to come up with the right solution, when no other provider has been able to help.

Answers to your questions

The Opendium technical support team excels not only at solving problems, but explaining how those problems have been solved. We feel it isn’t always enough to just say “We’ve fixed it” and leave it at that, so if our customers wish, we will keep them fully in the picture at all times.

Fast response

All of our systems are monitored remotely 24/7. This means our support team is alerted to potential situations often before the school is aware any problem has occurred. Our support teams are highly trained in network and Internet troubleshooting and get to the bottom of a problem fast. Should the problem be external to the school our engineers can advise on the best course of action, or even liaise with third-party
suppliers on behalf of the school.

Informed advice

Having worked directly in education ourselves we know how important it is to have advice you can rely on. Authoritative advice is difficult to obtain as there are so many vendors willing to give their opinion on a situation. When we investigate a situation we make sure we have all the facts before offering an opinion. This sets us apart from other companies because our reputation for excellence is one of our most valuable assets and we are not willing to compromise this in order to shave minutes off our ‘time-to-resolution’ figures. If it is our problem we will fix it, if it is someone else’s problem we will offer advice, but we will never leave our customers wondering who to turn to next just because the problem isn’t ours.

More information

In order to really get to the bottom of what an Iceni server can do for you it is best to talk it through with us. We are happy to discuss your needs and help you decide if an Iceni server is the best choice for your requirements, however if our solution isn’t right for your situation, you will not find us trying to convince you otherwise!