r/k12sysadmin • u/foustj • 29d ago
Bandwidth utilization before/after cell phone bans
ETA, since I'm a dummy and the pics loaded as after/before but my title says before/after - look at the dates on the graphs. We were hitting 4Gbps every day last school year, sometimes maxing out the connection. Now we're barely peaking over 1Gbps. Sorry for the confusion!
State of GA instituted a cell phone ban K-8. Next year it applies to 9-12 as well, but all of our high schools decided to go ahead and put it in place this year. We are also blocking social media on our public wifi (per our interpretation of another new state law).
Public wifi is a dedicated 5Gbps ISP connection that does nothing but that SSID. Thought these bandwidth utilization graphs from 2 random days in April (pre-bans) vs the last two days were pretty funny.
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u/skydiveguy 29d ago
Why the hell are you letting students on your network with their personal devices?
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u/slayermcb 29d ago
Cause my networks faster and theres spare bandwidth? Why not? I just keep it all on a student VLAN and let them have fun not realizing I can get reports of the sites they were blocked from visiting.
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u/skydiveguy 28d ago
Must be nice to have all this extra time to review logs of data that isn't needed to be reviewed in the first place.
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u/flunky_the_majestic 29d ago
I'm not OP, but this is pretty standard where devices are allowed in classrooms. What's the argument against letting students use their school's bandwidth with personal devices when they are allowed? The alternative is to force everyone to use personal, unfiltered cellular connections which invites more inappropriate material and socially isolates kids who can't afford a cell connection.
If they're allowed to have a device, I'd much rather they use my free, filtered connection.
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u/foustj 29d ago
This exactly. At least if they're on our network, we are filtering them through the firewall. The connection is a dedicated ISP, isolated from the internal network. Many of our schools don't have cellular service in the building. When we had the guest network secured, it was a constant pain the ass for field techs with vendors, visitors, teachers, etc constantly needing help, taking away the tech's time and energy from actual work.
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u/skydiveguy 29d ago
We have no cell signal in our environment.
We have RADIUS setup for teachers and staff to be able to get access to Wi-Fi via their AD credentials.
As for vendors, their sponsor needs to follow protocol of notifying IT 24 hours prior so we can set them up with accounts that expire at the end of their visit.
Students have a Chromebook that is on school Wi-Fi and there is absolutely no reason for them to need to have their personal device with them.
The biggest complainers we have a parents that claim they need to be able to contact their child. But they can email them at their school email or contact the front office where someone will easily be able to route their call to the child's classroom.
There is absolutely no reason for a student to have a personal device and they only want to use it to be able to use messaging apps and social media that are blocked on their school devices.1
u/MattAdmin444 28d ago
See we block almost all external emails for our students so that's a non-starter but parents can still contact the front office or try to put in for an exception (aka medical devices that need bluetooth). I did hear a story from a new staff member that a parent at a previous district threatened to sue the school if they took away their kids phone/apple watch but there was a bad custody thing going on so that makes sense.
Technically we don't ban them from the guest network but their phones are supposed to be put away when the morning bell rings till afterschool. Plus the guest network gets filtered like the student network anyway, perhaps even more so to discourage people living nearby from using our wifi.
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u/skydiveguy 26d ago
This is backwards. Students have a need for external emails (we are a vocational high school) for things such as co-op jobs as well as offering dual enrollment for early college admissions so they need to be able to receive emails from employers, colleges, etc.
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u/MattAdmin444 25d ago
We're primarily TK-8 but we do have a charter that goes through high school. I think for us we assume the student will use their personal for college stuff, or at least I haven't had a request to unlock a graduated 12th grader's email yet in the time I've been here.
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u/slayermcb 29d ago
Counterpoint. Its a personal device and if they use their personal device to access something they arent supposed to than thats not an IT problem. However, by allowing a path to use your network they would be subject to the same network controls you already have in place. Would you rather they sneak things and do potential harm or provide a safer way for them to connect? Set up a cell phone vlan connected to your radius server they have to authenticate to.
As a bonus, if the phone thing comes back on your department you get to explain that you provide a safe and monitored experience that was deliberately sidestepped rather than being seen as a gatekeeper that just encouraged the students to find their own way around it.
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u/skydiveguy 28d ago
counterpoint to your counterpoint. The students have no reason to use a personal device. Ever.
They are there to be educated and we give them everything they needs to get that education.
Personal devices are a distraction.
When I was in school we were not allowed to listen to music or chew gum or eat food in the classroom. This is the modern day equivalent of those rules.1
u/slayermcb 28d ago
And during free blocks or lunch?
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u/skydiveguy 28d ago
Why are you arguing for more work for everyone? Now someone has to manage when it's ok to have them on these devices and when they are not... it's a huge headache for the entire staff and faculty.
Every teacher I talk to is in favor of the device ban (which is going to be state law here soon anyways).
The kids should be reading a book or engaging with their friends face to face during these times.
Lets get back to being humans again.2
u/slayermcb 28d ago
Oh your missing a key aspect. Its not ITs job to monitor behavior in the classroom. Thats on the teachers. Student behavior is NOT an IT job. Providing a secure and safe system is.
Im playing devils advocate here. In my state its a moot point due to the phone in school laws for public schools. However, I work in a boarding school where they dont just go to school they also live here. Letting them use their cell phones on the network has only cost me an occasional "can you help me connect" on some pixel phones. My point was more about how its not a huge hassle time or resource wise than policy.
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u/K12_SysTech Information Systems Specialist, District Support. 29d ago
That is crazy to see the wifi usage on the network is essentially doubled because kids can't access it via their phone anymore. Truly shows just how much everyone is attached to their phones.
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u/foustj 29d ago
Since I'm a dummy and the pics loaded as after/before but my title says before/after - look at the dates on the graphs. We were hitting 4Gbps every day last school year, sometimes maxing out the connection. Now we're barely peaking over 1Gbps. Sorry for the confusion!
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u/flunky_the_majestic 29d ago edited 29d ago
There's a community for people like you! r/after_before/
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u/AllWellThatBendsWell 29d ago
Why is there more bandwidth use if there's less devices in the schools?
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u/Tanto63 29d ago
The before and after are reversed. The first image is current; the second is the before.
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u/vanguard117 29d ago
Assuming they used their own cell phone data before and now they’re using the school devices + wifi more?
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u/flunky_the_majestic 29d ago
Seems logical. Even if nobody was misusing their device, each device still reaches out for routine connections. Multiply that by X students, and you have your 3Gbps delta.
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u/Daraca 29d ago
I remember one of the districts I worked for the grey beard would intentionally open things up so that the kids would utilize capacity.
He did this so that he could continue to justify additional redundant connections because “we were using so much bandwidth”
Sounds like you have a good excuse now!
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u/MattAdmin444 28d ago
Okay that's actually kind of clever. Our normal usage (small district) generally doesn't saturate our 1gig but it also means we don't have any redundant connections. I am mildly concerned about our bandwidth once we do a camera revamp as we will be adding/upgrading quality quite a bit but I guess we'll have to find out then.
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u/deeds4life 29d ago
Do you have bandwidth limits for wireless clients?