Gmail, and all other webmail services besides Columbia Public Schools own email are now blocked under the new Sonic Wall’s firewall system.
Media Specialist Dennis Murphy was shocked to hear that students could access any form of webmail before the change, but said he knew the old system had its flaws. Senior Samantha Peterson was even more shocked to hear that the new firewall blocked Gmail. She said it was a constant help for projects, and the new loss would put a real dent in her schoolwork.
“It allows me to take all of my documents from home to school without even worrying about whether or not I have my flash drive, because I forget that all of the time,” Peterson said. Now “I’m going to have to check one out from the media center, and that’s gonna be a hassle.”
Murphy said that emails are the number one cause of viruses to the system and that is the true reason alternate webmail services were blocked.
“If a virus is going to come in, the easiest way to come in is through an attachment, and we have no control over outside webmail,” Murphy said. “Security is the number one priority. Security from viruses or something that will harm our system.”
Murphy said he has yet to test out the new firewall, but that it has fewer holes than the old system which had a great ways to get around it.
By Parker Sutherland
Anonymous • Mar 26, 2012 at 11:30 am
Emails are obviously not the main cause of viruses on the network. The district wastes so much money on pointless things such as this while many other programs are struggling. Why make these changes especially when the it guy does not know much about technology
Muhammad Al-Rawi • Mar 26, 2012 at 9:51 am
SonicWall is just another way the district is wasting their money trying to improve something that doesn’t need to be improved.
School mail is extremely rudimentary in comparison to webmail, especially Gmail. Universities and corporations wouldn’t be using Gmail if it was so insecure. The district dropped Novel’s login because it was rubbish, but kept their email client.
Lets get real here, the easiest (and definitely most common) way viruses get around is by flash drive. There is no stopping that physical transfer.
Cory Cullen • Mar 21, 2012 at 10:44 am
I’d trust Gmail over our schools mail client any day. I think blocking gmail is absolutely ridiculous since it’s definitely possible to mediate what is downloaded into our computers by other means. The only thing that this is going to do is force the more tech-savvy kids to resort to using rotating proxies and overlooked sites to do the things we need to do.
Susy • Mar 21, 2012 at 7:25 am
No more Facebook at school! Noooooooooo 🙁