Case Study

Business Type – Private Education

Client – Moulsford Preparatory School, Oxford

Size: 300+ users over 2 sites

Product/Service – Dedicated Internet, Monitoring, Point to Point LAN extension

CHALLENGE

Before speaking to the team at HM Network almost a decade ago, Moulsford had struggled with internet connectivity. With more than 350 students and over 50 staff the schools ADSL broadband connection was straining. Due to the schools rural location and distance from the telephone exchange, the length of copper line meant that the 8Mbps they were paying for often struggled to deliver 1Mbps.

Being a private school there was an expectation to deliver state of the art facilities to staff and pupils and this was becoming increasingly more difficult. During busy periods the internet connection would sometimes grind to a halt. Enquiries had been made for a leased line previously but quotes had proven very expensive. Something needed to be done if the school was to stay current with technology.

SOLUTION

2 options were provided to the school, for either two ethernet leased line internet connections, one for each of the schools or a dedicated internet to one of the schools, and share the service between the two sites with point to point Local Area Network Extension. (100Mb Dedicated Fibre Internet with 2 x /28 IP ranges with 100Mb Ethernet LAN extension between the schools)

The 100Mb Dedicated internet would provide far more bandwidth than the schools had ever had before. The short distance between the schools meant that a relatively low cost LAN extension could be installed linking the two schools for a significantly lower price than having two separate internet connections.

RESULTS

The schools could rely on the connection for day to day web activities and enjoy consistent speeds. They could carry out OS updates on their suites of tablets and desktops without the network grinding to a halt, while still having spare capacity.

With the price of Ethernet services having come down over recent years, the two schools eventually took independent internet connections of their own. They have now ten times their internet bandwidth having increased to 1Gb for their exclusive use,  plus they have the ability to flex up to 1000Mbps if they ever needed to, for short or long periods.

QUOTE

“The support we receive from HM is nothing short of exceptional. We have had a faultless Internet service. Our ethernet leased line has transformed what we are able to do in school. We would definitely recommend HM Network for their support too which is just as important as the service itself.

Knowing that I have extremely good support, gives me real peace of mind…. just what the doctor ordered! We recently upgraded our service and could have gone elsewhere for less… but we didn’t!  I think that says it all.” 

Edit 2020 – “Let’s be honest we have all been thrown into this lock down situation without any real notice.  The leased line has been amazing, with all the Virtual teaching with Google Classroom, and the Google meets, it’s just been great.

Already having the leased line in place provided a really solid infrastructure so we could deal with the challenges we faced with remote working and virtual lessons. It really has been a god send for the school. – Mr Rivers, Moulsford Prep

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