EdTech Savvy is Securly’s monthly deep dive webinar series for IT leaders in schools. 

Each month, host Will Patterson sits down with an industry expert for an open discussion on a technical topic that’s especially relevant to technology in education.

For February’s session, Will was joined by Securly Solutions Architect Brandon Duckworth for an in-depth discussion about two essential aspects of any school’s or district’s digital safety platform: firewalls and DNS architecture.

Check out the recording above to see the session in its entirety—it’s worth it!—or use the guide below to jump to a particular part of the conversation you’re most interested in.

And stay tuned for the March edition of EdTech Savvy, where we’ll explore the wide world of Cloud Directories and Organizational Structure. 

Quickly jump to a topic that interests you

9:10 // Overview: A quick, layman’s definition of what firewalls actually are, how they work, and why they’re so important to your school IT infrastructure.

13:30 // Essential firewall rules: Brandon shares his thoughts as to the most important firewall rules to implement if an admin were starting from square one, with no rules in place whatsoever.

15:10 // Guest networks: Will and Brandon discuss how schools should treat main and guest networks differently, employing best practices like segmentation to ensure visitors can access network resources without jeopardizing the main network.

18:00 // Ransomware attacks: How firewall configuration can safeguard schools against ransomware attacks, using features like intrusion prevention modules (common on most firewalls) to thwart network threats that put data and dollars at risk.

22:30 // Firewall rules for large and small districts: How the size of your district can help you decide what rules you implement for your infrastructure.

27:20 // DNS & schools 101: Brandon gives a plainspoken definition of what DNS is and an in-depth (but not too in-depth) summary of what makes DNS so important for school infrastructure. 

34:25 // DNS forwarding and SmartPAC: In response to a great question posed by an attendee, Brandon breaks down how DNS works alongside Securly’s patented SmartPAC technology.

43:10 // DNS architecture for guest networks: After another awesome question from the crowd, Brandon and Will discuss how schools should handle DNS configuration for situations when laptops and other devices leave your network.

54:45 // How do you troubleshoot DNS?: The last question of the session leaves attendees with some helpful tips and trusted utilities they can use to troubleshoot their DNS should the need arise.