With the Winter Recess upon us, now is a great time to get your school’s network ready for the second half of the school year.
Below is a checklist recommended by IKON which will make sure your network is running at full efficiency when everyone returns after the New Year.
- Re-Image Computers – Imaging is a great way to keep computers working like brand new and get rid of any hidden malware or viruses. Frankly, reimaging can eliminate most software problems. While reimaging all students’ and teachers’ computers may seem like a daunting task, we recommend starting with the oldest machines in your school’s inventory. Also, any computers that constantly find their way to the IT office for support should also be targeted.
- Monitoring – Monitoring your network allows you to proactively find problems on the network before they start affecting students, teachers and staff. Monitoring involves measuring LAN (including wireless), WAN and external connectivity, such as Internet of Voice circuits. Monitoring while the network is dormant during the break will provide you with a good baseline against actual performance when school is in session. These metrics can be valuable in providing information on which parts of the network can be overloaded, affecting teacher and student usage. Ask your service providers if they are capable of performing these services for you.
- Checking Logs This is a great time for your team to go over logs such as fire walls, switches, servers etc. These logs can point to major or minor issues which could affect users down the road.
- Wireless Surveys – Wireless has quickly become the digital nervous system of many schools. Wireless environments are dynamic, and there are many factors that can affect a wireless network such as interference. This is a great time to perform a wireless survey. This survey is a visual image utilizing a heat map which can show good “hot” or bad “cold” areas in the network. Making these adjustments during the school year might be difficult, but now is the perfect time to add or move access points to improve poor performance.
- Upgrading/Maintenance – Now is also an ideal time to perform software updates crucial maintenance which usually can’t be done during the school year. This includes major firmware updates.
- Inventory – Keeping tabs on IT devices can be a challenge within schools. This is a great time to perform an Inventory audit to make sure that your IT assets are in order.
- Documentation – Take the time to update all documentation related to IT. Documentation is critical in preventing downtime and making transitions when you are changing IT vendors or changing internal IT staff. Not having this information during a transition can be costly. All documentation should be kept both digitally and in a physical binder. This information should be accessible by the school’s Operating Manager, not just IT staff.
Finally, now is the perfect time to perform a Tech/Security assessment. IKON provides these services for schools free of charge. This assessment provides a comprehensive review of the entire IT infrastructure, including computing devices, from both a security and technical perspective.
Thank you and Happy Holidays from the IKON Team!
