East of England Broadband Consortium

The East of England Broadband Network (E2BN) is one of 10 Regional Broadband Consortia

Regional Broadband Consortium

Regional Broadband Consortia were created in 2000, in the United Kingdom, under the auspices of what was then known as the Department for Education and Skills National Grid for Learning programme. The NGfL title was subsequently dropped in favour of 'ICT in schools' and more latterly is referred...

(RBCs) set up by the UK Government to help raise standards in teaching and learning by the use of broadband technology.

E2BN's region covers 2822 schools within Bedford Borough

Bedford (borough)

Bedford is a unitary authority with the status of a borough in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England. Its council is based at Bedford, which is also the county town of Bedfordshire. The borough contains a single urban area, the 69th largest in the United Kingdom that comprises Bedford and...

, Central Bedfordshire

Central Bedfordshire

Central Bedfordshire is a unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England. It was created from the merger of Bedfordshire County Council, Mid Bedfordshire and South Bedfordshire on 1 April 2009...

, Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...

, Luton

Luton

Luton is a large town and unitary authority of Bedfordshire, England, 30 miles north of London. Luton and its near neighbours, Dunstable and Houghton Regis, form the Luton/Dunstable Urban Area with a population of about 250,000....

, Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...

, Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

, Peterborough

Peterborough

Peterborough is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with an estimated population of in June 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. Situated north of London, the city stands on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea...

, Southend-on-Sea

Southend-on-Sea

Southend-on-Sea is a unitary authority area, town, and seaside resort in Essex, England. The district has Borough status, and comprises the towns of Chalkwell, Eastwood, Leigh-on-Sea, North Shoebury, Prittlewell, Shoeburyness, Southchurch, Thorpe Bay, and Westcliff-on-Sea. The district is situated...

, Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

and Thurrock

Thurrock

Thurrock is a unitary authority with borough status in the English ceremonial county of Essex. It is part of the London commuter belt and an area of regeneration within the Thames Gateway redevelopment zone. The local authority is Thurrock Council....

.

In collaboration with ApplianSys

ApplianSys

ApplianSys, founded in 2000, is a privately held venture capital-backed technology company based in London, United Kingdom. It designs, builds and markets Internet server appliances that are deployed in more than 80 countries...

, E2BN have developed and operate the Protex content filtering service that is used across schools in the region.

Network Services

The provision of 10Gb core broadband infrastructure throughout the region, equipment and services that optimise delivery of E2BN content and activities and allow these to take place in a safe and secure environment.

Protex

E2BN offers schools a web filtering service. E2BN's Protex web filtering system received full Becta

Becta

Becta was a non-departmental public body ] funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, in the UK It was a charity and a company limited by guarantee. In the post-election spending review in May 2010, it was announced that Becta was to be abolished...

accreditation in 2007 and 2010/11. It claims to have be able to block over 90% of all inappropriate material. E2BN achieved 100% in the Adult, Drugs and Racist categories and 96% in the Hacking and Violence categories. E2BN is currently undergoing renewal of accreditation.

Protex is based on the open source filtering software DansGuardian

DansGuardian

DansGuardian, written by SmoothWall Ltd and others, is content-control software: software designed to control which websites users can access. It also includes virus filtering and usage monitoring features...

Caching

E2BN manages a distributed caching service which is integrated with the web filtering service. There is central caching available at the core and each LA taking the web filtering service also receives local caching.

Content Services

The work E2BN carries out with LAs, schools and the other RBCs to develop and provide content and activities to learners and teachers within the region. Some of those resources are also used worldwide.

E2BN Services

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