Newman College is located in Churchland, Western Australia. Recently the College amalgamated with Newman Junior College to combine four campuses into three. The merger of the College, and the construction of a new building, presented the College with the challenge to upgrade its current network infrastructure and security levels.

As one of the largest Catholic schools in Western Australia, Newman College has over 1850 students and 200 staff members. The students and staff have access to over 650 desktop and Notebook computers. Rather than trying to integrate different servers and systems with the merger of the schools, Newman College’s ICT Manager, Mike Leishman, saw the opportunity to introduce a more unified and consistent network.

Mike explains, “We needed to upgrade our servers and switches as well as protect our wired and wireless network against intruders. With the construction of a new building, the timing was perfect for the deployment of a new network.”

In order to source the appropriate solution for Newman College, Mike called on the expertise of Computelec for advice, supply and support. “Through the Expanding Learning Horizons, SchoolTech conference, I learned about the HP ProCurve management solution; Identity Driven Manager (IDM).”

HP ProCurve IDM provides a solution that works across wired and wireless networks. It delivers a unified infrastructure approach to network design and also provides the network with the latest security technology 802.1X.

“The way a typical network operates, is that if one computer would like to talk to another, a signal is sent out to locate the appropriate computer.” Through HP ProCurve IDM, each computer’s identity is recorded by the switches and enables Mike to configure, program and control the level of security of each computer.

“In the past, the core switch would feed information to the end switches of other computers on the network through fibre optic cable. In order to protect the network, a firewall was required. However, with the introduction of wireless Notebooks, anyone could access the network and gain access to our information.”

Mike recognised that the College needed to protect the network whilst allowing access to authorised users. A security system that allowed him to create profiles so users can only access IT resources at certain places and times became essential to Newman College. “HP ProCurve recognise who has access to which segments of our network. If the user is not authorised, the connection will not go through.”

Mike believes that “the immediate benefit of a network built on HP ProCurve technologies is that the school is protected from intruders and malicious threats. It also assists us in reducing the amount of broadcast traffic so we have benefited from increased performance when connecting to the internet and email.”

Mike is responsible for the management of the network infrastructure and security. He is also responsible for the future planning of the school’s technology. For Newman College, the next step in network security is the implementation of a new detection system.

“Future upgrades of the HP ProCurve system will enable us to detect not only if an unauthorised user tries to connect to our network, but on which access point the security breach has been detected. For our wireless connections, this is extremely important. Even if someone tries to connect to our network with a Notebook out in the street near the school, we will know that they are there!”

With such a complex network and security system, Mike is supported in his role at Newman College by his Network Administrator, Technician and Computelec’s Solutions Integration Team. “Originally, Computelec provided us with the information we needed to make a decision on the network and the security that was right for the school. Since then, they have assisted us enormously through supplying and with the initial set-up of the network as well training and ongoing support.”

Mike stated that the greatest advantage of dealing with Computelec is that they are school focused. “Computelec are very school focused. They are the only supplier I know that are set-up specifically to look after the technology requirements of schools. They even went as far as to provide me with connectivity directly to HP which was essential at the time.”

For Newman College, Computelec’s assistance in identifying and installing HP networking products has been invaluable.