The Ranfurly Homes for Children recently underwent a complete network overhaul, giving the young residents WiFi access in their dorms or anywhere on the compound. It also allows administrators to “unplug” so the children can focus on their educational and personal goals.
For Administrator Ingrid Deveaux, it was important for the staff to protect and safeguard their kids. The network overhaul, she said, now allows the 23 young residents to engage in productive, wholesome, and safe activities—both on and offline.
“With so many kids logging on at once to do homework assignments, course work, projects, and other school assignments, the network was super slow, or constantly buffering, or in some instances, a few of the kids were not able to log on at all,” Deveaux said.
The $8,000 network overhaul was conducted and managed by Micronet, whose Chief of Operations, Adriano Baldacci, noted that the Homes’ main issue with its network was content filtering and control for when the children needed time away from the internet. They also struggled with equipment failures.
According to Baldacci, Micronet’s goal was to transform the Homes’ network from a patchwork home network to a professional network that a non-profit, that cares for underprivileged children, deserves.
“With the internet being so vital for kids’ education and for a professional organization to function properly, we felt that everyone on that campus deserved a proper, professional network that can help them achieve their goals,” Baldacci said.
“On our site tour of the campus, we identified some other issues that led us to understand that the wireless coverage was simply not adequate and that some devices could simply be hardwired to remedy issues that they were having with the network,” he said.
The 17-hour process began with extracting and then replacing the Homes’ old network. A new network rack was installed, along with a Sophos firewall, which consolidates a network’s cybersecurity with a single vendor, a cloud management console, and an agent. The new firewall secures the network and provides remote support access.
Deveaux said “The feature helps us to monitor and control what sites the children visit and when they can visit them. It allows us to outright block certain sites that are inappropriate for the population at the Ranfurly.”
The cabling was then replaced, organized, and labeled to assist with future projects. Lastly, new access points were installed throughout the campus to provide wireless reach where it had not previously existed.
Micronet also set up VLANS, which is a virtualized connection that bridges multiple devices and network nodes from different LANs into one logical network, to help organize and segment their network between administrative staff, visitors to the Homes, and its residents.
Located only a block away from the Home, Baldacci explained that “charitable work is important to us” as the leading technology company in the country. It is Micronet’s mandate to support non-profit organizations that focus on the youth, education, sports, and Bahamian culture, and are located within or near the Palmdale area.
“Growing up and getting ahead in this country is already difficult. When you are doing that while coming from a broken home makes that task almost impossible. The work they are doing at children’s homes cannot be quantified, but oftentimes, they are doing it on less than a shoestring budget,” Baldacci said.
Deveaux noted that donations like these are important, as their mission is a costly undertaking. For instance, the Ranfurly Homes need food, snacks, and clothing for the children, as well as monetary donations for day-to-day operations. The community is encouraged to donate their time as well.
“We need your help with transitioning our kids from adolescence into adulthood, to assist us with our ‘Go Green’ project, our education and fundraising committees.
“Without the support of donors like Micronet, it would be impossible to keep our doors open and provide the consistent service and care that we do for our kids,” Deveaux said.
The children can now access the network from anywhere on the compound and quickly complete their school assignments. Micronet will continue to fine-tune the network for the Homes’ needs.