Lightspeed Filter

Score9.4 out of 10

18 Reviews and Ratings

What is Lightspeed Filter?

Lightspeed Filter (formerly Relay), from Lightspeed Systems in Austin, offers insights to help understand and maximize the use of 1:1 classroom devices, keep users safe and increase the educational return on technology investments. Lightspeed Systems aims to help users make decisions to enhance technology use, report up administrators, present to your board, reassure concerned parents, empower teachers, and direct students on appropriate use. According to the vendor, Lightspeed Filter powers learning on any device, on any OS, and takes minutes to get started.

Categories & Use Cases

Web Content Filtering

Media

Screenshot of Sample Relay parent report

Screenshot of Screenshot of Classroom, free with Relay for a limited time

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Screenshot of Relay dashboard

Verified User

Employee (1001-5000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I am a teacher and use Lightspeed Filter Systems to monitor my students and keep them engaged when they are on their chromebooks. I have scheduled my five classes so that Lightspeed Filter monitors students while they are in my class on a daily basis. I have also developed a block list. While I am teaching, I keep an eye on my students' devices by using Lightspeed Filter periodically and especially when they are working independently.

Pros

It allows you to freeze a student's computer temporarily from using their computer.

Cons

In my experience, it is not intuitive and not as flexible as GoGuardian.
Worst of all, in my experience, there are ridiculous glitches. When I tried to update a block list that I created, I received a message that said "You can only edit lists that you created. Ask your co-teacher to update the list." Since I am the only teacher and there is no co-teacher, this message makes no sense to me.

Return on Investment

The district invested in Lightspeed Filter
to save money so I presume they achieved that goal.
As far as the return on investment based on its usefulness, I would say it is negative. My students are constantly on their computers so I need the block list to work.
As far as the return on investment based on its usefulness, I would say it is negative. My students are constantly on their computers so I need the block list to work.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

GoGuardian

Damith Low View profile

Software Engineer in Information Technology at AI Singapore (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

At our organization, we implement Lightspeed Filter to provide an additional layer of security for our network.Lightspeed Filter allows us to work more efficiently and faster, helps us manage bandwidth usage and speeds up Internet access. This is a secure platform, designed to protect our networks, in my personal use, I like to use it to block inappropriate content and monitor my children's activities when they are on the computer.

Pros

Reduces bandwidth consumption.
Improves network performance.
It is compatible with a variety of operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.
It can be implemented in both wired and wireless networks.
It can be installed in minutes and you can configure its settings with a few clicks.
Learning environments work.

Cons

Limited customization options.
Integration options with other external platforms.
Integration options with LMS platforms.

Most Important Features

URL filtering.
content filtering and application control.
It can be implemented in both wired and wireless networks.
Malware protection and more.

Return on Investment

Lightspeed Filter is a secure and reliable platform, helps reduce bandwidth consumption and improves network performance.
It is easily accessible and low cost.
With Lightspeed Filter we can monitor and control network traffic, that is, to customize the access policies to our website to meet the needs of the organization.

Alternatives Considered

DNSFilter

Other Software Used

DNSFilter, GoTo Connect

Joseph Kuzo View profile

Director of Information Technology in Information Technology at Quakertown Community School District (501-1000 employees employees)

Pros

Student safety
Offsite filtering
Ease of management and reporting

Cons

Expanded reporting capability
More granular data

Most Important Features

Ease of use
Student safety monitoring

Return on Investment

Break even on ROI

Other Software Used

Aruba ClearPass, Aruba Networks Wireless WAN, HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage

Jonathan Butler

Systems Administrator at Randolph Central School Corporation (201-500 employees employees)

Pros

Traffic Logging
Alerts
Filtering by groups
Reporting

Cons

MAC OSX Client Compatibility and reliability.
Windows Client Compatibility and reliability.
Contract and Terms
Pricing

Most Important Features

Reports
Granular filtering levels
Ease of use on Chromebooks.

Return on Investment

Very costly per year
Does a great job with 1:1 filtering on Chromebooks
Safety Check checks student for possible self harm and alerts staff

Alternatives Considered

Securly Filter

Other Software Used

Google Workspace (formerly G Suite), PowerSchool Student Information System, Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)

Verified User

Director in Information Technology (501-1000 employees employees)

Pros

Filters out content that we do not want students or staff accessing.
It allows us to filter by OU, so we can create different levels of filtering for staff and students.
Includes a virtual appliance that we can use to filter guest devices and iPads on our wireless network.

Cons

It sometimes takes longer than expected for new filtering rules to apply.
Sometimes a site is blocked due to sub-sites or links, but it does not easily identify the source of the block if it is buried in the site.
They have several reports included, but it would be nice to create custom reports.

Most Important Features

Low level of false positives
Ability to granularly set different filtering levels based on user OU
Intuitive web interface

Return on Investment

The ROI we measure with the filter is in student productivity
It has reduced the time students have been on non-education sites by approximately 10% over our former filter because it does a better job with site categories (i.e., education games vs games).
The included Safety Check feature has helped us improve our response to mental health issues.

Alternatives Considered

iboss Distributed Gateway Platform

Other Software Used

Infinite Campus, RS2, Microsoft Project

Barracuda Web Security Gateway

Smoothwall SWG

Cisco Umbrella

Lightspeed Filter

What is Lightspeed Filter?

Categories & Use Cases

Media

Reviews