Your Top Questions About Relay Smart Agents, Answered

What are IT’s biggest challenges with filtering today? Last week, we hosted a special webinar on the future of filtering. Here’s what attendees said are their biggest filtering headaches:

64%: filtering SSL traffic
56%: filtering social media and video
44%: filtering multiple device OSes
22%: managing filtering hardware
The future of filtering is here: Relay’s Smart Agents make it easier to manage and filter every device OS. Rob Chambers, VP of product management, and Amy Bennett, VP of marketing, used this webinar as an opportunity to reveal what’s new in Relay for every OS.

Want to view the recorded webinar?

View it on-demand here!

Smart Agents are what power Relay on Chrome OS, Windows, iOS and Mac devices, offering a seamless, uniform experience across filtered devices. These agents allow IT to manage filtering through a single interface, minimizing frustration. Smart Agents also provide full SSL decryption without PAC files, proxies or trust certificates.

Here were some of the most commonly asked questions at the webinar related to Lightspeed Systems’ proprietary technology, Smart Agents.

Q: What is the impact of these agents on my network devices?
A: The network impact of Smart Agents is minimal, much lower than that of a traditional, on-premise filtering solution.

When schools decrypt SSL via proxy servers, this utilizes crucial network bandwidth. Because Smart Agents are deployed at the device level, all the work of filtering and decrypting SSL is done on devices.

Regarding device impact, there is no time-lag at the device level. We’ve rigorously QA’d the agents on all devices (including older devices) to ensure there is no impact.

Q: How does it implement smart agents?

A: Smart Agents can be deployed via various methods: through group policies, your MDM, or whatever other tool you use to push out software.

The Smart Agents require zero configuration on your part — simply push out the agents and they will be functional immediately.

Q: How do BYOD and guest devices work with smart agents?

A: It depends on what you’d like to do with devices on your guest network. If your school wants guest devices to be filtered with basic, CIPA-compliant policies, Relay offers this.

If you need a more robust solution — for instance, you have a BYOD program that requires authentication and differentiated policies — we may recommend a hybrid deployment combining a cloud and in-line setup to cover the gap between BYOD and school-owned devices.

We see such a wide range of BYOD programs in the school community. That’s why we developed multiple deployment options: so we can match you with a solution that fits your network’s needs.

Q: Can smart agents be removed?

A: We’ve been working with K-12 IT for nearly 20 years and have seen first-hand how many students try to bypass their filters.

Smart Agents cannot be removed and are protected from tampering and uninstallation.

Ready to see how multi-OS filtering in Relay, powered by Smart Agent technology, can solve your biggest headaches?