What’s so Smart About SmartAgents?

SmartAgents power Lightspeed Filter’s multi-OS capabilities. But what makes SmartAgents so smart?

All-Seeing

Lightspeed’s SmartAgents put the power of a filter directly on the managed device, capturing and protecting all traffic, without the need for inline appliances or proxying it back to the cloud.

Consistent Filtering Anywhere

No matter where students are—school, home, or on the go—Lightspeed’s SmartAgents ensure that devices follow the same filtering policies, maintaining performance, features, and functionality across any network.

Complete Protection for Every OS:

Lightspeed works closely with Microsoft, Apple, and Google to align with each platform’s preferred filtering methodologies, ensuring seamless integration across Chrome, Windows, Mac, and more:

• Windows and Mac: keep devices protected and students safe, on any browser or application, with rich full URL reporting for all websites, capturing searches, videos, and more.
• Chrome: Captures traffic with detailed visibility down to specific videos or channels watched on platforms like YouTube.
• iOS: Utilizes Apple’s native filtering system to ensure protection and security.
• BYOD and IoT: Lightspeed SmartShield™ filters all agent-less web traffic on the school district’s network, enhancing security for unmanaged devices.

Self-Contained SSL Decryption

Decrypting SSL has been one of the top challenges for schools in web filtering. It involved setting up a trusted-man-in-the-middle proxy server, creating PAC files, or managing trust certificates. Using Lightspeed’s SmartAgents means you keep all the benefits of SSL Decryption (protection and reporting on Google searches, specific YouTube videos, and more) without these complicated steps.

Enhanced Security

On-device filtering runs at the driver level, blocking bypass attempts and providing continuous protection. Unlike other inline and cloud-based filters that rely on tunnels, which can be compromised, this on-device approach ensures stronger, more reliable security.

Sneaky-Student-Proof

SmartAgents are protected from uninstallation, so students can’t remove them to avoid filtering policies.

Don’t Cause Delays

On-device filtering distributes the load to maintain a low impact on performance, bandwidth, and latency, with no single point of failure.

Seamless User Identification

User identification is built into the SmartAgents, syncing with G Suite, Google Classroom, Active Directory, or Azure/Office 365. When your students log into their devices, SmartAgents know who they are, applying accurate policies and reports.

Whether your district needs robust multi-OS compatibility or enhanced security for unmanaged devices, Lightspeed SmartAgents and Lightspeed Filter are built to meet the demands of modern K-12 schools through simplicity, security, and reliability.