This article is for all School Manager users.
What is the Noise feature and how does it work?
The Noise feature controls whether data that are displayed are not critical to understanding the information generated by School Manager about users' activities on the school network. These non-critical data may include network security services (antivirus), software updates, connections made by hardware on the network (printers, wi-fi signal boosters), and other traffic that are essential to existing services (synchronizing data, file sharing).
Can I enable or disable Noise?
You can enable or disable this feature by selecting or deselecting the Noise checkbox next to the date selector on the toolbar.
When Noise is enabled (checked), then the Content Delivery Networks (CDN), advertising and tracking data included in School Manager reports and charts. In the following example, noise data from CloudFront, a content delivery service owned by Amazon, is included in the Apps and Websites chart. For example, you can hide or show the "Noise" in the Apps and Websites report.
When Noise is not selected, then advertising, trackers, and CDN data are removed from the charts and calculations.
Sources of Noise
The following table includes the list of sites, protocols, and services that School Manager identifies as noise.
| NAME | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| Advertising and Trackers | Advertisements, media, content, and banners. NOTE: Some websites will not function correctly if Ads are blocked. |
| Aerohive | Aerohive is a wireless networking equipment vendor offering cloud-managed wireless services |
| Akamai | Akamai is a content delivery, cybersecurity, and cloud service provider |
| Amazon (AWS) | AWS is a subsidiary of Amazon and provides cloud computing platforms and APIs to individuals and organizations. |
| Apple | Main websites and traffic needed to run all products and services from Apple inc. |
| Apple File Sharing | Apple File Sharing allows authorized users to access shared files and folders. |
| Apple iCloud | iCloud is a cloud storage and cloud computing service from Apple Inc. |
| Apple Updates | Updates for all products and services from Apple.inc |
| Avast Antivirus | Antivirus |
| Bitdefender | Antivirus |
| Bootstrap Content Delivery Network (CDN) | A content distribution network which delivers CSS, JavaScript and images remotely to users |
| CDN and Infrastructure | Servers that store and deliver web content to users based on their location, web-site origin, and content type. They are typically used in conjunction with other web servers to optimize content retrieval speeds. |
| Certificate Authorities | Third-party entities that issue digital certificates |
| Client Email (IMAP, POP3, SMTP) | SMTP, POP3 and IMAP are email reading protocols. Selecting this Category will block incoming emails. |
| CloudFlare | CloudFlare is a free global CDN and DNS provider that can speed up and protect any site online |
| CloudFront | A content delivery network operated by AWS |
| Download.com | A download directory website, also known as CNET Downloads |
| Dropbox | Dropbox is a service that keeps your files safe, synced, and easy to share. |
| Easyshare | File sharing service |
| Facetime/iMessage | Apple’s video and instant messaging service |
| Family Zone Infrastructure | Linewize |
| Family Zone Login Services | Formerly Linewize Login Services |
| Flurry | Measures, tracks and analyzes app performance, user acquisition and activity with Flurry Analytics. |
| Google Analytics | Website traffic and content analytics service |
| Gravatar | Or “globally recognized avatar,” is a unique image or avatar that a user creates or uploads to their public profile, which they in turn use when they post public comments, participate in online forums, or post blogs. |
| IPSec VPN | Encrypted VPN connection using Internet protocol security (IPsec) |
| ITunes/App Store | iTunes is a media player, media library, Internet radio broadcaster, mobile device management utility, and the client app for iTunes Store, developed by Apple Inc. |
| Mature Media Content | Enforces the use of YouTube Restrict Mode |
| Mature Search Content | Enforces the use of safe search on Google and Bing |
| Meraki | A Cisco-owned IT company providing wireless, network security, and switch technologies. |
| OpenVPN | VPN service |
| Peer-to-Peer | This includes sites that distribute software and facilitate the direct exchange of files between users. Software that enables file searching and transferring across a network independent of a central server as well as web based sites of this nature are included. |
| Proxies and VPNS | Proxy servers and other methods to gain access to URLs in any way that bypasses URL filtering or monitoring. Web-based translation sites that circumvent filtering. |
| Psiphon | Psiphon is a free and open-source Internet censorship circumvention tool that uses a combination of secure communication and obfuscation technologies. |
| Pusher | Realtime application development framework |
| rapidshare.io | Online file hosting and distribution service |
| SIP | VOIP communication protocol. |
| Symantec | Antivirus |
| Tor Traffic | The Tor Browser is a web browser that anonymizes your web traffic using the Tor network, making it easy to protect your identity online. |
| Updates | Updates |
| Vidible | Video exchange platform |
| Windows File Sharing | Windows file sharing platform |
| Windows Updates | Windows software updating platform |
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