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The State Education Network recently awarded the SEN 2.0 backbone upgrade to Merit Network, Inc. As a result, we will be upgrading the current statewide fiber-optic network to a Metro-E design, providing 99.99% availability. Keep your eyes peeled for progress updates in upcoming newsletters.

Please be sure to reach out to MISEN staff with any planned or emergency events that could potentially impact a backbone fiber or circuit. 

These include, but are not limited to;

• UPS upgrades,
• Power Outages,
• Maintenance, etc. 

It is critical that MISEN, Local Districts, and ISDs all work together to communicate with our partners at Merit. 

Please email us at mstark@geneseeisd.org

Generator issues are unfortunately a part of technology.  In recent weeks, MISEN has received several notifications of bad generators and the issues they can cause.  What does this mean for you?  The time is NOW!  Take an hour or two to check your generator(s) and perform the recommended maintenance before your location becomes the next victim of a generator emergency!

MISEN encourages everyone to begin preparation for the pending IP transition. Documenting your IP information well in advance will make any future changes and/or issues much easier to resolve. Recommended data to gather includes public NATs, public DNS settings, Firewall Rules, VPN tunnels that point to public IPs, etc. 

Questions? 

Please contact Kurt Torok at ktorok@misen.org.

A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is one of the most powerful weapons on the internet. When you hear about a website being “brought down by hackers,” it generally means it has become a victim of a DDoS attack. Distributed denial-of-service attacks target websites and online services (including schools). The aim is to overwhelm them with more traffic than the server or network can accommodate. The goal is to render the website or service inoperable. (-2-)

All Local School Districts and Local Education Agencies who take advantage of the internet access service offered by MISEN automatically receive DDoS protection service at no additional cost! 

The MISEN Advisory subcommittee along with a subset of the METL Cybersecurity task force committee jointly reviewed bid responses and vendor presentations from AT&T, Merit, and 123Net as part of the SEN 2.0 RFP. This joint committee recommended not to award a DDoS vendor, and instead, to post a new separate RFP with responses due on August 27, 2021, at 10:00 am. 

-2- source: https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-emerging-threats-what-is-a-ddos-attack-30sectech-by-norton.html

The FCC's E-Rate program makes telecommunications and information services more affordable for schools and libraries. With funding from the Universal Service Fund (fcc.gov/general/universal-service-fund), E-Rate provides discounts for telecommunications, Internet access, and internal connections to eligible schools and libraries. (-1-)

To date, MISEN has successfully recovered over $25 million dollars in E-Rate funds for Michigan schools, with over $4 million since January 2021!

-1- source: https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/universal-service-program-schools-and-libraries-e-rate

For more information on Michigan's E-Rate updates, contact Joe Polasek, polasekj3@michigan.gov.

The new MISEN website, www.misen.org, was developed by the Communications and Development Department at Genesee ISD and is hosted by SchoolMessenger. Currently, the website remains under construction, with more updates anticipated in the coming weeks!

The Michigan E-Rate Management System (MEMS) is a data management system that will be used to integrate “real-time” State of Michigan student data (CEPI) and Federal E-Rate data to create a “valid file.” The valid file is then used to determine the appropriate E-Rate discount level for school districts and ISD/LEA locations in Michigan.

Questions?

Please contact Christy at cbearden@geneseeisd.org.