What's What With Wireless

• access point
• 802.11 (wk)
• WEP (wk), WPA (wk), SSID (wk) Wired Equivalent Privacy (basic), Wifi Protected Access (advanced), Service Set Identifier
• MAC address (wk)

• Wireless router: $20 - $50
• Wireless card for a laptop: $20
• Wireless card for a desktop machine: $20
• Optional: smart access manager software, ZoneCD
• compare to: ethernet cable + jacks + electrician

• cheap or expensive?
• same network or different network?
• open or closed?
• password? authentication? what sort?
• laptop lending: yes/no? [CIPA]
• configuration help yes/no? how much?
• internet use policy? sign off on terms of service?

Wifi web pages at public libraries: NYPL, BPL, Brooklyn
examples: randolph, roxbury, tunbridge, washington

what you see: other screenshot

what a user sees: screenshot1, screenshot2

news/blog stories

• So weirdly wrong - user asked to stop using library wifi when library was closed
• Gamer busted for "borrowing" library WiFi after hours
• Utah considers public wifi ban

other ways to get wifi

• Free wifi directory
• via a vendor: boingo, ipass

• Two Ways to Set Up Wireless Hotspots: Comparing Apples and Oranges
• Wireless Networking: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians by Louise Alcorn and Maryellen Mott Allen
• Wi-Fi alliance
• US Libraries with wireless networks, by state.
• Wireless Libraries & Wireless Communties, Why?
• Wifi Is Not the New Asbestos

Jessamyn West is a community technology librarian and the editor of the weblog librarian.net. She teaches email classes for seniors, builds tiny websites for tiny libraries and advocates for sensible technology use for everyone.

IM her at iamthebestartist.

This presentation was created in HTML using CSS. There was no PowerPoint involved in this presentation except as a nagging bad example. The layout and stylesheet are available to borrow via a share and share alike creative commons license. See source code for details. Network image grabbed from Tiger Direct.

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