Current State of Internet Connections and Public Wifi
As of today, we are still waiting on word from the USF about our discount for the new Internet connections; we're at the ninth wave now. Still no word either way, and there may be several more waves to go.
In regard to public wifi, we are still going ahead after we get the new Internet connections. In regard to potential privacy issues, I can now administer the database that contains the information and "discard" old data. So, for example, if someone registered for an account a year ago, and hasn't been back since, that account can be deleted. Information about what user logged into what hotspot, when, for how long, and how much data was sent and received, that information can be "discarded" too. Therefore, we won't have to hold information indefinitely, we can discard it after a period of time (and under certain conditions) to maintain our patrons' privacy and overall system performance (larger databases require more resources to run).
In regard to public wifi, we are still going ahead after we get the new Internet connections. In regard to potential privacy issues, I can now administer the database that contains the information and "discard" old data. So, for example, if someone registered for an account a year ago, and hasn't been back since, that account can be deleted. Information about what user logged into what hotspot, when, for how long, and how much data was sent and received, that information can be "discarded" too. Therefore, we won't have to hold information indefinitely, we can discard it after a period of time (and under certain conditions) to maintain our patrons' privacy and overall system performance (larger databases require more resources to run).
An important reminder about wifi usage:
Anyone who is connected to our network via our hotspots will always be authorized to be there (unless, they are doing something illegal with our Internet Connection). The system is setup not only to protect our resources, but anyone who uses our service. This is an important consideration due to laws (both State and Federal) that now makes unauthorized connections to a computer network a crime. There are cases in Florida, Michigan and Alaska of people who were arrested (though in these cases, they were sitting out in the parking lot late at night or using a business' wifi without purchasing anything inside). All the other features discussed--capped bandwidth, hours of operation, hotspot maps, etc--will still be there.
Currently, validation e-mails may get flagged as spam or blocked since the server that sends the validation e-mails is not a registered system (in that it has a domain name attached to it). This will change in coming months. Charter and Comcast should accept them as-is, Yahoo and MSN will accept our validation e-mails, but will flag them as spam, or may block them (simple turn the spam filtering off, resend the validation e-mail, then turn back on), and AOL will block them outright. In the event that a validation e-mail can't be accessed, an account can still be validated; it is a short and simple process that takes only a few minutes.
Anyone who is connected to our network via our hotspots will always be authorized to be there (unless, they are doing something illegal with our Internet Connection). The system is setup not only to protect our resources, but anyone who uses our service. This is an important consideration due to laws (both State and Federal) that now makes unauthorized connections to a computer network a crime. There are cases in Florida, Michigan and Alaska of people who were arrested (though in these cases, they were sitting out in the parking lot late at night or using a business' wifi without purchasing anything inside). All the other features discussed--capped bandwidth, hours of operation, hotspot maps, etc--will still be there.
Currently, validation e-mails may get flagged as spam or blocked since the server that sends the validation e-mails is not a registered system (in that it has a domain name attached to it). This will change in coming months. Charter and Comcast should accept them as-is, Yahoo and MSN will accept our validation e-mails, but will flag them as spam, or may block them (simple turn the spam filtering off, resend the validation e-mail, then turn back on), and AOL will block them outright. In the event that a validation e-mail can't be accessed, an account can still be validated; it is a short and simple process that takes only a few minutes.
posted by Technology Coordinator at 2:34 PM
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