T1s and Public Wireless

We are finally moving ahead with switching all our libraries over to full T1s and deploying public wifi. As of today, Robert J. Parks Library in Oscoda now has T1 and wifi service. Those of you with existing accounts from East Tawas will be able to log in at Oscoda.

The remaining six libraries will be upgraded to T1 and wifi service made available next week on Thursday, October 4.

There are some changes that have been made to the WifiDog Authentication server. When you are redirected to our login page after connecting via wifi, you will find our Public Wireless Guidelines displayed. To accept them, simply scroll to the bottom of the page and either login or create a new account. To decline, simply don't use the service.

You will also find links to Merit Network's Acceptable Use Policy and our Wireless Guidelines on the left-hand side of the authentication server's web page. As we all all using Merit Network to access the Internet, please remember that we all are bound by that policy. Please remember that there is no content filtering offered via wifi; you are responsible for your own equipment and usage.

Over the following months, it is our hope to do more customizing to WifiDog, both to change its look-and-feel and to improve the quality of service. Please feel free to leave comments.

Notice About Yahoo and Validation E-Mails

Recently, at least three new users with Yahoo! e-mail accounts didn't receive their validation e-mails. For those with Yahoo! e-mail addresses that sign up for a new account, please remember two things:

1. It may take at least five minutes for the e-mail to reach your account. You'll have 20 minutes from the time you sign up to validate your new account.

2. Yahoo! still falsely flags a validation e-mail as spam, so check your spam or "bulk" folders. You can also turn off your spam protection temporarily and resend the validation e-mail.

Otherwise, please inform your librarian or e-mail validation at ioscoarenaclibrary.org. Other means of validation can easily be made and require nothing more than the username you signed up with.

Validation E-Mail Issue Solved

Today, after discussions with how to register the server with a domain name, I checked out our web host, and in the process found a solution to the validation e-mail issue. It actually turned out simpler than I expected.

First, on our web host, I created a new e-mail account to handle sending of validation e-mails. Then, on the authentication server, I found that I could edit the config.php file to send validation e-mails through the new e-mail account. Simply specify the mode, the server name, user and password.

So far, I've tested it with Yahoo (still falsely flags it as spam, but it does get through), AOL and Chartermi accounts. All came through.

I've cleaned out the accounts on our current authentication server that were awaiting validation e-mails and applied the solution mentioned about. The new server already has been configured to reflect this change.

Update:
SSL and Google Maps are now configured and working. I tested one of the new wireless hotspots on SSL and it works. So, this Sunday, I will transition wifidog entirely over to the new server.

Public Wirless Equipment Pre-Prepped

The routers and antennas are already here, checked, flashed and ready to go. They are running DD-WRT V24 RC1 (Release Candidate 1) Standard. DD-WRT is based on OpenWRT, the firmware that's in use on our prototype router at East Tawas. The difference is that DD-WRT is far simpler to setup and includes all the software required to run as a WifiDog access point.

This week, we will be speaking to Merit to finish the T1 installations and as each T1 is installed, a public wireless access point will be installed and available for immediate use. To ensure that validation e-mails are not flagged as spam, I'm going to have our domain name registered with the IP address of the server. That way, companies like AOL can do a reverse DNS and get a domain name.

The newer server (which also runs our content filtering and caching solution) already has a running WifiDog authentication server and, except for SSL and Google Maps, is ready for use. All current account and use data will be transferred from the old server to the new one so, for those with validated accounts, there will be no need to re-register. Those that had created accounts but did not validate them will be cleaned out.

You can find our current Internet and Wireless Guidelines on our wiki in the Policies section.