Iosco-Arenac District Library Technology Blog

Still Here, however, this blog will no longer be updated

2012-01-11T11:10:00.003-05:00

It has been over a year since the last blog entry, and in light of lack of feedback and inspiration, I've decided to stop updating this blog. However, for archival purposes, I'm leaving the entries up.

We'll be looking at updating the Technology page on our website and using our Facebook page for future technology-related updates. You can find them through Iosco-Arenac District Library

For those who read, and more importantly commented, thank you.

Technology-wise, we've been hard at work. We now offer Overdrive, allowing patrons to borrow eBooks and Audiobooks using their own Tablet, e-reader, phone or PC, we're phasing out Windows XP in favor of Windows 7 Pro, and this year, we're hoping to upgrade six of our eight locations to fiber.

Feedback on Children Designated Computers

2010-10-08T14:45:00.002-04:00

As we add more computers and maintain them, a new question has come up about computers for use by children under 12.

As you may know, our policy for minors on computers is that for anyone under 13, they must have a signed parental consent form or use a computer that has no Internet access. We maintain a small number of these systems that have software titles geared toward reading and mathematics among other subjects. However, with the phasing out of older computers and the push toward adding more public access computers, the children's computers may be falling behind the wayside.

Recently, one branch has asked us to remove their children's computer from the children's area for safety reasons as their computer is near the door and hence worried about children being left unattended.

However, other libraries have different needs and may want computers geared toward children. If so, it would be a good time to update the software they use, and retain some of the reading titles.

The specs for the computers would be:

Dell Optiplex GX270 or newer
Pentium 4 or newer
1GB RAM minimum
DVD/CDRW with DVD playback
17" LCD monitor
Ubuntu with Edubuntu and Wine (for running Windows children titles)

For reduced cost and improved security, as well as the availability of more software at no cost, Ubuntu Long Term Service 10.04 would be used as the operating system instead of Windows. Viruses and malware would be of no concern (for now) and the range of available free software is immense. The software centerpiece would be a suite of educational software collectively known as Edubuntu. Edubuntu is a version of Ubuntu geared toward education. There would still be no Internet access via a web browser, but printing and remote diagnostics and updates.

Another possibility is to include links to children-friendly sites, which is an area that we need to revisit.

We encourage anyone to post their comments or contact us.

Public WiFi Switchover

2010-08-06T21:53:00.003-04:00

On Saturday, August 7 at 12-noon, we will no longer be requiring users to login or create accounts. Since usernames and passwords are no longer needed, there's no need for SSL. All you will see is our revised Acceptable Usage Guidelines. During the switchover, which only requires making a few small changes to each hotspot and the authentication server, there may be a disruption in wireless service.

For your convenience, the revised Guidelines are posted below. They will take effect August 7, 2010 at 12:00 P.M. All existing account data, including e-mail addresses, will be deleted shortly thereafter. Usage statistics, based on the old data, will be generated before the deletion and will not include any personally identifiable information.

NOTE: Registering for an account and requiring a username and password is no longer required.

Please read the following. Clicking “OK” signifies your agreement to our Acceptable Use Guidelines.

Guidelines for Public Wireless Internet Access

Iosco-Arenac District Library has open wireless Hot Spots for patrons that use laptop computers with wireless cards for Internet Access. All patrons using our Hot Spots are subject to the following guidelines. Failure to follow these guidelines will result in loss of access.

Access via a hot spot is to the Internet only. There is no content filtering. Any user that is connected to a Hot Spot at any of our branch libraries is authorized to be connected. Access to our other equipment for any purpose without prior authorization is not permitted.

There is no file sharing, print sharing, or other activity that involves Staff or Public Access Computers.

The patron is responsible for their own equipment. Windows users are strongly urged to have at minimum: A working firewall, Anti-virus protection that is updated daily and Anti-Malware protection that is updated monthly. Microsoft Update should be run at least monthly to ensure security patches are installed. We are not responsible for providing technical support, data loss or equipment failure. Our responsibility is to our own equipment and ends at the wireless Hot Spot.

No technical support is provided beyond help documents and help establishing wireless connections. We reserve the right to deny technical support.

Public wireless is not a guaranteed service; it may go down for any reason. Available bandwidth is throttled to a maximum of 256kbps to protect our mission-critical systems from connectivity loss and resource abuse.

Any abuse or tampering will result in a patron's MAC address being blocked.
Information about WiFi activity is limited to the following:
1.Location of Hot Spot used
2.MAC address (the hardware address of the network adapter used)
3.Time Connected
4.Time Spent Connected
5.Amount of data downloaded and uploaded
6.The above information is only kept for a period of 6 months and is used only for statistical purposes (Hot Spot performance and troubleshooting) and is not available to the public.

As the hot spot is an open system, no encryption is used. This system is not recommended by users that do banking or other activities that require confidential information, unless the connections themselves use SSL or are through a Virtual Private Network (VPN). The WifiDog server itself receives regular security and software patches and utilizes a firewall and non-standard ports for certain applications.

Branch libraries may restrict wireless access to certain areas of the library. Users should not expect to have access to an outlet for plugging in their computer.

Comments or problems, please e-mail postmaster@ioscoarenaclibrary.org or abuse@ioscoarenaclibrary.org
REVISED July 14, 2010

Note: Yes, if you noticed the revision date, everything related to Public WiFi was ready to go back in mid-July.

So, why August 7?

As noted in previous blog entries, the hotspots shared the same physical network with our computers and printers, which posed a potential security risk if a wireless access point was simply left open without any kind of authentication system. That was one of the reasons why we tolerated the issues with validation e-mails not always getting through (which required us to manually validate a user), and confusion over SSL certificates.

With the prototype Network Box in Oscoda up and running, and the next-to-last Production Network Box being put into service tomorrow morning, security is much less of a concern than before. This is because the Network Boxes act as a barrier between wireless access to the Internet and a library's internal network.

Network Box Update

2010-07-14T15:22:00.002-04:00

The initial batch of Network Boxes have been prepared and are ready for deployment. We're still waiting on two final boxes to be shipped by the vendor.

Once these boxes are deployed, we will immediately switch to splash-only mode on our Public Wireless system. The requirement for accounts and registration will be eliminated, and statistical information will still be retained. Our instructions and acceptable use policy has been updated to reflect these changes and spell out what statistical data is retained and for how long.

Deploying a box to a branch requires changing the network settings on every computer and network-connected device. This is a time-consuming process. To minimize any service interruption, all deployments will take place after business hours.

The estimated date of the switch is August 30, 2010, but may be sooner.

Upcoming Public Wifi Changes

2010-06-02T08:43:00.004-04:00

Finally, after a few little snafu's (primarily in communication) the hardware for the network boxes has been ordered and are being assembled.

Another change, which is going to take place after all the units are deployed, is that I will be eliminating the registration scheme on our public wifi. While signing up for a wifidog account is free and the system has worked, it has not been perfect. The biggest problem is that the validation e-mails don't always go through, requiring them to contact the office to validate the account or simply to register under something else.

The other problem is that we use SSL to prevent anyone from intercepting user names and passwords. While SSL is terrific, the site certificate we use is not from a Certificate Authority. So, people get to our login page get a warning and either don't proceed or continue

Finally, every six months, I have to go into the Database, identify users that aren't validated, and remove them, along with the statistical data collected. Which is:

1. Location of Hot Spot used
2. User's name and MAC address (the hardware address of the network adapter used)
3. Time Connected
4. Time Spent Connected
5. Amount of data downloaded and uploaded

Therefore, our current solution is not elegant. Why use it then?

The most important reason is security. The wireless access points (which allow people with laptops to connect to the Internet) are plugged into the same physical network that our computers are on. Therefore, having an open unrestricted access point would be akin to leaving the front door to your house unlocked, with a sign that says "come in" to anyone who can see it. By requiring users to register, if there's an intrusion into our computers, it could give us a potential lead on the perpetrator.

The other reason is that we wanted to know how much use each access point gets. It helps us figure out what resources and improvements in service we need to make.

Since the boxes have a third physical network port that'll allow a direct link to the Internet, the security risk of someone being on the same network as the rest of our equipment is eliminated. So, we're going to do away with user registration and SSL (since there'll be no accounts to hijack) and switch to splash-only mode. Splash-only mode simply redirects you to our WifiDog portal page, shows you our acceptable use policy, and then redirects you to Internet. We'll still collect statistical information, and likely the same as above, less the username.

Since I still have to get the software loaded and configured, as well as deploy the boxes, the change to Splash-only mode will likely take place between July 31 and August 30 of 2010. The plan is to deploy all the boxes to all our branches, then do the settings switch.

A New Project

2010-05-12T08:32:00.002-04:00

This is more of a short news item than a long article. For the past several months, we've been testing a headless server at one of our branches. It has been a success, and we're moving ahead on building another eight (one of which will be a backup and development unit).

These boxes are going to handle localised content filtering and caching, as well as provide a secure data link between a library and headquarters and a more secure firewall. It will also allow us to make more efficient use of our bandwidth.

Currently, we have only one server that handles filtering and caching for seven of the eight libraries. So, for our patrons to get to the Internet, they have to go through our server at headquarters first. When you consider that a couple dozen users go through a single T1 at the same time from off-site, you begin to see how slow and congested it can get.

Our security relies on knowing what software we have, regular software patches, as well as user intervention to spot problems. While we've had few problems, and haven't had any major data loss or downages, the potential for trouble is always going to be there. These network boxes will isolate our internal networks from the Internet, and provide a secure portal for all the data to go through. For our patrons who use wifi, they'll still be able to access the Internet while remaining isolated from our equipment.

We're requesting quotes from vendors right now, and we're hoping to purchase the hardware we need by the end of the week or early next week. The operating system will be Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx. This is one of their long-term service releases which will have support for five years. I've been using LTS on my own personal server at home and on my laptop and office workstation without issue. Deployment of the boxes will be in early July after hours to avoid any disruption.

What will they look like? Each unit is just a black box with a locking front cover that you won't see or even notice.

Surplus Sale

2010-04-28T15:38:00.003-04:00

We have started a Surplus Sale for pieces of older computer and electronic equipment. Details can be found here:

Surplus Sale

A few things you should know.

Printers: All the printers we're selling do power on, however, they are being sold as-is. Read the descriptions as not every printer is complete.

Fax Machines: They are untested, and with the exception of the thermal fax, their operating condition is unknown.

Computers: We include the original disks where possible, and you are free to install the operating system of your choice (though, avoid Windows ME like the plague). The graphics cards are either AGP 2/4x or Intel Integrated graphics. They can handle standard definition video playback and handle Internet and office tasks. For gaming, you will want an AGP or PCI graphics adapter 128MB of RAM or more. As for High Definition video, none of the computers being sold can't handle more than 480p, and there would likely be skipped frames and stuttering.

Note about Operating Systems: Linux Mint 8 32-bit is pre-installed on every computer with 256MB of RAM or more. The Gateways have DamnSmallLinux pre-installed. All the computers have Ethernet and Audio, making them ready for Internet use (if you already have Broadband and an Internet router, all you need is a network cable). I chose Linux Mint 8 because there's no need for anti-virus or anti-malware software, everything you need is already there and ready to go (CD Burning, DVD, Flash media, etc), and it's free to use and distribute. We encourage you to at least give it a try first if you plan on reinstalling XP. Computers that have only a CD-ROM drive need only a DVD-ROM drive to play DVDs.

Note about RAM: 1GB of RAM is the recommended standard for running Windows XP and any Linux-based operating system, and 2GB for Windows 7 or Vista (3GB Max for 32-bit operating systems). It's literally a plug-and-play procedure to upgrade the RAM on any PC.

However, the RAM used in the Gateway E4400 and Dell Dimension 8100 use a different type of RAM, called Rambus, PC600 for the Gateway and PC800 for the 8100. Unlike other RAM, you have to install the modules in matched pairs. So, if you want to upgrade 128MB to 256MB and there are only two slots, you need two 128MB RAM modules. Given the cost, 512MB RAM is the maximum you should get for the E4400 given it has two memory slots. With 4 slots on the 8100, you can get four 256MB modules to equal 1GB.

Cyber-Bullying

2010-04-14T08:37:00.006-04:00

Cyberbullying "involves the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others. -Bill Belsey"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberbullying

Introduction

Originally, I wanted to simply write about the technical aspects of Cyber-bullying. However, you can't talk about Cyber-bullying without talking about the policies and laws associated with the behavior—that is if you want to take (legal) action to put a stop to it. This article is a sort of primer on what Cyber-Bullying is, what laws and policies are in place in Michigan to stop it, how to spot the behavior and, most important of all, how to stop it.

Cyber-bullying is, in essence, one person or group bullying another person or group. Only in this case, instead of only a physical or verbal confrontation, a Cyber-bully uses technology to further perpetuate it. It's delivered via a medium that is fast, cheap, easy to use, and virtually impossible to avoid: the Internet.

Before you think about the saying that “sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me,” I'm not merely talking about calling people names. I'm talking about someone taking personal information about you, twisting it, distorting it, and turning it against you. I'm talking about words describing some physical inadequacy or some embarrassing secret or story that causes stress. Vicious rumors that turn others against you. Harassment that follows you on-line.

Unlike conventional bullying that typically takes place in a school yard or classroom, or some other confined area that usually stops the moment you go home, Cyber-bullying doesn't depend on common physical areas. Cyber-bullies use social networking, e-mail, instant messaging, and texting to bully a victim. Since we all use one or all of these technologies in our everyday lives, it makes it more difficult to avoid a cyber-bully. You feel helpless, and that's one of the end results of being bullied. Feeling helpless, powerless, weak... you get the picture. It is these feelings that have lead to the tragedies we've heard about in the media.

Laws and School Policies

There is no Federal Law that specifically deals with Cyber-bullying. Instead, each State has their own laws to deal with the issue. Currently, the state of Michigan has no law on the books, though one is currently being considered.

Also, the Student Handbooks for the high schools in Bay Arenac, Oscoda, Tawas and Alcona districts, you won't find a policy for Cyber-bullying.

However, don't think that it means that there are absolutely no laws or school policies that don't cover part or all of this type of behavior if it's happening in a school. Virtually every school in the country have policies against harassment and bullying in their student handbooks which carry punishments.

For instance, if you refer to page 26 of the Tawas High School Student Handbook, you'll find their acceptable use policy prohibits the use of “bulletin boards, chat software/rooms, or social networking sites for personal use.”

Our ISP, Merit Networks, has in their acceptable use policy a fairly broad clause that could be applied to cyber-bullying. “Use should be consistent with guiding ethical statements and accepted community standards. Use of the Services for malicious, fraudulent, or misrepresentative purposes is not acceptable.”

So, if the bullying continues at a school, there are options. Or, if you track down the bully's service provider, you can file a complaint.

What To Look For

Nicole Lyn Pesce of the NY Daily News has provided a list of behaviors to look for to identify a bully or victim of bullying. This has been directly copied from their web site.

SIGNS YOUR CHILD IS A CYBER-BULLYING VICTIM:
- They avoid the computer, cell phone and other devices.
- They appear stressed when receiving e-mail, instant messages or text messages.
- They withdraw from family and friends, or seem reluctant to attend school and other activities.
- They avoid conversations about their computer and other device use.
- They are increasingly sad, angry and/or frustrated, and worry a lot.
- Their grades decline.
- Their eating and/or sleeping habits change.

SIGNS YOUR CHILD MAY BE CYBER-BULLYING OTHERS:
- They have a history of bullying, or have been the target of bullying themselves.
- They avoid conversations about computer and cell phone activities.
- You notice they switch screens or close programs when you, or others, are nearby.
- They use multiple online accounts.
- They excessively use the computer and/or cell phone.
- They get agitated if access to a computer or cell phone is restricted or denied.

What Action Can Be Taken

The New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services gives the following advice on dealing with Cyber-bullying. The following is directly copied from the NYDaily News web site. The text in italics are my own two cents.

- Discourage your child from responding to cyberbullying. Cyberbullies crave attention, so if your child doesn’t react, they might decide to move on. You'll find that some cyber-bullying behaviors have some parallels to cyber-stalking, and the remedial action is the same: don't respond.

- Preserve evidence. This is crucial for indentifying the bully and making a case. Save chat histories. Most Instant Messaging applications have a logging feature that keep a stored record of all chat activity. Better yet, print out any messages or do a screen capture (in Windows, you use the Prt Scr key, which takes a snapshot of the screen, and then paste it into a Word file or image program) and print that out. With e-mails, be sure to view Long Headers before printing them out—this includes important information that can identify what computer or network the e-mail was sent from.

- Try to identify the cyberbully. Even if the cyberbully is anonymous or using a fake name, there may be ways to track the person through their Internet service provider. If you suspect that the cyberbully is involved in criminal activity, ask police to investigate. Using fake and anonymous names doesn't make any online activity untraceable. People leave an electronic trail that can be tracked, and you'd be surprised at how much information can be compiled using public and legal means. Most kids (most people, in fact) won't take the precaution of using Web Proxies, VPNs and Tor networks to cover their tracks.

- Consider contacting providers and filing complaints. Sending inappropriate language may violate the “Terms and Conditions” of e-mail services, Internet service providers, Web sites and cell phone companies. Virtually every service provider has an acceptable use policy, and they tend to have broad definitions of what isn't allowed. Remember that service providers prefer to not police their own networks, but don't think that doesn't mean they won't act if there's a complaint or evidence of criminal activity. Don't be afraid to speak up.

- Block future contact. If the cyber-bullying is coming through e-mail or a cell phone, it may be possible to do this. All popular Instant Messaging software have this feature, and it's simple to use. It's usually accomplished by right-clicking on the offender in the contact list and selecting “Block.” With cellular phones, there may be a blacklist or blocking feature available on the phone itself. You can also screen your incoming calls using Caller ID. Check the phone's owner's manual. Blocking a user is also an option on Facebook and MySpace.

- Contact your school. If the cyber-bullying is occurring through a school district system, school administrators have an obligation to intervene. Even if the cyberbullying is occurring off campus, make school administrators aware of the problem. While schools may not have specific policies, they do have pretty broad definitions of inappropriate behavior, including harassment and bullying. Also, some schools forbid the use of their computer network for certain services, such as Facebook. In most cases, Cellular phones aren't allowed either. The consequences for inappropriate behavior can range from Detention to Expulsion.

- Consider contacting the cyberbully’s parents, if known. They may be very responsive, effectively putting a stop to it. On the other hand, they may become defensive, so proceed cautiously. If you decide to contact a cyberbully’s parents, communicate with them in writing, rather than face to face. Present proof of the cyberbullying (e.g., copies of e-mail messages) and ask them to intervene. Don't make assumptions about others. Parents don't know everything that goes on in their child's life.

- Consider contacting an attorney in cases of serious cyberbullying. Civil law may provide for a remedy, if other efforts fail. An attorney can give you sound legal advice on how to proceed. In the long term, knowing what you should and, especially, what you should not do, can make a huge difference in the outcome.

- Contact the police to pursue criminal remedies if cyber-bullying involves acts such as: threats of violence; extortion; obscene or harassing phone calls or text messages; harassment, stalking, or hate crimes; or child pornography. If the cyber-bullying behavior started out as relatively hurtful and escalated to the point where the bully is making threats, you must not ignore or dismiss it as mere words. Criminals who escalate toward violent behavior, such as stalkers, can be extremely dangerous. To be clear, escalation is a warning sign that says you are in our over your head and need the police. Ignoring it can result in tragedy.

I hope this provides a first step for those who need help. While Cyber-stalking is a problem, there are solutions.

Links:

Suicide Prevention News and Comment.
http://suicidepreventioncommunity.wordpress.com/

Cyber-bullying
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberbullying

New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services gives advice on dealing with cyberbullying
http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2010/03/31/2010-03-31_new_york_state_division_of_criminal_justice_services_gives_advice_on_dealing_wit.html

NY State of Bullying: How to know if your child is being bullied or bullying others.
http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2010/03/31/2010-03-31_ny_state_of_bullying_how_to_know_if_your_child_is_being_bullied_or_bullying_othe.html

Michigan – Anti Bullying Legislation
http://www.bullypolice.org/mi_law.html

Policies: Merit Acceptable Use Policy
http://www.merit.edu/policies/acceptable_use.php

Student Handbook – Alcona
http://alcona.amaesd.k12.mi.us/documents/Student%20Handbook%202009-2010.pdf

Student Handbook – Arenac Easetern
http://www.arenaceastern.org/District%20Information/Handbook%2011-08.pdf

Student Handbook – Oscoda Area Schools
http://www.oscodaschools.org/ohs/posted_items/Oscoda_hs_student_handbook.doc

Student Handbook – Tawas Area Schools
http://www.tawas.net/files/hsnews/hshandbook.pdf

Operating Systems Galore

2010-03-03T13:11:00.003-05:00

This entry is a pretty long one, and perhaps a bit rambling. Enjoy.

Long ago, when I was taking a college course in Machine Language, one of my assignments was to submit a paper about processors. First off, I should point out that the paper I wrote was not--by any stretch of the imagination--my best writing. In fact, it was the worst, and I still feel remorseful for submitting it to my professor.

However, I did quite well on the oral presentation. Actually, part of that success came by accident--my laptop crashed and had to be rebooted, so I quickly ad-libbed the first bit of the speech. I was quite proud of that bit of work.

While the assignment itself was a partial success, it did open my eyes to the fact that were were many different types of central processing units on the market.

Years later, I thought I'd bring something to light. Let's see if I can make this question as specific as possible for the sake of one's sanity. Especially since a lot of modern equipment can have an operating system.

Here's the question: How many different operating systems for use on a desktop PC for everyday use, that are popular and currently supported, are there? One? Two? Is it two? Microsoft Windows and Apple OSX (OS Ten). Is that right?

No. There are actually several different operating systems available. But, before I name some of them, I thought it would be tremendously helpful to explain what an operating system is. Quoting from Wikipedia's entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_System

“In computing, an operating system (OS) is an interface between hardware and user, which is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the resources of a computer, that acts as a host for computing applications run on the machine. One of the purposes of an operating system is to handle the resource allocation and access protection of the hardware. This relieves the application programmers from having to manage these details.”

An Operating System is not an Application like Microsoft Word or a Utility such as AVG Anti-Virus; software that only performs certain tasks or has certain roles. The Operating System is the link between you, the user, and the hardware and other software, the desktop PC, that you use. Without it, that shiny new PC is little more than a paperweight. For the User (you), a secure, well-written and thought-out Operating System makes the difference between going about doing daily tasks and wanting to throw a PC out the window.

Currently (avoiding broad terms), there are three different popular operating systems available for desktop PCs today: Windows, Unix, and Linux. Yes, there's also Amiga, Be, ChromeOS and Solaris, but these don't share the popularity or development of the three I'm going to discuss in this article.

Okay, what about Apple OSX? It's actually on that list. OSX is based on Unix and uses proprietary technology that was originally created by NeXT (which Apple purchased in 1997) to make it not only stable and secure, but very easy to use.

Linux is not actually an operating system in and of itself, but a generic term for Unix-like Operating Systems (that are Unix compatible) that are based on the Linux kernel (the “brain” of the operating system) originally created by Linus Torvalds in the early 90s. Unlike Windows, OSX and Unix, Linux is open-source. Meaning that it is free to use, distribute, and modify.

Windows requires no introduction. Their large global market share speaks for itself.

Which brings me to the point of this post: what Operating System would be a good choice for everyday use? That can be difficult to answer, but I want to see if I can point you in the right direction and talk a little about the three since I've had experience using and maintaining them all.

Microsoft Windows

Let's start with Microsoft Windows. Today's current offerings, XP, Vista and Windows 7, are actually all stable and fairly easy to use Operating Systems. Windows is compatible with a variety of hardware, it's fairly easy to setup and use, and lot of popular applications and games run on them. Properly configured and maintained, Windows can be a very stable and secure Operating System to use.

“Properly configured and maintained” is the major caveat for any Operating System, especially for Windows.

Out-of-the-box--especially for an un-patched version of Windows--if you connect a Windows machine, without configuring it or setting up the most basic protections or patching it, to the Internet, you will soon find yourself getting lots of pop-ups and very sluggish performance. Partly this is because Windows has a lot of services and features on by default that you will likely not need or ever use. Also, by default, they give a User full access rights to do anything on a PC (Vista and 7 have fixed this by requiring confirmation or a user to enter their password, which is also true of OSX and Linux), which isn't always needed unless you are making system-wide changes every single day.

One of Windows' biggest strengths, its large market share, is also its greatest weakness. Because of its wide-spread use, Windows is a common target for criminals who steal data and hijack computers for other crimes. Without patching a system (downloading and installing updates) or using basic protections, you are essentially doing the equivalent of leaving your home's front door unlocked in a bad neighborhood.

Another disadvantage would be cost. If you buy a computer pre-installed with Windows, the license fee is included with the cost. But, if you wanted to build your own computer and purchase a copy of Windows, it's not going to be cheap.

Versions of Windows 7 for OEM builders (where you only can install Windows on one machine and its stays with that machine for its life), starts at roughly $150 for an online retailer for the Home version, and goes up to $300 for the Ultimate retail version. During the operating system's support period, they will provide free updates which are easily obtained and installed through its Automatic Update utility. This is valuable and easy-to-use feature that everyone who has Windows should use and not ignore.

However, if you want upgrade to the next version of Windows, you'll have to purchase an upgrade, or buy the new version. Again, upgrade costs are likely going to be about the same as what I described above. Also, that upgrade may or may not work well, or at all, on older hardware, which would require you to shell out more money to buy newer hardware.

What you get out of Windows is a large base of applications software and the ability to run a variety of services and content that may not be available on other platforms. Of course, Microsoft is not going anywhere any time soon. They have good technical support, and a large amount of support documentation available on the Internet if you run into any problems and are savvy enough to solve them on your own.

Apple OSX (Operating System Ten)

Like Windows, Apple OSX is a proprietary operating system. It is pre-loaded on every Apple computer they sell. Unlike Windows, OSX only runs on Apple-branded hardware, and doesn't have the same range of hardware compatibility as Windows. Apple maintains very stringent controls over what its Operating System can run on. This can be both good and bad. Let's start with the good.

By limiting what hardware is compatible means better quality control and stability. By not having to worry about maintaining a wide base of hardware compatibility, you can focus more on improving what you have, and that can make for a much better User experience all around. There are no extra drivers to download and install, and no fiddling. You literally plug something in and it just works.

Here's the bad. If you want to run OSX legally, you have to buy an Apple-branded computer to run their operating system on. Yes, you can hack OSX to run on non-Apple hardware, but it's a violation of Apple's EULA, and I'm not going to explain how to do it here. Some existing peripherals that you have may not work on your Apple computer because there are no drivers available for it.

Also, each new version of OSX drops support for certain older hardware. Those with older Macs with PowerPC processors will not be able to run the latest version of OSX, or even newer versions of Apple's applications. This forces you to upgrade your hardware as well. Also, unlike generic PC hardware, you'll pay a premium.

If you use Apple's iTunes store for purchasing content, such as Music and Videos, in the case of the latter, you'll be locked into iTunes for being able to play that content back. Being locked into a platform can make it difficult and expensive to switch. If support is eventually dropped, all that content you bought may be unplayable. The same caveats about costs and upgrades apply to OSX as well.

But, there are several advantages to OSX. It is the easiest and most intuitive mainstream Operating System available today. It's extremely stable. You won't need to worry about viruses or malware because they simply won't run on OSX, so there's no need for Anti-Virus or Anti-Malware software (at least not yet, but that's another story). There's a lot less configuration and setup needed to secure your system. Plus, the GUI is simply beautiful and well-organized, and offers a lot of useful and fun features. Their hardware is also beautifully designed and offers features and build quality that may justify the higher cost.

The greatest advantage to OSX is that you can run Windows and Linux on top of it at near full speed, and run games and other applications with a piece of software called Parallels for Mac. It allows you to install other operating systems and run them on top of OSX. So, you can run Windows and Linux without touching OSX and have the best of all three worlds on the same computer with full hardware support (especially important for gaming, which requires the use of graphics hardware).

Or, you install and run Windows or Linux and boot into them. It's known as creating a dual- or triple-boot system, where you can have two or more Operating Systems installed on the same hard drive and be able to boot from one of them.

Linux

So, what would you want Linux for? Well, for starters, an Operating System that uses the Linux kernel, such as Ubuntu, has some advantages of its own.

It's even more stable and secure than either OSX or Windows. From first time you install it, it is setup by default to make sure you can't make system-wide changes unless you want to. It can run on older hardware, and usually quite happily because it typically needs less resources.

For certain Distributions--Operating Systems that use Linux as its base and builds on top of it with its own building blocks, like Debian or Mandriva--upgrades are free. Even better, updates are not limited to the Operating System and certain applications (like Apple's and Microsoft's offerings), but any application you have installed. So, you won't have to go to other sites hunting down patches and installing them on your own (although there are some exceptions).

Like OSX, you can actually run Windows on top of Linux or setup a dual-boot system. You can even run certain Windows applications and games on Linux without Windows, especially older applications that may no longer run in newer versions of Windows.

Unlike either OSX or Windows, you choose what software gets to run, you choose what services you want. If you want to look under the hood, you can look at the actual source code (the raw code before it is compiled); something that you can't do with other OSX or Windows unless you're an employee or sign a NDA. You can free change existing source code, compile and use it, or even submit it online. If you're a programmer, you can contribute to a very large and well-established community of volunteers.

Although its out-of-the-box setup and ease of use has improved dramatically over the past few years (especially with Distrubutions such as Ubuntu or Linux Mint), Linux has its share of disadvantages.

Some features of certain hardware that are supported by Windows or OSX won't be available in Linux, or won't have the same functionality. A lot of companies that write drivers for their hardware usually won't provide source code, especially major graphics chipsets made by ATI and NVidia. So, you may have to use some proprietary elements to get certain functionality, but these are usually free and easy to get. Again, it's your choice whether to use them or not.

Media content that has DRM (Digital Rights Management) from iTunes or other providers won't be playable on a Linux system. Certain services that require you to install a client are usually limited to Windows or OSX (this is slowly changing).

If you run into problems, there's no technical support line to call. You'll usually be on your own finding a solution to a problem by visiting forums and chat rooms. You may even need to use the command-line to make some changes or fix certain problems, but this usually won't be the case for someone who just wants the basics.

Despite this, Linux is a very stable and secure offering that is getting increasingly easier to setup and use, is actively developed, has a lot of software that's usually free to use, and you're not locked into using certain applications or hardware. If you're technically savvy, you can probably thrive on Linux.

So, there you have it, three Operating Systems with their own advantages and disadvantages. Again, with proper setup, configuration and maintenance, any of the three will prove stable, secure, and handle day-to-day tasks very well. Linux and Windows support a wide-spread range of hardware and have large base of software.

Here's the bottom line. If you want widespread compatibility with today's applications and mainstream services, Windows is still a good choice. For the novice user who simply wants something that works, looks great, is very easy to use, and doesn't have to worry about viruses and malware, check out OSX. For the technically savvy who doesn't want to worry about viruses and malware, doesn't want to spend lots of money, and wants more freedom, give Linux a try.

Tips on Securing a User for Daily Use

2010-02-01T09:23:00.003-05:00

With all the news about hackers who break into databases and steal customer information, people who have their identities stolen, and various articles on securing your computer against viruses and malware, it seems that we've forgotten to cover the first line of security against such attacks: the User (you).

For anyone who has seen movies such as “Hackers,” “The Matrix Trilogy,” “Johnny Mnemonic” and various television series, it's very important to note that this is (mostly) Hollywood magic at work. With the exception of an actual SSH hack in “Matrix Reloaded,” many of the scenes you've seen in those movies were not real.

I'll describe one example: “Hackers.” In that movie, released in 1995, many of the scenes involve flashy GUIs (Graphical User Interface), and mainframe computers built out of holographic plastics. We see kids running around on rollerblades getting things done in minutes. A lot of the tech portrayed in that movie was not only impossible, but simply unrealistic, even today.

Not all hacking involves computers, but people. For a movie that gets hacking portrayed in a realistic light, I recommend “Sneakers,” with Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley, Mary McDonnell, River Phoenix, Sidney Poitier, and David Strathairn. It's a story about a group of people who are hired by the NSA to steal a black box. Rather than spoil the plot, I will say that some of their “hacks,” involve not computers, but people.

For example, to get past a security gate of the Coolridge Institute, they don't use a cloned card or have someone hack into a network. Instead, Redford's character dupes the guy at the front desk into believing that he's there to deliver a cake for a surprise party. That's all. No guns, no violence, and no GUIs. In another scene, the hack takes not minutes, but days to setup. Some parts of the hack directly involves people. It's called Social Engineering; where you get people to give up their information by fooling them.

The first line of security is you, the user. Because all the passwords, patched software, and Limited user accounts won't help you if you give your information out.

Criminals commonly collect personal information through:

Psishing scams – fake e-mails claiming site updates or eBay, PayPal, or a bank claiming your account is compromised and asking you to verify your information.

Fake Websites – where you're directed to verify your confidential account information. They look good though.

Malware software such as keystroke loggers pretending to be anti-virus software or some other kind of software like a game.

Social Engineering, such as phone calls pretending to be the bank or bill collection agencies.

Hacking a vendor's backend server. You know, the one that actually stores your credit card data when you opted to save your card when you ordered something online.

So, what can you do as a user to protect yourself? Here are some tips.

Know what anti-virus and anti-malware software you have on your computer, know what it looks like, and stick with it. If you get an alert while online, check by loading your own anti-virus software and doing a scan—chances are, it's just a fake alert generated by a fake site and is meaningless. In which case simply close out the window.

If you have a Mac or Linux PC, it's highly unlikely (today) that a virus can infect your computer. That's because most viruses and malware are written to run on the Windows operating system. Why? Because the majority of the world's population uses it and that represents the widest net a criminal can cast.

Don't ever go to a site that asks for your personal information such as credit card numbers, account numbers and passwords for “verification.” Remember that your bank will always contact you by certified mail first (and/or by phone when the mail is ignored), and even then they will never ask you for your account number or password (they already know)—especially an unidentified third party claiming to be Chase Manhattan or a bill collection agency about some outstanding charge you never heard of.

Check your account balances regularly. Banks offer Online banking services that allow you to see what your balances are and move money around. You can catch suspicious charges quickly.
Make sure to not save your credit card information on a web site, or enter that information on an untrusted computer.

Don't use a Debit Card to make online purchases. Credit Cards offer greater fraud protections than Debit Cards. In possible, use a Credit Card with a low credit limit for online purchases. If there's a suspicious charge, you can get it resolved quicker and easier than on a Debit Card.

When your web browser warns you that a site you're visiting is malicious, unless you know the site, heed that warning and go somewhere else. Internet Explorer 8, Mozilla Firefox, and other modern web browsers have various protections built-in to help keep you safe, but they only work if you actually use them.

Use long passwords and change them regularly. A few years ago, the standard for a strong password was once a minimum of six characters; a combination of letters and numbers. Now it is ten characters; a combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. Don't keep them written down in plain view of other people or in an obvious location on your computer.

Remember that keeping yourself safe online doesn't just depend on maintaining your equipment, but following some basic guidelines. Know what you have, what you use, what information to not give out, and especially stay informed. The Internet can be a very useful and productive tool, but remember that the most important computer is your own mind. Use it.

Announcing Overdrive

2010-01-06T08:48:00.001-05:00

Over the Holidays, the staff at headquarters were introduced to a new service that is live right now: Overdrive.

It's an online service that allows users with a valid library card in our district to download and listen to audiobooks. Its method of operation is similar to going to the library to check out an audiobook in person, only in this case you use free software loaded on a Mac or Windows PC to check out the item, download the parts to your PC, and then either listen to them on your PC, burn to a CD, or transfer to a supported music player.

http://fuelyourmind.lib.overdrive.com/

It would be pointless of me to write a how-to because I consider their own help guides to be very well-written and their software easy to use. Everything to help get you started is on the main page under “Getting Started.” Your login and pin for this service are your library card and pin numbers.

However, there are some important points that should be brought to your attention.

First, to download and play audiobooks checked out from this site, you must download and install OverDrive Media Console for Mac or Windows. This is a free-to-use download manager that keeps track of what items are checked out. This is important because when a copy of an audiobook is checked out, that copy is not available for checkout by anyone else until it is checked back in. The check-out time by default is two weeks, but Patrons have the option to change that length of time. There's no early check-in available and check-in is automatically done by the Media Console.

There is Digital Rights Management. However, I consider it to be more honor-based than strict. You are permitted to burn to a CD, or transfer files to a supported music player. However, at the end of the checkout period, it is your responsibility to destroy the CD or delete the files off your music player. If you only have the audiobook on your PC, then Media Console automatically disables playback on those files at the end of the checkout period. You can uninstall Media Console at any time, but you will lose the ability to download and play audiobooks on your PC.

If you need more assistance, please feel free to contact us at 989-362-2651 and ask for Diane, John or Stephanie or e-mail us at director@ioscoarenaclibrary.org.

Time and Print Management

2009-12-01T09:48:00.011-05:00

This month's blog entry will focus on Time and Print Management: what we use, why we use it, and how to use it. Important information is in bold print.

We currently use time and print management solutions at three of our eight branch libraries, with plans to deploy to two more branches.

Robert J. Parks Library in Oscoda
Mary Johnston Memorial Library in Standish
AuGres Community Library

Future deployments will take place at Whittemore Library and Plainfield Township Library in Hale.

The software solution is provided by a company called Envisionware. Time management is handled by a product called PCReservation, and our print management is via LPT:One.

The time management system, PCReservation, hooks into our patron database. This is same database hosted by the Valley Library Consortium that is used to check items in and out at all our branch libraries.

Print management is a standalone installation, hosted on a single PC at each branch, and does not use the patron database at all.

It's also important to note that patron records on computer usage are anonymized every day. Meaning that at the end of each business day, the identifying information is stripped from the usage records, making it impossible after one business day to identify which patron used which computer.

Also, the time management system does not keep records on what sites are visited or other private information.

It's sole function is to ensure that every patron gets a fair share of computer time on a public access computer.

Print management is configured in a similar fashion. It clears out print jobs (released or not) after three hours, and is not configured to retain records on who printed what. Again, LPT:One does not require nor use a patron database to create print jobs.

Okay, so, why do we have it?

At our busiest libraries, we have two issues with public computing. First is keeping track of time a Patron spends on a PC. On a busy day, it can be very difficult to track time spent online. Maintaining a queue requires staff time and resources better spent assisting patrons in other areas. PCReservation automates the process where a patron comes in, signs up for a computer, uses it, and leaves with minimal staff intervention. Guests are accommodated with Guest passes.

The second issue is printing. To offset the cost of printing supplies, we charge 10 cents per page monochrome, and 50 cents per page color. We've had problems where patrons printed the wrong item, printed more than they intended, printed something then forgot about it and left it behind, printed something by mistake, or printed the item and walked out the door without paying.

LPT:One has two roles: enforce payment of a print job, and reduce waste.

Regardless of what a patron chooses to print, it is not actually printed until you approach the front desk, pay for the item, and staff person releases the print job. If you lose what you printed, it can be reprinted within a three hour period. If you change your mind and don't want to print anything, simply forget about it and it'll clear out on its own. If you print the wrong item, just go back and print out what you wanted to print.

So, how do you use these solutions?

It's a very simple process for a patron. We'll start with how to use PCReservation on a Patron PC. All you need is a library card. Guests that don't have one simply walk up to the front desk and ask for a Guest pass.

When you sit down at a Patron PC, you are greeted with a welcome screen.

To login, click on the green, underlined, Welcome text. A login dialog will then display.

Enter the entire library card number, which is printed on the back of your library card. The PIN is the last four digits of your phone number. Guests only need to enter the Guest code that's printed on the Guest pass, there is no PIN.

When you click "OK," a dialog will display the length of the session, and the choice to use the computer or cancel and walk away.

Upon opting to use the PC, you will be greeted with our Acceptible Use Policy. This document, available to the public, spells out the terms of public computer usage. You must click the "Accept" button to continue. Or, if you don't agree with the terms, click "Decline" and walk away.

Once you've accepted the AUP, you'll find yourself at an ordinary Windows desktop, with one important difference, the timer window at the top center of the screen.

The timer shows how much time you have left on a session, you can move this window around but not be able to close it. When you have ten, five and one minutes remaining on a session, you'll be warned by a dialog with text, and the timer will flash.

The amount of time you'll actually have will vary based on exactly when you sign on, and whether or not all the Public computers are in use. If it's not a busy day, and not all the computers are being used, you can be granted additional time. Alternatively, you can ask a staff person for more time on your session.

If you need to get up and away from a public PC, you can lock your session, so no one else can get on and use your time. To use this feature, simply click the lock button on the timer window.

You will then have this dialog pop up asking you for a password.

Simply enter an easy-to-remember password (it can be anything you want), and enter the same password again in the second text box, and click ok. You will then have this screensaver come up, indicating that this computer is in use and locked.

If you forget your password, this isn't a problem. Simply walk up to the front desk, and ask the staff person to unlock the PC.

When you decide to leave, if it's early, it's recommended that you close your session out. Click the "Close" button on the timer window. You'll be greeted with this dialog.

You can cancel or proceed anyway, and the session is closed out and we're back at the welcome screen.

Now, there are a few more things to take note of. If all the public computers at a branch are in use and you have to wait, you can sign up for a PC using a reservation station. You'll find one near the public computers flashing a similar screen saver. The process for reserving a PC is similar to signing up for one. Simply click on "Reserve a PC," enter your card number and PIN and you're set. Or, you can walk up to a staff person and ask for a reservation.

One last note about PCReservation. Staff have the ability to not only extend a users session and unlock a PC, but also to send text messages, lock a session, or end a session remotely. Consider it a digital form of the tap-the-shoulder policy.

LPT:One on a Patron PC.

Printing on a Patron PC is a very simple process. Being a Patron or Guest does not apply as there's no patron database used, so there are no passwords or PINs required. You simply enter a unique name or number to identify the print job as your own (making it easy for the staff to find the job you want released). It'll show the total cost of the print job. Remember that nothing is printed and you aren't charged until you approach the front desk and ask for a print job to be released.

Here's a quick walk-through for you. This applies to any Application that can print. Please note that this doesn't apply to creating PDF files.

When you print, you'll be greeted with a typical printer dialog. Setup your print job as you typically do with any other printer, selecting black & white or color by highlighting the printer.

When you click on the "Print," button, you'll be greeted with a new dialog.

Don't let this scare you. All this dialog is asking for is a unique name, which can be a combination of letters and numbers, that lets a staff person identify the print job when you go to the front desk to collect it. Simply enter something that you can remember and click "OK." Whatever you enter will always be in UPPERCASE letters.

Now, you'll get the choice of whether to go ahead and create the print job or to cancel it. This dialog shows you the number of pages, the cost per page, and the total cost.

If anything is wrong, this is usually a good indicator. If you want to cancel, simply click "Cancel." Otherwise, when you click "OK," a final dialog will display telling you where to collect the print job (hint, you always go to the front desk).

Again, nothing is printed out until you go to the front desk to collect it.

When you're ready to get your print job, you simply go to the front desk, give the staff person the ID of the print job, pay for the job, and the job is then printed out and handed to you.

Simple, isn't it?

A Plan. Also, Applications Software on Public Access Computers--What We Offer.

2009-11-03T13:36:00.005-05:00

It has been a long time since the last entry. Part of that has been due to little interest and feedback on the blog itself, as well as the lack of interest from the author in maintaining it. However, recently I felt that I needed a plan.

So, starting today, and at least once per month, I'm going to submit a blog entry. The topics will focus on the technology that we use in our Library, ranging from hardware to software.

This entry will cover the applications software currently installed on all Public and Staff computers running Windows XP Professional. In particular, two commonly used applications: Web Browsers and Office Suites.

No doubt, anyone who has visited our library (or uses a computer with Windows on it) knows that our Public Access Computers have Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office. So, you can do things such as surf the Internet and edit Word Documents. However, those are not the only applications that we install and maintain.

Did you know that there are other applications that allow you to create a PDF file by simply printing it out? Or that you can edit Microsoft Works documents in an open-source office suite? I bet you don't know that to view Flash videos and Adobe PDF documents (at least to fully take advantage of any features) you have to have Adobe Flash Player and Acrobat Reader? That's all installed and maintained on every Windows PC we have.

Did you know that we offer a choice? A patron has the choice of two web browsers: Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 and Mozilla Firefox 3.5. As Microsoft is well-known, I'm going to go into some detail on the alternatives.

Mozilla Firefox (www.mozilla.com) is the most well-known alternative web browser offering near endless customization and greater security than IE.

Through the use of plugins, more functions can be added; the one on my personal laptop includes an FTP client and other privacy tweaks. The web browser is available on all major computing platforms (including Apple OSX and Linux). The installation you'll find on our computers is pretty plain, though we configured ours to ensure privacy and include a slew of bookmarks to help you find your way around. I also recently added a plugin called Better Privacy that deals with Flash cookies. You can find out more about the plugin here and Flash cookies here.

Not only do we offer a choice in web browsers, but Office Suites as well. In addition to Microsoft Office 2007, we have a derivative of OpenOffice.org called Go-oo (http://www.go-oo.org/).

OpenOffice.org offers a similar look-and-feel--as well as functionality and compatibility--to Microsoft Office 2007. It includes word processing, spreadsheet, presentations, graphics and database applications. Go-oo 3.1.1, the version we are using, includes a number of patches to improve speed and functionality including additional translators for Microsoft Works 6-9, and WordPerfect

Give it a try; though I suggest that if you create anything for the first time and want to be able to view it on a computer that doesn't have OpenOffice, be sure to save it as a Microsoft Office document (Office 97-2003 and 2007 formats are supported).

We don't stop with just Web Browsers and Office Suites. Free and Open Source software (software that has source code that is freely available on the Internet to download, view and modify and reuse) are particularly attractive to us. Also, open source software isn't tied to a specific computing platform. If you're using Windows and want to switch to OSX, you will likely find a port of that software available for use, or something similar.

We actually provide quite a few open-source applications for use on our computers.

PDFCreator http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/ – allows you to create PDFs as easily as printing from any application that supports printing, by selecting PDF Print like a printer.

InfraRecorder http://infrarecorder.org/- is free CD/DVD Burning Software

Stellarium http://www.stellarium.org/ – A virtual Planetarium allowing you to explore the stars and constellations.

The Gimp http://www.gimp.org/– Image manipulation software.

Commercial software isn't entirely omitted though. Whether due to licensing requirements or to ensure compatibility, we include a number of add-ons.

CyberLink PowerDVD http://www.cyberlink.com/ – for playing back Video DVDs on any Dell PC with a DVD drive.

GoogleEarth http://earth.google.com/ - Of course, this requires no introduction. It is a mapping application you can use to view images taken from satellites.

Apple Quicktime http://www.apple.com/quicktime/ - includes applications for viewing videos and photos, as well as playing back audio clips. Various applications and games use Quicktime, most notably the interactive puzzle game "MYST."

RealPlayer www.real.com – for playing Internet Radio and video streams.

Adobe Acrobat Reader http://get.adobe.com/reader/– For viewing PDF files (yes, that includes the ones you created with PDFCreator).

Adobe Flash Player http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ – Is what allows everyone to view all those YouTube videos, those annoying advertisements and use interactive web applications.

Adobe Shockwave Player http://get.adobe.com/shockwave/ – Providing a few tricks up its sleeve for interactive web applications though it is no where near as popular as Adobe Flash player.

Java Runtime http://www.java.com/ – for running applications (or certain bits of them) regardless of the computing platform it was written on. Considered a platform-independent computing language, anything written in Java on one platform will (or at least should) run on another platform.

So, there we are. There's a lot of software that goes onto a computer to give you what you need to view those YouTube videos and edit those important spreadsheets and convert them to PDFs. I should also point out that the list of applications (the players and such, except for PowerDVD) are free to download and use.

Just be sure to not sell them or pass them off as your own.

Note: Firefox screencap is from Wikipedia.org commons and the Go-oo came from their website, so be sure to give proper credit to them.

Reminder of Certain Usage Guidelines

2009-04-10T12:43:00.002-04:00

Those of you who might come across this blog, are actually living in Michigan and use our public access computers, are no doubt aware of our usage guidelines and FAQ.

IADL AUP

IADL Tech FAQ

I also suggest that you read Merit Network's AUP Merit AUP as it applies here too.

The reason that I'm bringing this up again is that a patron had downloaded Limewire and tried to install it on one of our computers.

This isn't allowed.

There are two important reasons for this: first, we don't support P2P file sharing because of the legality involved, and second, the software might not actually be Limewire but a piece of malware.

There are other reasons, it's another program that has to be maintained (thus requiring more time in regard to patching), it opens the door to malware getting on and thus threatening security, and it hogs bandwidth.

While I would love to make our systems as flexible as possible, I have to respectfully draw the line here.

Now does this mean I'm against P2P? No. I've used bittorrent and Limewire to download things like Ubuntu and OpenOffice.org, and both are perfectly stable pieces of software. But, for a public setting, it just doesn't work because of the time limits and bandwidth requirements.

Public WiFi Scheduled Downtime

2009-03-13T09:50:00.003-04:00

On Sunday, March 15, the primary server, which hosts WifiDog and our content filter, will be down for maintenance and upgrades from Noon until 6 P.M. EST. During that time, public wireless access will be down, and all systems that utilize content filtering and caching will not have Internet access.

The updates to the server will improve security and stability. The upgrade will include a clean installation of Ubuntu Server 64-bit.

Updates, Time Management

2009-01-11T22:34:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year.

The latest round of security patches include the latest version of FireFox, and an open source PDF printer. Users can now convert anything that can be printed into a PDF file. Robert J. Parks Library, East Tawas Library, and Plainfield Public Library, have been updated. The remaining branches will be completed by Friday of this coming week.

We are tentatively deploying Envisionware PCReservation (Time Management) at Robert J. Parks Library first. At this time, the clients and management console have already been installed but are not in active use. Our plan is to get all the staff at a branch together after hours for a 2-hour training session, and then go live with the Technology Coordinator on-site for two days to fine-tune and solve any problems that may occur. Later, we'll deploy LPTOne--the Print Management solution.

While the software itself is easy to install, our staff range widely in age and technical know-how. We can't just spring this on them, and they need to be ready.

Time and Print Management Is Coming

2008-11-06T11:22:00.003-05:00

Thanks to the Valley Library Consortium, we have finally settled on a product for time and print management. Envisionware's PC Reservation (Time management) and LPTOne (Print management) will be deployed at the following four locations:

AuGres Community Library
Robert J. Parks Library in Oscoda
Mary Johnston Memorial Library in Standish
Whittemore Library

The software training will take place in mid-November. The first deployment will take place in Oscoda as soon as possible; meaning that it will be no later than January of 2009 and no sooner than December 2008. The Technology Coordinator will be on-site for each deployment and be on-hand for two days afterward to observe and work out any issues.

The biggest advantage these products have will be reduced paper waste; which is especially noticeable at Robert J. Parks Library. We will be adding coin operated print stations where space and cost allows so that patrons will be able to pay for their own print jobs and avoid printing unnecessary pages.

Reminder About Office Format Compatibility

2008-11-06T11:10:00.003-05:00

As of October, 2008, all public and staff computers now have OpenOffice.org 3.0.

This means that you have the choice of opening, editing, and saving common Microsoft Office 2007 formats in either OpenOffice.org or Microsoft Office 2007.

Both Office Suites support exporting documents to Adobe Acrobat PDF. You also have the option of exporting or converting documents in either Office Suite into any number of other formats. In Office 2007, in addition to PDF you can also export to XPS, and open and edit ODF (the open format used by open-source office suites).

For documents created on another computer with Microsoft Works 6-9, only Microsoft Office 2007 can open and edit these documents; however, you can convert them to a different format.

For opening and using Works Documents, it is recommended that the following procedure is followed (due to Works apparently not adding the file extension to a Works file when it is saved).

1. If the file is on a CD, copy it to the desktop first; otherwise, continue to Step 2.

2. Open the Microsoft Office application that corresponds to the type of document you want to open (Excel for spreadsheets, Powerpoint for presentations, and Word for word processing).

3. Click on the Office symbol (gold colored circle on the upper left-hand corner) and select "Open."

4. Make sure "Files of type" is set to "All Files"

5. Navigate to where your document is, select it, and click "Open." The file should then open.

Software Updates and Upgrades

2008-07-10T13:06:00.002-04:00

The next three months are going to be rife with software updates and upgrades.

*Starting in a week, all Windows PCs will be upgraded to AVG 8.0 from 7.5.

*In August, all Windows computers will get Office 2007 Professional with ODF compatibility for open formats that are used by OpenOffice.org.

*Firefox will be upgraded to version 3.0.

*The usual round of security patches and updates

All our staff will be switching over to Mozilla Thunderbird from Outlook and Outlook Express, and MailShell anti-spam will be phased out. Thunderbird is just as easy to use, more secure, and easy to migrate from one platform to another as needed.

To improve the ability to keep anti-virus definitions up-to-date, the scheduling for our computers will be changed to allow updates to be installed in the mornings before business hours. It will be an automated process where our PCs will boot up on their own, update and scan, then shut themselves down.

We will finally have a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate for in-house evaluation and testing, as well as a troubleshooting aid for users that have Vista. Though we will not upgrade our existing PCs to Vista, it's important to have some familiarity.

WifiDog Valdation - Hotmail Users

2008-05-02T14:53:00.002-04:00

Apparently, there's some kind of delivery problem with Hotmail accounts. Fortunately, there is a simple work-around that anyone can perform within the 20-minute validation period.

After creating a WifiDog account, you will have twenty minutes of Internet time to retrieve the validation e-mail. For Hotmail users, to receive your validation e-mail, you will need to add the address validation@ioscoarenaclibrary.org as a safe sender. Here's how.

Note: Leave the WifiDog login page alone and open a new web browser window.

*With you logged into your Hotmail account, click on "Options.
*Under the heading "Junk E-Mail" click on "Safe and blocked senders"
*Click on "Safe senders," enter the e-mail address validation@ioscoarenaclibrary.org, then click on *the "Add to list>>" button. The address should then appear in the list.

Go back to the login page, click on the link marked "Resend Validation E-Mail"
Wait a couple of minutes and the validation e-mail should show up in your account's inbox.

Status of Validation E-Mails

2008-04-28T09:22:00.003-04:00

The Reverse DNS entry for our authentication server was added and came online Saturday morning. To further ensure that our e-mails are not flagged as spam, we've been added to AOL's Whitelist (though messages are being accepted) and will be effective within a day.

This means users who sign for for a WifiDog account and use an AOL address will receive a validation e-mail and validate their account.

Hotmail users are still not going to get our validation e-mails. I'm going to contact their Postmaster and see if they can add us to their Whitelist too.

Update:

Hotmail users will now be able to receive our validation e-mails.

Validation E-mails - Reverse DNS Update

2008-04-25T15:07:00.003-04:00

Our Internet Service Provider is going to provide us with a DNS record that will be associated with the IP address of our authentication server. That means that when someone does a reverse DNS lookup of 198.109.89.170, it should bring back the domain name ioscoarenaclibrary.org. That should satisfy the various e-mail provider's automated spam checks and allow the validation e-mail through.

It should be up and running by the end of the weekend or as early as tomorrow morning.

After which, Hotmail and AOL providers should allow the message through without delay, and it shouldn't be flagged as spam.

Update, Hotmail Users

2008-04-23T14:39:00.002-04:00

Those with Hotmail addresses that sign up for our Public Wireless service will not receive our validation e-mails at this time.

However, given that there many people who use Hotmail as their e-mail provider, I have opened a ticket with Hotmail in an effort to resolve the issue.

In the meantime, it is recommended that either you sign up with a non-Hotmail address (mail.com, Yahoo, and Gmail all work) or you can have your account manually validated.

WifiDog Validation E-Mail Issue

2008-04-18T22:14:00.006-04:00

It has come to my attention that new users have not been receiving validation e-mails when they sign up on our Public Wifi System. I plan to repair this problem on Saturday, the 19th.

Update:

The auth software was successfully upgraded and e-mail validation is working correctly. However, there appears to be a bug with New Account Signup. The problem is that when a user signs up for a new account, an error message comes up stating "Access Denied" or some problem with the portal. Simply go back on your web browser, logout and log back in with your new account and continue the validation process.

Update 2:
Hotmail users will not be able to receive a validation e-mail. I confirmed that e-mails were successfully sent by our authentication server, but were not received by Hotmail.

At this time, the following e-mail providers are known to accept the validation e-mail: Yahoo, Charter, Peoplepc, Mail.com and Gmail. Other e-mail accounts (such as AOL) should accept the message, but may be falsely flagged as spam, so be sure to check your spam/junk folders. The message is sent immediately after clicking the Signup button and should be received by your e-mail provider and arrive in your inbox within a couple minutes or less.

April Software Updates

2008-04-11T11:28:00.003-04:00

This month's round of software updates is short and will be completed Friday night, April 11. It includes:

Flash Player
QuickTime
Java

Also, I'm adding Microsoft Works compatibility to Microsoft Office. This will allow full compatibility with documents created on Microsoft Works from versions 6-9; including documents created on Vista.

This summer, we will finally be upgrading all installations of Microsoft Office to 2007 Professional Plus. In addition, document conversion for OpenOffice.org will be added to Office 2007, but OpenOffice.org will be kept and maintained on all public and staff computers.

For ease of compatibility across platforms, Office 2007 will be configured to save documents in Office 2003 or earlier by default. Office 2007 compatibility is currently not available for OpenOffice.org for Windows. However, Ubuntu users can install a compatibility extension for OpenOffice.

Demonstrating Virtual Machine and the Viability of Linux

2008-03-26T13:18:00.003-04:00

Last week, I demonstrated the viability of running Windows XP Pro on top of a Linux Distribution. Here's the computer that was used.

It's a Dell Optiplex 745 with an Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM, an ATI 256MB video card, 160GB SATA hard disk, DVD/CD burner, USB keyboard and optical mouse. The monitor it's hooked up to is my office Samsung 22" Widescreen LCD via DVI. In the picture, I also have an HHP IT3800 hand held scanner via a PS/2 to USB adapter, and a HP ScanJet 4300C flatbed scanner. On top of the CPU, you can barely see the iPod Nano and flash card reader. All the hardware you see in the picture worked with little configuration or requiring access to the command line.

Originally, I was going to do the demonstration on Kubuntu 7.10, but found that things had gotten a little too buggy for my taste (made worse when I ran a desktop eye-candy package called Compiz). On another computer, I had installed Fedora 8 to test out Bluetooth functionality (much better than Xubuntu or Kubuntu), and found it much easier to setup and use in regard to things like a firewall.

What you see on the screen is Fedora 8 running the Gnome 2 desktop environment, with Windows XP Pro SP2 running on Innotek Virtual Box. Please note to the Innotek people that I was using your software for evaluation purposes, and there are no plans to do a full-scale deployment at this time; when we do, we will be giving you a ring for the licenses.

That being said, the setup ended up being pressed into official use for a few hours when we had to get a copy of our yearly newsletter over to the publisher. The problem we had last year was that we create our publications on Microsoft Publisher on Windows XP while they only have Macs. Since the only format they could access was Adobe PDF, we had to export the publication as such. Unfortunately, though our bookkeeper has a PDF Mailer program that does the conversion, it never rendered pages from Publisher correctly--we had to print out the publication in color and have them copy from that. This degraded the print quality a bit.

This year, when I was polishing things for the demonstration (since it was a demonstration of what can be done and should have all features setup and working), I found that there's a free PDF exporter called Cups-PDF that allows you to export anything to PDF simply by printing. Since I also had a copy of Office 2007 installed in the virtual machine, we decided to put it to the test. Well, apart from some incompatibility problems between Office 2007's Publisher and the older version of Publisher, we did succeed in creating a correctly-rendered newsletter for the publisher. Later, I was able to refine the process further by sharing Cups-PDF to allow printing from inside the virtual machine itself--though it wasn't an elegant solution, it worked and was much faster.

Since then, since the hardware I was using is a Gates grant public access computer, it's been re-imaged with XP Pro and will be deployed to Standish this Friday. However, both the Director and Bookkeeper walked away impressed. While we may not switch to Linux, it is increasingly becoming a viable option over Windows Vista.

Another advantage over Windows is that I was able to copy the partitions from the Opiplex's hard disk to another drive, plug it into an older model Optiplex and boot it right up with a few minimal changes. Even with only 1GB of RAM, with half that dedicated to the XP virutal machine, the whole system still seemed responsive and very useable. In fact, I'm using that very system to type this blog; a Dell Optiplex GX280 with a Pentium 4 2.8Ghz CPU, 1GB of RAM, 80GB SATA, slim DVD/CD combo, Intel integrated graphics, 19" LCD and sound bar. Apart from a partitioning issue (due to the difference in hard disk sizes) and two configuration changes, it worked perfectly.

We're going to keep that particular system as-is to further evaluate the Linux/Windows Virtual Machine, since our next computer purchase may require us to get Vista.

Also, next week, I'm going to re-deploy an older public access computer as a secondary staff workstation using Fedora 8 or Ubuntu Hardy Heron Beta for one of our librarians. We're going the Linux route versus XP for this computer due to the fact that we have insufficient licenses for AVG and Office (that'll change later this year when we renew or purchase more licenses). Plus, the computer, a Dell Dimension 2400, runs slow (only 256MB RAM).

Virtualization, the Future of Computing

2008-03-06T10:38:00.003-05:00

Imagine a Technology Lab, and the first scheduled class of the day is a 2-hour block that covers using Microsoft Word in Microsoft Windows XP. Twenty minutes after the class ends, another 2-hour block is going to cover building and administering a web server. In the afternoon, there are at least three more class sessions that will teach Novel Netware (providing their own disk images and curriculum), Introduction to Linux via Ubuntu, and DVD authoring.

All of it runs on the same hardware, all on different operating systems, and all without rebooting or reloading anything. How is this possible? Virtual Machine software.

Here's another scenario. At one of our branch libraries, the staff computer hard disk has crashed. A new one is delivered, pre-imaged with a standard Linux distribution and configured on-site with the username, hostname and IP address. A single file is copied over from a USB flash drive or recovered from the defective hard disk. The system is booted up and the Librarian continues working using Dynix Horizon on Windows XP Pro. All e-mail and other settings were automatically retrieved from a network-attached storage device. The same device also shares duties with a content filtering and caching server and firewall running on a single headless black box inside a network cabinet.

Today, there are virtual machine solutions from Parallels, VMWare and Innotek (now owned by Sun Microsystems) that allow you to install and run as many operating systems on a single computer that you have memory, storage and processing power for. Instead of having to run a dual-boot system where you have to restart in order to switch from Windows to Ubuntu, you simply click and run the operating system, or resume from a certain "point." I use VirtualBox on my ThinkPad to run XP Pro; which has a few administration tools. I also use it to test disk iso images before burning them to disk or test new operating systems.

Another advantage a virtual machine is that moving your existing installation of Windows to a new or different model computer is as simple as copying the virtual disk file. Otherwise, either you'd have to do a clean or repair install and re-patch. Viruses and malware are less of a concern because even if they run, the underlying operating system is untouched--simply restore a backup copy of the disk. Does a patron prefer Windows XP, Vista or would like to try something new with Ubuntu? Simply choose what you want.

The only major disadvantage to using a virtual machine is that 3D graphics acceleration using the "real" hardware is not implemented yet. Parallels and VMWare do support 3D graphics, but only on Intel Macintosh computers running OSX. However, in two years, it may become common-place on generic hardware.

Another potential problem is that some "real" hardware may not be seen in a Virtual Machine; though I've used USB flash drives, DVDs, and even a serial port with no issues.

PACs Deployed and Software Updates

2008-02-06T08:54:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, two of the remaining three Gates' Public Access Computers were deployed to AuGres and Whittemore libraries.

Starting this week, I will be scheduling after-hours software updates and will start them the same week.

The following software is being updated for security purposes:
Adobe Flash Player
Adobe Acrobat Reader
Firefox
OpenOffice
QuickTime
RealPlayer

The following will be added for additional functionality:
Microsoft eBook Reader

Please note that the eBook Reader application will not be activated on a computer--meaning that a patron won't be able to buy books through the reader. However, you will be able to download eBooks and read them. As for printing or transferring an eBook to another storage device, it is recommended that you have a USB flash drive at least 256MB in size or more. Printing is permitted, but bear in mind the number of pages and the printing costs--use the Print Preview function first.

PAC Deployment Canceled

2008-02-01T08:10:00.000-05:00

Due to weather conditions--we're expecting 4-6 inches of snow today--I won't be able to deploy the PACs as scheduled.

PAC Deployment Update

2008-01-31T13:11:00.000-05:00

Two more of the Gates-granted Public Access Computers will be deployed tomorrow morning to AuGres and Whittemore. As for Standish Library, I don't have a date for its deployment due to one stumbling block: space.

Anyone who has been to Mary Johnston Memorial Library in Standish will realize that space for anything is at a premium. When you add in the requirements that it has to be in plain view of the staff (the equipment, not the screen), and be hooked into power and network, and the fact that we can't rearrange the shelving or run new electrical outlets, you begin to understand our problem. Once we solve this problem, I'll deploy the computer.

Starting next week, I'm going to schedule the software updates for all our equipment. As with the last update, it will take place via remote and after business hours.

New Printer at Robert J. Parks Library

2008-01-25T16:01:00.000-05:00

After yet another problem with print quality with the printer at our Oscoda branch, which was eating up expensive supplies, the Director and I decided it would be best to replace the printer rather than repair it. A new Ricoh CL3500N was ordered earlier in the week, was delivered to our office today and was installed at the library an hour later.

In light of the really heavy use this printer will receive, and the issues we had with its predecessor, I opted to purchase a 3-year warranty plan in addition to the 1-year warranty--which totals four years. This will cover any repair or parts replacement, plus full product replacement if the printer turns out to be a dud.

Also, and this is a reminder to anyone who uses our printers. Our printers use heat to bond toner to printed media. Therefore the following types of media CAN NOT BE USED OR DAMAGE WILL RESULT:

According to the Ricoh Manual:

❒ Do not use ink-jet printer paper because it may stick to the fusing unit and
cause a paper misfeed.
❒ Set the paper as described below
• Tray 1, Paper Feed Unit (Tray 2, Tray 3): Print side facing up
• Bypass Tray: Print side facing down
❒ Print quality cannot be guaranteed if paper other than the ones recommended
is used. For more information about recommended paper, contact your sales
or service representative.
❒ Do not use paper that has already been printed onto by other printers.

In addition, the following is not supported, and DAMAGE MAY RESULT:
Paper not supported by this printer
Avoid using the following paper as they are not supported by this printer.
• Paper meant for an ink-jet printer
• Bent, folded, or creased paper
• Curled or twisted paper
• Torn paper
• Wrinkled paper
• Damp paper
• Paper that is dry enough to emit static electricity
• Paper that has already been printed onto, except a preprinted letterhead.
Malfunctions are especially likely when using paper printed on by other than
a laser printer (e.g. monochrome and color copiers, ink-jet printers, etc.)
• Special paper, such as thermal paper, aluminum foil, carbon paper and conductive
paper
• Paper whose weight is heavier or lighter than the limitation
• Paper with windows, holes, perforations, cutouts, or embossing
• Adhesive label paper on which glue or base paper is exposed
• Paper with clips or staples
• Do not use the following envelopes:
• Envelopes with multiple flaps
• Envelopes with a peel-off adhesive strip
• Envelopes with windows or clasps

Currently, we only allow plain white paper to be used, but we may be able to accommodate special requests, please speak to your librarian.

There will also be a sign posted next to the printer to remind our patrons.

New Year, New Public Access Computers

2008-01-15T15:01:00.000-05:00

Now in 2008, I am happy to announce that we will be adding a total of five additional computers to our library district. Robert J. Parks will receive... um... where's my notebook? There it is, under a stack of papers and anti-static wrappers.

AuGres will receive two, one of which is provided by the Grant, the other a redeployed computer. Their total number of public access computers will increase from five to six.

Robert J. Parks Library will receive two; one of which is provided by the Gates grant, the other one we purchased on our own. That brings their total PACs from six to eight (seven with Internet access, one that's Children's only).

Whittemore already has four PCs, one of which is the new PC we purchased on our own. But, since they also are supposed to receive a Gates Grant PC, we'll be redploying their oldest, an Optiplex GX280, to AuGres, which will give them four up-to-date PACs.

Finally, Mary Johnston Memorial Library will receive a new Gates computer, bringing their total number of PACs from three to four. Though, I'm not sure where we'll find space for it.

The computers are all Dell Optiplex 745 PCs with Intel dual-core processors, 2GB of RAM, 256MB 3D cards, 160GB hard disk drives, 17" LCD monitors, wired optical mice and keyboards. The two differences between the Gates and our own out-of-pocket versions are the Gates have DVD burners and in a full tower case while ours have DVD/CDRW combo drives and comes in a small form factor case. Otherwise, the software and configuration will be identical (in fact, the Ghost image on our 745 works perfectly on the Gates 745).

Naturally, they will also come with cable locks to protect the chassis from tampering and Sennheiser HD201 headphones with inline volume controls.

Expect deployment to take place in the next two weeks.

Meanwhile, I am almost done deploying all our new APC UPS units, with four branches remaining. The router at our district headquarters is finally equipped with its own UPS, so momentary power-failures will not interrupt Public Internet and Wifi access for our patrons.

The units we upgraded too are APC RS series 500VA for router-only duty and RS series 800VA for our staff. The units themselves are so much easier to work with, either neatly fitting next to the computer or on top of it. Setup was a breeze, with swapping taking mere minutes. Our old units will be packed up and shipped back to APC.

PAC Updates for December 2007

2007-12-11T11:07:00.000-05:00

This month, maintenance will be limited to the Public Access Computers, and will fix the following glitches and allow the following:

1. InfraRecord will be reconfigured to use a temporary folder that has write permissions so that CD burning will work.

2. OpenOffice.org will be reconfigured to work with the latest version of Java; without which the Template Wizard will not work.

3. All software policies that restricted executables from running on the desktop or removable drives will be removed. This will allow software like SharePod to run. However, this will not allow patrons to install software.

Oscoda was completed last night, and the other seven branches will follow this week. Regular operations will not be disrupted. The schedule is as follows:

AuGres Community Library - Wednesday, 5 P.M.
East Tawas Library - Wednesday, 5 P.M.
Mary Johnston Memorial Library - Friday, 3 P.M.
Omer Library - Wednesday, 6 P.M.
Plainfield Library - Tuesday, 5:30 P.M.
Robert J. Parks Library - Monday, 5 P.M. - completed with exception of Chldren's PC
Tawas City Library - Thursday, 1 P.M.
Whittemore Library - Friday, 10 A.M.

Updates will be conducted via VNC with the exception of Whittemore Library, which will be conducted on-site due to delivery of new equipment.

MP3 Music Players, Purchased Music and PACs

2007-12-07T15:41:00.000-05:00

Over the past year, I have gotten some inquiries about people who want to load music on a new music player that they bought using one of our Public Access Computers. My answer had always been no because:

1. We didn't want to support iTunes--which isn't meant for public use anyway (in regard to the iTunes store)--nor provide software support on our PACs for every major music player manufacturer.

2. There were legal concerns about music downloads, what services can be used, etc.

3. I wasn't sure if you could plug a music player into a PAC and transfer anything to it without requiring additional software.

So, to answer this question and to satisfy my own curiousity, I purchased three portable MP3 players from three different manufacturers out-of-pocket. They are:

1. A reconditioned Apple iPod Nano 2nd Gen, 2GB silver from newegg.com
2. RCA OPal 8GB from Wal-Mart
3. Creative Zen Stone 1GB also from Wal-Mart

Each of these players have USB 2.0 connectivity, and I found that each one can be mounted and used as a regular USB flash drive. Music can be transferred to and from the latter two players without any additional software needed. The iPod Nano did require iTunes to initialize it, but you only need to perform this step once. For future transfers, you can use a piece of freeware software called SharePod, which can stay on your iPod, is small, lightweight, and can be run on any Windows Computer with .NET 2.0 framework (which all our computers have).

As for legal music services, the iTunes online store was out because the only way to purchase music is through the iTunes software; plus you have to authorize a computer and sign in. On a computer used by a single user or a family, this isn't a problem. On a publicly accessible computer where you have multiple visitors a day, it can be a major problem.

So, I came up with three alternative music services which are all legal, do not require any additional software to run, and have no DRM. They are Amazon.com MP3, Magnatune, and eMusic. So far, I've bought music from the first two services, downloaded and transferred music to each player without any problems.

What a user needs to watch out for is on Amazon.com, you must sign off when you're done and be sure to clear out the files you downloaded after transferring them to the music player. Otherwise, other people could use another user's account to buy music.

So, part of this working is going to require trust and responsibility from our Patrons. As for concerns about files remaining on the computer, this isn't an issue. After the computers shut themselves down or reboot, any activity or saved data is wiped. So, after purchasing music online, it is recommended that a computer be restarted to wipe the data.

As for what music player I'd recommend, I could sum it up with this rule of thumb:

1. If you want a music player that's well-made, has an intuitive user interface, and you don't mind paying a premium for it, Apple's iPod is an excellent unit.

2. If you want a music player that is simple and just works for a lot less, look elsewhere. The Creative Zen Stone is a barebones simple media player that has decent sound quality and just plain works. The same goes for the RCA OPal, which has a color display and four times the storage capacity of the iPod for far less money; though the user interface isn't as good as the iPod's.

I paid $101.98 shipped for my Nano, while the other two I bought locally cost me $40 (for the Zen) and $70 (for the OPal) respectively. Another good media player to look at are the Sandisk Sansa units, which offer a MiniSD slot for more storage. There are also units from iRiver, Archos, and others that are worth a look.

Another possibility is to use a PocketPC, Palm or Nokia PDA, which supports not only music and video, but other software functions. I use a Nokia N800 for my music, videos, web browsing, remote administration, e-mail on the go, GPS navigation, and most recently OBDII diagnostics. Of course, everyone is going to have different requirements.

As for upgrades, regardless of what price point you choose, I strongly recommend buying a new pair of good-sounding headphones. The ear-buds that are included with most media players won't do their sound quality justice; lack of bass and highs and they can easily fall out of your ear. The exception are the ones included with the RCA, which include silicone plugs and sound pretty good. Personally, I use a pair of Sennheiser PX100 headphones that sound great, fold to a compact size, and are relatively inexpensive at $35-40.

As for legality, I'm going to make myself as clear as I can on this: we will allow people to come in, purchase music from an online store with their own money, and transfer it to their music player on their own initiative. We will not allow people to use our equipment to illegally share music (by making multiple copies of music, or our own items) or use P2P networks (which we do not provide software or support for); if we catch you, we will ask you to stop and leave the library.

For the RIAA and law enforcement, I want you to know that we are acting in good faith, and do our best to obey local, state and Federal law; if the law changes, we'll change with it. If we find that there's a problem, we'll solve it. Our intention is to provide our patrons with as many services as we can, not invite them to break the law.

Time and Print Management and General News

2007-11-28T12:36:00.000-05:00

One of our goals in our Technology Plan is to automate the PAC sign-up process, streamlining and better enforcing time limits of public access computers and collect revenue on print jobs. We were original set on getting SAM - Smart Access Manager - from Comprise.

Unfortunately, we can not use that product because it won't work with our circulation system, so we had to look elsewhere. Another product that's under serious consideration is PC Cop, which is comparable to SAM for features and ease-of-use. I was able to actually try the system out as a Patron on-site at the New Albany-Floyd County Public Library in New Albany, Indiana last Saturday. It was effortless to get on a computer and deposit money for print jobs. The hardware and software seem solid and stable.

However, we are still very leery about adding such a system for two very important reasons: cost and staff time. These systems cost thousands of dollars just for the software alone, and the price goes up from there with options like LED signs for waiting lists, computers for the print management stations, and vending units for accepting cash. Though the patron experience was effortless, there's still the question of the staff side of it; I only spoke to two staff at the library, and they generally liked it and got along with it; but I'm still not 100% sure. Remember that this is not only an involving undertaking, but an expensive one, so choosing a good product is a very important consideration since we'll have to live with said product for several years.

We received two new PACs that will be deployed to AuGres and Whittemore in December or January at the very latest. Also, the Director has just signed the contract for four additional PACs--via a Grant--that will be deployed to four other libraries in the District. These four will supplement existing PACs or replace older PACs.

Also, during December, we will be replacing all our Uninterruptible Power Supplies with new ones through APC's Trade-In Program; which will allow us to ship our old units back in to APC. East Tawas's router, which also serves Administrative Headquarters, will have its own UPS, ensuring that any power failures or brownouts will have less impact on Content Filtering and Public Wifi for the District.

The new units are APC RS 500VA (for the routers) and RS 800VA black (staff or combined main circulation and routers) that have an AVR circuit that will minimize battery use and be able to generate an even cleaner source of electricity for our equipment.

Please note that our printers, PACs and item catalog computers do not use UPS units. The purpose of using an Uninterruptible Power Supply is to prevent data loss from a power failure, and allow staff to gracefully save their work and shutdown.

Another project, which I hope to take into the prototype stage next month or at the beginning of next year, is the VPN/firewall appliances. The purpose of such appliances is to provide secure data linkups between our branch libraries and headquarters, ensuring secure access and better security for our equipment.

The branch units will be based around VIA's mini-ITX form factor and use the C7 processor and flash-based storage, while the headquarters unit will have a more powerful processor and RAM to handle the incoming connections from the branches. The operating system will be Lintrack 2.0, a Linux distribution meant for ISP use. We are looking at a target cost per branch unit of $500, and headquarters of under $1000.

The testing will use the C7-based unit installed at one of the branches, and a modified Pentium 4 PC at headquarters. We hope to use these units to tunnel through traffic for WOL, Samba, DeepFreeze, and printing; allowing more secure system administration.

24-Hour Wifi at Robert J. Parks Library and General News

2007-11-20T11:00:00.000-05:00

As of today, we have set the wireless hotspot at Robert J. Parks Library to stay on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for public wifi access. The city of Oscoda is aware of and has approved this change and understands the issues involved.

Software maintenance will be completed this evening with Omer Library. All public and staff computers now have compatibility with Office 2007 file formats, as well as current versions of productivity and Internet applications. Notable additions include Gzip for handling other file compression formats, OpenOffice 2.3 with OpenClip art and templates, updated Google Earth and Stellarium 0.9.0.

In the coming weeks, AuGres and Whittemore will each have one additional public access computer; both current model Dell Optiplex series systems. This will also mark the first transition to a minimum of 2GB of RAM and discrete graphics (ATI with 256MB of video RAM). We still do not plan to transition to Vista, but we want to leave the option open if there's some "must-have application" that only runs on Vista or a application that requires a lot of memory or graphics to run. We will continue to use XP Pro well into the future.

Maintenance via VNC After Hours

2007-11-08T12:14:00.000-05:00

Yesterday marked a change in how software maintenance will be handled from now on. During software maintenance periods, I would've traveled on-site to every branch during business hours and manually installed software updates (for Office, Quicktime and other applications). This caused a disruption for our patrons and I've felt that it was unacceptable (plus put pressure on me to rush and potentially make mistakes).

Using DeepFreeze Administrator, VNC and eventually WOL, all future updates will be accomplished remotely. However, due to the size of the latest round of software updates (totaling 500MB), site visits will be made to copy over data; but this process takes mere minutes per computer (less than five). This is due to the time it would take to upload data over a T1, which could take several hours. Updates totaling less than 100MB will be handled without a site visit.

Also, this method will further save travel time and fuel costs, and will encourage faster delivery of critical updates. The next step will be an enterprise management tool that will automate this process for all staff and public access computers.

Oscoda Printer Fixed

2007-10-30T08:53:00.000-04:00

The new part arrived on Friday, and was installed yesterday, Monday the 29th.

Printing in Oscoda - Update

2007-10-22T11:42:00.000-04:00

The technician arrived on-site last week and found the problem to be a torn transfer belt. A new one has been ordered from Ricoh under warranty and will be installed this week.

Since the tear is on the same side that the fading problem with the black photo conductor units, it's possible that the tear in the belt is the cause for our replacing the photo conductor units.

Update:

I'm still waiting for the new transfer belt to arrive.

Printing at Oscoda

2007-10-15T13:51:00.000-04:00

As of Friday, October 12, the printer at Robert J. Parks Library is having print quality problems. The manufacturer has been contacted and will be sending a on-site Technician the diagnose the printer this week after attempts by myself to correct the problem. We hope to have the problem fixed by the end of the week at the latest.

Patrons can still print at this branch, but the quality of a printed page will not be up to par, but still usable. If you need to print something that will be used in a professional manner, such as a resume, I suggest utilizing the printer at one of our other branches.

According to the counter, the printer at Robert J. Parks library has the most pages printed at nearly 30,000 pages.

Public Wireless, or WiFi, What Is It?

2007-10-05T15:38:00.000-04:00

For users that are new or have little or no technical knowledge, I'd like to explain in layman's terms what our Public Wifi service is all about.

First off, WiFi is a technology that allows different kinds of devices (game consoles, computers, etc) to connect on the same computer network without wires. Our service allows people with laptop computers, PDAs, or anything else to connect to a library's computer network without wires, and use the Internet. This wikipedia entry spells it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wifi

To use our public wifi service, you need the following:

A laptop or PDA or any other device that has:

1. A wifi or wireless network adapter card that supports the 802.11b or 802.11g standard.

2. A web browser (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, etc) that supports SSL encryption. That's virtually any modern web browser on almost any modern device today.

3. A valid e-mail address to allow you to validate your new account. AOL, Charter, Comcast, Hotmail and Yahoo among others will work.

The operating system (Windows, OSX, Linux, PocketPC, Palm), processor, RAM, hard drive, display, or other part of your device doesn't matter. If the computer has a wireless network adapter card and has a web browser, chances are it'll work.

On a Windows or Macintosh computer, it is highly recommended that you run anti-virus and anti-malware protection and run Microsoft Update (Windows) or Software Update (Apple) to ensure that any security patches are applied.

You need a web browser that supports SSL (a standard that secures the link between your computer and another computer) because only SSL encryption is allowed. This is a security feature that prevents someone from intercepting your account's user name and password over the air.

The service is free to use, and has no expiration date (unless you only use it once or twice and then don't touch it for more than six months).

We do not allow 24-hour-a-day connections for three reasons:

1. To ensure reasonable use by everyone. This service is meant for anyone that wants to bring in their own laptop or PDA and not have to use our public computers.

2. To prevent resource abuse (an Internet Connection is a resource, and a critical one for us). If something happens where someone is tampering with our equipment or affecting our Internet Connections, we want to be awake when it happens so we can resolve the issue quickly.

3. To prevent any legal issues. There have been cases in recent years where individuals used wifi after business hours, or was on a network that was not supposed to provide access, or otherwise failed to abide by their acceptable use policy.

For example, if you connected to a coffee shop's wifi and didn't go inside and buy a cup of coffee, it can be considered to be leeching services. This is a crime. We limit the time our hotspots are on and use an authentication server to ensure that 1) you are authorized to be connected and use our service, and 2) to ensure that you can't possibly be able to sit outside at all hours.

T1 and Public Wifi

2007-10-05T12:41:00.000-04:00

As of today, all of our branch libraries have been upgraded to full T1s and now offer public wifi. Here is a map of our hotspots: IADL Hotspots Map

For any questions, please refer our to Wireless Access Guidlines, FAQ, and Merit Network's Acceptable Use Policy. In general, bandwidth via wifi is capped at 256K, the time limit is passively enforced, access to the Internet is unfiltered, and access is only available during a branch's business hours. Remember that users are responsible for their own equipment.

T1s and Public Wireless

2007-09-27T14:52:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-20T15:52:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-12T11:43:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-05T13:33:00.000-04:00

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.

Progress on T1s and Public Wireless

2007-08-27T09:55:00.000-04:00

AT&T and CenturyTel have installed the data circuits for the new T1s at each branch, this is what will carry the connection between a branch library and the Internet. Merit will be in contact with us soon to schedule times to finish the installation.

Last Friday, I finally got all the needed feedback from each librarian for the time and print management solution. Some branches will stick with the manual solution that is currently in use, some will have time management only, will others will have the full package. This week, more research will be undertaken on at least two more vendors, then I will ask for a quote. The equipment needed to deploy public wifi at our other branches was ordered too. Each branch will have a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 wireless router (re-flashed with either DD-WRT or OpenWRT) and two Buffalo external antennas needed for two of our locations.

The routers are Buffalo Technology's latest model and have greater range than the Linksys unit deployed at East Tawas. This should insure coverage within a library. The external antennas are going to be used at two of our libraries so that the routers can be placed in a secure location.

Content Fitering/Caching/WifiDog Server on Xubuntu

2007-08-06T13:18:00.000-04:00

As of yesterday, the server is now running Xubuntu 7.0.4 Feisty Fawn, with Shorewall and more current builds of major software installed and running.

After configuring Shorewall, which handles firewall configuration on startup, I must say that it's pretty easy. On Mandriva 2006, I used a simple iptables script which configure the firewall; and it worked very well. Unfortunately, I couldn't use the script in Xubuntu (it's a different Distribution of Linux), requiring Shorewall, which is what delayed transitioning to Xubuntu because the server must have a firewall; otherwise, less-ethical individuals could use it as an anonymous proxy server or spam relay.

Truth be told, there's nothing magic or complicated about securing a server. A firewall simply determines what traffic is allowed in and out. Shorewall is a program that configures iptables (which actually handles firewall duty) by reading from various configuration files. Each file handles a different aspect of how the firewall is configured; which gives you greater flexibility.

For our purposes, the firewall simply allows anyone to access the web server (for WifiDog) and SSH, while only allowing computers in our district access to content filtering (preventing it from becoming a spam relay).

There's still a lot of work left to do. SSL encryption and mail (sending validation e-mails) need to be configured, Also, the data from the existing WifiDog server needs to be transferred to the new server. However, the most critical software is up and running.

T1s Are On The Way

2007-08-02T08:43:00.000-04:00

As of yesterday, we are on the USF Commitment List. That means not only are we going to upgrade our Internet Connections but we will be receiving a sizable discount for them. The District Director will be contacting our ISP tomorrow, and we hope to have things rolling pretty quickly.

We will also be fully deploying Public Wireless access to all our other branches as each connection is upgraded.

So, Where Are These T1s and Public Wireless?

2007-07-31T12:13:00.000-04:00

For those of you who knew the delays that we had last year with the new computers and the Gates Grant, you'll understand why we haven't gotten what we promised. We are at the mercy of a government bureaucracy and the accompanying red tape. Though all our paperwork is now properly filled, we still have to wait for notification, and it simply hasn't arrived yet; and we have no idea when it will.

Work has been progressing on the server; this coming Sunday we should have our content filtering and caching server switched from Mandriva 2006 to Xubuntu 7.0.4 Feisty Fawn. Then data from the WifiDog authentication server can be migrated to the newer one.

Update: Status of Upgraded T1s

2007-07-23T12:51:00.000-04:00

As it turned out, we had one more piece of paperwork to file, and we only found out a few weeks ago. After receiving the wrong form, we have submitted this final piece of paperwork and we should be seeing our organization's name in the next wave. So, we are keeping our fingers crossed.

Immediately, or almost immediately, following the switch to faster T1s, we will be purchasing wireless routers and extending our public wireless system to all our branches. Slowly, the plan to consolidate content filtering and caching and WifiDog authentication has been going forward. At this point, it's just a matter of loading the data from the existing WifiDog database to the new one; which has presented a problem that will be solved soon.

The other problem, making sure that validation e-mails are not flagged as spam, will be solved when the server is up and running and we arrange to have our domain name registered with the server. That way, when someone does a ReverseDNS, it'll come up as being associated with our library.

Why Open-Source Is Not Evil

2007-07-13T09:43:00.000-04:00

This is not quite a library technology blog entry, but it is related to libraries since among the materials we provide is music.

One of the publications I have a subscription with is The Linux Journal. This month's issue has an article about a company called Magnatune. Their motto is "We're Not Evil."

First, a little history/technical lesson.

I'm sure anyone who uses Myspace has at least heard of the iPod and iTunes--and their online music store. I have only used the iTunes store once, and was to download, for free, the pilot for a now defunct tv-series called "Conviction" (I'm a fan of the main characters from "Law & Order: SVU"), and a music video from the same series. I never downloaded or bought another track from their store. Why? Three Words: Digital Rights Management.

It's a technology that is supposed to (in theory) protect copyrighted works from piracy (people who make copies of music and movies and sell them for a profit, which mainly happens in Asia). In practice, it's both a pain and a joke.

It's a pain because you can only play what you downloaded on Apple's iTunes (Windows and Mac) and their iPod--that's all. Linux? Nope. There's this encryption scheme (part of DRM) that prevents it from playing. You don't have the freedom to play your purchased material on any device you want, or any platform. If you lose your files, you may or may not be able to re-download them without buying them again. Some services have some rather restrictive or harsh user agreements.

It's a joke because there are some very ingenious hackers (computer enthusiasts, not to be confused with pirates) that have found ways around DRM. DVDJon succeeded in 1999 with CSS (Content Scrambling System), that's used in movie DVDs (making it possible to play DVDs on anything, and copy them freely for anything), and is working on the next-generation DRM tech being used on High-Definition movie discs. The same goes for iTunes DRM audio files; the DRM data can be stripped away with a free utility found on the Internet.

Recently, Apple and EMI started offering music tracks without DRM for thirty cents more than the DRM-enabled tracks. They're touted as higher-quality too. At first, I was happy and felt it was at least a step in the right direction. But then I realized that you were paying more for freedom, which isn't right. Which lead me to Magnatune.

Actually, it lead me back to Magnatune because I already heard of the online music store but never really tried anything out. That's because you'll find that there are no mainstream artists on the site (yet). Their store is all independent artists. But, after reading the recent article in my beloved Linux mag, I decided to give it another look.

I'll simply sum it up by saying that they have some good quality stuff. You can download an album in any format--from a full-quality CD to MP3 (plus OGG, FLAC, WAV)--that are DRM free. The pricing is varied by you--meaning you can pay what you feel the music is worth, starting at $5 up (average is $8). 50% of the sale goes directly to the artist. Plus, they offer a track a day, 128kbps MP3 on their site, for free download. They offer licensing for commercial use as well.

I've already bought four CDs--a compilation of Mozart piano pieces, some new age, pop, and a Heavy Metal compilation. You can preview entire albums in either high or low quality audio streaming.

If you're into music, you might want to check out Magnatune.

Below is a short bibliography. You can find the latest Magnatune article in the August 2007 issue of The Linux Journal at your local bookstore. Please note that the Love's article has some objectionable language in it; the rest are G-Rated:

Information: about Magnatune. Magnatune. July 1, 2007. <http://www.magnatune.com/info/> July 11, 2007.

Magnatune, an Open Choice, iTunes an Expensive Choice. Lees, James. July 1, 2007. <http://interactive.linuxjournal.com/xstatic/abstracts/2007-08/bt9722> July 12, 2007.

Magnatune, an Open Music Experiment. Buckman, John. February 1, 2004. <http://linuxjournal.com/article/7220> July 12, 2007.

Salon.com Technology | Courtney Love Does The Math. Love, Courtney. June 14, 2000. <http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/06/14/love/> July 12, 2007.

Consolidating to One Server

2007-07-08T22:54:00.000-04:00

In anticipation of fully deploying WifiDog to our other eight branch locations, I have been working on prepping our main server; a dual AMD Opteron with 2GB of RAM. Currently, the main server is serving duty as our content filtering and caching system.

In addition to this role, it will also host our authentication server; allowing us to retire the Pentium 3 Desktop PC and reduce the number of servers needed. Everything will be running on a new Linux distribution, Xubuntu 7.0.4, and will have the latest fresh versions of all the needed software.

The Wiki has been updated to reflect these upgrades and our current plans.

Current State of Internet Connections and Public Wifi

2007-07-05T14:34:00.000-04:00

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).

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.

Note About Public Wireless Validation E-Mails

2007-06-13T12:14:00.000-04:00

Those of you who are looking to sign up for an account and use an AOL e-mail address, you will not be able to receive the validation e-mail needed to activate your account. This is due to AOL requiring that incoming e-mails' IP addresses trace back to a valid domain. Since our authentication server runs on a static IP address with no DNS entry, AOL won't accept it.

Charter, Comcast, and free e-mail services such as Yahoo, MSN, Mail.com and Gmail should accept validation e-mails; though some may flag it as spam, so check your spam folders too.

When signing up for a new account, it should only take about five minutes at most for a validation e-mail to be sent to address you provided. To validate your account, you then simply open the e-mail and click on the validation link to activate your account.

In the event that you do not receive a validation e-mail, your account can still be validated. You can contact our District Headquarters at 989-362-2651 or e-mail us at our website and ask for help.

In either case, you don't have to go into a long-winded explanation. Simply say that you signed up for public wireless and didn't get a validation e-mail. We'll only ask for the user-name you signed up for, and in a few minutes, your account is validated and ready for use.

When the system is fully deployed, the authentication system will be running on a server with a fully-qualified domain name. Your public wireless account will work at our other branch libraries that have a hotspot.

In East Tawas, there are other totally free and open hotspots for use. G's Pizzeria on the corner of East Bay/US-23 and Newman Street in downtown East Tawas; 115 East Bay. There's also Different Blend coffee shop on East Bay/US-23 across from the Kentucky Fried Chicken/Long John Silver's restaurant.

Web Page Back Up

2007-06-13T09:40:00.000-04:00

You'll notice that our web page is back up, but it's an older version. We have only one small problem, and that is getting back into our site so we can reload the current copy of our web page. That should happen today.

Our Main Web Page Down

2007-06-12T14:55:00.000-04:00

Currently, our web page at ioscoarenaclibrary.org is down. It has been down since yesterday evening. Our web host has been contacted and they are working on the problem.

This does not affect our branches' Internet Access, Item Circulation or Item Lookup services. Links to MelCat and our Item Catalog are available from this blog.

Privacy and The Internet

2007-06-11T09:28:00.000-04:00

I recently came across an article that concerned how large corporations handle users' private data. Privacy International recently published a report that ranks several major companies, including Microsoft, Amazon, eBay, and Google among others, by how well they handle private data.

Please note that this is not a final report, but more of a guide and should be viewed as both a warning and a reminder to anyone who uses a computer that your privacy is not 100% guaranteed.

The Interim rankings summary can be found here:
http://www.privacyinternational.org/article.shtml?cmd[347]=x-347-553961

The Interim Rankings itself, in the from of a PDF (Adobe Acrobat), can be viewed here:
http://www.privacyinternational.org/issues/internet/interimrankings.pdf

In regard to the impact on our equipment and services, the following does not apply in regard to Privacy International's summary:

There are no browser toolbars installed on the Item Catalog or Patron computers because I feel that they add no value or security, and would affect neutrality.

An effort is made to be as neutral as we can. This is why you have a choice of software; two web browsers (Firefox and Internet Explorer), two office suites (MS Office and OpenOffice), two virtual mapping programs (GoogleEath and NASA WorldWind), and other open-source programs like The Gimp. Yes we filter our computers, but this is due to a requirement for our Federal Funding.

Our own e-mail accounts, patron accounts and item circulation do not use any of Google's services. With one exception, that being one staff e-mail account hosted by Yahoo, our e-mail and item circulation services and related technical support are provided by the Valley Library Consortium.

The following does apply:

This Blog uses Blogger, which is owned by Google. However, the information posted is meant to be accessible by the public. The purpose of the blog is to post news about technology that the District uses and other related matters.

GoogleEarth is installed on all publicly-accessible computers for use as a reference tool. While activity stored locally on a patron computer's hard drive is wiped, search information and content accessed from Google's servers may be retained.

The IP Address of a patron computer is forwarded through our content filtering and caching server to the Internet. Therefore, the activity of a publicly-accessible computer can be recorded and tracked.

Activity on a publicly-accessible computer that may be stored on its hard drive is always wiped at the end of the day or, in some cases, when a web browser window is closed.

All publicly-accessible computers are configured to save as little information as possible. Both web browsers are configured to clear their caches and cookies when they are closed, as well as not save any passwords. The Windows operating system itself is configured to minimize any storing of user activity; Faronics DeepFreeze wipes any changes or other stored data when a computer is rebooted or shutdown.

Our content filtering and caching server does not track user activity, store any personal information, and is only accessible from the Internet by employees only for maintenance and diagnosis purposes.

As for our public wireless Internet service, I encourage you to read our Wiki entry, which describes in detail what information we record and why. WifiDog is open-source software and uses only one Google service, GoogleMaps, to locate wireless hotspots on a map.

Lintrack

2007-06-07T12:22:00.000-04:00

I need to retract my previous statements about a tutorial that I called faulty. This tutorial, "Lintrack As A LAN Gateway and An OpenVPN Bridge" is correct and will result in a working router. I was having problems getting a client machine to connect to the Internet and it was due to a problem with the software on the system, not a mistake the author made. All I had to do to get it working properly was update the package list and upgrade the software.

So, I now have a working PC-based router running Lintrack and a client computer can connect to the Internet.

It's important to note that the intention is to only boot off of the compact flash card (read-only, except for software changes and upgrades) and run the router in RAM, or system memory. Flash memory in general has a finite number of write cycles before they wear out, which is why they are not hard disk replacements.

The reason is that when a system runs out of, or low on, memory, it uses the hard disk as a cache to store and retrieve (swap) information that isn't immediately needed, which is called a swap partition. When you consider that a lot of read and write cycles take place with a swap partition, you can understand how quickly a flash disk would wear out. Yes, a flash disk would work, but would fail sooner than a conventional hard disk drive if it used a swap partition. Flash-based routers and computers simply write an image of the flash disk (that contains all the software and settings) into RAM (memory) and run off of the image.

Small Change On Our Item Catalog

2007-06-06T09:34:00.000-04:00

The Valley Library Consortium, which manages our Horizon item circulation database and item catalog, has corrected a glitch in our Item Catalog website.

If a patron was logged in on the Item Catalog and selected the Popular Lists tab, the user would be logged out. This has been fixed, however users will notice that the layout of the Popular Lists has changed slightly. The links for searching on the Popular Lists tab are now gone. However, the Popular Lists can still be searched like any other section of the catalog.

SAM and Other News

2007-06-01T15:52:00.000-04:00

The meeting with the librarians went as planned on Wednesday. All but two of them were present and the presentation went very well. Some were very excited about automating the process of using SAM (Smart Access Manager) by Comprise to handle managing PC and Print Management.

While there were still many questions to be asked before we even thought about asking for a quote, this was a major step forward. They were equally excited about public wireless and the faster T1 connections.

What they were not so happy about, and beyond our control, was the item circulation software. SirsiDynix has decided to halt development of Horizon (our client) and combine Horizon and another (cheaper) Client, Unicorn, into a single product called "Rome." This means that in two years, we're going to end up switching to something else. The Valley Library Consortium is already researching a replacement.

As for the speed and freezing issues, we're hoping the upgrades we're going to get this summer will solve some of the problems we've had.

The schedule for deployment will be as follows (roughly):

June 2007 - Receive feedback from library staff, answer questions, and establish location requirements

July 2007 - Upgrade all Internet connections to full T1s and deploy WifiDog hotspots at all locations

August/September 2007 - Deploy SAM only at heavy use branches.

Given that SAM is a product that I have (at present) little or no experience with, this will require a learning curve for me at first. This will change as the software and hardware is installed and configured. We all all hoping for a relatively painless and glitch-less deployment. As for the patrons and staff, the learning curve for actually using the system should be considerably less. Proper setup is the key to making this work.

For more information about SAM, you can visit Comprise Technologies. All their product data sheets are available online. While we will be considering stand-alone stations for releasing print jobs and reserving PCs and even electronic signs for announcing wait times, we will not be using anything outside the scope of printing and computers. All payments for printing and paying fines will be cash only; we are not going to get into handling credit cards or personal checks.

As for our public wireless service, we will still be using WifiDog, and this will be a separate system from SAM. I urge potential users and staff to read our Wiki entry about the topic.

You will find information about the hardware and software used, as well as some general guidelines for use. We are going to have more formal usage guidelines published when the other hotspots are deployed, but what's in the wiki is relevant. What is currently not clear are certain guidelines that haven't been discussed at length yet.

Finding a Distro For A Particular Application

2007-06-01T15:08:00.000-04:00

A project that I previously mentioned, a Virtual Private Network using Desktop PCs as testing platforms, is back in swing. I mainly got discouraged by the operating system I installed on the hard disks: Ubunter Server Edition 7.0.4.

When it comes to the desktop experience, I really enjoy Xubuntu. It's a very easy Linux distro to install and use.

How easy? Well, I have a older AMD Duron 850Mhz desktop PC that was running XP Pro and Mandriva. It has an ASUS TVFM PCI tuner card, 256MB of RAM, a 17" LCD monitor (a hand-me-down from another computer) usb keyboard and mouse. In Mandriva, I couldn't get the card to work, and while the card worked in Windows, the application software for watching TV and listening to the radio either were inadequate (it was part of a Home Theater application, not stand-alone) or lacking.

To make a long story short, I was hardly using the computer, it was taking up space in the house, and wanted an all-in-one solution for the detached garage to replace a slow Mac G3 AIO that was still running OS9 and used a VCR as a tv. Since I didn't need Windows, I formatted the hard drive and did a clean installation of Xubuntu 7.0.4.

Within minutes, I was able to install the applications I wanted (TVtime for the tv tuner, GnomeRadio for the FM tuner) and updated the system. Without touching a thing, I launched GnomeRadio and was listening to CMU Public Radio and other stations that didn't come through in Mandriva or required a "home theater" program to use. TVtime worked perfectly, and I was even able to hook up the VCR's A/V outputs and view tapes. It has a DVD drive, so watching DVDs was a snap, and with Amarok, I was able to listen to Internet Radio or my MP3 collection, a copy of which resided on a resurrected Gateway server that I bought from work.

Their server edition leaves something to be desired.

My initial attempt to use it as a hasty (literally) replacement for Mandriva on the content filtering server met with failure. It was due to not understanding how iptables rules are set and having to work without a GUI (Graphical User Interface); something I got spoiled on using Mandriva. While I am using Xubuntu on my home server for listening to my music collection, it's already behind a firewall, and was merely being used for sharing files. Those are very different requirements.

Of course, one of my goals for the production VPN units is to not use a GUI, or run any unneeded software. It will only have a command-line interface (with perhaps a web-based one later on) and be accessible only through SSH or a serial console (via a serial port). No moving parts means no disk drives at all, including hard disks, so it will be wholly contained on a flash card.

Though you can install and run a Linux distro (distribution) on a flash drive, there are limitations. In the case of DSL (Damn Small Linux) used on the item catalog computers, they only load an image of the entire setup into the computer's RAM and use part of the RAM as a disk (RAM Disk). You can't use a flash drive as a regular hard disk because you can only write to it so many times before it becomes corrupted and therefore unusable. Some distributions may not boot from a flash drive; some may not install at all. Like DSL, the operating system must be able to only load its contents into RAM and run from RAM, only allowing writes to the disk for any changes.

Another consideration is size. DSL is only 50MB in size while Ubuntu and Mandriva require 2GB of disk space to install on. You could do minimal installations that take under 512MB, but there's still the first issue mentioned above. It's better to start with something that is designed to run from flash in the first place. There are Linux distros that do this (OpenWRT, which I use on hacked wireless routers), but either support a limited range of hardware or are difficult to setup.

While doing some searching through Google, I found an alternative that seems perfectly suited to my goals: Lintrack. It's a relatively small (installs on a 256MB flash disk) distribution meant for ISPs (Internet Service Providers). This Linux distro is meant for building powerful Internet routers. It provides support for all the needed X86 hardware and network devices, and OpenVPN will run on it. So it seems a near-perfect choice.

The past few days, off and on, I worked on installation and configuration. Installation was very easy. You burn a installation CD, load it in the computer's drive and boot from CD. Booting from compact flash worked perfectly every time. Configuration was a different story.

It's not really the fault of the developers or the software; they did a good job. It was the fault of the tutorial I was following and my own error. What I initially read seemed to contradict what I knew about networking. Eventually, I couldn't get the computer to get online. Rather than deal with changing settings and trying again and again, I did another fresh installation and went on another search for something that made more sense.

I found something far clearer here:
polishlinux.org - Lintrack: Linux for Internet Service Providers

No, I haven't even touched the keyboard yet, but instead did what I should have done in the first place. The pages from the site were printed out, read and reread and notes jotted down. Since what I needed was not exactly what I intended to use, I went back to the original tutorial, circled the relevant information, and crossed out the rest.

Next week, I'll get back to working on testing out Lintrack. If it will work as I want it to, this very likely will be the Operating System running on all the Firewall/VPN servers in the district, booting off of 512MB compact flash cards; convenient as I already have a card and an IDE interface to test with.

There are a lot of different Linux Distributions available. Some are open-source (Ubuntu, Gentoo) while others are proprietary (Xandros, Linspire), and yet others are geared toward specific applications like music and video production or entertainment, for beginners (Vector Linux and Ubuntu) or advanced (Gentoo) users. There are distros for embedded devices like OpenWRT or CFLinux (meant to run on compact flash cards) and even game consoles like the XBox and Playstation 2 and 3. In fact, I have an XBox that I plan to resurrect with a new hard drive and run both original games and Linux off of someday.

So you can see that there are a lot of options open in the open-source world.

For more on Lintrack:
Lintrack - Linux router for ISPs

Item Circulation Software, Linux

2007-05-21T16:08:00.000-04:00

In response to a comment about my last posting, the item circulation software we use is called Horizon, made by SirsiDynix. This software uses Java VM 1.4.2 and Sybase 12.5 to run.

Our staff use a PC running a client at each branch library while our patron records and item data are kept on a centralized server operated by the Valley Library Consortium. This is part of the reason why the system is sometimes slow to process check-in/check-out and fast-adds; we currently have 256k connections.

This summer, we're hoping to address the speed issue by upgrading our Internet connections to full T1s at all branch locations while VLC is going to upgrade their server hardware and up their bandwidth.

On a Linux-related note:
Currently, we are using Linux as the operating system for our content filtering and caching and our item catalog computers. Due to the requirements set by our Gates grant, we currently have no plans to migrate any of our patron computers to Linux. However, we do plan to use "hacked" wireless routers running Linux for our public wireless service.

Should we build our own computer lab, one of my requirements will be to install a Linux distribution (very likely Ubuntu Desktop) on custom-built boxes. Using virtual machine software like VMWare or Parallels, any other operating system environment (Vista, XP, Mandriva, or even legacy os') can be installed and run on top of Linux.

This would allow a great deal of flexibility for hosting a variety of applications with little or no downtime. One class could reserve the lab for Novell Netware, while later that same day, another class could learn how to use Adobe Photoshop or the Gimp on Windows XP.

I personally use Xubuntu 7.0.4 on my personal IBM ThinkPad T41p, and it handles all my day-to-day needs. In my opinion, open hardware and software (where source code and specifications are freely available to anyone) standards will become even more widespread and mainstream in the future.

Proprietary platforms will still have their place in the market, but will either work with open standards or have some open equivalent that will do as good or better.

Running Windows Applications on Linux

2007-05-17T12:06:00.000-04:00

I recently replaced Mandriva 2007 (formerly Mandriva) on my office workstation with Xubuntu 7.0.4. This recent release has several improvements over 6.10 that I have running on my ThinkPad. One of the most important ones is Wine.

Wine is a software project that allows you to install and run Windows software on a Linux distribution. I've been able to install and run a few applications on my ThinkPad, but only after some troubleshooting and command-line changes. The latest release from Ubuntu changes that; I was able to successfully install AVG Admin (we use for monitoring our antivirus software) and Deep Freeze Enterprise and use them with few or no issues.

In fact, the operating system installation was very painless for me. All the needed drivers (sound, graphics, etc) had automatically installed for me, and I had yet to do any changes at the command-line level. This means that any one that has done Windows operating system installations can handle Ubuntu (or almost any other modern Linux distro).

This opens the possibility to not have to upgrade our systems to Windows Vista; we could migrate to Linux and still use our Windows applications software, and not have to worry about viruses and malware; or the annoying activation and genuine software pop-ups that come up every other Microsoft Update session.

Currently, our item circulation software client will not install using Wine, but that could change in a year or two.

For those of you concerned about Microsoft's claims of patent violations, don't let that scare you away from Linux and open-source software. Though Microsoft has claimed that a sizable number of patents has been violated, they have yet to specify which ones. A similar issue was raised by SCO a few years ago, and it has largely failed in court when they failed specify what part of their property was being copied.

For more information, check out these links:
Ubuntu Home Page
Wine HQ
SCO-Linux controversies - wikipedia
Linux Torvalds Reponds To Microsoft Patent Claims
Microsoft Claims Linux Infringes 42 Patents

Update Week

2007-05-14T09:55:00.000-04:00

All the branches were visited last week for their software updates. The updates were small and went quickly. Those that had trouble using NASA WorldWind will find that it now works correctly. It was due partly to a permissions issue and also with trying to use the filtering/caching server to cache content.

The color laser printers were reconfigured to allow them to be remotely managed. Otherwise, the equipment have been solid.

Currently, we're waiting on confirmation from the FCC that we've gotten the funding for our Internet service. However, we still have one more piece of paperwork to file this week. In about a month, we should have an answer. Regardless, we will be installing T1s at all branch locations.

We're still going ahead with the PC and Print Management and Public wireless this summer. At the end of the month, I will be meeting with the librarians to (finally) present my findings and notes on the hardware and software we want to get.

After reviewing three vendors, we're going with SAM (Smart Access Manager) by Comprise Technologies. Originally, I was set on Envisionware, but after seeing Comprise's demo, I found SAM to be far better suited to a library environment.

Service Outage and Public Wireless

2007-04-26T09:32:00.000-04:00

There was a service outage yesterday at two of our branch libraries--Standish and Oscoda--due to a break in the fiber optic line that Merit uses to connect to the Internet. This was repaired and the branches reconnected by 4:45 P.M. EST.

Meanwhile, I finally received some feedback from a patron (in person) about our public wireless system. She, and at least four others, could not get on-line. After walking her through the sign-up process (which you'd think would be simple), I wrote step-by-step instructions that should make things more clear. This document is currently available at East Tawas Library; simply ask the librarian for the instructions. The same document will be made available on the Technology wiki.

I also want to remind people who plan to use our service that we are not responsible for the security of your personal data. This is a publicly accessible service. It is not recommended for online banking or other transactions where personal information, including credit card and social security numbers, are transmitted.

The same is true of any hotspot; especially ones that are free, totally open and unmonitored. This is one of the reasons why we opted to maintain a hotspot system that allows a measure of accountability. One kind of attack is creating a fake hotspots that can steal personal information. I suggest you read this article at PC World and remember, use at your own risk.

Content Filtering Server Problems

2007-04-22T23:57:00.000-04:00

During Sunday, I found that the caching software had failed. After numerous attempts to repair the problem, I resorted to a full re-installation from the ground up.

Originally, I was going to switch it over to xubuntu, but I ran into problems getting iptables to work properly. Since I was on a time crunch, I decided to reinstall Mandriva 2006.

The installation and updates went smoothly, and very soon everything was back up and running. The tweaks--log file rotation, ups, sensors daemon (monitors temperatures, etc)--will come back on this week.

Originally, I was going to migrate the WifiDog software over to the server, but instead I'm going to need more time and some more research. I'm not going to stick with Mandriva, but instead switch over to Ubuntu Server Edition. It has a few advantages over Mandriva; no extraneous software, less system resources, and the fact that I use its light-weight desktop version Xubuntu on my Thinkpad.

Content Filtering Server Status

2007-04-20T14:39:00.000-04:00

After a few network connectivity issues with the server yesterday, things are back up and running perfectly.

I was surprised that few, if any, patrons reported problems. On the other hand, we've had beautiful weather here.

Small Update on Content Filtering

2007-04-17T10:55:00.000-04:00

While reviewing and compiling notes on the firewall policies for some yet-to-be-deployed equipment, it occurred to me that there was a potential security flaw in our content filtering and caching server.

Before, if you sent an e-mail or visited a web site, the IP address of the computer that made the request was the IP address of the server, not the client computer.

As of today, this has been changed for two important reasons:

1. Some sites may require the actual IP address of the computer being used to access the site.

2. If someone is using a public access computer to commit a crime, the trail won't dead-end at the content filtering server.

The second reason is especially important since it can save a lot of time tracking down a potential culprit without having to log into the server, go through the log files and even temporarily change how things are logged, and then change back when things are over.

How does this affect a patron's privacy? Simply put, it doesn't change it. All that's been done is that instead of showing only the caching server accessing a site, it now shows the address of a specific public access computer.

Improving Security - Or "What To Do With Unused Computers?"

2007-04-09T09:59:00.000-04:00

With the planned installation of public wireless hotspots, there is the potential for opening up our local LANs to a host of security problems. Though the computers themselves have their own firewalls, are regularly patched and have other safeguards, you want to keep them invisible and inaccessible to the public (and the Internet). Toward that end, I'm planning on beefing up network security by building VPNs -- Virtual Private Networks -- to bridge together our networks and keep certain applications accessible to us, but inaccessible to the public.

Basically, I'd need a computer with a pair of network cards that'll handle traffic and create "tunnels." These "tunnels" are actually pieces of information (packets) that are encrypted at one end, sent over an unsecure medium (the Internet), decrypted at the other end and sent on to the receiving computer. In other worlds, a very powerful and flexible Internet Router.

This is very handy when you have certain applications that you'd want to access remotely (like VNC and Printer Administration) but want kept secure. Though you can buy commercial appliances, they can get expensive and use closed-source software; making changes and upgrades potentially problematic and expensive. On the other hand, I could build them in-house using open-source software and use off-the-shelf hardware to keep costs low.

Currently, I have three older Pentium 4 PCs just laying around that can be pressed into service as either a Staff, PAC (Public Access Computer) or server machine.

Since they are just laying around, I've decided to take two of these Pentium 4s and build them up as prototype VPN/firewall servers. They are Dell Dimension 8100 desktop PCs with 1.8Ghz Pentium 4 processors, 256MB of RAM, 20GB hard disks and on-board NICs. They're running Ubuntu Server Edition 6.10--no GUI (Graphical User Interface), or other extraneous software--running OpenVPN, IPtables, Shorewall and openSSH.

The "production" units will be smaller, rack-mountable, use a mini-itx motherboard with a low-power processor, have its operating system boot off a flash memory card, and have no moving parts. The connections will be site-to-site, with the headquarters unit being a bit more powerful to accommodate the other branches.

For more information, check out:
OpenVPN
Ubuntu Server Edition 6.10

One More Small WifiDog Update

2007-03-22T09:58:00.000-04:00

A few more features on the wifidog authentication server have been configured. The public can now visit our wifidog auth server and view a map of deployed hotspots, a list of planned hotspots, and even register for an account.

Iosco-Arenac District Library authentication server

As mentioned earlier, we currently have only one hotspot at the East Tawas Library. To get online, you just need a laptop computer with a wificard, a web browser and an e-mail account. If you're new, you'll need to register an account, and will be provided fifteen minutes to retrieve and validate your account. Bandwidth via wifi is limited to 128kps up and down stream to help avoid interrupting our other services.

Please also note that we are not offering any technical support or assistance at this time. For more information, please refer to our WifiDog wiki entry.

Small WifiDog Update

2007-03-20T15:25:00.000-04:00

After a little tinkering around with the server, I found that there were a few maintenance items that needed to be done. I upgraded to the latest build of the auth server, cleaned up the database and reinstalled one of the libraries.

Anyone who wanted to sign up and found that logging in and other functions were too slow will find it back to normal (faster).

Currently, we only have one hotspot, located at East Tawas Library/Administrative Headquarters in downtown East Tawas. Go ahead and give it a try.

Meanwhile, I was able to install DD-WRT (an open-source router firmware based on Open-WRT) on the Buffalo WHR-G54S wireless router. It's a pretty impressive little distro with a nicer web interface than Open-WRT and far more complete out-of-the-box. I had it setup within half-an-hour with no issues.

However, the production hotspots will run Open-WRT Whiterussian RC6 since there will be no need for a web interface; any such interface will be disabled. Plus, WifiDog already has a pre-compiled package for this version. So, preparing a hotspot for use will take less than an hour.

So, the hardware and software are proven; all we need is the extra bandwidth and a place to put the hotspots.

Update: Status on Projects

2007-03-15T14:18:00.000-04:00

I thought it would be a good time to update everyone on what's going on with two of our projects: PC and Printer Management and Public Wifi.

After seeing demonstrations from three different vendors, we've finally agreed on a specific vendor. This vendor's software has several noteworthy features that set it apart from their competitors and seem well suited for a library environment. I am not going to name names at this time since there are still many details that have to be worked out.

Physical space is our biggest obstacle at this point. While some libraries, like Oscoda, have plenty of space for extra equipment, others are considerably smaller in size. The problems range from lack of floor space to wall space to custom shelving that can't be moved or removed (since we don't want to take away book space). The key to making this work will be a combination of smaller and slimmer equipment and more efficient use of available space.

Our plan is to meet with the librarians early next month, present what we've found and our opinions, and ask them to start evaluating what their needs are for their library. After we have a clear picture of what is needed, we'll ask for a quote from the vendor.

Unfortunately, this means that the new PC Management system will not be ready before the tourist season starts. We can't just buy the software, install it and be done. There are a lot of options and small details that will make the difference between a group of happy patrons and staff, and a group of irate patrons and staff. The whole purpose of implementing this system is to reduce staff workload; otherwise, we're not going for it.

Public wifi is unofficially on-track. To ensure that our current services are not interrupted, it will not be implemented until July; when Merit installs our T1 lines. That way, there'll be plenty of bandwidth for our critical services and enough to spare for public wifi.

There are still policies to be written and agreed upon. However, there are a few things that I can bring up now. Some of our patrons have asked for a place to merely plug their laptop into a wall outlet to recharge their battery. We're not going to allow this for two reasons:

1. We don't really have the space for electrical outlets, let alone a spot for wifi users to sit.

2. Since there will not be a time limit on using wifi, enforcement will be accomplished by allowing users with laptops to be limited by their battery's runtime.

Remember that we are providing wifi as a free (but accountable) public service. We are not responsible for maintaining your equipment, providing technical support or space to work. This will vary by location, but we are not making any guarantees. You will have unfiltered access to the Internet, but it'll up to you to make use of it.

On a personal note, I ordered a Buffalo WHR-G54S wireless router for my home (to replace an aging and problematic circa 2002 Linksys unit) and will have it running OpenWRT. This will very likely be the make/model router that will serve as our wifi gateway at each branch. The unit is similar in specifications to the Linksys WRT-54GL, but is roughly thirty dollars cheaper.

If you want to know more about our upcoming wifi service, please refer to our WifiDog entry in our Wiki.

Surplus Sale

2007-02-26T09:02:00.000-05:00

As of today, we are officially announcing the sale of our surplus items. Pictures, descriptions and instructions can be found here:

Surplus Item List

Note about the computers:

All computers up for bid are complete with monitor, keyboard, mouse, and cords, are in working order, and come either preloaded with the original operating system and applications or the open-source equivalent. The older Gateway Pentium II 300 has Windows 98, and the Dell Pentium II 266 has Windows 95.

Due to software licensing, the Gateway E-4400s can not be pre-loaded with Windows. Instead, they come pre-loaded with Xubuntu Linux 6.10 and a slew of applications. Don't let this intimidate you as this isn't merely installing Linux and providing minimum functionality. Each comes pre-loaded and configured for general use. Like their Windows counterparts, they have an office suite, web browser, e-mail client, and games. The desktop has been laid out to mimic a Windows desktop. Familiar freeware applications inlude Adobe Acrobat Reader, Flash Player, and RealPlayer 10.

For more information about Xubuntu, please visit xubuntu.org.

If you don't want to use Xubuntu, you can reinstall Windows (XP Pro with 256MB RAM recommended). Instructions are included that explain some of the software and features, and how to install Windows.

Note about equipment in general:

Where possible, we'll include the original manuals and disks, but given the nature of used equipment, this is not guaranteed.

Content Filtering

2007-02-23T09:22:00.000-05:00

Just to reiterate, we do have a content filtering server for our public access computers as required by the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA). The purpose of this filter is to block illegal content from being accessed on a public access computer. Our policy allows the filter to bypassed for research purposes only. The user must be an adult (over 18) and only staff are authorized to bypass the filter.

To ensure this policy is not abused, the server logs are checked on a regular basis. Though we do not store user activity, we do log pages that are blocked and bypassed by the filter. A log entry includes a time stamp, URL, the reason it's blocked (or bypassed), and the IP address of the computer that tried to access the page. Unless we spot abuse, this log is not permanently stored, and does not store any personal information.

Please note that the IP address of each computer in the district is unique. We can identify a computer's physical location by its IP address, but not the patron using the computer.

In a recent policy change, we will change the password that allows a bypass bi-annually. This is to help ensure that our filter's security does not get compromised.

For more information on our content filtering server, please review our wiki's FAQ page.

ISP Contract Renewed

2007-02-06T12:41:00.000-05:00

We have entered into a new agreement with Merit Network, our current Internet Service Provider. Effective after July 1, 2007, all eight locations will have full T1 (1.5Mbps) connections to the Internet (up from 256kbps). We have also filed paperwork with the Universal Service Fund (USF) for our discount and will have notification of approval by this Spring. These are important milestones for our District.

This means that we'll have better item circulation performance at our libraries, and be able to provide public wireless access.

Yes, public wireless access to the Internet is going to happen this year after July 1, when our T1 connections are put in. To avoid bandwidth issues, available bandwidth via wireless will be capped at 256kbps. Please refer to our Wiki entry "WifiDog" for more information.

Update Week for January

2007-01-22T10:42:00.000-05:00

Starting on Wednesday, January 24 and ending on the 31st, there will be visits to each branch library to deliver software updates. These updates address security bugs that are routinely found in software, and aren't covered by Anti Virus or Microsoft Update.

In addition, the keyboards and immediate area that a computer resides in will be vacuumed, so please be prepared for noise. An effort is made to work around patrons and to minimize down time on each computer, but please be prepared for a minimum of a 15-minute interruption per computer.

If you have any comments or questions, you are welcome to speak to me in person, or you can have a Librarian relay a message.

Oscoda Printer Fixed

2007-01-16T12:24:00.000-05:00

The Robert J. Parks Library printer has been repaired. The replacement part was delivered and installed today.

Printing Problems At Robert J. Parks (Oscoda)

2007-01-12T14:54:00.000-05:00

For the past week, the printer at the Oscoda Branch has not been working properly. Why we didn't act quickly in repairing the problem was due to delays with an On-Site Technician contacting us to schedule a site visit.

Today, after two days, we finally had a Technician check the printer on-site (courtesy of Ricoh). It was a worn-out "black drum." However, because they were a 3rd-party contracted by the manufacturer, they couldn't order the part for us, we had to.

Fortunately, a call to Ricoh's tech support had the new part ordered (covered under warranty) and on its way. The printer should be back up and running no later than Wednesday evening.

This was the first time I've had to contact them about a problem with one of our printers. We've had the same make/model at headquarters for over six months with no problems at all; only a quick-to-clear paper jam. Should this not be the last, I've taken notes so that the process should be much quicker next time.

Happy New Year

2007-01-03T09:20:00.000-05:00

With 2006 behind us, it is on to 2007. I hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

My focus for this month is preparation of our old equipment for the surplus sale. This entails formatting hard drives, installing software, and resetting other equipment to their factory default settings. Of course, a list and description of what will be up for sale will be typed and submitted.

An answer to how well the new public computers and software have held up will be determined on the third week of this month. The first round of software updates will take place the 22nd-27th at each branch library.

This month, or during next month, vendors for Time Management solutions will be re-evaluated. It is my goal to have a time management solution evaluated and ready before the tourist season begins.

In an effort to expand my knowledge of Linux, I have purchased a second-hand IBM ThinkPad T41p laptop. This computer will replace my Apple iBook G4 in day-to-day use and serve as a portable learning platform, diagnostic tool and workstation. It will eventually be a dual-boot configuration using Windows XP and Gentoo Linux.

For more information on Gentoo Linux and ThinkPads, visit:

Gentoo Linux
ThinkWiki
IBM ThinkPad T Series
IBM ThinkPad T41p

Plans For December and January

2006-12-11T09:05:00.000-05:00

For the rest of this month, leading up to the Holidays and after New Years, you're not going see a lot of updates on this blog. But, here's what's planned for this month and next.

First, I'm going to finish reconfiguring the Linux-based catalog PC from Oscoda. It had some problems that are finally being addressed.

Second, the next round of software updates will take place the second week of January 2007. It'll be the usual round of minor updates. I will be at each branch in person; but eventually I will be testing the ability to perform updates via remote. The only stumbling block is that I can't WOL packets through Merit's routers yet.

Third, we haven't forgotten about moving the router and switch from the shelf on the wall in East Tawas. It simply hasn't been approved yet. The delay is due to a higher-than-expected cost.

Let me assure you that I have at least three legitimate reasons for doing this and they are:

1. Physical security. At this time, the equipment is out in the open. Unlikely as it may seem, all someone has to do to merely tamper with the equipment is to use a footstool to reach up and touch the equipment. Since we've had a full steel and locked equipment cabinet in headquarters for the past several months, this is an unacceptable situation.

2. Fault Tolerance. With the exception of this router and switch, all staff computers, servers, and routers and switches at the other branch libraries are equipped with Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS).

The purpose of a UPS is to prevent data loss and provide a graceful way to "get out." In the event of a power failure, our Internet connection also has power and allows any last-minute operations to be completed.

However, since the router at East Tawas has no UPS, when we lose power, we lose our connection to the Internet. Since our content filtering server is also located here, the other branches are affected.

3. Access. East Tawas Library and Administrative Headquarters share the same building. Our critical computer equipment is located in an equipment cabinet in the headquarters side of the building. However, the router and switch are located on the library side, which we do not have access to during off hours. If there was a problem that required physical access to the router to diagnose and the library was closed, at the least it would be a sizable delay; at the worst, we would have no access at all until the library opened.

So, I hope I've made my points clear about why we want to move this equipment. This is not merely an aesthetics issue, but a move that would benefit the entire district.

Linux and BitTorrent

2006-12-06T10:17:00.000-05:00

With the release of Mandriva 2007, I decided to upgrade from 2006 on my Dell Optiplex GX280 workstation (which coexists with Windows XP Pro). This was also my first successful use of downloading using BitTorrent.

Mandriva (formerly Mandrake) has been known for making a product that is fairly easy to use, well thought out, and stable; 2007 is no exception. I found that there have been a few visual changes, and quite a few changes to some of the software. For example, it is now possible to install/uninstall software without switching from add to remove, and programs seem to open and run a bit faster. Of course, I'm still in the process of updating other software.

I use the Firefox web browser and OpenOffice.org office suite; among others. Those two programs' configurations are shared with its Windows counterparts. That way, if I were using Firefox, for example, I don't need to maintain separate bookmarks; they are the same regardless of whether I'm using XP or Mandriva.

Using Linux is also an exercise in troubleshooting; since our District uses Linux on our servers and Catalog computers. Though many things work "out of the box," there are a few nagging details that need to be sorted out. By understanding how something works and getting it right, you can apply that later on. It's a major time-saver, especially when it comes time to upgrade a mission-critical server.

On top of that, it's different, open, free, and fun to use, which is why I use it.

BitTorrent deserves further mention. It is software that allows downloading files that distributes the load among other copies of the same file. It's a peer-to-peer method, only BitTorrents download a file in pieces, not in order. I wasn't an early adopter because I didn't find the downloads fast, but after downloading a 2.5GB set of disk images (ISOs) for Mandriva (within hours), and downloading OpenOffice.org 2.0.4 (a 112MB file) in about twenty minutes, I am now convinced. It's not a matter of speed, but stability.

If you downloaded a file via conventional means, you are downloading it from only one source. If that source failed, you'd have to either resume the download at a later time, or find another source and start from scratch. When you're using peer-to-peer services and software like BitTorrent, you are downloading a file from multiple sources. If one source fails, others take up the load (known as fault tolerance). Therefore, there is no data loss, and no need to re-download a file.

The reason that P2P (Peer-To-Peer) services like BitTorrent, LimeWire, and Kazaa get a bad rep for piracy is because their users share songs and video that are copyrighted (something that music and movie companies frown upon). They can also be havens for less ethical people who want to spread adware and viruses. But, these services work very well, and are very handy for distributing very large files with a high level of reliability.

Last Friday's Storm

2006-12-04T10:57:00.000-05:00

Last Friday I was going to try out Mandriva 2007 on my workstation, but ended up leaving early because of a nasty snow storm.

In fact, I--among others--should have my head examined for even trying to travel on snow-covered and icy roads. I ended up almost sliding off the road heading to Oscoda to deliver a toner cartridge for Robert J. Parks Library.

We lost power at HeadQuarters for three hours, which meant that some of our services (such as content filtering) were down until Monday morning.

Today, my workstation is down because of a bad motherboard, so I won't be able to finish upgrading to 2007 until tomorrow. Other than that and a disconnected UPS battery, we're up and running.

What Else Is There?

2006-11-28T10:39:00.000-05:00

So, after deploying seventeen new computers, re-image nine computers and eight laser printers, what else is there to do? Quite a bit actually.

For starters, there's the packing materials from all that shiny new hardware. It has to be broken down and disposed of. The old hardware has to be loaded in the van and taken back to headquarters, documented, sorted, and otherwise gone through. Since we're going to sell the equipment, the hard drives on the computers have to be formatted to ensure no private information is revealed or license agreements violated. Dust needs to be blown out of cases, and anything being kept needs to be sorted and stored.

To help keep track of every piece of equipment--or help identify what's missing or damaged in the event of a fire, theft or disaster--their serial number, make, model and other relevant data is recorded. We also use this information to track depreciation. Old equipment serial numbers are recorded too so we know exactly what we're phasing out.

As you can imagine, this is an involved process that can keep you going for weeks (if not months) depending on how many pieces of equipment and how detailed the records are.

All New Equipment Deployed

2006-11-23T12:56:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, the last branch library, Plainfield, received their new equipment. The deployment is finally complete; after a one-day delay due to illness.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Deployments Update

2006-11-16T08:55:00.000-05:00

Deployments are still going, and the equipment has been working perfectly. At this time, half the libraries are done.

Though the equipment deployments have gone fairly smoothly, they are taking longer than I anticipated. You have to consider not only installation and updating of the new computers and printer, but also packing up the old equipment and breaking down packing materials. Plus, if the branch has any special requirements, it could add at least another hour. On top of that, if you were dealing with time constraints, you could rush and make mistakes and spend even more time troubleshooting.

I'm also doing all the work alone; I have no assistance. (Okay, I did have a coworker help me unload the van once, and a librarian held a door open for me.)

As a result, three branches will be rescheduled for next week, just before Thanksgiving. That pushes full deployment back to the 22nd.

The libraries that have new computers and a color laser printer include:
East Tawas
Tawas City
Oscoda
Whittemore

Being deployed Friday morning is AuGres. Next week, Plainfield, Omer and Standish.

For patrons who are wondering why East Tawas still has their old Pentium 3 computers and laser printer is that their equipment was bought by the city of East Tawas, not the District.

Remaining Deployments

2006-11-13T14:49:00.000-05:00

This week the remaining six branch libraries will receive their new equipment.

Over the weekend, Oscoda ran into a problem with DeepFreeze that I unintentionally caused. While I was briefly at Oscoda fixing another small glitch, I noticed that the batch file for updating AntiVirus and SpyBot wasn't working. After updating the configurations, I left the systems on in "Thawed - Locked" mode. Which meant that the computers could not be used at all unless I went back to the console and unlocked them.

Fortunately, it was only for one day and it was quickly and easily rectified this morning before they opened.

Tawas City went perfectly fine, and they only needed the printer reoriented today.

Still more updates and prep are taking place today for the other branches. I also learned that I had to do a repair-install for the eOpen version of Windows XP. The installation has been proceeding, but has been spewing out error messages, but updates and other re-installations of software should alleviate that.

Fortunately, the remaining computers that need to be re-imaged are identical models (Dimension 2400s) or there are already Ghost images ready for them (Dimension 4500S, 8100, and the Optiplex GX280 and 620).

Deployments Have Begun

2006-11-09T13:24:00.000-05:00

Oscoda was the first branch library to receive the new equipment yesterday. Though it turned into taking the entire day to do (due to certain requirements and glitches), things went very smoothly. The new computers went online and connected to the new printer without a hitch.

There were a few small glitches that were quickly addressed, and added to the delivery checklist, but I've learned that the new equipment and software were well-received.

Another deployment, at Tawas City, will take place tomorrow. The remaining deployments are next week and will end on the 17th.

Delivery Scheduling

2006-11-06T10:57:00.000-05:00

Today, I've begun scheduling delivery dates for the new hardware and software. Full deployment will be completed by November 17.

For more information, please visit the Wiki and read the title "The Software Overhaul."

Documentation writing, and other preparations, will continue until the last minute. Though the public computers are ready to go, new staff images need to be made, and preparation for children-only PCs needs to be completed.

Regardless, I'm looking forward to seeing how well the new equipment and accompanying software are received.

Prepping New Equipment

2006-11-01T11:50:00.000-05:00

Today, I'm pre-prepping the new computers. Right now, it appears that when they are deployed at the branches, I'll only have to do only three things to finish the prep.

New 3-ring binders, which will contain the documentation, arrived yesterday. They came with pre-printed labeling which looks sharp.

The printer and computer demonstration took place at the Librarians Meeting on Monday. It went pretty well, and I came away with a lot of useful feedback. The printer took the longest to setup, but it'll go faster the next time I do so.

This week, is prep and documentation writing. Next week, I start scheduling deployment times with the branches, and deployment begins immediately afterward.

New Equipment is Here

2006-10-28T16:18:00.000-04:00

All the other computers arrived, the printers are waiting, and the software is still going through updates and refinements.

Next week, one of the computers and a printer will be demonstrated to the librarians this Monday. The rest of the week will be spent prepping the other sixteen computers, and finishing the first of the documentation.

During the second week of November, the equipment will be deployed to all eight branch libraries.

For those of you wondering why the East Tawas Library is retaining their Pentium 3s: it is because the City of East Tawas purchased those computers, not the District. The Librarian prefers to retain them as Chilren PCs, and will keep them until they likely die. Otherwise, all the remaining Pentium 2s and 3s will be phased out with no exceptions.

The Wiki has been updated to reflect current software and other pertinent information.

First New Computer Arrived

2006-10-24T09:52:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, one of the seventeen computers was delivered by UPS (the other sixteen are being shipped freight). Setup of the monitor, CPU, keyboard and mouse went very quickly. The 17" LCD monitor is a new design, silver and black, is height adjustable, and has excellent image quality (resolution is the same as the current 17" LCDs). The PC itself does not require a stand, and can be set horizontally or vertically. The keyboard and mouse are standard fare, but are comfortable to use.

Initially, there were problems trying to deploy a Ghost Image. First, all my attempts to boot and copy an image via USB failed. It would freeze on booting into Ghost whether I booted from a USB flash drive or floppy. Thanks to some experimentation, I was finally able to deliver an image using the network. Then, I ran into another problem.

As you may or may not be aware, one of the anti-piracy features Microsoft has built into their OEM versions of Windows tracks changes in hardware. If you change major piece of hardware, such as a motherboard or hard drive, the system won't boot. I was building my Ghost images on older Pentium 4s with internal IDE drives, while the new computers are Pentium Ds with internal SATA drives. So, I kept getting the blue screen of Death and no boot. For a short while, I thought I'd have to start from scratch. However, there was a solution.

On the Windows installation disk, there is an option to a Windows Repair install. What this does is reinstall system and device files without touching any other user data. It forces Windows to re-detect all the hardware and boot as it should. It takes about forty minutes for all the files to be reinstalled, then another hour to download and install the security updates. In the end, it was up and running.

If you have an older computer running XP that you've upgraded, this procedure may work for you. You can thank M. Dowler at PCStats for his article "Beginners Guides: Upgrading A Motherboard Without Reinstalling."

Okay. So it's nice and it's working, but I'm sure there are those who'd ask this question: when do we, the public, get to use it? The rest of the computers will be delivered this week. This coming Monday is the Librarians meeting--I'm going to demonstrate the new computer and software, along with the new printer. During next week, a lot of pre-preparation will be completed. I want to setup the new computers as far in advance as possible. Ideally, I'd like to simply take them to a branch, unpack them, plug them in and turn them on.

So, deployment will happen during the week of November 6-10 for all branches. This will include re-imaging and redeploying the existing Pentium 4s, and installation of the new color laser printers.

New PCs Have Been Ordered

2006-10-18T15:53:00.000-04:00

We finally have all our questions asked and confusion put to rest. An order for seventeen Dell Optiplex GX620 Small Form Factor PCs has been placed. They are due to arrive in about two weeks.

Deployment will take place within four weeks.

New Printers On The Way

2006-10-18T10:16:00.000-04:00

The Board, on Monday, accepted the winning bid for eight new Ricoh Aficio CL3500N color laser printers and toner. They were ordered from the vendor yesterday afternoon and should arrive within a week. There were two bids for these printers, plus a third that was improperly submitted and could not be accepted.

These new printers will replace the monochrome HP LaserJet and DeskJet printers. This will allow an all-in-one printing solution that is fast, flexible, and simple. Deployment will take place within two weeks or less.

New Data Circuits

2006-10-15T17:29:00.000-04:00

During Friday, we finally switched over to new data circuits that SBC and CenturyTel installed back in August. These new circuits are what we use to connect ourselves to the Internet at each branch. These circuits use the latest technology, with fewer jumps between our service provider, Merit Networks, and our branch libraries. The result is a much more reliable and faster connection.

We've already seen a dramatic improvement in speed at our headquarters. Earlier this week, a test of our upstream and downstream speeds were at around 550 kbps (kilo-bits per second), using a partial T1 rated at 768 kbps. Now our downstream speed is over 1100 kbps and about 700 upstream; that is a dramatic improvement, as well as an invaluable one.

Two branches had problems, so they're still using the existing circuits. But technicians will be dispatched this week to finish the switchover. But was an otherwise smooth transition for our district.

True Earth Ground

2006-10-10T15:41:00.000-04:00

Today, we had a site visit from another contractor; it's policy in this case. During the visit, we determined that, indeed, we have a true earth ground and that our water meet was correctly grounded.

Another sealed bid on the printers will be coming in this week. I'm not going to say who or for how much (which is sealed), but it'll cover the printers and a set of toner for each library.

A minor change has been made to WifiDog. Using qos-scripts, the bandwidth using wireless is now capped at about 128kbps. This is to ensure that our bandwidth isn't bogged down and to help prevent abuse.

During one of my discussions with the Director, we agreed that if we were to even consider deploying wireless, it would not happen until after New Years. As you may know, we currently have four projects that need to be done, which include:

1. Rewiring and moving the router, switch and patch panel into network cabinet.
2. Purchasing, prepping and deploying the new computers and software.
3. Evaluating, testing, and deploying Time Management for our public computers
4. Deploying the new printers.

The good news about equipment for WifiDog is that there is a cheaper alternative to the Linksys WRT-54GL. It is the Buffalo WHR-G54S wireless broadband router, which retails at under $50. That is a significant savings over the 54L, which currently costs $70.

Another feature that can be easily added to the unit is POE (Power Over Ethernet), which allows us to power the unit and connect it to the network with only one network cable.

Using WifiDog

2006-10-05T08:55:00.000-04:00

With a new user finally registering and using WifiDog, I thought now would be a good time to better explain what this service is all about. This isn't policy, but an explanation of what we're doing with WifiDog and guidelines for its use.

The purpose of WifiDog is to provide free Internet access for anyone with a laptop that has wireless connectivity. Since it utilizes our network resources, we use WifiDog, a captive portal suite, to track statistical use and spot any abusers.

This is not a guaranteed service. It could go down at any time, or we could choose to shut it down for any reason (especially if it's for legal or security reasons). There are still several things that need to be done before we even consider equipping the other branches. We have it up because we want to test it and see if it's a solution that will work at the other branches.

This is not a secure service. The wireless signal between your laptop or PDA and our router does not use any encryption of any kind. Like any other radio signal, data can be intercepted by anyone using the right hardware and software.

This connection is not recommended for online banking, PayPal, or other online transactions where confidential information is sent and received. The most secure way to conduct such work is through the use of a wired connection or one of our public PCs (which wipes its activity after every reboot). We are not responsible for any data theft or equipment failure caused by this service.

It is recommended that your equipment, if it's a laptop running Windows, should have anti-virus and spyware protection software, and that your operating system (be it Mac, Windows or Linux) is fully-patched with the latest updates. Please remember that it is your responsibility to maintain your equipment.

Wireless service is available only from 7:30 A.M. to 6:30 P.M. every day. This is one of the restrictions to help prevent and spot potential abuse while we're present. This could change at any time.

Statistical information is tracked, and this includes:

Mandatory (meaning that every account will have this information)
User name
E-mail address
Date of Registration
Account Status
Times online
Times connected
Amount of Data Used
Hotspot used
MAC address of network adapter
IP Address assigned at time of use

Optional (meaning that every account may or may not have this information)
Real Name
Website
Preferred Locale

We do not store any personal data, sites visited, or any other identifying information. The purpose of the above statistics is to (eventually) determine which hotspot gets the most traffic, identifying abusers, and troubleshooting any problems that could occur. This information is not publicly available, and will not be sold to anyone.

Finally, you probably noticed by now that I have not mentioned where this hotspot is located. That's because we don't officially provide wireless access to the Internet yet. There is no deployment date, no technical support, and no guarantees. Our current focus is on our public computers, the Software Overhaul (explained in our Wiki) and Time Management software. Wireless access is currently a low-priority project that, hopefully, will become a service at all our branches. We know that there are patrons that have requested this service and one day, we intend to provide it.

Use at your own risk.

We welcome any feedback (positive or negative) about this and any other services we provide.

Second Site Visit

2006-10-04T13:53:00.000-04:00

We got a second network site visit Monday morning. At first, we were worried that, without access to the crawlspace, the job couldn't be done or would've been too labor-intensive (expensive). Otherwise, there were at least two alternatives that we had: going wireless (more on that below), or running the cables a different way. However, thanks to the librarian, we found that there is access; so we all breathed a sigh of relief.

During this visit, we finalized the exact locations of the drops (the network jacks) and a few other issues that we'd want addressed; one of the most important being true earth ground for the network cabinet.

In regard to wireless; if we were to connect parts of our network with wireless technology, this would've been more involved than buying Linksys wireless routers. We'd need to insure that no unauthorized users could get on, and that any traffic can't be intercepted and read. Which means using higher-end (and expensive) Cisco products, and using WPA encryption. WEP wouldn't work since you could figure out the encryption key if you intercepted enough traffic.

Bear in mind, WifiDog is not the same as what was just explained. Unlike connecting parts of our network together and keeping it secure, the WifiDog project would allow anyone with a laptop and an e-mail address to connect to the Internet (not necessarily our own network). Therefore, the need for WPA encryption and high-end equipment is unnecessary. We could accomplish what we needed with inexpensive Linksys WRT-54GL routers and opensource software.

Moving Forward - The Grant And Networking

2006-09-27T22:45:00.000-04:00

Well, we finally have gotten word about the Grant; we're still confused by what it means. However, we are going to purchase the new computers before the end of the year.

Another project is moving some of the network equipment from the library side into a locked cabinet in the Headquarters side of the same building.

When the building was wired for networking, for whatever reason, the contractor put the patch panel, switch, router and its diagnostic modem on a shelf, up high on a wall, inside the library. This makes for a down-right ugly, insecure and inaccessible setup. Inaccessible to us because we don't have 24hr access to the library; the City of East Tawas is in charge of the library. They own the building and are responsible for the library staff.

The same is true for the other branch libraries; the cities hire and pay the staff and take care care of the building while we provide the materials and support. The only real problem with the East Tawas Library and District Headquarters is that we reside in the same building, share the same utilities and computer network, yet we're physically separated from each other. So, if there was a problem with the router or switch, we couldn't just go and physically check tings over, we'd have to notify the library staff first.

The first step was looking for a contractor. We had a site visit today from one potential contractor who will give us a written estimate. It won't be a quick and easy job; it's an older building with no real crawlspaces, let alone access. The only concerns we have at this time are: 1) how much it'll cost and 2) how long a service interruption we'll have.

More WifiDog

2006-09-25T14:21:00.000-04:00

With Monday well into full-swing, I've started focusing on securing WifiDog.

One thing that I want is to shutdown the wireless access point from 6:30 P.M. to 6:30 A.M. every day. This way, we can prevent some unauthorized person trying to break into our systems and to prevent any abuse while no one is here to stop it.

This won't be meant as a 24-hour service (at first). It will be meant to supplement our public computers by allowing anyone with a laptop to use our Internet Connection during business hours. So, if there's a problem, there's a better chance of getting help than being stuck at a time when everyone's in bed.