The Waterloo Public Library's WiFi users will notice some changes starting today: They will be invited to either create a username or click the "skip" button. This is due to the overnight installation of a commercial version of the PublicIP WiFi management service.The old system did little more than put WiFi users on the Internet while keeping them off of the library network. We were without bandwidth or port management. The system was vulnerable to misuse by spammers or innocent people who were unwittingly monopolizing our bandwidth.
The new system addresses all of those problems while giving us an excellent way to recover usage statistics. Currently, all users get 4 hours of access each day. Transfer limits are 1.5 mbs download, 128 kbs upload, for a total of 800 MB/day. There are no restrictions on social networking or file sharing sites, nor are there any proscribed file extensions.
If you're a WiFi user and you run into trouble, contact me at dargan@wplwloo.lib.ia.us and we'll see if it's possible to find a way to accomodate your needs.
c 2008 Waterloo Public Library
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