WebJunction

We initially planned to set up wireless connectivity solely for doing inventory with our laptops, but found we could easily make the Wi-Fi publicly accessible after we were through.  We have two access points broadcasting A, B, and G standards, in our single story, 36,000 square foot library, which gives surprisingly good coverage throughout the building.  We have it set so that patrons can see our connection and simply connect without a password or reconfiguring their system.  We use DHCP to automatically assign an IP number and our Cisco firewall to send all wireless through our Websense filtering, as with all patron computers.

We've had good response and see progressively more patrons using it, especially when they realize they have access to our T1 line.  We spent about $250 on each of our two access points and some time invested in configuring our firewall and filtering, but all things considered, we've had a good return on our investment.  One drawback is that patrons cannot print to our printers from their machines, but we have a removable USB drive to transfer documents to another wired computer for printing, and we've heard no complaints.

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