non members accesing church Wifi.

Discussions about Internet service providers (ISPs), the Meetinghouse Firewall, wired and wireless networking, usage, management, and support of Meetinghouse Internet
harddrive
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Posts: 501
Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:52 pm

Re: non members accesing church Wifi.

#11

Post by harddrive »

Nelsonfam, that would be terrific to see because we had one unit that didn't shut down it's wireless and they didn't have a great experience with webcasting. it will be good to get that done. So I look forward to that.

Terry
GreyWolf68
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Re: non members accesing church Wifi.

#12

Post by GreyWolf68 »

It is unfortunate, but "people enjoy using it" isn't necessarily a good enough reason to justify open WiFi for everybody. The official uses of the church come first and running into bandwidth problems that interrupt broadcasts because people enjoy being able to download conference talks on demand at the church rather than downloading everything in advance isn't worth it. If working QoS was implemented, or if they would get around to being able to shut down general WiFi access through a web interface then sure, no problem. But spending millions of dollars on wireless infrastructure to allow people to conveniently do things for personal benefit - things which hinder the really important things?
I think a combination of education and, in certain instances (e.g. webcasting) limiting or eliminating wireless access would serve better than limiting WiFi access to a select few all the time. In my opinion, it would not be reasonable to have such limits. After all, we have a variety of tools provided by means of technology, and restricting or disallowing the use of these tools for most people while in the meetinghouse seems less effective to me. Yes, there may be problems, but I believe the problems are easier to solve than the problems that would be created if we tell people they cannot fully take advantage of the tools available to them.

I would say that in many cases, it might be appropriate to encourage individuals to limit their own use. For example, many individuals may tend to leave WiFi on on their phones and/or tablets at all times. Teaching them how to turn it off except as needed, such as when they want to download a specific item directly relevant to the lesson, and encouraging them to do so, seems preferable. This way, all can take advantage of the tools available, without having to restrict some of those tools to a few specific callings.
Jreese34
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Re: non members accesing church Wifi.

#13

Post by Jreese34 »

We usually encourage ecclesiastical leaders to turn off external access points and remove the antenna from the firewall if they are going to be streaming a church broadcast rather than the satellite system.

As for the original topic of this thread, if there really is concern about wifi usage by people in the meetinghouse's parking lot or on the street, perhaps the AP can be moved to somewhere more 'strategic'. A Stake Technology Specialist would contact the Facilities group about physically moving it. I don't know how great the church's network is going to look to an amateur hacker. The infrastructure will be much more secure than a common consumer wireless network.
TinMan
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Joined: Mon Dec 15, 2008 8:08 am
Location: Bountiful, UT, USA

Re: non members accesing church Wifi.

#14

Post by TinMan »

A cautionary note:

I found out a few weeks ago that our building sprinkling system uses the church WiFi. It has the capabilities of sending an email to the landscapers that there is a problem. Things like a broken head, or a break in a line, or even not enough water pressure to water the lawn.

Turning off the WiFi may cause problems that you might not think about. For example: Is the new door keying system many of the buildings are getting being tied into some sort of security system?

I would be sure to check with the FM group before doing anything.
gvogel
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Re: non members accesing church Wifi.

#15

Post by gvogel »

We occasionally have youth (some members of the unit, some not) gather outside our building at night to hop on the WiFi. We considered ways to stop this from happening (timer switches on the AP POE power supplies, etc), but then the thought was that there are worse places a kid could go to borrow an internet connection, that these kids were probably safer using something filtered; and they're not doing it during peak usage times--so we abandoned the idea of taking the network offline in the evenings.

If other circumstances change (vandalism, bandwidth issues, etc), then maybe feelings would change.
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johnshaw
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Re: non members accesing church Wifi.

#16

Post by johnshaw »

TinMan wrote:A cautionary note:

I found out a few weeks ago that our building sprinkling system uses the church WiFi. It has the capabilities of sending an email to the landscapers that there is a problem. Things like a broken head, or a break in a line, or even not enough water pressure to water the lawn.

Turning off the WiFi may cause problems that you might not think about. For example: Is the new door keying system many of the buildings are getting being tied into some sort of security system?

I would be sure to check with the FM group before doing anything.
The FMG should not be using the same IP Addressing / VLAN as the meetinghouse Internet, nor the same APs. They have their own Port on the back of firewalls and if they desire a wireless connection should set it up separately from the meetinghouse Internet or hard wire their components - They actually have the ability to make all those decisions and do the work (unlike you and I who can only suggest hope and pray that the FMG will do things we want/ask).
“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom.”
― Thomas Paine, Common Sense
russellhltn
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Re: non members accesing church Wifi.

#17

Post by russellhltn »

johnshaw wrote:The FMG should not be using the same IP Addressing / VLAN as the meetinghouse Internet, nor the same APs. They have their own Port on the back of firewalls and if they desire a wireless connection should set it up separately from the meetinghouse Internet or hard wire their components - They actually have the ability to make all those decisions and do the work (unlike you and I who can only suggest hope and pray that the FMG will do things we want/ask).
And while that setup might work now, I wouldn't be a bit surprised but what it stops working once the firewall is updated to the new configuration and starts issuing 192.168.x.x addresses. All the more reason for FM to comply.
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