LDS Account Authentication for Accessing Building Internet

[russellhltn]

The story I heard is that it was going to take more then originally planned to do it. But now they're talking about letting the local units set the password. So it seems that they are in favor of allowing it to be limited to fit local needs.

[TravisGraham]

You can hear the question and answer I referenced here:
http://broadcast.lds.org/ICS/techtalk/2013-08-02.html
Go to 55m30sec mark

[jasonfitt]

Our building has had wireless internet access for a couple of years now, and we've set our own password. Personally I don't see the need to go further than that. It seems best to allow the local units administer it themselves.

[gregwanderson]

It sure seems like some people want there to be "The Haves" and "The Have Nots" when it comes to meetinghouse Internet access. Somehow, that doesn't sit well with me. I mean, I was the ward executive secretary up until a few months ago. Now that I don't have that calling, are there people who think I should not be allowed to use the meetinghouse wi-fi? What if I'm sitting in a quorum meeting and someone has decided to teach a lesson based on an Ensign article from two years ago? Should I not be able to go to LDS Tools on my iPad and quickly download that magazine?

In our Stake, as soon as the Cisco gear was in place the Stake Presidency told everyone what the password was and we haven't had a problem. During Stake Conference they asked people to please turn off their wi-fi devices so that the building-to-building broadcast would be as smooth as possible. People complied. No problem. I don't see why you couldn't politely make the same request any time you thought the meetinghouse wi-fi network would be over-burdened. The members will be reasonable when they understand the potential problem.

[russellhltn]

and we haven't had a problem.

That's fine. But some units aren't so lucky. Some buildings are in places of very limited bandwidth.

If there's not enough to go around, then what do you suggest?

[techgy]

I would prefer that all the passwords remain the same primarily for those members who travel a lot and want to use their portable devices when visiting another stake/ward. However, I also can understand an advantage of being able to change a password - if only temporarily.

If a leader is planning a presentation for a ward or stake and needs extra bandwidth, it would be helpful to be able to temporarily change the password. This would keep everyone else out while the presentation is made. It can then be changed back afterwards.

An announcement might not work if there are two wards in session at the same time.

For those with lots of bandwidth the ability to disable the WiFi for everyone except a single user might not be an issue. But, we have 1 building in our stake that barely gets Internet at all due to their distance from the Central Office. There are no other options available at the time being so they have to make due with what they have.

There are probably no answers to this that would make everyone happy. So I'll just follow the brethren and do the best we can with what we're provided.

[jasonfitt]

It sure seems like some people want there to be "The Haves" and "The Have Nots" when it comes to meetinghouse Internet access. Somehow, that doesn't sit well with me. I mean, I was the ward executive secretary up until a few months ago. Now that I don't have that calling, are there people who think I should not be allowed to use the meetinghouse wi-fi? What if I'm sitting in a quorum meeting and someone has decided to teach a lesson based on an Ensign article from two years ago? Should I not be able to go to LDS Tools on my iPad and quickly download that magazine?

In our Stake, as soon as the Cisco gear was in place the Stake Presidency told everyone what the password was and we haven't had a problem. During Stake Conference they asked people to please turn off their wi-fi devices so that the building-to-building broadcast would be as smooth as possible. People complied. No problem. I don't see why you couldn't politely make the same request any time you thought the meetinghouse wi-fi network would be over-burdened. The members will be reasonable when they understand the potential problem.

Yes, you probably should be able to use the wi-fi based on the link the OP provided (https://tech.lds.org/index.php/ldstech/ ... tinghouses), which seems to have been the Church's origional vision. However, some have brought up some good points about bandwidth. If the Gospel Doctrine teacher wants to show a video clip from LDS.org and can't because of too much traffic it's not very easy for him/her to make an announcement to the rest of the ward, or other wards who might be meeting there at the same time in different classrooms. Bandwidth can very from region to region, so it makes sense that some areas might not give the password out to everybody.

[russellhltn]

Yes, you probably should be able to use the wi-fi based on the link the OP provided (https://tech.lds.org/index.php/ldstech/ ... tinghouses), which seems to have been the Church's origional vision.

Note that the original vision included allowing local leaders to give some groups more access (less filtering) then others.

[gregwanderson]

If the Gospel Doctrine teacher wants to show a video clip from LDS.org and can't because of too much traffic it's not very easy for him/her to make an announcement to the rest of the ward, or other wards who might be meeting there at the same time in different classrooms.

Then I guess, as the Ward Technology Specialist, I would refer the teacher to instructions that were given for using the Come, Follow Me videos...

...if you try to show a video over the meetinghouse’s Internet connection, your video may pause, buffer, and stop. You’ll need to download the video ahead of time if you want to use it in your class.

...or, if it became an ongoing concern anyway, I would make a general request of each ward to make people aware that they need to put their devices into "airplane mode" whenever possible. Again, when people understand the potential problem they will cooperate.

[russellhltn]

...if you try to show a video over the meetinghouse’s Internet connection, your video may pause, buffer, and stop. You’ll need to download the video ahead of time if you want to use it in your class.

...or, if it became an ongoing concern anyway, I would make a general request of each ward to make people aware that they need to put their devices into "airplane mode" whenever possible. Again, when people understand the potential problem they will cooperate.

Ok, what if a ward council meeting is having a problem using the on-line tools because there's no bandwidth left?