What is the purpose of LDSAccess?

[CleggGP]

The purpose of Internet service in Church meetinghouses is to provide stake conference broadcasts.

As stated, the purpose meetinghouse network is to support the mission of the Church. This includes providing safe Internet access for Church leader services (Church records, donations, etc.), Family History/temple/missionary work, and gospel learning and instruction.

A wired MH network infrastructure is required, with WiFi network connectivity option. Current MFD building drawings include plans for wireless AP placement, but older MHs drawings do not include WAP placement diagrams. Depending on WAP placement, the number of wired/wireless device connected to the network (or connected to the WAPs), the network activities of network users, and the ISP bandwidth are all factors that affect the usability of the network. While LDSACCESS provides wireless access to the MH network, the quality and usability of the network depends upon the factors mentioned.

The availability of Internet service varies significantly per MH location. Due to these and other technical factors, no SLA or QOS exists for MH networks. The meetinghouse network is locally managed by a STS or other local leaders. The facilities manager is responsible for purchasing MH network hardware, and for providing ISP connectivity to the meetinghouse (following MFD guidelines). Under the direction of the stake president, the stake technology specialist works with the FM to manage and provide support for the MH network.

Currently teachers are advised to download rich media content to their devices before bringing the devices to Church. It is not advisable to live stream bandwidth intensive video inside a MH (which may adversely affect everyone in the MH). For broadcasts (e.g., stake/general conference) STSs should disable MH wireless before the broadcast to preserve Internet bandwidth for the broadcast.

... "the LDSAccess wifi network is an ad-hoc service delivering Internet and building connectivity on an as-available basis without any service level or service quality commitments." Which doesn't surprise me, I just wanted to verify with the forum.

This is a fair appraisal of the current offering. The firewall protects the meetinghouse network, and provides access filters to help protect network users. Network WiFi is made available under under the direction of the Stake/District president. Network availability and quality varies depending on multiple factors, and the MH network is locally supported by assigned members of the Stake/District.

[harddrive]

Also, once you get off the MH network and onto the Internet, then SLA and QOS are not available because the Internet is a best effort network. There is no guarantee once the packet leaves the MH network. From what I have seen the VPN is only to manage and monitor the router/firewall. There is no data, even for the LDS.ORG that crosses the VPN to church HQ. It all goes to the Internet baby.