What is the purpose of LDSAccess?

Discussions about Internet service providers (ISPs), the Meetinghouse Firewall, wired and wireless networking, usage, management, and support of Meetinghouse Internet
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aaronrturner
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What is the purpose of LDSAccess?

#1

Post by aaronrturner »

I've been asked by my stake president to create a long term technology plan for our stake. This includes developing a strategy for meetinghouse internet.

What are your opinions on the purpose of WiFi in our buildings? What SLA should we be shooting for? How about QOS?

I've searched for official guidance, specifically on infrastructure investment (like cable versus DSL versus fiber), and had many conversations with our FM group staff, but I cannot find a 'mission statement' about what kind of service we should be providing.

Any insights that others can share?
russellhltn
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Re: What is the purpose of LDSAccess?

#2

Post by russellhltn »

Information can be found here
6.2.1 Internet access is authorized in meetinghouses, under the direction of the stake president, for purposes that support the mission of the Church.
As for your role in this, that can be found here

As for getting your hands on the MFD policy, good luck.
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aaronrturner
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Re: What is the purpose of LDSAccess?

#3

Post by aaronrturner »

Thanks for the reply, definitely have that info, but I should have clarified...

Should we limit access to what we can provide? For example, if the infrastructure only will reliably support MLS functions, then shut off WiFi? Or should we build a budget to invest in better infrastructure to provide fatter pipes to let people do all sorts of things on LDSAccess?

Do we build a plan that will support every Sunday school teacher to have the tech infrastructure to use the compelling media that is out there? This doesn't have to be real-time, but could leverage Plex and other caching tech.

I've got a very supportive stake presidency. If I build a solid case that is supported by references to other stakes, I can get investment in building a better tech infrastructure for our stake, but those references won't cut it ;-)

Has anyone else taken a sort of product management approach to building out stake tech infrastructure? Like, "LDSAccess shall support 100 concurrent users with at least 10mb/s of throughput"?
eblood66
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Re: What is the purpose of LDSAccess?

#4

Post by eblood66 »

aaronrturner wrote:I've searched for official guidance, specifically on infrastructure investment (like cable versus DSL versus fiber), and had many conversations with our FM group staff, but I cannot find a 'mission statement' about what kind of service we should be providing.
As russellhltn said, getting the actual MFD policy does seem to happen. I think most stakes just get what the FM group gives them and they just live with it.

The one exception I've heard of is when better infrastructure is needed to support webcasting stake conference. Sometimes that seems to pull more weight.

I've never heard of a stake getting higher bandwidth (than what the FM group provides by default) just for member wi-fi use. That doesn't mean it hasn't happened but I don't remember reading anything on the forums about anyone doing so.
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Re: What is the purpose of LDSAccess?

#5

Post by russellhltn »

eblood66 wrote:I think most stakes just get what the FM group gives them and they just live with it.
Pretty much. And the situation can change from building to building. I've got one small chapel with a 20Mbit cable service. I've got another chapel that can't get cable (conduits are full) nor DSL (too far away). They're stuck with 4G which really isn't adequate for normal use. But short of tearing up streets, I don't see that changing. At some point fiber will come to the area, but it's a ways off.

I don't know as there is a set level of performance, other than for MLS and stake conference (with WiFi turned off). We've been told in the past that media for lessons are to be downloaded ahead of time. The church won't even guarantee the servers can handle the Sunday load.

If you're stake feels the level of service isn't adequate for church use, the stake president can talk to the FM group. No promises on what will happen, and it may require that they budget for it before they can turn it on, but that's all you can do there.

Short of installing your own equipment between the firewall and the rest of the building, I don't think you've got any controls.
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eblood66
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Re: What is the purpose of LDSAccess?

#6

Post by eblood66 »

eblood66 wrote:As russellhltn said, getting the actual MFD policy does seem to happen.
Oops, that was supposed to say 'does NOT seem to happen.'
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aaronrturner
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Re: What is the purpose of LDSAccess?

#7

Post by aaronrturner »

Well... So far the feedback I'm getting... If I were the product manager for LDSAccess, I'd say, "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.

Some additional background on my situation, we recently had a regional conference (web streamed) go haywire with multiple senior general authorities present. It was so bad that we put people in vehicles to chauffeur the GAs to other locations, almost commandeering a helicopter at one point.

I won't say that we've got a blank check as the result of that very painful experience... But I've got a chance to do something at least innovative and maybe even revolutionary with this tech strategy/plan. We've already started building our own infrastructure through donations and goodwill consulting from stake members. The neighboring stake (which was also impacted by the recent meltdown) has already built their own private fiber network among all of their buildings. We will probably do something similar.

I was hoping for some greater level of maturity and guidance from SLC... but, we've got the expertise and resources to do great things.
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Re: What is the purpose of LDSAccess?

#8

Post by russellhltn »

aaronrturner wrote:Well... So far the feedback I'm getting... If I were the product manager for LDSAccess, I'd say, "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.
Sounds about right.
aaronrturner wrote:Some additional background on my situation, we recently had a regional conference (web streamed) go haywire with multiple senior general authorities present. It was so bad that we put people in vehicles to chauffeur the GAs to other locations, almost commandeering a helicopter at one point.
I think it's good that they see problems. They're in the position of allocating resources to fix it. If they think everything is fine, they they won't understand the complaints that reach them.

Silly question, but you did disable WiFi, right? And are you sure the problem is with the network and not the server used? There's been problems with the church-provided server in the past.
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lajackson
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Re: What is the purpose of LDSAccess?

#9

Post by lajackson »

aaronrturner wrote:Well... So far the feedback I'm getting... If I were the product manager for LDSAccess, I'd say, "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.

Some additional background on my situation, we recently had a regional conference (web streamed) go haywire with multiple senior general authorities present. It was so bad that we put people in vehicles to chauffeur the GAs to other locations, almost commandeering a helicopter at one point.
The purpose of Internet service in Church meetinghouses is to provide stake conference broadcasts. Everything else is gravy. WiFi is an extra benefit that most FM Groups install to assist leaders and traveling General Authorities.

For broadcasts, stake or regional, turn off the WiFi, and if there is enough bandwidth left, that's what you get. In general, the FM Group standard is that a 2M Internet service is sufficient if the cost is "reasonable". The Church servers are programmed to provide a 1.5M stream and to step it down as needed for slower Internet connections.

The Church does not have plans to provide commercial grade Internet service into meetinghouses. The FM Groups are restricted to their budgets and, depending on the cost of Internet service, are usually able, but not always, to provide the 2M of service.

My source is from a discussion with three different FM Group Managers, two near where I live and one in the North Utah area.

With 2M service in most buildings in the 25 stake area where I live, we successfully broadcast stake and regional conferences with general authorities all the time, unless there is a Church server meltdown. Then all bets are off.
seanhyte
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Re: What is the purpose of LDSAccess?

#10

Post by seanhyte »

This is the internet bandwidth guide for meetinghouses.

https://www.lds.org/help/support/intern ... e?lang=eng

Keep in mind the guide shows what the minimum requirement is for one activity at a time. So if you plan on supporting multiple streams at a time, you would have to account for that.
"Order Internet service that will meet or exceed the highest speed needed for each building"

For heavy intensive streaming like a webcast, you would want to temporary shut the Wi-Fi off in the building so the congregation does not eat up all the bandwidth that you need for the webcast.
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