Meetinghouse Wifi Idea
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Meetinghouse Wifi Idea
The suggestion was made elsewhere to serve up the programs, announcements, etc. on the web and save printing costs since so many of us have ereaders, smartphones and tablets anyway. Of course, that leaves the issue of bandwidth and available IPs, as well as access in general.
What about getting any old DD-WRT or OpenWRT capable router and setting up a barebones, private, semi-airgapped (or fully airgapped, though that makes updates less convenient) network? IIRC, OpenWRT will handle a fair amount of traffic as a web server, and either a NAS or just a USB drive for storage, or any old PC could be pressed into service as file/web server. With complete control over the contents of the network, the church doesn't have to worry about people eating up bandwidth to play Farmville or video chat during sacrament meeting, and an insane amount of useful, tailored data can be made available at everybody's fingertips. No need to flip to (or search for) scripture references, just hyperlink the online program so users can click straight to it.
Ideally, it would be nice if it could also have a (weekly updated) local mirror of GL and LDS Tools databases, so users could still download that info, as well as maybe a mirror of scriptures.lds.org (and scriptures.byu.edu would be great, but disk space budgets would kick in at some point) for those who prefer that format over GL. Done right, one could even make a firmware backup for the router and install disc for the web/file server PC, and distribute the whole thing as a ready-to-install solution for other meetinghouses. Assuming somebody has a too-old-for-anything-else PC that can be a Slax or Lubuntu based web server, the only expense would be the router.
As a bonus, tack on one of those obnoxious McDonald's-like sign-in screens and use it to advertise to the folks scanning for free WiFi.
What about getting any old DD-WRT or OpenWRT capable router and setting up a barebones, private, semi-airgapped (or fully airgapped, though that makes updates less convenient) network? IIRC, OpenWRT will handle a fair amount of traffic as a web server, and either a NAS or just a USB drive for storage, or any old PC could be pressed into service as file/web server. With complete control over the contents of the network, the church doesn't have to worry about people eating up bandwidth to play Farmville or video chat during sacrament meeting, and an insane amount of useful, tailored data can be made available at everybody's fingertips. No need to flip to (or search for) scripture references, just hyperlink the online program so users can click straight to it.
Ideally, it would be nice if it could also have a (weekly updated) local mirror of GL and LDS Tools databases, so users could still download that info, as well as maybe a mirror of scriptures.lds.org (and scriptures.byu.edu would be great, but disk space budgets would kick in at some point) for those who prefer that format over GL. Done right, one could even make a firmware backup for the router and install disc for the web/file server PC, and distribute the whole thing as a ready-to-install solution for other meetinghouses. Assuming somebody has a too-old-for-anything-else PC that can be a Slax or Lubuntu based web server, the only expense would be the router.
As a bonus, tack on one of those obnoxious McDonald's-like sign-in screens and use it to advertise to the folks scanning for free WiFi.
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As to Farmville, chat rooms, etc., I think those will be filtered out at the source through the 881W and custom filtering options the GSD implements via the Zscaler platform (and I would also personally want to be using K9 Web Protection on any device (they have browser apps for iPhone and Android also) that I might bring in personally as K9 would trap a load of stuff that Zscaler unfortunately misses anyway that one could inadvertently get into due to mistyping a URL or similar online snarl). TEM uses packet-shaping technology as well, so that can be employed to ensure good performance on certain types of content for everyone involved.
As it is, text takes up little bandwidth compared to rich media like video, and video would only be used probably by instructors later in the block. A ward program I think would only be a few hundred bytes although the formatting and page layout may render that to a couple of kilobytes.
As it is, text takes up little bandwidth compared to rich media like video, and video would only be used probably by instructors later in the block. A ward program I think would only be a few hundred bytes although the formatting and page layout may render that to a couple of kilobytes.
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Yes, but it's hard to beat unplugging from the internet as a filter. Nothing gets overlooked with that one. Even with serious filters, you would want to make sure that you won't have a dozen people streaming MormonChannel while you're trying to stream a conference talk for the Sunday School lesson.JamesAnderson wrote:As to Farmville, chat rooms, etc., I think those will be filtered out at the source
With the price of disk space these days, even mirroring video to the local network wouldn't be a problem. 1TB external drives well under $100 make it not entirely silly to think about just keeping it all mirrored, though most would probably just want to have the last 1-2 GCs and anything that gets frequently used.As it is, text takes up little bandwidth compared to rich media like video, and video would only be used probably by instructors later in the block.
A ward program I think would only be a few hundred bytes although the formatting and page layout may render that to a couple of kilobytes.
Might as well go all the way; PDFs of most of the hymns wouldn't be that tough, (though you might as well just put a text file of the words with as many as don't read music anymore) and without the page size limitation of the program, you could also include more of a summary and recommended reading for any speaker who can have that info ready to be published ahead of time. Even with that, it should be no problem to keep several years' archive of programs for people to refer back to.
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I believe the church is actively pursuing this last idea. Local copies of the content that is typically streamed. Until a Content Delivery platform is decided on and rolled out, I have created the following in our stake:
Roku allows ALL members to have access to the media streaming, the IOS and Android clients allow those with devices to use them if they choose.
- Each Clerk computer has the video content downloaded to the local computer harddrive (I also download the Mormon Channel Podcasts/Radio Shows)
- Each Clerk computer has the PlexApp media server installed [Roku (free), iPad ($5), Android($5) clients]
- Roku purchased for each TV in the Meetinghouse
- Dropbox installed on each Clerk computer, I add the most recent videos downloaded from Mormon Channel or Media Library
- Each Clerk computer has tasks running a couple times a day that checks the Dropbox for new content and logs a message to dropbox when the file is downloaded
- I check the log and see if all units have downloaded the file - once every has downloaded it I remove it from Dropbox
Roku allows ALL members to have access to the media streaming, the IOS and Android clients allow those with devices to use them if they choose.
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The only problem I have with that is that it's being done on a clerk computer. At minimum, the permission of the SP is required to install that stuff.JohnShaw wrote:I believe the church is actively pursuing this last idea. Local copies of the content that is typically streamed. Until a Content Delivery platform is decided on and rolled out, I have created the following in our stake:
- Each Clerk computer has the video content downloaded to the local computer harddrive (I also download the Mormon Channel Podcasts/Radio Shows)
- Each Clerk computer has the PlexApp media server installed [Roku (free), iPad ($5), Android($5) clients]
- Roku purchased for each TV in the Meetinghouse
- Dropbox installed on each Clerk computer, I add the most recent videos downloaded from Mormon Channel or Media Library
- Each Clerk computer has tasks running a couple times a day that checks the Dropbox for new content and logs a message to dropbox when the file is downloaded
- I check the log and see if all units have downloaded the file - once every has downloaded it I remove it from Dropbox
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.
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Additionally clerk computers are to be used for Church record keeping and, where necessary, family history work (ref: Handbook 2, 21.1.11). In my opinion, using it for this purpose is not record keeping or family history work. But then the stake president may see it differently.RussellHltn wrote:The only problem I have with that is that it's being done on a clerk computer. At minimum, the permission of the SP is required to install that stuff.
JD Lessley
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There is no need for all this on the clerks computer. It just grabages up the computer with stuff no one needs or uses for an office computer.JohnShaw wrote:I believe the church is actively pursuing this last idea. Local copies of the content that is typically streamed. Until a Content Delivery platform is decided on and rolled out, I have created the following in our stake:
- Each Clerk computer has the video content downloaded to the local computer harddrive (I also download the Mormon Channel Podcasts/Radio Shows)
- Each Clerk computer has the PlexApp media server installed [Roku (free), iPad ($5), Android($5) clients]
- Roku purchased for each TV in the Meetinghouse
- Dropbox installed on each Clerk computer, I add the most recent videos downloaded from Mormon Channel or Media Library
- Each Clerk computer has tasks running a couple times a day that checks the Dropbox for new content and logs a message to dropbox when the file is downloaded
- I check the log and see if all units have downloaded the file - once every has downloaded it I remove it from Dropbox
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RussellHltn wrote:The only problem I have with that is that it's being done on a clerk computer. At minimum, the permission of the SP is required to install that stuff.
Just to clarify, I think it's an interesting experiment. I'm just leery about it being on a clerk computer. Particularly when it opens up the computer to "sharing" on a computer that contains confidential information.
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This is why I'd prefer to do it from a dedicated computer, NAS, or a USB drive hooked to the router. With Toshiba Canvio 1G USB external drives for $80 at WalMart, there's not much reason to clutter an existing HDD for this. Using an isolated system and network also allows it to be wide open to everyone for read access.RussellHltn wrote:Just to clarify, I think it's an interesting experiment. I'm just leery about it being on a clerk computer. Particularly when it opens up the computer to "sharing" on a computer that contains confidential information.