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Q: Where is Public Internet Access available?
Public Internet Access is accessible from
most of the public areas in all the Brevard
County Library locations. Due to the nature
of the WiFi signal there may be some "weak
signal" areas around the book shelves
due to the metal materials used in the construction
of the book shelves.
Q: What kind of equipment do I need to access
the service?
A wireless network-enabled portable computer
or PDA. See the Hardware Requirements for more details.
Q:Will
the information on my laptop be safe from hackers?
The
security of your laptop will be your responsibility.
We
recommend that you keep up to date with security
patches that are released from various software
vendors. www.windowsupdate.com is a good place
to go to make sure your operating systems
is secure (Microsoft Windows operation system
only).
You
may also wish to run one of the firewall packages
obtainable from the internet - Zone Alarm Firewall is one such
package - There is a free version for private
individual use). The Brevard County Library
does not provide firewall software for anyone
- this is your responsibility!
You
may also wish to install an anti-virus software
package to protect yourself from the many
varied forms of computer virus. One such packege
which is free for private individual use is
called "AVG" and is available from Grisoft,
s r o (www.grisoft.com) and they do
keep their anti-virus signature files very
current! The Brevard County Library does not
provide anti-virus software for anyone - this
is your responsibility!
Q:
How do I know if my laptop is compatible
with your network?
As
long as you purchased and installed a WiFi
card that said 802.11b or 802.11g compatible,
you'll be able to access our network. If your
laptop came with built-in wireless networking
capabilities most likely it already is compatble
with our system. While our wireless network,
using 802.11b/g wireless routers, supports
802.11g (54-mbits/sec) the minimum requirement
is 802.11b compatibility (11-mbits/sec). The
"connection speeds' listed here are "best"
link speeds between the wireless Access Point
equipment and your wireless network card -
they do not reflect the actual connection
speed to the Internet!
NOTE: Even though you may have a 802.11g wireless card
in your laptop you may only get 802.11b connectivity
- this is caused by other 802.11b devices being
connected to our WiFi system at the same time.
This is a function of the way WiFi works - it
allows backward compatability with the 802.11b
standard but can not work in both standards
at the same time.
Q: I don't have a laptop! Does BCLS provide laptops?
No,
but you can sign up to use one of the public
access computers available to the public in
one of our 17 Library locations. Our public
computers are limited to some extent as we
do not allow sending or receiving email using
an email client and we do not allow Instant
Messaging programs on our public computers.
Q:
How much do you charge to use your network?
If you have a valid Brevard County Library
Card, then the WiFi access is free and you
have access to all the Brevard County Library
online resources, Instant Messaging,
POP-3/SMTP email capability and the Internet
for website access. If you are a resident
of Brevard County, Florida you can obtain
a Brevard County Library Card for free at
any of our library locations.
The Guest Access is also free but limited
to only the library resources and Internet
browsing along with web-based email. If you
are not a resident of Brevard County, Florida
and wish to obtain a Brevard County Library
Card you may do so at the non-resident rate
of $15 , which will allow use of our WiFi
network for one year. Please ask one of our
friendly library staff for further information
on obtaining a Brevard County Library Card.
Q: How long can I stay connected to the
Internet?
Brevard County Library Card Holders:
You can stay connected to our Public WiFi
Access service up to 12 hours during normal
business hours in any given day. The connection
time is cumulative at all Brevard County Library
locations.
Guest Accounts are limited to a total of 6
hours in any given day cumulative at all Brevard
County Libary locations.
NOTE:
If
you are running pop-up blocking software or
Windows XP with Service-Pak 2 you need to
disable the pop-up blocker or allow pop-up
windows from the following URL: http://highnoon.brev.org
as the system opens a pop-up window on your
system for the purpose of verification that
you are still connected and using the system.
If you experience disconnects every 10 minutes
you have either blocked the pop-up window
or closed the pop-up window accidently. You
can minimize the pop-up window and continue
to use the system but you need to keep the
pop-up window open.
If your wireless device can not have more
than one browser window open at a time you
can still use the system but you will have
to log back in every 10 minutes or so.
For further Questions and Answers Please
see our detailed WiFi-FAQs
Page.
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This service provides a way to access the same Internet resources available
from our Public Internet, Database and Online
Catalog from the convenience of your own wireless
enabled laptop computer or PDA. For Brevard
County Library Card Holders this service also
allows you to connect to Internet resources
that may not be accessible through the Library's
Public Access computers. You can also download
and upload data and files directly to and from
your laptop computer or PDA.